Chan Kam Lee (died 1953 or 1954) was, according to the account of Chee Soo, one of the first Taoist masters to bring the Taoist Arts to the West. He is said to have established a Taoist arts school in London in 1933[1] teaching Lee style tai chi chuan, Qigong, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Feng Shou 'Hand of the Wind' Kung Fu.
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Chan Kam Lee was said to have been the last in line of the Lee family from Weihai in northern China, and as he was an importer and exporter of precious and semi-precious stones, he travelled thousands of miles promoting his business, which was mainly between Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and England. After he had built up a stable business he finally set up his main office in London, and from there he did most of his trade.
Chee Soo recounts that, after a while, Chan Kam Lee began to get restless, and he sought an outlet for his physical, mental and spiritual needs. As a result, he established a small and select class in a schoolroom in Red Lion Square, near Holborn, in Central London, teaching and practising his Chinese Taoist arts. He catered only for his own personal friends and their sons, so the total number of his students was very small, and at the most there were only a dozen people attending. All of them were in business and travelled quite a lot, so the average attendance at any one time was only in the region of six people. However, this did not deter Chan Lee for he was able to keep up his own practice as well, which was the main objective in the first place, so he was very happy.[2]
Chan Lee is said to have died in the winter of 1953-4, when his boat sank in a fierce storm off the coast of China, and it was then that his nephew Chee Soo was asked to take over the Presidency of all the Taoist Arts that were being taught.[3]
Other than Chee Soo's account, it is not clear that there is any evidence of Chan Kam Lee's existence. Chee Soo states that, at the time of Chan Kam Lee's death in 1953/1954, there was an Association of Lee-style T'ai Chi Ch'uan clubs, of which which Chee Soo eventually became President in 1959. However, the earliest documented students of Chee Soo began studying with him in the 1970s. None of these students claim to know anyone who was a Lee style T'ai Chi Ch'uan practitioner before the 1970s, other than Chee Soo himself. Therefore, all their knowledge of the history of the style, and of Chan Kam Lee himself, derives solely from Chee Soo's accounts.[4][5][6].
The name "Chan Kam Lee" is not possible in the dialect of Weihai (or any other form of Mandarin Chinese). No Mandarin syllable can end with the letter -m, although such syllables do occur in southern Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese and Hakka. Since the dialect used is unclear, and the Chinese characters are unknown, it would be very difficult to search records for references to Chan Kam Lee.
It is not clear that there were any fatal shipwrecks in fierce storms off the coast of China in the winter of 1953 / 1954. (The Fernmoor was shipwrecked in the South China Sea on 6 February 1954, but all on board survived[7]).