Moy Tung

Grandmaster Anthony “Moy Tung” Dandridge has had a lifetime influenced by the martial arts from a very young age. Born in Richmond, Virginia, he grew up in New Jersey and Philadelphia when his childhood was not spent traveling to different military bases where his father was stationed throughout the United States and abroad. He achieved high ranking in certain martial arts and even became an instructor of Karate. In 1980, his continuing search for superior martial arts brought him to New York City and Grandmaster Moy Yat. During his first years of training at the Chinatown School in New York City, Moy Tung commuted from Philadelphia. After a very short time training, he was pleased and amazed to find the incredible power available in even the most basic of the Ving Tsun techniques he had learned. He noticed that sparring partners who had previously been formidable opponents could now be bested easily. Moy Tung realized that such a powerful system deserved and required his complete dedication. He became a student in the truest sense of the word, looking at this new martial art as a beginner despite his vast previous experiences in other martial arts. Within three years Moy Tung embraced the training of Ving Tsun Kung Fu as a full-time commitment.

Two of Moy Tung’s first six years of training were spent living with his Sifu as a close personal student, a practice carried out only by certain members of Moy Yat’s group of special students, the SSA. During this time he also maintained a residence in Philadelphia so as to be able to give his Sifu space and privacy when necessary. However, he spent the entire time living the Kung Fu life: training constantly and intensely, and being a devoted student and constant companion to his Sifu. This was a period of great personal effort and sacrifice on the part of Moy Tung. He made it a cornerstone of his training to spend as much time with his Sifu as possible while always being able to support himself and to take care of business and personal matters for his Sifu. Upon deciding to dedicate himself to the study and teaching of Ving Tsun Kung Fu, Grandmaster Moy Tung realized that, in order to carry out this discipline faithfully with respect to his Sifu’s teachings and to maintain the purity of the Ving Tsun System, he must cease his teaching of other martial arts. He had done so early in his training, and at the end of this cycle of live-in training with Grandmaster Moy Yat he had planned to open a Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu school in northern New Jersey. However, after the death of his father, Garrett Randolph Bates, Moy Tung moved to Virginia to attend to family matters and to help support his mother, Ida Florence Dandridge-Bates. In this way, after six years of training, Moy Tung was able to open the Richmond, Virginia branch of the Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu Family Association.

His school grew quickly, with enrollment exceeding 50 students within the first year of being open. This was due, in no small part, to Grandmaster Moy Tung’s continued dedication to and constant contact with his Sifu. His efforts to make frequent visits back to the Chinatown headquarters and to support the greater Moy Yat Kung Fu Association were a testament to his dedication. Eventually Grandmaster Moy Tung opened an Inner Circle of his own, the MY3. After a time a number of these personal students of Grandmaster Moy Tung became members of the GSS, a special student organization for the grandstudents of Grandmaster Moy Yat. Grandmaster Moy Tung worked selflessly to establish this organization so that his students could have the same complete immersion in the Kung Fu culture of Grandmaster Moy Yat that Moy Tung had experienced. One of the senior students among this group was Aaron “Moy 10 Tung” Vyvial, founder of the Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu Academy of Texas.

Today, Grandmaster Moy Tung oversees the training of hundreds of students, grandstudents, and great-grandstudents throughout the country. The training of these students is carried out at a number of existing Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu Schools, and now within a growing network of Moy Tung Ving Tsun Kung Fu Schools as well. He is a great believer in the saying, “Theory Teaches, Practice Proves,” making it a point to continuously practice Kung Fu and improve his own personal skills while maintaining an active schedule as a teacher and lecturer in the Ving Tsun System. Grandmaster Moy Tung is also a proponent of the system through his work as an author and producer of instructional materials on Ving Tsun Kung Fu. He continues to lead the Kung Fu Life he learned to live under his highly respected Sifu, applying Kung Fu principles to those things in life that are important to him. He is in frequent contact with his Sifu’s widow, Simo Helen Moy, as well as other members of his Sifu’s family and Kung Fu family. All of Grandmaster Moy Tung’s personal success has not changed his priorities. On the contrary: he attributes his success to the fact that the training and strengthening of the Moy Yat Kung Fu Family Association continues to be his foremost commitment.