• last year
The Founder of WayLing weeks before passing away.

WayLing is an art of expression founded by Ruben Joseph aka Lion Heart.
Founded in London Hackney 1976
Transcript
00:00What age did you actually start into the martial arts?
00:03Let me start...
00:04Before the whaling, when did you start into the martial arts?
00:06I started it when I was 11 years old.
00:10What happened, my brother took me to the latest karate school,
00:16which was on the way home from my...
00:20to where I lived in St. Vincent.
00:23And when I went in, I saw the teacher.
00:26He looked good.
00:28And there was a guy called Godfrey, who was supreme.
00:33And I said, all right.
00:35And then we practiced this karate.
00:38Okay.
00:39Okay, I took it up.
00:41And I heard the fighting sign, it asked for contact.
00:45But every time it seemed that we asked for contact,
00:49he said, wait.
00:51He said there was no contact.
00:54So I said, how am I going to learn this?
00:57And there was no contact.
00:59Okay.
01:00So I just said, all right, then.
01:02Let me take it.
01:03And no one said further.
01:05And just be satisfied.
01:07The years rolled on, and I still kept practicing it
01:11and practicing it until I had Marcus, my son,
01:15at 16 and a half, 17.
01:19So before we got a flat,
01:21they made me and Margie live in Leonard's flat.
01:26And then we moved into a house called Near All Nations.
01:31It's not there anymore.
01:33They destroyed it.
01:36That's where I met Brian.
01:38Brian was the youngest student taught by Master Yip Man
01:44when Bruce Lee was there.
01:46He was like you and you in the school when Bruce Lee was there.
01:53But you would do sticky hands and this and that.
01:58You'd do other duties.
02:00Remember, the Master would be teaching Bruce Lee
02:04because Bruce Lee had money to pay.
02:07Okay.
02:08You understand?
02:09So Bruce Lee would subsidize your payment.
02:13So you would just do other duties for the Master.
02:17Right, right, right, right.
02:18And you gave the Master a thing called lucky money.
02:23In a pink envelope, you get as much money as you can
02:27and make a donation to the Master
02:31and you never have to pay money again.
02:34Okay.
02:35No matter what happens or whatever happens,
02:39that's the one time that you never transfer money as an issue.
02:45Right.
02:46So you actually killed for your Master
02:49if he ordered you to.
02:51So who was your teacher?
02:53My teacher was Brian.
02:55I would go out into the garden
02:58and I was out there doing my class
03:00and he'd come out and he'd go to me.
03:02Oh, you cried at the time, yeah?
03:03Okay, yeah.
03:04He said, hit him.
03:06I swear, I cried.
03:08He bust me up.
03:10Bust me up.
03:13Bust him out.
03:15I said, no, this can't go on.
03:17So I took off the belt
03:20and I literally burnt them
03:22and kept the bottoms and dyed the bottoms black.
03:26I said, no, this can't happen.
03:29And that's when I started to ask him if I could be a disciple.
03:34So I said, you teach me,
03:36why I can't be a disciple yet.
03:38He was on the run from the Triads.
03:41Okay.
03:42Up in Birmingham.
03:43Was he a Chinese guy?
03:44Yeah, full-blooded Chinese.
03:46Right, right, right.
03:48I called him Brian, but there was no name for Brian.
03:52I had yet to find out.
03:54Okay.
03:55I had one picture of him
03:57holding the stuff and somebody stole it.
04:01You know?
04:03Like plenty of things of mine
04:05people have stolen along the way.
04:09Valuable things.
04:11Pictures, videos and all the rest?
04:12Yeah.
04:13And they have no reason to.
04:16But they know along the way
04:18how far things are going to go.
04:20I'm going to collect them all.
04:22Definitely, definitely.
04:24I'm going to collect them all
04:25because I have no reason
04:27to leave my dynasty to anybody
04:30except the family tree.
04:33Your father belongs to the first dynasty.
04:36Simple.
