For Jaden He Jingde, a former national wushu champion and stuntman, Chinese martial arts are a lifelong passion, one that led him to meet his childhood idol Jet Li. His path to acquiring martial arts skills has not been an easy one, however. He was born in Shandong province in 1978, where the living conditions for his family – as for many others in China at that time – were tough.
“My brother was my hero and when I saw Jet Li’s movie, I just wanted to be like him,” He says. The family had two boys taking part in a sport that was physically very demanding, which meant they had to compromise when it came to material possessions. “We were always training and we were also teenagers, so we were always hungry and craved meat, which was expensive at the time,” He recalls.
“My father made enough money to feed us but we had to continue living with one bike and one watch.” By the time he was in high school, the dedicated He was able to emulate his brother by becoming wushu state champion for his age group. As such, He earned a scholarship to attend a top university in the country, such as Beijing Sports University.
“All I had been doing my whole life was training, so I really wanted to study. I wanted to meet girls and live a student’s life,” says the three-time national wushu champion. Fate had other plans for He, who caught wind that Wu Bin – Jet Li’s wushu master – was going to be training the Beijing Wushu Team.
This seemed like the chance of a lifetim.
