Zhang Xiaoyan practiced boxing on Huagai Mountain in the downtown area. Liao Dake/Photo
On the Huagai Mountain in the summer, there are still many people practicing martial arts fitness every morning, but recently there is an unusual figure - Zhang Xiaoyan, a famous martial arts star from Wen, who suddenly makes people's thoughts return to more than thirty years ago.
Zhang Xiaoyan starred in the little daughter-in-law in "Heroes from Ancient Times" in 1983, which once caused a sensation in Shenzhou that year, not only because of her beautiful and handsome appearance, but also because of her tough and soft snake fist, which won the hearts of the national audience. Later, she returned to Wen Province and often went to Huagai Mountain to exercise, and the amazing snake fist and the palm shadow that flew through the woods of Huagai Mountain are still impressive.
But after 1986, Zhang Xiaoyan went abroad and rarely saw her again. This time, she returned to Wen to look for folk traditional martial arts masters, so she visited Wenzhou traditional martial arts masters Jin Guanglin and Lu Baoqing as teachers in Huagai Mountain and Zhongshan Park, learned internal skills such as standing piles and tai chi pushing hands, and went to Hangzhou to visit Zhao Yuqing and other internal martial arts masters, visited the inheritors of Wenzhou Southern Shaolin Luohan Quan and Wenzhou Fan's Four Elephant Fist, hoping to learn more about the essence of traditional martial arts.
Zhang Xiaoyan played the daughter-in-law in "Heroes from Ancient Times to Teenagers"
I learned martial arts since I was a child, thinking that it was to practice dance
Watching Zhang Xiaoyan's kung fu performance is nothing less than a beautiful artistic enjoyment. That agile body, flexible limbs, free movements, skilled basic skills, as the saying goes, this is "juvenile kung fu", that is, practiced from an early age, can be described as a deep foundation.
Why would a girl choose martial arts as her lifelong career? Zhang Xiaoyan said that her ancestral home is Pingyang, and she was born in 1959 in Meirentai, Shanqian Street, downtown Wenzhou. When she was a child, she was relatively weak, often had colds and fevers, and her mother introduced her to dance, hoping to exercise. Later, she overheard her neighbor Qiuping say that the municipal sports school recruited martial arts students, and the construction primary school where Qiuping was located organized students to sign up. Zhang Xiaoyan understood martial arts as dance, and she followed. When she arrived at the martial arts team of Coach Shen Chengming, she saw many children kicking somersaults there, she thought that practicing dance was like this, but she quickly integrated into it, practiced quite diligently, and became an outstanding athlete. As a result, Zhang Xiaoyan formed an indissoluble relationship with martial arts in this life.
Zhang Xiaoyan's mother also feels that practicing martial arts can strengthen her body, so she is also very supportive. Due to her excellent results, in 1972, she was selected into the Zhejiang Wushu Team, and under the guidance of Coach Chen Shun'an, she won the single championship and all-around championship of snake fist, double sword and gun art at the National Wushu Championships for many consecutive years, becoming a Chinese martial arts athlete and martial arts baduan. After decades of hard work, Zhang Xiaoyan's experience of girls practicing martial arts is that martial arts can cultivate girls' bold and stable personality, which can make women more independent, and at the same time, they can also defend themselves.
He became famous for "Heroes from Ancient Times to Teenagers"
The late 1970s and early 1980s were the time when Chinese martial arts movies swept the world. The Chinese Wushu Association selected outstanding martial arts athletes from various provinces and formed a "National Youth Wushu Delegation" to visit Europe, Africa and other countries to spread the martial arts culture with Chinese characteristics to the world, including Jet Li, Zhang Xiaoyan, etc. The team members went to Beijing for training together, and received the training of teachers such as Li Tianji, Sha Guozheng, Yu Hai, Wu Bin, and other teachers of the Chinese martial arts giants at that time, and Chen Daoyun, who won the all-around championship of the 1963 National Wushu Competition, was also one of their coaches. The wonderful performance of the delegation was warmly welcomed by the audiences of all countries.
