Dragon’s father began his own wushu journey some 40-plus years ago. The Chinese word literally means “martial arts”, but it has come to refer to the modern sport of wushu established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. A full-contact and exhibition sport judged according to a points system, wushu includes both barehanded and weapon forms.

Jaden trained under Wu Bin, the head coach of the Beijing Wushu Team, who also coached both Jet Li and Donnie Yen. He won gold at the National Wushu Championship numerous times for broadsword, staff and double broadsword before pivoting to teaching.

In 2002, he moved to the United States and started his own school in Los Angeles, teaching students aged from six to 60 years old.

From there, Jaden landed an opportunity to head up choreography for KA, a Cirque du Soleil show centred on martial arts. He eventually landed back on the other side of the world when he received a call to join Hong Kong’s wushu team in 2006. When he decided to move on from competing, he became a martial arts consultant for the film production company China Star Entertainment, where he trained actors.

Around this time, American School Hong Kong enlisted the help of Jaden and Christine to build and train the school’s wushu team; their daughter Jada enrolled with a merit scholarship in the school, where Dragon also attends. There are now roughly 30 students combined in the school team and extracurricular group.

Jada went on to win gold for her age group at the World Junior Wushu Championships at the age of 10 and defended her title two years later. It’s easy to imagine Dragon wanting to follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I was six years old when I first started; my sister was doing it and got me excited. I like to do the jumps and a lot of the other moves,” he says.

With a family so involved in the wushu scene, most would think Dragon can take advantage of being able to train around the clock with his coaches.

As Dragon explains, however, that’s not the case at all: “When I first started learning, I only trained for 40 minutes at a time. Now I train three times a week for one and a half hours each time.”

When it comes to engaging children in training, Jaden says the secret is not to push them too hard; his approach is about quality, not quantity: “When they’re young, it’s hard for them to concentrate. When I’m training, I need the students to focus 100 per cent. So I don’t like wasting time and training longer if they cannot focus.”

Jaden applies this philosophy to all his students, including Dragon. Its effect is evident in Dragon, who’s not shy about showing his confidence when recalling what it was like to compete on an international stage earlier this year.

“It felt very good – but I was nervous at the same time, even though I was very confident that I would win,” he says.

Despite his success this year, Dragon experienced some setbacks, ultimately strengthening his determination to excel in wushu. “I started seriously training Dragon in 2019, and with Covid you couldn’t go anywhere,” recalls Jaden. “It was around that time that he got a call to join the Hong Kong team. One month into training he broke his arm.”

Still, Jaden brushes off his son’s injury almost casually, saying, “It happens! Dragon joined the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and they train in large groups, 30 or 40 students. The coaches can’t always keep an eye on everyone.”

Post-surgery, Dragon spent a week at the hospital and, shortly after that, contracted Covid-19. “It hurt a lot, and after Covid, I needed to train and perform wushu outdoors instead,” he remembers. He entered another competition and participated via a video demonstration.

While he had his cast on, Dragon kept training hard: “I used weights so my arm could stay strong.” His arm having remained in a bent position for so long, Dragon wasn’t able to straighten it fully after the cast came off.

“He needed to train, and strengthen his tendons and joints to build up his muscles again,” explains Jaden.

“So I made a deal with him: if he can straighten his arm in one week, I’ll get him a pet parrot.”

“I named him Donut,” Dragon says.

Jaden says training children in wushu is not just about helping them stay fit, although that’s part of it: “Now kids lose focus – they play video games. For me, coaching kids is about teaching them respect, endurance and teamwork.”

He expects the same from the American School team and the youngsters he teaches at his own school, Wu Star. Learning wushu also helps with spatial awareness, and understanding the physics of strength and distance.

“There are rules, and we make deals with kids to commit if they want to be on the team. Parents love it, and they want their kids to be healthy,” he adds. The rules range from spending time playing with peers before each training session, to staying away from junk food, and restricting gaming to one hour per week on weekends.

This approach seems to work well for Dragon. He’s able to carve out time for wushu, and he feels it doesn’t distract him from his studies. “It’s pretty easy to concentrate. I train hard, and I play hard.

It helps, too, that he’s not overloaded with his studies: “Luckily, I’m at the American School, and we don’t have a lot of homework so I can practise more.”

When asked what his aspirations are for wushu, Dragon says he’s already achieved his goal with the championship win but hopes to continue his journey.

“I want to train and learn more,” he adds, “using different weapons like sword, staff and spear.”