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SCMP Reporter

It started with a half-joking remark made in the excitement of the moment but retiring stuntman Ko Shou-liang is determined to keep his word to make a 60-metre jump over the Yellow River in a car.

  'Asia's First Flying Man', as Ko has been dubbed, made a death-defying 55-metre leap on a motorcycle over the Great Wall in 1992.

  'After completing the jump, the reporters were asking me, 'what next after the Great Wall?'.

  'In the excitement of the moment, I just said 'Yellow River' without really thinking. Now I have to live up to it,' he said, with a laugh.

  But the Taiwanese feels the Yellow River is a fitting follow-up to his Great Wall leap, and a fitting grand finale to his stunt career since he plans to retire after his June 1 jump.

  'The Great Wall represents the historical 'father' of the country and the Yellow River is the mother of rivers and 'gives birth' to other rivers.

  'Both are also two of the main historical sites of China, so I think it is really meaningful to be able to challenge them both,' he says.

  'Once you have jumped over the Great Wall, you can't very well do the Three Gorges next.'   Ko will make his jump at the river's fork in Hukou, which is flanked by Shaanxi province on one bank and Shanxi province on the other.

  The waterfall that marks Hukou signifies the place where the river 'gives birth' with the gushing water.

  The daredevil plans to have a 200-metre long ramp to let his car build up momentum before making the 50-to-60 metre leap, and to land on a 70-metre ramp. It will not be the first time Ko has attempted to leap such a distance, having done almost the same in the Jackie Chan film Armour Of God in the former Yugoslavia.

  'But there weren't as many limitations as here so it will be a new challenge to me,' Ko says.

  'For one thing, the ramp in Yugoslavia was very long so you could still abort the attempt if you felt something was not right. This time, with the ramp this short, there will be no second chances. Once you have started, you cannot stop.'   The use of a car and not a motorcycle also increases the risks for the actor and former stunt co-ordinator. 'There really is no room for error with a car. If you miscalculate even a little, you cannot rectify the situation. On a motorcycle, however, you can do that by maybe revving the engine or abort by leaping off the machine,' he said.

  That is why Ko intends to have four more trial runs - with one in Dongguan next week - to minimise the risks. A test there earlier this month went awry and saw him write off a new $300,000 car. Still Ko is cheerful about the 'total loss' and confident the jump will be a success.

  'I was happy with the distance I covered. This time I was driving a new car which they said had very good balance. So I purposely did not add any sandbags [which I normally do to balance the car]. The car did a flip and landed on the airbags. It was totalled but I was all right,' he says.

  Ko, who was born in China and whose family left for Taiwan when he was three, made his first inroads into the Hong Kong film industry in the late 1970s with some acting roles and stunts.

  Then, in 1981, he was approached by the team of the Sam Hui hit Aces Go Places because they had been impressed by his prowess on the motorcycle. Ko took on the job and, in a death-defying stunt, rode his motorcycle from the third floor of the Wing On Department store in Tsim Sha Tsui East. It did not take him long to become a household name in the business.

  'You could say, I sort of 'flew' my way into the business. After that I had a lot of offers from people like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, and it hasn't stopped since.'   In the past couple of years, Ko has increasingly moved towards acting roles and cut down on stunt work. Much of this is because he has devoted a lot of time to his Yellow River project - not to mention 'about $4 to $5 million' of his cash.

  'My wife and family have been through a difficult time,' the father of two admits.

  'They worry about me constantly. I was spending a lot of money and yet I wasn't making much because most of my time was taken up with the preparation work.

  'My wife has become a staunch Buddhist and is a vegetarian. It saves money and it also helps her 'accumulate blessings' for me and keep me safe.'   For a while, it seemed as if Ko would have to abandon his project because he had run out of money to finance it. Finding sponsors was not easy when you were not used to marketing, he discovered. He started with a team of more than 20 which slowly dwindled to three or four.

  'We faced a lot of difficulties. It was originally planned for last October but we had to cancel because there were too many conditions imposed by the provinces concerned,' he explains.

  'They wanted us to publicise their province and they wanted us to pump in money there. Their part was important because we couldn't make it without their support. In the end, I felt it was beyond our ability to meet their requests.'   It was then that STAR TV's Phoenix Chinese Channel stepped in to put its money behind Ko. In return it has the exclusive rights to an 11-part series on a behind-the-scenes look at the preparation work, as well as a four-hour live telecast of Fly Over The Yellow River on June 1. The stunt will also be telecast live on China's Central Television as well as in Taiwan and Singapore.

  'The world will be able to see for themselves what went into this stunt, unlike the previous Great Wall jump which was over in a few minutes and was just a brief news item. So even though I make no money out of it, it is still worth it,' Ko says.

  He hopes the stunt will help him achieve a more noble goal: to finance the building of schools in rural areas in China. 'It will help increase my fame and then maybe I can make appearances or hold performances where I can help raise money to fund this,' he says.

  'The schools actually don't cost a lot to build, about $80,000 to $100,000 maybe. It is my dream to be able to do it gradually throughout China.

  'In the rural areas, I see children so poor they aren't clothed properly and have no chance to study. Perhaps by giving $1,000 you can help give these children the necessities,' he says.

  'They know no better so they don't really feel they are suffering, yet when I see schools that have no roofs and that leak, I really feel sorry for them. I just hope we can put in some effort to guarantee the future of our younger generation.'   Ko cites age as the reason for turning his back on the world of stunts - although he says if it is meaningful enough or for charity he will consider an offer.

  'After this jump, if reporters ask me 'what next?', I won't be saying 'Three Gorges' or anything like that, no matter how excited I'll be!' he says, laughing.

  Fly Over The Yellow River will air every Sunday on STAR TV's Phoenix Chinese Channel at 9.30pm, starting April 6.



Leap forward for China's poor students