In the early 1980s, Hong Kong's martial arts films were popular on the mainland, Hong Kong star Xia Meng Production Company through the then National Sports Commission to Zhejiang Wushu team to select actors, at this time Zhang Xiaoyan has won the national championship for many consecutive years, her performance of the snake fist style is unique, very artistic, and handsome she not only has the gentleness of Jiangnan women, but also the strength of the martial arts, so she was taken by the director at a glance, invited her to play the role of the little daughter-in-law in "From the Ancient Hero to the Youth", after that, she was invited to star in "Decisive Battle of Heaven's Gate". Films such as "Chinese Gambling King" have made a generation of martial arts stars. Looking back on her acting career now, Zhang Xiaoyan said plainly: "I'm just lucky." ”
He was appointed head coach of the French national wushu team
Performed at the "World Wushu Congress" in France
In 1986, Zhang Xiaoyan retired from the provincial team and went to France. From 1995 to 2007, she served as the head coach of the French national wushu team for 12 consecutive years, training thousands of foreign disciples for France, many of whom were outstanding competitive martial artists, and won many championships for the French team in the World Wushu Championships and the European Wushu Championships.
During her decades in France, Zhang Xiaoyan has witnessed the development of traditional martial arts in Europe from all over the world, the most notable of which is the Japanese karate sport, which is very popular with Europeans. Although karate originated in China, it has become a traditional cultural content of the Japanese through the development of them, even surpassing the influence of Chinese martial arts. In particular, they are extremely united and pay attention to etiquette and civility. The impression of Chinese martial arts is that they are independent, scattered in sand, and the content is more like a flower fist embroidered leg. This made Zhang Xiaoyan deeply worried. So in 2008, she resolutely resigned as the head coach of the French national wushu team and together with her brother Zhang Chaolong, founded the Sino-French Traditional Martial Arts Association, hoping to return to tradition from competitive martial arts. Zhang Chaolong was also a martial artist, and when he was a teenager, he studied under Mr. Yuan Zhenlan, a famous martial arts teacher in Wenzhou, so he served as the president of the association and was responsible for administrative affairs, while Zhang Xiaoyan served as the head coach. The establishment of the association means a change in its research direction, which is different from that of the competitive martial arts project, and hopes to develop and study the essence of traditional Chinese martial arts and spread traditional Chinese culture. During this period, every two years, she would organize a group of Tai Chi students to visit China, and at the same time learn about Chinese painting and calligraphy, tea ceremony, Chinese medicine, Buddhism and Taoism, etc., and spread traditional culture through martial arts.
In France for decades to spread Chinese martial arts, Zhang Xiaoyan's influence is quite extensive, and the "World Wushu Congress" held at the Bercy National Stadium in France invites her to perform Chinese martial arts on stage every year. This conference has Muay Thai, karate competitions, etc., which have a huge impact in Europe and even the world, and Zhang Xiaoyan's performance, as a reserved program, has become a beautiful scenery on the competition.
Return to China to explore the roots of traditional martial arts
In the decades of teaching abroad, not only has she honed Zhang Xiaoyan's martial arts practice, but also greatly broadened her horizons, enabling her to witness the development of traditional martial arts in various countries, especially Muay Thai, karate, taekwondo, etc., which makes her think deeply about the development prospects of Chinese martial arts, in addition to competitive martial arts, how to better disseminate and carry forward traditional Chinese martial arts and their profound cultural heritage has become a topic that needs urgent research in front of her. She believes that there is a huge difference between competitive martial arts and traditional martial arts, if you must make an analogy, competitive martial arts is a square body with strict rules, with edges and angles; while traditional martial arts is a round body, rich and changeable, and needs to be constantly explored and sorted.
Therefore, in recent years, she has always returned to China often to explore the roots of traditional Chinese martial arts, looking around for teachers and friends, learning and studying the characteristics of various sects, and not being ashamed to ask questions. This spirit of humble study is really touching and admirable. You know, from the perspective of society, Zhang Xiaoyan has long been famous and has made brilliant achievements in the professional field of martial arts, and for some people, amateur martial arts practitioners may be dismissive of folk amateur martial arts practitioners, but Zhang Xiaoyan is very sincere to learn from them. Academically, Zhang Xiaoyan always said: "Learning is endless, when I learn from them, I put aside my previous achievements and treat my past as a zero." ”
Zhang Xiaoyan, a beautiful woman who has gone from the Beauty Terrace in Shanqian Street in Wenzhou City to the peak of the world's martial arts, her handsome beauty can really become a legend of the Beauty Terrace.
(The original title was "Wen Wutian martial arts actress "Little Daughter-in-law" Zhang Xiaoyan returned to her mother's home to explore the roots of traditional martial arts", the original author Chaoxi.) Edited by Wang Yanqiong)