Editor’s note: Xu Xiaoming is a famous director and martial arts star in Hong Kong, and has also served as a producer for Lide, ATV and TVB. He was the director of the popular series of television series “Huo Yuanjia” and “Chen Zhen” in mainland China, which made Bruce Leung famous in the 1980s. As a traditional martial artist, he often went out to fight in the gymnasium when he was young, and after he became a director, his style of film and television martial arts is also as close to the actual combat as possible to shoot.
As a contemporaneous person, he also knows more about the master Bruce Lee, having seen Bruce Lee’s actual kung fu on site. Here is a selection of three articles, at different points in time, Xu Xiaoming talks about the incidents he witnessed on the set of Bruce Lee’s martial arts bouts, for the readers to cross-reference.
In the early 80s, Xu Xiaoming’s “Huo Yuanjia” created a martial arts craze in mainland China, and his theme song and his role as the one-armed old man were deeply popular. In his youth, Xu Xiaoming often went to various martial arts schools in Hong Kong to compete with others, “At that time, I was young and vigorous, I would often go to people to spar, and the culture of martial arts schools in Hong Kong at that time was very strong, and I learned a lot of things, in addition to martial arts skills, how to behave is also a very important aspect.”
Xu Xiaoming’s films are full of practical meaning, “My film and television works almost rarely use the practice of high to high, more of the performance is the actual battle, of course, this is certainly an artistic composition, but the vast majority of our action film actors at that time are from the martial arts industry, there are practical combat skills.” Xu Xiaoming said, the 80s and 90s Hong Kong’s action films flourished, but also with a large number of martial arts actors in that era, “now it is difficult to find so many martial arts masters, so now the action films and the action films of that era also have a big difference.”
In Xu Xiaoming cooperation and contact with the martial arts actors, Bruce Lee is the most legendary one. Xu Xiaoming said that many people see Bruce Lee’s performance in the movie, those movements are gorgeous and practical, the real-life Bruce Lee was also very capable of fighting indeed, and his kung fu is different from the ring actual combat, is the real social real combat.
Xu Xiaoming said that he once saw Bruce Lee’s kung fu with his own eyes on set:
“There was a boxer who really wanted to spar with Bruce Lee.
One day, he dressed up as an extra and blend into the set and found Bruce Lee to fight.
I remember very clearly that Bruce Lee used incredible speed to knock his opponent down in a second with his kick. The opponent did not have a chance to fight back.”
Xu Xiaoming tells the story of Bruce Lee to show people that street fight and ring competition are two entirely different things, but that ring competition should be as open as possible, as close to real combat as possible while still ensuring safety.
After watching two consecutive days of real Kung Fu events, Xu Xiaoming also sighed that today’s sparring athletes have improved a lot compared to more than a decade ago. Xu Xiaoming said that Chinese sparring is the expression of Chinese martial arts, but the current kicking and wrestling do not fully express the essence of martial arts, “I personally like to watch Muay Thai, that kind of full-contact competition looks very exciting, in Chinese martial arts, kicking, wrestling, elbowing and kneeing have their own practical use, I also hope that in the future, casual fighting can be more open in this area, so that the game is more exciting, so that it is also more conducive to international standards.”
The reporter of course also asked whether there is a connection between the martial arts films directed by Xu Xiaoming and the connotation of Sanshou, Xu Xiaoming said, “My works rarely have the type of flying around, Dengping degree water or something, because I do not like wire hanging, I think it is ruining the technology of Chinese martial arts, although film and television do not exclude exaggeration, making the visual more exciting, but such a practice is easy to be misunderstood by the outside world as Chinese martial arts can say can not be used, in fact, it should be like Chinese real kung fu to restore the truth to enthusiasts.
Those actors and martial of the Hong Kong martial arts golden 25 years practiced kung fu, are rooted, but slowly later young people gradually learn less, Bruce Lee’s generation after the past, slowly more set of players, less actors in the real combat category.”
Xu Xiaoming said, “Our generation of actors and directors, many of them are practiced, I myself practiced Yongchun, not Foshan Wing Chun, but Yongchun, later also learned Taiji Mantis and Long Fist, and now the actors in this area of the homework are not much. When I was shooting Huo Yuanjia, I had to do a lot of things myself, where as now there are so many martial arts substitutes.”
Speaking of Bruce Lee, the reporter came interested, Bruce Lee really had kung fu? Xu Xiaoming said:
“I really saw Bruce Lee and others in the scene against each other.
At that time on the set of a person posing as a crowd actor mixed in, to compete with Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee knocked him down in less than a second with just one kick.
He is really high level, and is a real fighter.
His strength is many times more than his own size.
And ring competition and this kind of street fight are not the same, there are many differences, this should be distinguished.”
One day at noon Xiao Ming personally picked me up at the hotel and invited me and several of my brothers in Hong Kong with his wife to dine together at the Chinese restaurant of the Sheraton Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
Xu Xiaoming was happy to talk about martial arts and Bruce Lee. He said that because many people went to him to compete with martial arts at that time, so the film company stipulated that he was not allowed to compete with people in order to ensure normal filming and avoid unnecessary trouble. So although people often came to provoke, but there will be no hands-on situation.
