Two weeks before I came to Hong Kong in 2005 I was at home in London, waiting for my work visa. I had plenty of time on my hands; and I visited China town, eating dim sum - trying to get an idea of what I am getting myself into by moving to Hong Kong. That month, Kung Fu Hustle was out and screening in London.

I loved the movie so much that I went to the movie theatre THREE times to watch it, and then went back two more times the following week. I loved the story, the special effects, the acting skills of the crew and, most of all, the fun side and the irony. (I think the movie was made to be a parody on a typical kung fu flick). Little did I know that four years later I will be: seriously into Chinese martial arts and I will meet, in person, one of my favourite characters in the movie.

Today, I was participating in my first wushu competition in Hong Kong. 2009 is the year when China celebrates 60^th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Chinese government is keen on making it a big event to promote China and the Chinese culture, and there is a number of martial art events held this summer in Hong Kong. Today’s competition was one of them.

I enrolled in the competition in order to experience what it was like to “compete”, and also to get extra reason to work harder on my forms and technique. In order to make (and measure) progress, I need to set goals. I also looked forward to getting formal feedback (the mark) from independent wushu judges.

Finally, I just like to perform :-)

I didn’t know what to expect, but I at the end of the day I left with a very positive feeling. The atmosphere was of mutual respect and encouragement. At least, this is what I felt as I couldn’t exactly follow what was happening (it was all in Cantonese, of course). And I loved being around wushu people.

And the meeting with the Kung Fu Hustle actor (and an important Hung Gar style sifu) made the day even more memorable.