Famous Wushu People
Famous Movie Stars
Other Noteworthy People

Latest updated: Jackie Chan!

Raffi standing next to Wu Bin, long time head of the Beijing Wushu Team. Coach Wu's most famous athlete was Jet Li. Click here to read an article about Wu Bin written by Jet Li himself. (note - This picture is kind of old, I'll try to find a more up to date picture with Wu Bin to scan in the near future)

In October of 1996, I got to spend the day with Yen Wen Qing, a famous wushu athlete who's individual hand form was standardized into the Compulsory Chang Quan form. This is me, Patrick and Yen Wen Qing after their Oakland, CA performance.

Raffi and Eric meet famous Wushu Master Pan Qing Fu, featured in the movies Shaolin Temple and Iron and Silk. A more complete filmography can be found here.

January 2002 I got to visit the set of the film Highbinders featuring none other then Jackie Chan. In addition to meeting Jackie, I also met (but didn't get a chance to take a picture with) actress Claire Forlani, and Australian Wushu sensation Brad Allen. Jackie was really nice, people have asked me to describe him, and I can honestly say that he comes across in person just like he does when being interviewed on TV, very gregarious, cracks a lot of jokes, very fun.

I got the chance to meet Hsu Chi in Hong Kong in December 2000. She started out as a model in Taiwan, before becoming one of the most popular actresses currently working in Hong Kong Film. Her filmography can be found here (She's also known as Shu Qi or Hsu Kei depending on how they translate her name).

Brandon and I met Anthony Wong, famous HK movie star in Orlando, FL at a tournament. You may remember him from such films as Hardboiled and Black Mask. A more complete filmography can be found here.

In case you missed the full article I wrote about it, here's the picture I took when I met Jet Li. Click here to read the article.

I got a chance to meet Jet again in June of 2000 down in LA. Here's two shots of me and Jet along with my buddies Mae (right) and Eric (below). This is actually the third time I got to meet him, the second time was two months earlier - Click here to see photographic proof (I'm directly to the left of Jet, behind Tina).

At the same event I met Jet Li at, I also got a chance to meet Bolo Yueng, you may know him by his other name, Chinese Hercules -- or maybe not. He also played the critically acclaimed role of Bolo in Enter the Dragon. Bolo's age is definitely catching up with him, he didn't want to military press me even after I told him that I think John Saxon could really beat him in real life (note, I have actually met John Saxon before, but didn't have a camera with me at the time). Bolo's extensive filmography can be found here.

Carter Wong, Eric and Raffi. He's one of the bad guys in Big Trouble in Little China (the one that popped at the end). Check out those knuckles! He's one tough-ass dude! (My knuckles aren't nearly as cool). His filmography can be found here.

At the airport leaving the Arnold Fitness Classic (see below for more info) we ran into Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, the many times Kickboxing Champ. Don was really friendly and really talkative, I started asking him about the UFC and he wouldn't stop! ;) He also really enjoyed meeting the Beijing Wushu Team and snapped a couple pics with them too. His filmography can be found here.

I also met Michael Jae White, star of Spawn, at the Beijing Team's Culver City performance. He was really nice and let me take this picture. He also refrained from breaking my camera after I told him I was going to stick this up on my "Famous Wushu People" page.

Famous Other People

The beautiful Ms. Shannon Lee, star of WMAC Masters and also happens to be the daughter of Bruce Lee. She was in the audience to see the Beijing Wushu Team's Culver City performance in April '98, and she was nice enough to let me snap this photo.

At the Arnold Schwartzenegger Classic Fitness weekend in Ohio, I got the chance meet some cool people, including UFC Champion Frank Shamrock, who was a really nice guy. I actually also met his brother, Ken Shamrock, UFC fighter turned Pro Wrestler. He was LESS of a nice guy (I think he was really tired, as it was pretty late when we ran into him), but he let me take his picture too. But unfortunately I lost that roll of film!

Another picture on the roll of film I lost was of me and Kiana Tom, the ESPN2 fitness TV show host. Luckily I also grabbed an autographed post card. Kiana was really friendly despite the fact that I asked her some somewhat stupid personal questions based on erroneous information I had heard about her on Entertainment Tonight...

Chae, most famous of the WCW Monday Nitro Girls visiting UC Berkeley February 1999. Unfortunately her busy schedule made it impossible for her to make it to see the Beijing Wushu Team's Berkeley performance the following month, but she thanked me for the invitation. The picture below is of Chae with a bunch of wushu freaks. Apparently when everyone was posing for the picture I decided to cop a feel on her elbow. Notice the beaming smile on Eric's face. This picture was taken a few seconds after Eric got the dragged onto the dance floor by Chae and shook his money maker.

 

No San Francisco Major Willie Brown wasn't at the Beijing Team's performance, nor does he practice the art of Wushu. This picture was actually taken at the California Music Awards, held in San Francisco in March 1998. As you may know I have often lampooned the Mayor for his brief speech at the commencement of Wushu Day 1996. Well I was there for Wushu Day, apparently the Mayor came for "Waashoo Day."

 

My mom actually got this autograph from Olympics Gold Medaling Gymnast Dominique Dawes for me. I have no idea why the only piece of paper she could sign it on was a photocopy of an article from the Washington Post about social programs...

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Last modified 2/02/02