Sugong: The Life of a Shaolin Grandmaster

by Nick Hurst

Nick Hurst was working in London when he threw in his job in advertising to train for four years in Malaysia and China with a kung fu grandmaster, Sugong. This book is a mix of Nick’s experiences in South-East Asia and the story of Sugong’s extraordinary life.
Initiated into kung fu by an opium-addicted master, Sugong was expelled from school, kidnapped, and nearly killed in a family feud. All by the age of sixteen.
He fled army conscription in China, only to be engulfed in a world of gangsters and blood-brothers in Singapore.
Saved by a Shaolin warrior monk, his penance was eight years of fiercely-enforced temple training.
A near-fatal fall-out with his master, love affairs, race riots and gangland vendettas all followed as he travelled through South-East Asia.
Throughout, he struggled to adhere to martial arts’ ethics in an imperfect world.
His story spanned fascinating periods of history of four Asian countries in war-torn 1930s China; instability in post-war Singapore; racial tension in the newly independent Malaysia; and a gangster-led Taiwan in the aftermath of its Chinese breakaway.
The origins of Shaolin kung fu and triad organised crime are explored to provide a context to his life.

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 10, 2009

Reviews

[Ellis Amdur · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book rather disappointing. It is quite well constructed (physically) - an attractive book. However, if I choose to read a book on a martial artist, I really would like substance regarding martial arts training, the milieau of the training hall, etc. The writer describes an irascible guy who, without the patina of his martial arts history, was just a tough fixer of problems on the docks and other similar areas. There is a little description of the pogroms against the Chinese in Malaysia, but one doesn't get the sense of the incredible tension between these two cultures, nor the vibrancy of either. Given that his teacher lived in a certain environment, the writer apparently stayed in there too, but all we find out about him and his life is that training (no details on substance) was sweaty and hard and his teacher yelled a lot, and he and his buddy, Michael drank and competed against each other as to who could sit in the sauna longer. If I'm going to read a book about a martial art expert, I would like fine-grained descriptions of what makes the particular art unique. By the end of the book, all I know is that they emphasized punching over kicking, it being a southern Chinese system.
To be fair, a "shaolin grandmaster" is only a wall-leaping magician in movies. But he comes off here as a coarse man, brawny and life-loving to be sure, but little more. Hurst and Sugong did not speak each other's language. I cannot help but wonder if there was a lot more to the latter, beneath the bluster, that the writer simply had no access to.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who practices TCMA I found this book to be very interesting. It was a great perspective into traditional training and old-school lifestyles. However, I feel that it wasn't structured very well. It jumps around between timelines a lot, which isn't to say that's a bad way to do things. But it isn't done very well in this book and it can be confusing at times.

[Craig Pay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look into the life of a modern Shaolin grand-master. Great read. Not what I was expecting.