Sifu Raymond Rand, the most senior of the five teachers (sifu) in the Yongquan Association, began training in the Chinese Martial Arts, specifically Choy Lee Fut (Bak Hsing), Tai Chi Chuan (Old Yang Style), Chi Kung, Chin Na, and Dim Mak in January 1976, with Master Lam Kam Chuen. Master Lam, formerly martial arts instructor to the Royal Hong Kong police, was a student of Master Leung Tze; the latter being a direct student of both Master Tam Sam and Master Ku Yu Chang. Prior to this Sifu Rand had three years experience in Ten Shin Shinyo Ryu (Ju Jitsu).

Sifu Rand started the first class at Middlesex University in June 1983 at the request of his teacher, Master Lam, and was a founder member, and first chairman, of the Lam Tai Chi Association which started in 1982. Although Master Lam is now famous as a teacher of Chi Kung, Da Cheng Chuan and Tai Chi Chuan, he is also an accomplished expert in Choy Lee Fut, and Sifu Rand is his most senior Choy Lee Fut and Tai Chi Chuan student, and remains the main result of the emphasis that Master Lam placed on teaching Bak Hsing Choy Lee Fut during his early years in the UK.

In 1994 Sifu Rand founded the Middlesex University Students Tai Chi Chuan Association, in recognition of the growing number of students at Middlesex University and the need for his own senior students to have a recognised platform from which to grow.

In July 2000 the Middlesex University Students Tai Chi Chuan Association became the Yongquan Tai Chi Chuan Association in recognition of the additional classes opened elsewhere in the country. Finally in 2006 the name was officially changed to the Yongquan Martial Arts Association in recognition of the prominence of Choy Lee Fut and Hsing-I within the association.

The Yongquan Association is non-profit and non-political.