Aiman's love or wushu

By Tony Mariadass

tonym@mmail.com.my

Pictures by Azneal Ishak

Wushu both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial art.

It is, however no longer communal sports as youngster Wan Nur Aiman Norazri will attest to.

The 13-year-old who took up the sport as a seven-year-old will be representing Terengganu and making his debut at the coming Malaysia Games.

The Selangor born lad will be representing the East Coast team as the Selangor team is full and his coach Ho Ro Bin not wanting to waste a good talent and to allow him to gain exposure has decided that he be ‘loaned’ to Terengganu.

Aiman’s love for the sport grew watching Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies from video tapes which his mother, Sharifah Hanom, brought home.

“I grew up watching Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies and fell in love with the art. I asked my parents if I could learn wushu and they readily agreed to my surprise,” said the youngest of four siblings.

Aiman has been with the Ho Ro Bin Traning Centre since he was seven.

A St John’s primary school student decided to change school to SMK USJ 12 for his secondary education just to be close to the training centre in Subang Jaya.

“Training is tough and every day. It has become been more intense as I grew older. I have the ambition to become the first Malay boy to excel for the nation and if I can emulate my master, Ro Bin, it will be my dream come true,” said Aiman who also excels in football and athletics.

“I represented Kuala Lumpur Under-12 team and was the Datuk Keramat district 100m champion and finished third in long jump and also ran the 100m hurdles.

“While I play football on weekends for the fun of it, it is strictly wushu for me now,” said Aiman who plays leftback in the football team.

His father, Norazri Abd Rashid, who follows Aiman to his training and performances said it was a fulltime job for him to help his son realise his dream.

“When I saw he was so committed to the sport, I decided I will assist him realise his dream. I take him to trainings and performance and stay with him and take him home,” said Norazri who took an early retirement from his banking job to be with his son.

Aiman said wushu has helped him to be a better person.

“Wushu is a highly disciplined sport and one has to be mentally and physically very strong. One has to work very hard and there is no shortcut. The art has certainly made build my character and confidence,” said Aiman despite his hectic schedule still managed to attain 4 As and B for his UPSR.

“It is the discipline that has seen me manage my time effectively. I am up by 6am in the morning for my morning training sessions before I go for my afternoon school session. After school it is training again at night. I still manage to do my homework,” said Aiman when met at a Chinese New Year performance by his training centre students at KLCC recently.

Aiman specialises in three arts – Nan Quan, Nan Dao and Nan Gun.

Ro Bin said that Aiman is a very disciplined and committed student who has talent.

“He works hard and never complains even when he gets scolding,’ said Ro Bin.

Aiman when asked how he mixes with the majority Chinese students, he simply said: “I have no problems. They treat me as their brother. I have even learnt to understand Chinese and is only a matter of time before I speak.”

Aiman is not the only Malay student in the training centre.

There are others like eight-year-old Qurratu Aini Munirah and her ten-year brother Muhd Arif Aiman and 17-year-old Nurasyikin Rosli, while Qurratu and Arif’s mother Monaliza Zainol who brings them for training also joins in the session.

Indeed wushu is truly Malaysian now.