The abbot, Jee-sin, accepted him into the monastery and soon found out how talented and hardworking he was in Southern Shaolin martial arts.
Jee-sin was impressed by these qualities and soon began to teach Hong the Bak Fu Pai (White Tiger Fist) that he specialised in.
These "lay" members refer to people who learnt Southern Shaolin martial arts but were not ordained as monks in the monastery.
He founded the Hung Ga style of martial arts, which he named after the Hung-mun, a Chinese fraternal organisation that was associated with the anti-Qing revolutionary movement.
Chen Kuan-tai portrayed Hong in the 1977 Shaw Brothers film, Executioners from Shaolin, directed by Lau Kar-leung.