For sixty years Chee Soo studied, and then taught, the Taoist Arts of the Lee family. His influence spread around the world, and his pioneering books on Taoist practice sold in large numbers in several languages. He entered the first Taoist Arts schools in London in the 1930s, learning under Chan Lee, a Taoist teacher from Weihai. Best known for teaching gentle, internal martial arts, he also passed on healing methods and knowledge of Ancient Chinese Medicine. Of all the ways to put Taoist philosophy into practice, he favoured the Taoist Art of T’ai Chi Ch’uan.
Early years and Chan Lee
Chee Soo came into the world on 4 June 1919 in All Souls, Marylebone, London. His father, Ah Chee Soo, was a pastry chef at the Westminster restaurant, and his mother was Beatrice Gibbs; the family lived in Westminster. In English he went by Clifford Gibbs, and in Chinese by Chee Soo. Speaking on LBC radio in 1977, he described how, aged 14, he met Chan Kam Lee, an elderly Chinese man from Weihaiwei, in Hyde Park. Chan Lee asked him to join his class in the summer of 1934, and that began his education in the Taoist arts. Taken in as an adopted nephew, Chee Soo studied with Chan Kam Lee whenever both of them were free.
Service with the Desert Rats
Chee Soo began military training in 1937 and entered the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment, part of the 7th Armoured Division, which became known as the Desert Rats. He saw action in Northern France in 1939 and took part in the Battle of Dunkirk. Over the course of the war he rose to Lance-Corporal, then Corporal in 1941 and Acting Sergeant in 1942. Sent to North Africa, he was mentioned in dispatches and won the Military Medal for his conduct at the Battle of Beda Fomm in Libya in February 1941, during Operation Compass. When his regiment was moved to Burma, the Japanese captured him on 19 April 1942 at the Battle of Yenangyaung. As a prisoner of war he was put to work on the Burma Death Railway, where he caught malaria. He was later classed as a war crimes witness.
In a work gang in the mountains between India and Burma, he suffered beatings, torture, hunger and punishing labour. Three years on, as the Japanese fell back before the advancing Allies, he got away into the Shan Mountains of West Burma. A Gurkha went with him, and the two of them struggled through rough country and thick jungle for a month before an American guerrilla patrol found and rescued them. He spent three months recovering and being treated, having weighed just 84 lbs, and then returned to England for a long period of leave with his wife. After that he left the army and took a course in bookkeeping, stock control, commercial history and sales promotion.
Once the war was over, Chee Soo got back in touch with Chan Lee, and the two took up their class in Holborn again. In 1950 he started a class of his own at Manor Road School in West Ham, East London.
Rupert Croft-Cooke, who had been a friend of Chee Soo since 1938, gives an account of this part of his life in his book, The Dogs of Peace.
Clifford Gibbs had got his rather grand name from Dr Barnardo’s Homes, for he had been reared in one of these, the son of a Chinese father and English mother, neither of whom he had ever seen. I had known him before the war and was as proud as he was of the Military Medal he had earned as a Corporal in the Royal Armoured Corps in North Africa. He had been sent to Burma and taken prisoner by the Japanese, and suffered unspeakable tortures and humiliations because of his race, separated as he was from his fellow British. He had survived and, inwardly as inscrutable as a Conrad character, a little like Wang in Victory, he had married a blonde English girl and had an exquisite baby daughter whose godfather I became at a Sunday afternoon service in an East End Anglican church. Clifford, who went about life methodically, was severely industrious and found the means of saving for his family even in those days of grudging wages. But he had a humorous cheerful side to his character and enlivened my flat during his weekly visits between office hours and his return to Durban Street, E.15. He was an expert wrestler and had earned the Judo black belt. Only from the depths of his character emerged sometimes the exotic or oriental; in speech and manner he was very much an Englishman, and it was strange to hear from his curved lips words that might have been used by any London ex-soldier. I am glad to have had his friendship throughout those years.
When his teacher Chan Kam Lee died in the winter of 1953, Chee Soo took over as President of the International Taoist Society. He taught a wide variety of Taoist arts, among them self-defence, healing, and spiritual disciplines grounded in Chinese Medicine, Qigong and meditation.
The Avengers (1965)
The Guinness World Records website records the following: “In 1965, Dame Diana Rigg (UK) became the first Western actress to perform kung fu on television when combat choreographers Ray Austin (UK) and Chee Soo (UK/China) incorporated elements of the martial art into her fight scenes on ‘The Avengers.’ The certificate presentation took place on ‘The New Paul O’Grady Show.
During the 1970s he ran a Chinese Health and Herbal clinic in London.
A British Movietone News documentary filmed in Guildford, Surrey, on 21 May 1970 reported that Chee Soo had more than 2,000 students learning Wu Shu in Britain through the British Wu Shu Association. He was one of only three people outside Beijing qualified to teach Wu Shu.
Chee Soo on BBC Nationwide (1973)
On 21 September 1973 Chee Soo was interviewed on the BBC television programme Nationwide, where he showed Kung Fu self-defence moves and inner power live in the studio alongside presenter Bob Wellings. He talked about the history of Kung Fu, how the Northern and Southern styles in China differ, and what sets Kung Fu apart from Karate.
BBC schools documentary (1975)
The BBC filmed Chee Soo teaching his Feng Shou kung fu class at Seymour Hall, London, in 1975, and the footage appeared in a schools documentary called “Scene: Looking for a Fight.” The programme set his soft-style kung fu self-defence class against boxing and hard-style kung fu.
Brian Hayes interviewed Chee Soo on LBC radio in 1977. They covered Lee style T’ai Chi Ch’uan, how he met his teacher Chan Kam Lee, reincarnation, and the idea that women would eventually rule the world.
Chee Soo moved to Coventry in the 1980s and spent his time writing and running courses in Lee style Tai Chi Chuan, Feng Shou Kung Fu and Ancient Chinese Medicine. These were held at Alderman Callow School in Coventry (today The Westwood Academy) and at other venues around Britain. He also travelled abroad to teach students in Australia and a number of European countries.
Chee Soo’s books
Chee Soo wrote five books on Taoist philosophy while he was alive. A sixth, The Tao of My Thoughts, a diary of his personal philosophy and Taoism, came out after his death.
The books first appeared in hardback from Heather Gordon’s publishing company, Gordon and Cremonesi, and Aquarian Press later brought them out in paperback. In the 1980s they became international bestsellers after Thorsons, and then HarperCollins, took over the publishing rights. Translations exist in Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, German, French (distributed in Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal), Indonesian, Spanish and Italian, and copies can be found all over the world.
The Seahorse Books editions
Seahorse Books has now republished all of his books. The editions follow the original Aquarian Press format but use better paper, sturdier binding and laminated covers, so they work better as training manuals. They are sold through the Seahorse Books website.