Yuan Wenqing

Yuan Wenqing founded modern wushu by example. He set wushu's standard practice in the first Asian Games. Previously known for his explosive speed and power, nickname 'the Prince' [1] he won numerous national and international competitions in the eighties and early nineties, including the first Asian Games in 1990.[2] He is considered by many as a bridge between traditional Chinese martial arts and modern wushu for his successful integration of traditional and modern techniques at a level of fluidity, technique, and explosiveness that had not been seen before, and which has yet to have been matched today.[3]

He is a former Shanxi wushu team athlete trained by the coaches Pang Lin Tai and Zhang Ling Mei. He became the standard that other athletes were judged by in the nineties: his personal long fist and staff forms were famously made into the compulsory wushu guiding forms which other athletes had to perform and compete in.[2]