MARTIAL ART A KICK FOR FAMILY : KUNG FU MASTER'S KIDS FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

By day, Douglas Wong is a medical records supervisor for the city's Occupational Health Services Division. After hours, he assumes his role as kung fu master, teaching a Chinese art of self-defense that dates back 5,000 years.

One of his best known students was Jason Scott Lee, who spent six months with Wong in 1992 preparing for the title role as martial arts screen legend Bruce Lee in ``Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story.''

``He had no martial arts experience. We trained him from day one,'' Wong said. ``How to stand, how to breathe. We started him from scratch.''

In the end, Lee pulled off a convincing performance, though camera angles were used to make his kicks appear higher, Wong said.

``He looked good, didn't he?'' Wong said with satisfaction.

Wong, 47, the proprietor of the Sil Lum Kung Fu Studio in Northridge, began teaching in the San Fernando Valley in 1973 and currently has about 100 regular students enrolled in his classes, including three children who started training in kung fu before they could walk.

His oldest child, 10-year-old son Travis, is a kung fu national champion. His wife, Carrie Ogawa-Wong, 41, a data processing entrepreneur and one of 15 instructors at the studio, is one of the top 10-ranked woman in kung fu forms and weapons competition.

Kung fu is an ancient Chinese martial art similar to karate but emphasizing circular rather than linear movements.

As early as 1971, Wong played a bit role and served on a team of technical advisers for the original ``Kung Fu'' television series, helping to train dancer-turned-actor David Carradine.

More recently, Wong was hired by Renaissance Pictures to train TV actor Kevin Sorbo, star of the syndicated series ``Hercules - The Legendary Journeys,'' and Lucy Lawless, star of the ``Hercules'' spinoff, ``Xena - Warrior Princess.''

He also helped design some of the weapons and set up fight scenes for ``Mortal Kombat,'' the fantasy action film, which was based on a video game.

In the field of Hollywood martial arts, Wong is ``definitely pretty high up there. He's the man you want to study under,'' said Brad Carpenter, an assistant to ``Hercules'' and ``Xena'' producer Robert Tapert.

Both Sorbo and New Zealand-born Lawless were martial arts novices who Wong describes as quick studies.

But perhaps Wong's most impressive disciple is his son, Travis, a national junior Chinese martial arts champion and a star student at the privately run Valley School, where he just completed fifth grade on the honor roll.

``Kung fu has really helped me in school,'' the soft-spoken youngster said last week at the family's studio. ``It keeps me focused.''

His mother agrees.

``The first week of school, all his teachers, that's the first comment they made to me: `He's so well disciplined,' '' Ogawa-Wong said.

Travis, who began training with his father at 6 months old and talks about being a writer someday. He has had a couple of close brushes with fame himself.

He originally was cast to play the boyhood Bruce Lee in ``Dragon,'' but another youth ended up with the part when filming of the picture shifted to Hong Kong, his father said. A similar disappointment scrubbed a near role in the motion picture ``Three Ninjas,'' Wong said.

The art of kung fu employs the use of more than 50 weapons, including a fearsome-looking variety of spears and swords, which Travis has developed as a specialty.

``His weapons skills are far beyond his age,'' the elder Wong said of his son.

At the Valley Heritage Fair last month in Van Nuys, Travis showed off his kung fu prowess in a lightning display of leaps, twirls and lunges armed with his favorite weapon, the double-headed spear.

He and his 7-year-old sister, Tia, later sparred on stage with wooden staffs, and Travis went on to demonstrate his skills with two broad swords and hand combat moves.

Tia, who just graduated from first grade at Balboa Boulevard Magnet School, said she occasionally gets into real fights with her big brother at home, requiring their parents to step in.

``We start kicking and punching. After about 45 seconds, they'll catch us and break us up,'' Travis said with a smile.

Even their 2-1/2-year-old sister, Cassidy, gets into the act.

``I fight with Travis and Tia,'' she said.

Their mother said all three of the children walked early, a trait she attributes to their martial arts conditioning.

As for Ogawa-Wong herself, ``It teaches me a lot of patience,'' she laughs.

Her husband, who was born and raised in South-Central Los Angeles, said he began kung fu training at age 10 and ``used to gang fight 10 to 15 guys at a time in high school and college.

Yet, Wong said his approach to kung fu embodies meditation, message, and other healing arts related to traditional Chinese medicine.

``A lot of movements in kung fu are hidden methods that work on organs of the body, based on the Chinese system of acupuncture and acupressure,'' he said. ``Self-defense becomes secondary.''

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO (1) Cassidy, 2, and Tia, 7, work out.

(2 -- 3) The Wong family , from left, Douglas, Cassidy, Carrie, Tia and Travis, are schooled in the fighting art of kung fu.

(4) Carrie Wong instructs at the Sil Lum Kung Fu Studio in Northridge and is a ranked competitor.

David Crane/Daily News