04:38So about inspiration,
04:39has anybody inspired you?
04:41I'll tell you the honest truth.
04:43What about him inspired you?
04:44Brian inspired me
04:45because his son is who taught me Lama.
04:48Okay.
04:49His son.
04:50His son taught you Lama?
04:51His son is who taught me Lama.
04:53I had to sit in a chair and watch his son
04:56teach me Lama.
05:00He taught me the Wing Chun
05:03and the Ape
05:04Okay.
05:05and the Inch Punch.
05:07Okay.
05:08His son taught me Queen, Lama
05:12because his son was Licker.
05:14Okay.
05:15So he needed his powerful hands
05:18to knock out everything
05:20that come from him.
05:23Going to a westernized school.
05:27So that's when I realized
05:29if Lama is that powerful
05:32then what is Wing Chun?
05:34It's got to be the soft side.
05:37It's got to be the side that portrays the woman.
05:41So then I realized
05:44where it comes from.
05:46The Lama's got to mix with the
05:50with the Queen, the Ape
05:52and the Wing Chun
05:54and Inch Punch.
05:56It's got to mix.
05:58So that's where Wei Lin came in?
06:00Yeah.
06:02What made you create Wei Lin?
06:05And what made you give it that name?
06:07No Wei as Wei.
06:09My last saying to me
06:12from Brian, my teacher
06:14was no Wei as Wei.
06:17No limitation as a limitation.
06:21So no Wei
06:23as Wei.
06:25No Lin
06:27as a limitation.
06:31But when did you introduce it?
06:33When did you actually introduce
06:35the Wei Lin to the public?
06:37When did you start teaching people?
06:39When my teacher got deported.
06:42He got deported.
06:44One weekend he moved to San Francisco.
06:48The next weekend
06:50he was deported.
06:52I went to see him the Wednesday
06:54by the Saturday
06:56he was on a plane to Hong Kong.
06:58That's the last I ever heard from him.
07:00So I said I have to
07:02carry this on.
07:04I can't call it Wing Chun
07:06because I don't know the whole
07:08Wing Chun system.
07:10I can't call it Lama
07:12because I don't know the whole Lama system.
07:15What do I call it?
07:17And I remember him saying to me
07:19no Wei as Wei, no limitation
07:21I call it Wei Lin.
07:25So Wei Lin is his crowning name.
07:27I mixed up everything
07:30everything deadly.
07:34If you can prove to me that you
07:36come out with something
07:38and I can't anti-lock it
07:41then I would add it
07:43I would take it into my stable
07:45and say yeah.
07:50Before you started teaching
07:52your thing
07:54what did you do
07:56or how did you come to the realisation
07:58that it's effective
08:00and that this thing is going to be respected out there?
08:02I went out looking for friends.
08:04I went out looking for trouble.
08:06The nearest trouble
08:08that come
08:10I'll be there.
08:14So what's the situation with the school?
08:16You're closing down the school
08:18certain schools.
08:20What's the situation with that?
08:22Yeah, you have to make a name for yourself.
08:24Now you have
08:26an area like Hackney
08:28bad boy country.
08:30If you don't close down
08:32the nearest school to you
08:34what reputation are you going to get?
08:36Who's going to come to you?
08:38Who's going to pay you your rent?
08:40You have to close down some schools, isn't it?
08:44And let them all come to you.
08:46And of course when they come to you
08:48they see what they see.
08:50You're the master.
08:52You take over one area
08:54you soon take over another area
08:56you soon take over another area
08:58and then you say to yourself
09:00alright, you've got dominance
09:02at Hackney
09:04you taxed on Western Road
09:06you taxed a little bit out later
09:08you leave
09:10some students down top now
09:12yeah, you cover.
09:14So you've had challenges
09:16you've had challenges
09:18of having to set the record straight.
09:20Yeah, set the record straight.
09:22And you know that
09:24if I come to your school
09:26and embarrass you
09:28all your students are going to run.