Ngô Đồng
martial artist
Ngô Đồng (born South Vietnam - died 15 May 2000), known also by the Japanese title O Sensei, was a Vietnam-born naturalised American entomologist and martial arts instructor. He is chiefly known as the founder and grandmaster of the international school of Cuong Nhu Oriental Martial Arts. Having served as a college president in South Vietnam before the fall of Saigon in 1975, he spent time in a re-education camp until escaping in a small boat. He taught entomology at the University of Florida while continuing to guide the international Cuong Nhu martial arts community.
Biography
From 1961 to 1971 he was a professor in the Department of Biology of Hue University, South Vietnam, during which time he founded the Cuong Nhu style of martial arts. After the devastating 1968 Tet Offensive and the communist Massacre at Hue, Grandmaster Dong organized a civil defense organization, the People's Self-Defense Forces of Hue, to help protect the public from the violence spawned by the war. His organization engaged some 25,000 people in a program of karate, games and friendly competition to rebuild morale and spirit during the Vietnam War.
In 1974, Dong earned his PhD in entomology from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and during this period (1971–74) founded and incorporated the first Cuong Nhu Karate club in the United States. He then returned to South Vietnam and served as the President of Da Nang College until the fall of Saigon and the communist victory in 1975. An outspoken opponent of communism, Dong was placed under house arrest in 1975, and spent time in a re-education camp.
“Ngô Đồng” enters the record as martial artist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Đồng, martial and artist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7022430. VIAF identifies the subject as 8519152637836720220005. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 1975, 1961 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ngô Đồng” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.