Yu Chenghui
Chinese wushu master and actor Yu Chenghui reconstructed the two-handed sword technique shuangshou jian and starred in the film Shaolin Temple (1982).
Quick Facts
ChinaBiography
Yu Chenghui was born on August 16, 1939, in Penglai, Shandong province, and died on July 4, 2015, in Jinan in the same province at the age of 75. He is known as the reviver of the two-handed sword technique shuangshou jian and as a film actor.
He began training at 11, focusing on the jian sword. At 20 he won the wushu championship in Qingdao and became a member of the Shandong provincial wushu team, with which he won in the drunken sword (zuijian) category. After injuring his leg during training, he spent roughly ten years recovering while working in a factory.
He worked for 14 years on reconstructing the shuangshou jian technique, considered lost since the Tang dynasty; he found his inspiration on September 15, 1975, during a thunderstorm, while watching a praying mantis. The technique he reconstructed became an official wushu competition category. In 1998 he received the Martial Arts Star award from the Chinese Wushu Association.
He appeared in the films Shaolin Temple (1982, as Wang Renze), Kids From Shaolin (1984, Pao Feng), Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986, He Sao), Yellow River Fighter (1988, Ma Yi), and A Battle of Wits (2006, Dongbo). In the series The Legend of Bruce Lee (2008) he portrayed Ip Man, and in the series The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (2009) Zhang Sanfeng.
Associated Martial Arts
Achievements and honours
- State award1998