1984: Anthony Moy Tung joins Moy Yat SSA

At ten years old, when he began martial arts training under his father, Sergeant Bates, Anthony Moy Tung Dandridge set himself on a path to discover the source of the martial arts, and to master training.

When this path led him to Grandmaster Moy Yat in 1980, as a martial arts master and instructor with ten years experience already, Anthony Moy Tung Dandridge immediately respected the Ving Tsun system. He began training in the Kung Fu system directly under Moy Yat, as a martial artist seeking to learn and advance his skill, craft, life and career. Grandmaster Moy Yat was the only Kung Fu master who impressed him enough to call ‘Sifu’, and Moy Yat has since been the only man he’s ever considered his Sifu.

As both an accomplished Martial Artist and new Ving Tsun student in 1980, the-then Anthony Lewis Bates devoted hours every week to Ving Tsun Kung Fu training, and included it in his other martial arts training. Within a year or two, having found what he was looking for, he devoted himself exclusively to Ving Tsun training under his Sifu, Grandmaster Moy Yat.

Then, after training and testing the Ving Tsun system and his own Kung Fu for four years, Anthony Bates joined the Moy Yat Special Student Association (SSA), his Sifu’s inner circle, on Grandmaster Moy Yat’s birthday, June 28, 1984.

Anthony Moy Tung received his Kung Fu name from Grandmaster Moy Yat, who said it meant ‘Man from the East’, symbolizing his approach to training, and the character of his Kung Fu. Anthony Lewis Bates would soon legally change his name to Anthony Lewis Moy Tung Dandridge, to reflect this dedication, and also demonstrate the connection he felt to his maternal grandfather’s Richmond, Virginia heritage and lineage, while keeping the middle name from his father.

By 1984, Moy Tung had already been training Ving Tsun Kung Fu as a full-time occupation. He had given up his job as a martial arts instructor, and had encouraged all his former students to train directly under Grandmaster Moy Yat, if they could.

After joining SSA, Moy Tung began doing live-in Kung Fu training and living the Kung Fu life with his Sifu, Moy Yat, and would continue for the next two years, with the goal of becoming an instructor in Moy Yat’s school in New York. Then, in 1985, with the passing of his father, he moved to Richmond, Virginia to help his mother. Grandmaster Moy Yat instructed him to begin teaching Kung Fu in Richmond as a Sifu, authorizing him to do so in his name.

In March of 1986, the-then Sifu Anthony Moy Tung founded the Richmond Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy, to bring Ving Tsun to the community there, and to train the next generation of Ving Tsun Sifus in Chuen Jing Tung - ‘passing on the system unchanged by our own ideas’, in order to ‘Wa Ha Jun Hun Fung’ - ‘Make the whole nation strong.’

In 2023, when this event posting is being created, the Moy Tung Kung Fu lineage has grown to more than 20 branches, with three generations of Sifus teaching the Ving Tsun system.

Formal photo: Grandmaster Moy Yat (1938-2001), seated, with his SSA disciple, Grandmaster Moy Tung, at his right hand