Prior to learning Tàijíquán, Teacher Huang Sheng-Shyan was a renowned exponent of White Crane in Fujian province, China.  From the age of 14 he learned White Crane directly from Xie Zhong-Xiang, who was already an old man. After a few years of personal tutelage and still, only in his late teens, Huang was sent by Xie to study full-time for two years with his eldest disciple Ch’en Shih Ting.

In 1930 Teacher Huang went on to train with another well-known White Crane exponent P’an Ch’un-Nien, who also began teaching him the use of medicinal herbs, and stimulated an interest in Huang for other Chinese Martial Arts. In pursuit of these Huang moved to Shanghai, where he first began teaching White Crane. He returned to his own village in 1934 at the request of P’an Ch’un-Nien to take part in County competitions. Huang not only convincingly won the competition he went on to the finals of the provincials. There he was runner-up to Chang Jih-Chang, whom Huang had previously knocked down but drawn with, in a preliminary round.

Due to his age and success Huang became known in Fujian as “Young Hero”, and later played an active role in the war with Japan. The recognition of his fighting abilities quickly earned him the rank of colonel. Following the Communist takeover of mainland China, Master Huang emigrated to Taiwan. There he met and knelt before Cheng Man-Ching an outstanding exponent of Taijiquan. For seven years he devoted himself to being a disciple of Cheng and his Art of Taijiquan, before moving to Singapore in 1958.