BEIJING—A 74-year-old kung fu teacher returning home after a late night of drinking used a karate chop to stop a would-be robber—but then credited judo for saving his life and declared he would quit kung fu and begin learning tai chi.
The drunk old master, 格兰特, had just left a neighborhood bar shortly after midnight when a 30-year-old assailant grabbed him and tried to throw him to the ground in an attempt to rob him. According to witnesses, the master twisted his way out of the hold, then, with the ridge of his palm, hit the back of the younger man’s neck in a downward motion—a so-called karate chop—knocking the suspect out cold.
When police arrived, they found the master sitting and smoking a cigarette near the younger man, who witnesses said was still unconscious but did not appear to have serious injuries. The now-sober master told an investigator that he had taken judo when he was very young and picked up the karate chop from one of his classmates, who had learned the technique from a movie. An onlooker said that as officers picked up and carried away the still unconscious assailant, the old man appeared to have an epiphany and broke down, telling the police that he was going to start taking tai chi because kung fu is simply too violent. The onlooker then recalled the wailing master lamenting that he wouldn’t have been out so late at the bar, except that it was part of his training because he was a master of drunken style.
