During the reign of Emperor K'angshi of the Ching Dynasty (1662 - 1722), a Shaolin Buddhist monastery called Siu Lam in the south had become very powerful in its kung fu training. The government saw it as a threat and sent troops to destroy it. The temple was too powerful to attack, and the army ended up bribing treacherous monks to burn it from the inside. Only a few managed to escape, among them the Abbess Ng Mui. She was a master of Siu Lam kung fu. Being of a small stature she discarded many of the old traditions that required years of dedicated practice and developed a system based on winning at all costs using speed and subtlety to overcome an opponent's natural advantages.

Ng Mui's system focused less on muscular strength, flexibility or bone conditioning and more on sudden explosive muscle contraction and relaxation.

During her travels, Ng Mui befriended an intelligent and beautiful 15 year-old woman named Yim Wing Chun, meaning 'beautiful springtime'. Wing Chun was fleeing with her father, who was falsely accused of a crime. Adding to her troubles, she was being harassed by a local landowner to marry her - one who also tried to rape her. Ng Mui took pity on her and decided to train her in her new fighting system. Legend has it that after a period of time Wing Chun mastered the art and beat the bully in unarmed combat, proving the style's effectiveness against larger opponents. Ng Mui then named her new style after Wing Chun.

Wing Tsun is based on the Taoist principle of taking the middle path, the essence of balance in life. The famous yin and yang symbol represents this idea, that there is a universal balance of light and dark, male and female, 'soft' and 'hard'.

The system was taught down generations, keeping within Chinese circles as it was not acceptable to train foreigners. This was until Wing Chun reached Hong Kong in the mid 1900s. The late Grandmaster Yip Man taught the art there until his death. One of his students was the famous Bruce Lee, who angered members of the Chinese community in the US by training non-Chinese.

Bruce Lee did not complete his Wing Tsun training. He began modifying his skills with the incorporation of Western influences such as fencing, boxing and Western philosophies, creating his famous fighting system called Jeet Kune Do, 'the way of the intercepting fist'. Sihing Hjeiri believes that had Lee completed his Wing Tsun he would not have found it necessary to create his art form.

Sifu Avci trained with Late Grandmaster Yip Man's top student, Dr. Leung Ting, whose students introduced the art to Europe and the rest of the world.