Sifu Sharif Anael-Bey

The Instructor

Sifu Sharif Anael-Bey began martial arts at age 5, training in Tae Kwon Do before discovering Wing Chun Kung Fu and, ultimately, Hung Ga. He encountered the Hung Ga system in 1984 and began formal study under Grandmaster Frank Yee Chee Wai in 1989.

In 2000, following over a decade of dedicated study, Sifu Bey was invited to undergo the Bai Si ceremony, the formal disciple-acceptance ritual of traditional Chinese martial arts, and became an inner room disciple of Grandmaster Yee. He has been teaching in Syracuse since 2000 and opened the school formally in 2004.

In 2008, he was unanimously inducted into the Governing Board of Yee's Hung Ga International Kung Fu Association, and serves as the Upstate New York representative of one of the most respected Hung Ga lineages in the world. He has hosted seminars with Master Mark Houghton, a disciple of legendary director Lau Kar Leung, and with Buddhism and Hsing Yi Master Ping Cheng of Szechuan Province. His students have traveled to China to train and compete.

"The real transmission is not about technique. It is about transformation. The art changes who you are, not just what you can do."

The Lineage

Lineage in traditional Chinese martial arts is not a marketing credential. It is a structure of accountability, where each generation vouches for the next. The lineage at Syracuse Kung Fu passes through Great Grandmaster Tang Fong, a direct disciple of Wong Fei Hung, and through Grandmaster Frank Yee Chee Wai.

This is the Tang Fong line, distinct from the more widely known Lam Sai Wing line. It is a smaller and more carefully preserved transmission, and one of the rarest in North America.

The School

Syracuse Kung Fu is the only complete Chinese martial arts school in Central New York. The curriculum includes barehand forms, weapons training, partner drills, lion dancing, Qigong, Traditional Chinese Medicine concepts, and the full philosophical tradition of the art. The school is affiliated with Tsáng Wǔ Gé, a certified nonprofit dedicated to preserving traditional Chinese martial arts, and with the HungGa Shu online academy.

The Philosophy

Mo Lum Yat Ga. The Martial Community is One Family. This is not a motto at Syracuse Kung Fu. It shapes how the school operates, how students relate to one another, and what it means to carry this art forward. Sifu Bey also teaches through the Sagala Institute, extending into bioenergetics and internal alchemy, connecting the Chinese internal arts to broader cosmological and ancestral traditions.