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There's a sneak peek at our next cover in my latest ezine offering, Daniel Wu on INTO THE BADLANDS. Note that this ezine article is completely different from the next cover story.
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This issue appears on the newsstands on December 1, 2015. Subscribers will be sent their issues next week.
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The Table of Contents for our JAN+FEB 2016 issue are now online.
Our JANUARY+FEBRUARY 2016 issue is now available for your smart phone or tablet!
Well, that first one created quite a stir on fb (as we knew it would ;)). This next one is more reaffirming.
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I guess doing both would waste too much Chi, LMAO !Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneChing
Chen Xiaowang must practice Taiji 16 hours a day. Not being judgmental, but why couldn't someone get in their MA practice AND have a celebration on the same day?Quote:
Originally Posted by sanjuro_ronin
There is absolutely no reason that BOTH can't be done.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
I think Chen Xiaowang is a closet Jehovah's Witness !
LOL !
...I love it when a plan comes together. :cool:
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From my current coach.
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We got something extra special coming from Master John Burns next. ;)
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The John Burns vid is slated to go live later today.
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This one will be a crowd-pleaser. ;)
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Another crowd pleaser. :D
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This one is my personal pick of the litter.
Saved this one for this week with Chinese New Year on the horizon.
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March+April 2016 coming soon.
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I'd never met Daniel face-to-face. The interview for this issue's cover storyand my NOV+DEC 2014 Chollywood Rising column were phoners. All the Chinese women were swooning and taking selfies including the wife of a visiting TKD master, some of the ladies that work at Tiger Claw, and some women at the restaurant where we ate. Daniel was very obliging and polite. I had a great time chatting with him about the Bay Area CMA scene back in the 90s, and hearing his backstories about the film industry and his previous roles. The 2nd season of Into The Badlands still hasn't been green lit, but he felt that news there was imminent in the next month or so.
Very COOL PHOTO ! :)
There are a lot of short vids if you follow the link.
Quote:
How Daniel Wu balances body and mind with martial arts
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June 1, 2016
Chinese-American actor and martial artist Daniel Wu has performed in more than 60 films in Asia. His new U.S. show “Into the Badlands” was recently renewed, and he has a huge role in the film “Warcraft” that opens in theaters today.
In this edition of Inside & Out, Mark Niu catches up with Wu as he prepares for the Hollywood grind by balancing body and mind. Studies have shown that martial arts can help improve concentration as well as reduce high blood pressure and stress.
In Oakland, California, Wu stays in shape physically and mentally before filming for season two of “Into the Badlands” begins.
He’s trained in Shaolin Kung Fu, Wushu, Muay Thai, and western boxing. Five days a week, he works out for two-and-a-half hours.
But his body has suffered in his 41 years. He’s had numerous injuries, including an ACL tear. That’s why he’s now focusing on Martial Arts Yoga — which keeps him flexible, efficient, and fully aware of his body and mind.
“What I’m really trying to do in my practice now in the downtime when we’re not shooting the season is getting my body limber and ready,” Wu said. “That’s why I do a lot of the yoga practice – so that I’m fully aware of my body and have body control.”
Daniel Wu on the importance of spirituality in martial arts:
His trainer Matt Lucas, who owns Open Matt said that Wu is one of the best students.
“I’m trying to get across changing the mind from a goal-oriented mind to a longevity oriented mind,” Lucas said.
“I feel all great martial artists know how to punch and kick, but the idea is get deeper to where the kicks don’t erode your body, where the techniques actually expand your body and don’t erode it away.”
Wu said that when he first practiced martial arts as a child it had a greater spiritual element.
“My first teacher Y.T. Chaing always made sure that we practiced meditation that we learned about how to eat during different times of the year, different seasons, what foods are good for you and what are not, and also teaching us how to do Chinese brush painting,” Wu said. “…to be a good person in this society and that was the spiritual side of it to me.”
Daniel Wu on how he overcame injuries in his martial arts practice:
After he spent more time studying martial arts, he viewed it more as a sport which divorced it from history and tradition, he said.
“Wushu, especially modern wushu especially is almost like a gymnastics floor routine. The spiritual side is not really there, we don’t practice medication,” Wu said.
“Now that I’m older now I’m going back to that, because I feel that there’s a huge value in all of that.”
