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The lights dim and Wong launches a flurry of hand strikes,
blocks and leg moves as two directors watch his movements
displayed on computer screens.
The 56-year-old kung fu master is part of the world's first
three-dimensional martial arts archive, a project that hopes to
digitally preserve a tradition that experts fear is at risk of
being lost forever.
"When I was a student, I was taught the moves and given a manual
to just read. Now there is this where it's recorded and
preserved with precision," said Wong, a master of the Southern
Dragon style of kung fu.
There are hundreds of differing fight styles classed as kung fu,
which soared in popularity globally following a series of films
featuring U.S.-born and Hong Kong-raised actor Bruce Lee, who
died in 1973.
But as kung fu's popularity waned in recent years, practitioners
worried about passing the martial arts form to future
generations.
The 3D project, known as the Hong Kong Martial Arts Living
Archive, aims to capture and preserve more than 400 different
kung fu styles. About 50 have been recorded so far.
"Hong Kong is a very important city in the Chinese martial arts
world," said Hing Chao, executive director of the Hong Kong
Guoshu Association, a martial arts group working on the project
with Hong Kong's City University.
"It has protected the resources and so far managed to preserve
the different types of martial arts, but today, there are fewer
people passing this tradition on," Chao said.
Project organizers say the 3D archive will not only preserve a
discipline central to Hong Kong's heritage, it also offers
newcomers a more easily accessible visual learning experience.
"We can have a richer content of kung fu styles," said Lau Chi
Fung, the project's technical director.
(Editing by Darren Schuettler)
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