One day, during the break in filming, another person came to provoke and insult his mother.
Bruce Lee slowly got up, the person flew up a leg, Bruce Lee dodged while a leg hit the other side of the head, the person fell to the ground.
Bruce Lee walked away, very elegant, the whole process and we see the same Bruce Lee performance in the film.
I interjected that it would be good if it was filmed, and Xu said he couldn’t react at all.
But then again, we mortals make mistakes sometimes inevitably. For example, in my book “Da Cheng Quan” I quoted from a friend’s book that Bruce Lee had lost to Wang Xiang Zhai’s re-trained disciple Liang Zipeng. Later, Mr. Li Jianhao corrected this statement and told the truth in Martial Arts No. 11, 2003, and Mr. Jianhao’s spirit of truth-seeking is admirable. I synthesize Mr. Li Jianhao’s article and what I have heard in the martial arts for many years to introduce the general situation as follows.
Due to the need for street fighting at that time, Bruce Lee had wanted to give up his practice of Taijiquan, which is a slow martial art. But he was opposed by his father, Li Haiquan, because Li Haiquan knew that Bruce Lee’s nature was too strong, and by practicing Taijiquan, there might be a certain degree of restraint, but after Bruce Lee gradually gave up his practice of Taijiquan, he had to find another way to make up for it. Li Haiquan thought of a martial arts predecessor, LIANG ZI PENG. He was a businessman, not a professional martial artist as he is commonly known on the Internet, and had a high level of attainment in martial arts, especially in internal martial arts, and had met most of the top Chinese kung fu masters in his youth. Not only was he proficient in Taijiquan and Xingyiquan, but he also studied Eagle Claw under another master, Chen Zizheng, and Six Harmonies and Eight Methods with Mr. Wu Yizhi, and later studied Yiquan under Wang Xiangzhai’s disciple, Mr. You Pengxi, who was known as the “Divine Fist”.
Li Haiquan thought that with Mr. Liang’s knowledge and skill, he would be able to convince Bruce Lee. However, things did not go as smoothly as Li Haiquan thought, because Mr. Leung had heard about Bruce Lee’s street fights, but Li Haiquan was a celebrity in Hong Kong’s art world, so he had no choice but to let Bruce Lee come to his theoretical lessons, and in fact, he only accepted him as a titular disciple. Another theory is that Bruce Lee was unwilling to give up his previous martial arts skills, so Mr. Leung did not accept him as a disciple. In any case, Bruce Lee was deeply impressed by Mr. Leung’s profound martial arts training and theory, which led him to understand the true meaning of internal martial arts (INTERNAC ARTS).
During this time, Bruce Lee learned a lot about the principles of internal and external martial arts of Chinese kung fu from Master Leung. At that time, although he did not record these kung fu theories in pen, he imprinted them deeply in his mind, which laid a deep foundation for his great success in martial arts later ……
Knocking out in a second, is it true? Is this possible? Is this a “myth” of Bruce Lee?
Well, here, we provide four more live eyewitnesses or parties involved in the incident of Bruce Lee’s 1s kill, for the readers to read a comprehensive reference. Whether Bruce Lee was overstated, we can judge independently.
What is certain is that most of these four historical witnesses do not know each other, each other’s identity and status are different, there are talented Hong Kong writers, Dragon Tiger martial arts master, familiar Hong Kong martial arts stars, but also the United States karate champion, and the event is told at different times and places, there can be no prior collusion.
One, the incident recalled by Xu Xiaoming is the same as the incident recalled by Mr. Zhang Yonghan, a Hong Kong martial artist who mixed with the film set to find Bruce Lee for a martial arts match.
Two, about Bruce Lee’s 1 second knocking out the opponent, Hong Kong talented girl Lin Yanni witnessed, is a powerful pair of four, true to unbelievable. She said: “Talking about the fight, Bruce shot the fast, you wouldn’t believe it unless you see it with your own eyes …… This eyewitness incident, I said many times, because people always ask: ‘Is he really that fast?'”
Three, former U.S. karate champion George Dillman’s memories, I believe many people have seen.
Four, the 1-second knockout of the world’s most agile fat man, martial arts star Sammo Hung.
In fact, more contemporaries of world-class martial artists, ring champions and other historical human evidence confirmed with their personal experience that Bruce Lee’s speed is recognized as fast to unbelievable – which includes reaction speed, movement speed, strike speed, etc.. Bruce Lee is not only fast, but also strong enough, while controlling the distance to grab, hitting in and out, defending, and dashing.
If you can not do, or do not believe that others can do things, it is the same as “myth”, or think and Bruce Lee contemporaries of those historical witnesses, both Chinese and foreign, no matter what status, no matter what time and place, are in the same breath to help Bruce Lee become a god, then just think so. After all, except for the money, no one can be admired by everyone.
Whether you admit it or not, and no matter how a handful of Bruce Lee detractors bottomless slander and smear, a generation of interceptor Bruce Lee, in the world of martial arts as a spiritual teacher of martial arts, in the world of cinema as the pioneer of the kung fu film genre, in the field of popular culture as the twentieth century heroes and icons, he has long been immortalized in the hearts of the wider world, and will or is becoming a legend forever. Source