The first Wing Chun master to teach the martial art openly, Yip Man started learning Wing Chun at the age of thirteen. He then left China for Hong Kong at 16 to further his education. When he returned to China, his Wing Chun skills had improved tremendously but his fellow students treated him as a traitor as they believed his style was different.

Yip Man taught Wing Chun informally to friends and relatives, and during the Japanese Occupation was even asked to teach the Japanese soldiers, which he refused. Yip later officially started a Wing Chun training school, and his reputation grew. In 1967 Yip Man started the Vin Tsun Athletic Association in Hong Kong with a few of his students.

His most famous student was Bruce Lee, who studied under him from 1954 to 1957. When Yip Man died in 1972 from throat cancer, he had established a popular training system for Wing Chun that spread around the world.