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| Nickname | 武术王子 "The Prince of Wushu" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 1966 (age 58–59) Shanxi, China | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Martial artist, athlete, coach | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wushu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Changquan,Daoshu,Gunshu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | Shanxi Wushu Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Pang Lin Tai and Zhang Ling Mei | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1994, 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Yuan Wenqing (Chinese:原文庆;pinyin:Yuánwén qìng; born 1966) is a retired professionalwushu taolu athlete from Shanxi, China. Nicknamed 'the prince of wushu,' he was known for his explosive speed and power, and is still widely regarded as one of the greatest wushu practitioners of all time. It has been said that in the sport of wushu, the 1970s belonged toJet Li, the 1980s toZhao Changjun, and the 1990s to Yuan Wenqing.[1]
Yuan started practicing wushu around the age of eight. At the age of 10, he entered his city's amateur sports school and in 1977, he joined the Shanxi Provincial Wushu Team and began to train under Pang Lin Tai and later Zhang Ling Mei.[2][3]
In 1982, he won his first national championship gold medal which was inshuangdao.[4] After having several more national championship victories, he was chosen to compete in the1989 Asian Wushu Championships where he achieved a gold medal sweep to win the men's all around title. Yuan was then chosen by theChinese Wushu Association to aid them in choreographing the first set of compulsory routines to be used by theInternational Wushu Federation.[5] The CWA used hischangquan andgunshu routines and made minor adjustments to make them easier to execute, and the routines were later recorded by Yuan the same year.
A year later in 1990, Yuan competed in the1990 Asian Games in Beijing, wushu's inaugural debut at theAsian Games, and won the gold medal inmen's changquan.[6] Yuan then competed in the1993 National Games of China with much success. Later that year, he competed in the1993 World Wushu Championships and became the world champion in men's daoshu.[7][5] He returned to the1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, and won once again inmen's changquan despite a recent injury.[4][8]
He briefly retired from competitive wushu and acted inIron Monkey 2 alongsideDonnie Yen in 1996.[3] He returned to competition in 1997 by request of his coach, Pang Lin Tai, who wished to have a successful competitive season during his last year as coach of the team. Yuan was chosen to compete in the1997 World Wushu Championships in Rome, Italy,[9] where he became the world champion in changquan. His last competition was the1997 National Games of China where he won gold medals in changquan and daoshu/gunshu combined.[5] He finally announced his formal retirement from wushu at the age of 31.
In 2004, Yuan opened a wushu school in Shanxi.[10] His students competed and achieved many victories at the Hong Kong International Wushu Grand Prix in 2007 which marked the 10-year anniversary of thereturn of Hong Kong to China.[11]
| Year | Event | CQ | DS | GS | AA | DTQ | SD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | National Championships |  | | ||||
| 1984 | National Championships | ? | ? | ? | 5 |  | |
| 1985 | National Championships | ? |  | ? | 4 | | |
| 1986 | National Championships | | | ||||
| 1987 | National Games | ? | ? | ? | | ||
| 1988 | International Championships | | | | | ||
| 1989 | Asian Championships | | | | | ||
| 1990 | International Championships | | | | | ||
| Asian Games | 1 | 1 | 1 | | |||
| 1993 | National Games | | ? | ? | | ||
| World Championships | | ||||||
| 1994 | Asian Games | 1 | 1 | 1 | | ||
| 1995 | Retired | ||||||
| 1996 | |||||||
| 1997 | World Championships | | |||||
| National Games | | ? | ? | | |||
In the World Wushu Championships, Yuan's changquan and gunshu routines were used from 1993 to 2001. His routines are still used by Group B athletes who compete in theWorld Junior Wushu Championships since the event's conception in 2006.[12]
Yuan Wenqing co-starred alongsideDonnie Yen in the 1996 filmIron Monkey 2, directed byYuen Woo-Ping. In the film, Wenqing played the character Jin, a peasant with extraordinary martial prowess who gets embroiled in an arms smuggling plot.
Yuan Wenqing is a cousin ofYuan Xindong and an uncle ofYuan Xiaochao, both of which were also members of the Shaanxi Provincial Wushu Team.
