Nicole Carpentier walked out of Wushu practice bleeding.
None of the nearly 35 UCLA Wushu club members were fazed though. It’s to be expected when fighting in the same style as Jet Li.
Midway through practice, which is tucked away in the Gold Room of the John Wooden Center every Tuesday and Thursday night, Carpentier, a fourth-year material science engineering student, sliced her temple with a large, metallic broadsword.
Carpentier, the safety officer for the club, didn’t bat an eye. After dabbing her wound, she picked up her broadsword and continued her performance. She leaped high into the air, landing in a perfectly precise stance with her arms extended, sword pointed in a threat to her reflection in the large mirrors.
“Since I’m the safety officer, it’s kind of embarrassing that I hurt myself,” Carpentier said.
Behind her, her fellow Wushu practitioners didn’t miss a beat either. Long, wooden staffs taller than their owners slammed onto the ground in a loud crack. Chain whips sliced through the air with an audible, high-pitched whoosh. Practice continued. The cut was just a typical part of the sport.
Despite the weapons, the ferocity and the injury, UCLA Wushu practices a non-combative form of the sport, which is the national sport of China. No sparring is taught or practiced, and instead, individual posture, positions, jumps, kicks and stances are showcased in a performance-based martial art.
However, the sport is still firmly based in combat. This means every graceful arm movement, every flick of the wrist, every flip – with weapons or not – has practical application in a real fight. One singular arm stance leaves the Wushu practicer poised for a block, and then another block, and then a hook, all in one stance.
The art of Wushu lies in the ability to turn that tactical application into something more aesthetically pleasing. The UCLA Wushu club will be demonstrating these abilities Saturday at Chinese American Culture Night.
Behind Carpentier, in another part of the studio, a fight broke out. It was Austin Wang, the outgoing president of UCLA Wushu, desperately defending himself with his double broadswords against two spears jabbing at him from either side, one of which was wielded by the incoming president, Annie Ma. Both fighters are third-year physiological sciencstudents who have been practicing Wushu since long before college.
They ducked, bobbed and weaved in perfect synchronization, down to the millisecond. Wang dipped to the floor to dodge Ma’s spear to his face. One of his broadswords narrowly missed Ma’s chest as she stepped gracefully out of the way.
No more than two minutes later, a spear to the arm brought Wang to his knees. Ma approached him from behind, twisted his neck and walked away laughing as he feigned his death.
“It really comes down to having complete faith in the other set of people doing what they should do, and then you doing what you should do,” Wang said. “As long as no one deviates from anything, it’ll be OK. It’s a huge trust game.”
All the while, second-year psychology and biology student Dalena Huynh worked along the back wall, practicing an across-the-floor kick routine for the duration of practice. It was her first Wushu practice, and she was determined to get the coordination between the step, arm sweep, hand slap, kick, foot slap sequence perfected.
“I never knew (Wushu) had a name,” Huynh said. “I always thought it was just dance martial arts.”
She had never experienced it before, but was drawn in by the sheer physicality and fitness aspects of the sport, combined with the aesthetics.
“They always say, ‘Violence isn’t the way.’” Huynh said. “You have the skills, and if it comes down to it, you may be able to use them, but you don’t need to practice actually fighting to learn how to fight.”
When dealing with broadswords, straight swords, staffs and spears, the four main weapons used by UCLA Wushu, injuries like Carpentier’s is an occupational hazard.
Visible scars line Wang’s calves, arms and hands from years of weapons practice. While the swords are decorated with flags and tassels and beautifully reflect light, they are sharp, and are thrusted with expert speed and power.
“It’s more focused on how cool you can look, is the way I think of it,” said Sean Bujarski, second-year psychology student and incoming vice president of the club. “So instead of, ‘Oh, I can kick at your chest really strong,’ it’s ‘I’m kicking at head height and then spinning into some crazy pose.’”
The four weapon styles make up the northern style of Wushu. The other main style, the southern style, is known as the more powerful, aggressive form. In the Gold Room, the choreographed screams and yells from those practicing southern style echoed much louder than any sword-clanging or staff-slamming.
Both styles will be showcased at Chinese American Culture Night. The club will demonstrate Ma, Wang and third-year mathematics and computer science student James Roland’s fight set, along with a section for each of the weapons – a beginner section and another group set from one of the three competitions this year.
By the end of practice, Huynh had nearly perfected her kick sequence, thanks to the help of fellow club members working with her every step of the way.
“My first year at UCLA I never committed to anything, but since I found this, the idea seems so cool,” Huynh said. “I will definitely be coming back next week.”