A deviant boy in a wealthy family and his school life
Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students can describe of the .

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.

Inspired his interests in Chinese martial arts by films and became student of Liu Chia-liang
Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm.

As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

Liu started his acting career starring Sha Chu Chong Wei and began to use his stage name Gordon Liu
After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production.

A deviant boy in a wealthy family and his school life
Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students can describe of the .

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.

Inspired his interests in Chinese martial arts by films and became student of Liu Chia-liang
Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm.

As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

Liu started his acting career starring Sha Chu Chong Wei and began to use his stage name Gordon Liu
After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production.

A deviant boy in a wealthy family and his school life
Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students can describe of the .

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.

Inspired his interests in Chinese martial arts by films and became student of Liu Chia-liang
Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm.

As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

Liu started his acting career starring Sha Chu Chong Wei and began to use his stage name Gordon Liu
After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production.

A deviant boy in a wealthy family and his school life
Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students can describe of the .

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.

Inspired his interests in Chinese martial arts by films and became student of Liu Chia-liang
Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm.

As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

Liu started his acting career starring Sha Chu Chong Wei and began to use his stage name Gordon Liu
After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production.

A deviant boy in a wealthy family and his school life
Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students can describe of the .

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.

Inspired his interests in Chinese martial arts by films and became student of Liu Chia-liang
Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm.

As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

Liu started his acting career starring Sha Chu Chong Wei and began to use his stage name Gordon Liu
After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production.

A deviant boy in a wealthy family and his school life
Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students can describe of the .

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.

Inspired his interests in Chinese martial arts by films and became student of Liu Chia-liang
Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm.

As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

Liu started his acting career starring Sha Chu Chong Wei and began to use his stage name Gordon Liu
After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production.