Wu said that he’s had to overcome injuries such as a torn ACL.
“I’ve seen a lot of my mentors, Jackie Chan and Jet deal with chronic pain and injuries,” Wu said. “So I pulled myself away from the martial arts completely and I didn’t really even practice martial arts for a while until probably two or three years later and I was slowly getting back into it. I realized that martial arts doesn’t have to be about these crazy fancy kicks and all that there’s a whole system there and it’s more about health and well being.”
On the set of Into the Badlands, Wu is the only actor in the main cast with a martial arts background, so they regularly look to him for advice.
He offered some basic martial arts advice to CCTV America: “Don’t straight, do a cross hook. What I wanna do is sell that reaction. No matter how good that punch is the reactor doesn’t react, then it’s worthless.”
Daniel Wu on his career as an actor and martial artist:
Starring as an evil orc in the movie Warcraft, Daniel Wu’s has literally had a transformative year. As executive producer, and star, of Into the Badlands, the actor smashed through bad guys and Hollywood barriers.
Daniel Wu on importance of diversifying martial arts practice:
Wu plays Sunny, the show’s conflicted hero – a rarity for Asian Americans, made rarer by the fact that he’s in a romantic relationship. Wu says Into the Badlands has been the hardest work of his life—having to double duty with drama scenes and fight scenes more complex than anything on U.S. television.
Daniel Wu on how he played an orc:
“The orc I play is the most evil, he’s a kind of leader of all the orcs, in the script it said he’s the not only the ugliest, but the oldest orc. This character, he’s constantly in a horse stance, he’s crouched over the whole time,” Wu said.
“Good thing I’ve done hours and hours of horse stance training when I was a young kid. Because that’s what I was doing the whole time, walking like that walking in a crouch and walking like this orc.”
continued next postQuote:
Dear Bruce Lee, I wish you were here …
Actor Daniel Wu pens a letter to his hero, who is the subject of ‘Be Water’
By Daniel Wu
June 6, 2020
Daniel Wu grew up idolizing Bruce Lee and has drawn inspiration from the global icon during his own career as an actor, director and producer. Be Water, a 30 for 30 documentary on the life of Lee, airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Dear Bruce,
I wish you were here. I don’t mean here in the sense of a beautiful island vacation spot on the back of a postcard. I don’t even mean here in Oakland, California, where I now live and where you once had a school. I mean here on this planet in the year 2020 during this stressful time of a global pandemic and a country in crisis.
There have been many times where I’ve wondered, ‘What would Bruce think? What would Bruce have done?’ Or, ‘I wish Bruce could have seen this.’ You were taken from us too soon. Unlike Bob Marley or John Lennon, who died too soon but shared the full spectrum of their genius, it feels like you were just coming into yours. You were just realizing the dream you had so clearly laid out for yourself and had so much more to offer. However, in the short time you were on this planet, you left an indelible mark that has inspired millions of people, including myself.
For most of my life, I have been obsessed with you. Not that I didn’t have other role models, but you were special. I would buy any magazine with you on the cover. I read all of your books. Whenever your movies were on TV, I never missed them. I remember sneaking a portable black-and-white TV into my closet because Enter the Dragon was on after my bedtime. Once I got tucked in and the door was shut, I burst out of the sheets and flew into the closet so I could watch with the volume off.
When I found out you were born in San Francisco like me and died one year before my birth, I fantasized that I was your reincarnated self. For years, I collected anything that was related to you: T-shirts, posters, toys and, most important, videotapes. I would seek out anything that could possibly have you in it. From the films you did in Hong Kong as a child, where I could see glimpses of who you would become to the famous Long Beach Karate tournament, where you demonstrated your famous 1-inch punch and planted the seed for modern MMA to the episodes of The Green Hornet where you played Kato and owned every scene you were in — I ate it all up.
Most revealing were the interviews. They captivated me because I could see the real you. You spoke with so much confidence, conviction, humility, humor and intelligence. And on top of all of that, you had swagger: the way you dressed, the glint in your eye and that wry smile you always had made you cool. I had never seen anyone of my race on the big or little screen like you, and I was captivated.
