Jianqiang Hu

About Jianqiang Hu

Mr. Hu Jian Qiang is Legendary Wushu Master, Actor, Fight Choreographer.A former all-around wushu champion of China, Hu Jianqiang is probably best known to kung fu fans from his prominent film roles acting alongside Li Lianjie [Jet Li] in The Shaolin Temple series and in Sonny Chiba's Shogun. An award-winning film and television fight scene choreographer, Hu Jianqiang performs his gongfu taolu at break-neck speed with a clarity of movement, grace and power that are simply awesome to watch. With his handsome good looks and charming smile, Hu is a man not only blessed with extraordinary athletic talent but also with that certain "je ne sais quois" which world-class stars are made of.The Early Wushu Years Hu Jianqiang trained from childhood to be a professional martial artist. Like in the former Soviet Union, it has been the practice in China since the early 1950s to seek out and foster young talent at a young age. By age 10 Hu Jianqiang had been selected to fill one of only 30 slots in the gymnastics program of the Zhejiang Province Physical Education Institute in Hangzhou. Hu's acceptance into the program was not only a tremendous achievement for the young athlete but also a relief for his family. During that time in China young people were being randomly assigned to jobs in the countryside. Hu's elder brother had already been sent to distant northeast China and his parents feared for his future. "Although I had to leave my family in Ningbo, being accepted into the program not only meant that I had a job which helped me earn money for my family but it also allowed me to remain living in a city. I was very lucky," recalls Hu. Within a month of his arrival at the school Hu's future course was radically changed. Having caught the eye of Chen Xun'an, head coach of the institute's wushu program, Hu was asked to change sports. Hu explains, "Coach Chen told me that although I had the physical makeup to be a good gymnast, he said I had the potential to be a great martial artist." Hu's wife, Zong Jianmei, who was already a young athlete in the wushu program, remembers that her husband lasted only a day. "He didn't like it," she says. "Most of the students in our program had studied wushu before. Jianqiang not only had no background but also spoke Chinese with a local accent. The students teased him a lot." Hu Jianqiang says that he didn't know much about wushu at the time because traditional martial arts had been banned during the Cultural Revolution. "All I knew was that they used swords and spears, and I wasn't interested in getting hurt!" Hu chose to return to the gymnastics program but within a month found that he had not made the final cut of 20 students. He soon left school and returned to coastal Ningbo. Within a few days Coach Chen showed up at Hu's door urging him to give wushu another try. With no other options, Hu agreed. When Hu Jianqiang returned to school he quickly made up for lost time. His wife recalls that he didn't talk much to the other students. "Jianqiang was quiet and very determined. He worked harder than the rest of us. Most of the time the coaches have to urge us to do more work. With Jianqiang, they had to stop him from doing too much. If we ran for one hour, he'd run an hour-and-a-half." Zong reports that during those years Hu often trained wearing a suit weighted down with iron sand. "From my gymnastics days I knew that one of my physical strengths was my 'bursting ability.' In other words, I could move suddenly with ...

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