Sugong: The Life of a Shaolin Grandmaster (Paperback)

Nick Hurst was working in London when he threw in his job in advertising to train for four years in Malaysia and China with a kung fu grandmaster, Sugong. This book is a mix of Nick's experiences in South-East Asia and the story of Sugong's extraordinary life. Initiated into kung fu by an opium-addicted master, Sugong was expelled from school, kidnapped, and nearly killed in a family feud. All by the age of sixteen. He fled army conscription in China, only to be engulfed in a world of gangsters and blood-brothers in Singapore. Saved by a Shaolin warrior monk, his penance was eight years of fiercely-enforced temple training. A near-fatal fall-out with his master, love affairs, race riots and gangland vendettas all followed as he travelled through South-East Asia. Throughout, he struggled to adhere to martial arts' ethics in an imperfect world. His story spanned fascinating periods of history of four Asian countries in Asia: war-torn 1930s China; instability in post-war Singapore; racial tension in the newly independent Malaysia; and a gangster-led Taiwan in the aftermath of its Chinese breakaway. The origins of Shaolin kung fu and triad organised crime are explored to provide a context to his life.