The Making Of A Kung Fu Star

Near the end of a reent flight from Asia, I was looking for something short to watch before landing.  I came across an interview of Zhang Jin -- a Chinese Kung Fu movie actor.  It was a pleasant surprise.

Zhang Jin is not so famous like Jackie Chan or Jet Li.  Yet, he has made appearances in quite a few big productions, including the popular Ip Man series.  Even though I had seen Zhang Jin's performance in movies, I was not familiar with the man.  I find it interesting to listen to a fellow Chinese who also came from a humble beginning, and who also has dedicated his life to martial art practice to recount his journey and share his insights.

Zhang started learning Chinese Kung Fu at around the age of six from his father who was a PE teacher.  He became committed to formal training at nine.  As he confessed, the conviction came after watching "Shaolin Temple" -- the movie that propelled Jet Li to stardom.  Needless to say, he was and still is a big fan of Jet Li.

The Chinese system of picking and developing atheletes is like a giant multi-layered sieve.  Schools all over the country are responsible for keeping an eye out for youngsters with potential and sending them for tryouts.  Those who make the cut will get further training with the local teams.  Young atheletes are first sent to local competitions, and then pushed through higher levels of regional competitions, until they reach the national tournaments.  The few that reach the top level will receive intense training so that they can serve in the national team.  Zhang Jin was one of them.

Zhang admitted that he did not really have "pure" motivations for learning Kung Fu.  Being from a poor family, he figured that, in order to get out of poverty, he needed to develop a specialization.  He just happened to be pretty good at Kung Fu.  He thought that if he managed to become a member of the national team, his family's livelihood would improve significantly.  Ultimately, the real deal was his childhood dream: He really wanted to, one day, become a hero on the big screen like Jet Li.  

There were times that Zhang Jin wanted to quit, but he persisted.  

He first started as a martial arts athelete, but with so many newcomers sent through the national recruitment machine, the competition was really keen.  Even if you make it to the top, the life of an athelete is always short-lived.

Knowing that he could not remain a Kung Fu athelete forever, he started seeking jobs as a stuntman in movies.  As one can imagine: being a newbie, jobs are hard to come by, the work is hard, and the pay is meager.  He landed the job as a stunt double in the famous movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and did an amazing job.  Once he broke into the circle, he started getting minor roles with one or two lines to say.  Life was still hard, but he was young and optimistic.  

The worst moment, as he recounted, that led him to almost quit was when he was shooting a movie in a very cold location and he was all soaked.  Whatever dreams he had vanished from his mind.  His martial arts skills could not save him from his misery.  As he was trembling on the set, he asked himself why he was doing what he was doing.  He was convinced that that was it.  Yet, at the end of the day, he got paid.  Counting the bills in his hands, he instantly forgot about the pain and suffering.  As he puts it, "Dreams are good, but, in the end, you still need to eat!"  He laughed and he admitted, "Dreams and money took turns to be the motivating factor in my life."

Zhang's original specialization was Shaolin Kung Fu.  In order to shoot the Ip Man series, he had to study and polish up his Wing Chun skills for good screen presence.  When asked what were the most important lessons he learnt from Wing Chun, he named two things:

1/ Protecting the center line.  Similar to Aikido, Wing Chun is based on the concept of controlling and defending one's center line.  Zhang Jin extended that concept into daily life and likened the center line as one's baseline and values.  "It is what defines you as a person.  If you lose that, what else is left of you?  What have you become?"

2/ Instead of evading danger, embrace it.  The natural instinct of most people is to run away from danger.  However, like in Aikido, when faced with an attack, the Wing Chun approach is to move towards the attacker.  It may sound counter-intuitive, but this is how Aikido and Wing Chun dissolve the ma-ai of the oncoming attack.  

As Zhang Jin pointed out, the fear was the most difficult thing to overcome initially.  When the sense of danger seemed so intense and imminent, it was really hard to get himself to move forward.  As an experienced and disciplined martial artist, Zhang learnt to manage his emotions and broke through.  He toook this as a lesson about how to deal with difficulties in life  -- things always look more severe and arduous from afar.  If you are intimidated by the illusion, you may feel really powerless in life, even though you may have the ability to overcome the adversity.

We encounter the exact same situation learning/ teaching Aikido.  How do you teach people to not fear?  It is almost impossible because fear is an emotion; choosing to fear is a personal decision.  Only people themselves have the power to alter their choices. 

To not fear, some people rely on blind faith in their teachers' words while some choose to let themselves go and jump in the deep end.  I still remember how my teachers tried to talk me out of being afraid, but I thought it was a completely ridiculous proposition.  It was only years later when I got tired of how my fear bogged me down without providing any payback that I gave up that useless emotion.  Once you realize that the perceived danger has no substance in it unless you choose to fear it, you will laugh and ask yourself how you could fall victim to such a hollow scam for so long . . .