Zheng Ying and Xu Weiguo, now in their 60s, have been teaching  boxing at Park Number 2 on the West Lake for more than 20 years. They are so good at Chinese  that many tourists and local people, seeing them practice, cannot resist the urge to learn some essentials from them. Zheng and Xu are willing to teach. Over the past 20 some years, they have taught thousands of international visitors to do  boxing and other Chinese  routines.

Zhang and Xu are a couple. Zheng worked at a printing business before her retirement and her husband worked at the railway bureau before his retirement. Both started practicing  when very young. And they are versatile  masters. They began to practice Wushu in the morning at the park in the early 1990s.

The lakeside park is now a favorite venue for international visitors to learn some essentials of Chinese . Some international visitors see Zheng and Xu while taking a sightseeing tour around the West Lake and they ask if they can learn basics from the masters. Some learn about the couple from friends and seek them out. In some cases, a local school or a tour operator will ask the couple to teach a large group of international visitors at a special venue. Group learning happens several times a year. The biggest group the couple has taught had more than 200 international visitors.

The tallest disciple the couple has taught was William Theodore Walton, one of the greatest NBA stars. It was a few years ago. A friend came to the couple and said an international visitor staying at a lakeside hotel would like to learn some  basics. As they teach hundreds of foreigners a year, they agreed without hesitation. But they were astonished to find that the man was more than two meters tall. The giant studied some  essentials under the guidance of the couple for an hour. At the end of the teaching period, they posed with the tall man for photos. The couple didn’t ask who the giant was. Most international visitors spend an hour or so learning from the couple and then are gone forever. That’s why the couple are in the habit of not asking names of these international students. But after the giant left, Zheng Ying became curious and uploaded a photo to her friends on WeChat, a popular social media in China. Someone recognized the giant.

Zheng and Xu have an Australian disciple who flies to Hangzhou once a year to take “advanced courses” from the couple. The Australian calls himself Bruce Lee, like the Chinese star. The Australian Bruce Lee arrived in Hangzhou in 2000 to take a traditional Chinese medicine course. He ran into the two masters at the lakeside park by accident. He decided to learn from the couple. He turned out to be the most gifted disciple the couple had ever taught. He learns fast. His record is that he learned five complete prescribed sequences of  skills and tricks in six days. Nowadays, Bruce Lee flies to Hangzhou every year to take advanced courses from the couple.

With the assistance of Bruce Lee, Zheng Ying was inducted into Australia’s Hall of Fame in 2012 as a  Master. Xu Weiguo became a hall-of-famer in August 2018 as a  Master. The two masters in Hangzhou are now the first Chinese couple honored in the Australian Hall of Fame.

Another regular international student of the couple is an American with a PhD degree in traditional Chinese medicine. He speaks Chinese quite well and visits Hangzhou for advanced studies every two years. Whenever in Hangzhou, he brings a large group of international students to learn  from the couple.

As experienced Wushu masters, Zheng and Xu has some ideas about future. First of all, they will continue to teach at the lakeside park. That would be their focus, as they are aware that  boxing isn’t just for elderly citizens and that many young people are eager to do . Moreover, they hope that Hangzhou will have a hall of fame for  people someday in the future. They believe a  hall of fame would help Hangzhou open better and wider to the outside world and  enthusiasts can have an opportunity to be known to more and more people.