I am now 45 and my obsession has subsided a bit. Just a little bit. Did I mention I named my dog Brucelee? Please don’t be offended that I named my dog after you; it’s purely out of respect and I have instructed the whole family that we must call him only by his full name. It forces me to utter your name at least a few times a day, as well as forces anyone he meets to say your name aloud as well. It’s a way to keep you in my life. But if there were ever a time I wished you were here in the flesh, it would be right now.
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Bruce Lee while filming a scene from the film Enter the Dragon in 1973.
Warner Brothers/Getty Images
“Empty your mind.
Be formless, shapeless, like water.
You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow or it can crash.
Be water, my friend.”
THREADSQuote:
More than just a piece of dialogue in a movie, this was a mantra that you used throughout your life. In the martial arts, it led to your realization that a natural organic flow is more important than prearranged organized movements. In life, it meant that you must know when to be soft and when to be hard. And when faced with adversity, instead of letting it stop you, like water, you must flow through it.
Growing up in the British-colonized Hong Kong and then coming to America in the ’60s at the height of the civil rights movement, you must have been acutely aware of discrimination, prejudice and racism. Although you were not known as an activist, it is obvious how deeply affected you were by those issues, because it showed in everything you did.
When you were teaching, you ignored racial boundaries. You had white, black and Latino students because as you believed, “we are all but one family.” You defied the wishes of traditional Chinese martial artists who felt you should not be teaching kung fu to non-Chinese. It was serious enough that the Chinatown elders sent their best fighter to make you stop. You won that fight and flowed on.
When you got the role of Kato on The Green Hornet, the character was nothing more than a sidekick with little to no dialogue. You went on to steal the show, not only with your dynamic action but your electric charisma. I can’t imagine the hurt and betrayal you must have felt after coming up with the idea of a martial arts Western because there were no good roles for Asians at the time, only to be told that “America is not ready for an Oriental lead.” When Kung Fu, the TV series, was aired, it must have been gut-wrenching for you to see a role that you created for yourself played by a white man in yellowface. But instead of letting that break you, you flowed on and went back to Hong Kong, where you were not only embraced and accepted, but became a global icon.
The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon all dealt with issues of oppression, with your main characters always fighting for some sort of freedom. The scene in Fist of Fury when you jump-kicked that sign at the park entrance that said “No Dogs and Chinese Allowed,” and beat up the guys who tried to keep you out, was liberating, not just to people of Chinese descent, but for anyone who ever felt belittled, bullied or discriminated against. Those films were so wildly successful that Hollywood could ignore you no longer. In Enter the Dragon, you finally exploded onto the scene and became the shining star you knew you would be. Sadly, you died 10 days before the premiere and never got to witness what you were so determined to achieve. But even in death, no obstacle could stop you or define you, you became water and flowed on.
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Daniel Wu attends the screening of “Rocketman” during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2019 in Cannes, France.
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
I was born and raised in this country. Being a minority was part of my identity and making you my hero was part of that identity. It gave me strength and it empowered me. When I moved to Hong Kong and started making movies there, it was the first time I didn’t have to think about race. For almost 20 years, I was no longer a minority. It was freeing. However, after returning to America, I realized I was no longer conditioned for issues of race, so I avoided the topic, leaving it for the more impassioned and knowledgeable to deal with. But the past two months have changed everything.
COVID-19 began infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. Shops, schools and institutions have been shut down, the global economy is in ruins and it is unclear what will happen. With this uncertainty, fear and anger have bubbled to the surface.
Because the coronavirus originated in China, people of Asian descent around the world have specifically become targets of racist attacks as if they were personally to blame. Verbal attacks have escalated into violent physical attacks. An Asian family in Texas was stabbed because their attacker believed they were spreading the virus. A woman in New York had acid poured on her head. An elderly woman was kicked in the face by two teenage boys while waiting for the bus. In just two months’ time, there have been more than 1,700 reported cases of hate crimes toward Asian Americans. People whose families have been in America for four or five generations are being treated as foreigners and enemies. Many are scared to leave their homes, while others are arming themselves.
Knowing that just my face alone can elicit so much hate, anger and violence is jarring. I am scared. Scared for the vulnerable. Scared for my daughter and her future in this country. And I am also angry. Angry at the systems in place that continually divide us. Angry that my status as an American is conditional. Angry that things haven’t changed. And this is just in the Asian American community. Recent events have shown that it is obviously far worse for the African American community, where hundreds of years of oppression have led to yet another killing of a black man at the hands of the police. It’s infuriating.
