A former all-around wushu champion of China, Hu Jianqiang is probably best known for his amazing skills in Nan Chuan (Southern Style Boxing) and Monkey Cudgel.
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.
Hu’s talent and hard work soon paid off. By the age of 14 Hu was not only the Zheijiang Wushu Team’s top athlete but he’d also been chosen for China’s national team and had began touring internationally. Over the next 7 years Hu won numerous national individual wushu titles in Southern Style Boxing (Nan Chuan), Ground Skill Boxing (Ditang Chuan), Cudgel and Monkey Cudgel.
As a national team member he traveled to over 30 countries to participate in competitions and exhibition performances. In 1981 and 1982 Hu Jianqiang won back-to-back all-around wushu titles. It was at the 1978 championships in Shandong Province that Hu was spotted by Hong Kong film director Chang Hsin Yen and cast as Wu Kong, the leader of the young monk warriors, in "The Shaolin Temple" film.
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