One Saturday morning in the early summer of 1965, I practised Qigong ( 氣功 ) at Trinity Green near Bowesfield Lane, Stockton-on-Tees. Qigong is a branch of Chinese Gong Fu (Kung Fu). It uses breathing adjustment, physical activity adjustment and consciousness adjustment as exercise methods to achieve physical fitness, physical and mental health, disease resistance and longevity. The unique movement of my exercise curiously attracted several kids playing on the Green. They might have not seen exercise like this before, as Bruce Lee’s Gong Fu heat in the 70s had yet to be created. After I finished my exercise, I invited the kids to take a group photo as a memento of our acquaintance. I think these kids would be nearly 70 years old now and I wonder whether they still remember the foreign Gong Fu man!

Photograph and details courtesy of Kwok Wong.