Bone-setting goes way back in history. It was called “battlefield medicine” in Zhou dynasty and “osteopathy” in Song dynasty, up until Qing dynasty. “Bone-setting” is the name commonly used in the Canton area. It is often said that medicine and martial art originate from the same family and root. Bone-setting is indeed closely linked to martial art. LAM Kwok-keung from Yuen Long’s Shek Po Tsuen is a third-generation bone-setter whose grandfather acquired bone-setting skills precisely by practising martial art. More than a century ago, villagers of Shek Po Tsuen sent LAM’s grandfather to Dongguan as a martial art apprentice, in order to safeguard their water supply and properties. When he returned, he taught the villagers what he had learnt and formed a team of village guards. Back then, LAM’s grandfather learnt martial art as well as bone-setting, which made him a bone-setter in the village, and his skills are passed to the next generations. Around the time of the Second World War, many martial art masters moved to Hong Kong from the Mainland China. Among them is WONG Fei-hung’s widow MOK Kwai-lan, who established a marital art school on Gloucester Road in Wan Chai. On the roof she taught WONG’s martial art, lion dance and bone-setting techniques. Before she passed away, her godson and successor, LI Chan-wo, promised to inherit and promote WONG’s legacies. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the popularity of martial art triggered many men’s interest in learning martial art and bone-setting, giving rise to another generation of local bone-setters, including master TONG Wing-hong. Recently, a new ordinance has subjected Chinese medicine to more regulations and categorised bone-setting as one of the main branches of Chinese medicine. All the bone-setting clinics across Hong Kong thus have to be renamed. Furthermore, bone-setting used to be studied in the form of apprenticeship, but is now taught in schools. In the past, bone-setters collected fresh herbs from the mo