The son of a wealthy family, he spent his formative years in Guangdong, where he learned Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun. He then moved to Hong Kong and continued studying it under the martial artist Leung Bik. In his twenties, Ip moved back to Guangdong and joined the Kuomintang, during which he taught martial arts informally, but he relocated back to Hong Kong after the end of the Chinese Civil War. Here, he founded a school and started teaching Wing Chun in earnest.
It was during the Hong Kong years that Ip met and trained his most famous student, Bruce Lee (one of the few students he taught personally), before Lee moved to America. Lee's personal style of Jeet Kune Do inherited some aspects of Wing Chun, such as a focus on the centerline and an emphasis on economy of movement.
Ip died of throat cancer in 1972; his sons, Ip Chun and Ip Ching, have strived to preserve their father's legacy by continuing his school and consulting on media involving him. Ching died in 2020.
Initially, the most notable of his media appearances were as Bruce Lee's teacher in works centered around Lee. Beginning in 2008, however, increased interest led to high-profile renditions of Ip's own life (including ones that are heavy on Artistic License – History), and he has famously been portrayed by the likes of Donnie Yen, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Dennis To.
Media portrayals:
Live-Action Film
- Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth (1976): Played by his son, Ip Chun, as Lee's "Wing Chun Sifu".
- Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993): Played by Wang Luoyong
- Ip Man Film Series (2008-2019): A live action martial arts film series Very Loosely Based On Ip Man's life, starring Donnie Yen. Easily the most popular films using Ip as a character.
- The Legend Is Born – Ip Man (2010): A biopic of sorts starring Dennis To. Ip Chun played Leung Bik.
- Ip Man: The Final Fight: Sequel to the above. A film about his time in Hong Kong, starring Anthony Wong.
- The Grandmaster (2013): A semi-biographical drama set during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
- Bruce Lee, My Brother (2010): Played by Wong Chi-wai.
- Kung Fu League (2018): An action-comedy where he is again played by Dennis To. Ip is one of four martial arts legends summoned to the present.
- Ip Man And Four Kings (2019): Played by Michael Tong.
- Ip Man Kung Fu Master (2019): Played again by To, this time set during the period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
- Young Ip Man: Crisis Time (2020): Set in 1917. Played by Zhao Wenhao.
Literature
- Ip Man: Portrait of a Kung Fu Master: A biography by his son Ip Ching and author Ron Heimberger
Live-Action TV
- The Legend of Bruce Lee (2008): Played by Yu Chenghui
- Ip Man (2013): A dramatization of his life, where he is played by Kevin Cheng.
