With his older brother Yang Shao-hou (楊少侯) and colleagues Wu Jianquan (吳鑑泉) and Sun Lutang (孫錄堂), he was among the first teachers to offer T'ai chi ch'uan instruction to the general public at the Beijing Physical Culture Research Institute from 1914 until 1928.
Cheng Wingkwong was a formal disciple of Wu Jianquan, who eventually held the rank of Shifu (師父, or Sifu in Cantonese) in the Wu family's Hong Kong school.