“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.”
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
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 lifetime – in He’s eyes, to be trained by Li’s coach would bring him closer to his life’s goal of being a top Chinese martial artist.
“I wanted to be just like Jet Li, and being trained by Wu Bin would bring me closer to this dream,” explains He. “I thought I failed at the try-outs.
“I’ve been doing this my whole life and I’m an intense guy, I can do all the moves, but it wasn’t until I met my master that I knew I was missing a lot of the small details.”
Despite his lack of confidence, He was accepted into the team. “This was a dream come true,” he says.
In 1995, two months into his training, Wu Bin took 14 members of the team to Los Angeles in the United States for a wushu demonstration.
“Going to America opened my world,” He recalls. “All the expensive cars, people living by the beach and just going there to play volleyball. It was a lifestyle I’ve never seen before.”
Meeting his hero further cemented He’s decision to follow in his footsteps. When he returned to China, He trained for 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
In 2003, He moved to the US to join the Cirque du Soleil production Kà as actor, coach and choreographer, before moving to Hong Kong in 2006 to join the city’s wushu team.
After retiring from competition, he entered the film industry as a martial arts consultant. He recently signed on to be action director of an upcoming show for Wynn Resorts in Macau.
“In the US, there is this go-getter attitude, but in Asia, it’s different. You need to calm down, prepare everything, be good at what you do,” says He. “And when chance comes, you can be ready to catch it.”