I want to fight. Part of me wants to be provoked so I can lash out — smash them in the face like you smashed that sign to pieces. End it all with a flying kick. But this isn’t a movie and the solution is not as simple as knocking out the bad guy and saving the day. I initially started this letter hoping that you could impart your wisdom to me and tell me what to do in these dark times. But I understand what I need to do.
This pandemic cannot be knocked out with one swift kick, and neither can systemic racism. A small trickle of water can eventually cut through the toughest rock. It is constantly flowing and moving forward. When met with an obstacle, it does not stop but flows around it and eventually consumes it. When pushed, it moves out of the way but does not get pushed back. It can flow and it can crash and this is how we must face this fight. Whether white, black, brown or yellow, we must face these times with strength, empathy and compassion, and implore others to do the same while making sure not to get caught in the trap of becoming stone. We must remember that it’s imperative to join the other groups fighting this fight because they have been dealing with much worse for much longer, and only with solidarity can we form lakes and oceans to extinguish the flames of racism. Most importantly, as an individual, I must persevere and keep pushing, keep flowing. I must be water.
Thank you for being here for me again.
Yours truly,
Daniel Wu
January-February-2016
Be Water
Read my latest feature for Den of Geek: Into the Badlands: What’s Next For Daniel Wu.
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Threads
Into-The-Badlands
January-February-2016
American-Born-ChineseQuote:
Daniel Wu Shares the Martial Arts Workout He Used to Prep for American Born Chinese
The action star walked us through the routine he used to portray the legendary Monkey King.
BY BRETT WILLIAMS, NASM PUBLISHED: JUN 6, 2023
preview for 'American Born Chinese' Star Daniel Wu's Martial Arts Fight Training | Train Like | Men's Health
WATCH: Daniel Wu | Train Like | Men's Health
DANIEL WU IS a martial artist with a background in Wushu, but the actor doesn't depend on one strict discipline to bring heart-stopping fight sequences to the screen. "In onscreen fighting, there's no real one style," he told Men's Health when we caught up with Wu to check out his training routine. "You have to mold yourself to fit into the choreography or the style of the character that you're fighting with."
In fact, his flashiest moves, deployed in movies and shows like The Man With the Iron Fists and AMC's Into the Badlands, might not even be useful to defend yourself IRL. "Sometimes you're doing crazy movements that are martial arts-related, but you'd probably never do in a real fight—but are really cool onscreen." Wu pointed to wire work, stunts that make it appear that the characters are able to defy the laws of physics, as a great example of this. While these maneuvers might not be technically possible off-screen, actors like Wu still have to be in incredible shape to make the stunts look real. "To be able to execute those kinds of things, not only do you need a good martial arts base, but you also need a strong body to be able to withstand all that and be able to move with all that," he said.
Wu brought his high-flying maneuvers to the Disney+ series American Born Chinese with his portrayal of the Monkey King, an iconic character in Chinese literature. He shared his fight choreography prep workout routine with MH, giving us a look at how he gets ready for showstopping stunts. Wu worked through a long warmup to prep his body for movement, using tools like a clubbell and kettlebells, before being joined by his striking coach Dr. Jason Park, PT, DPT, SCS for pad work.
This is a very specific routine, so you might not get results by following it to the letter—but if you're interested in the types of movement Wu uses for his fight scenes, you can use some of these principles in your own workouts.
Daniel Wu's Martial Arts Training Routine
Clubbell Shoulder Warmup
Elbow Supination
10 reps per side
Elbow Pronation
10 reps per side
Overhead Circles
10 reps per direction
Single-Arm Halo
10 reps per side
Wushu Stance Training
Horse to Bow Stance Transitions
Kettlebell Mobility and Strength Circuit
Rear Lunge Overhead Press
3 sets of 10 reps per side
Front Rack Toe Walks
3 rounds of 50 foot walks
Kettlebell Squat Jumps
3 sets of 5 reps
Kettlebell Rotational Swing
3 sets of 10 reps
Martial Arts Training
Shadowboxing
Punch Isometrics
Mitt Work
Pad Work
BRETT WILLIAMS, NASM
Brett Williams, a fitness editor at Men's Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter who splits his workout time between strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
January-February-2016