Jonathan Pang

   JP

Jonathan Pang has always been a bit of an enigma for me.  When he arrived in my training life, he was already an accomplished martial artist.  He had a lot of youthful ideas, ideals and questions about life and martial arts too.  It was not clear to me at first wether Jonathan would become a part of our gym or just pass through.  The thing is we are a fighters gym, a martial arts gym that focuses on capacity and application.  We look at context and history and the evolution of martial arts into modern times, we seldom look into the aesthetic or dramatic aspects of our arts.

The years have passed, a lot of them,  and Jonathan is still with us.  Which is amazing all things considered.  The fact is that Jonathan has worked very hard as long as I have known him, to get into film, performing stunts, with the hopes of eventually doing the choreography and fight co-ordination.   Anyone who knows a bit about the business, knows that this is a very long and difficult road.  There are so many hurdles to getting into film.   Just getting into the union is its own enigma, you need to be in the union to make a film, to get into a film you need to be in the union, with a few, very specific exceptions.

Recently I have introduce Jonathan to everyone I know in film.  From admins at ACTRA, to the full complement of active stunt people at the IAMA and even Jeff Amada who is always by Guro Dans side at the Academy.   We spent time with folks from the Vancouver stunt scene and he has been working through every opportunity available in the Toronto stunt scene.  One of the toughest things I ever did was to tell him that he really needs to go and immerse himself in the communities where his goals might be achieved.  He was asking about his future at ZAMA at the time and I knew that if I tried to hold on to him as an apprentice instructor here in Toronto, it would hold him back.  I could not put the academy before his dreams.

Jonathan spent the last six months in Vancouver chasing the dream, and as it does when you commit everything, he finally got into the union.

Over the past few months while I was preparing for my trip to Brunei and the Philippines, JP was in Hong Kong, preparing for and competing in a forms competition by the Hong Kong Wushu Union.  He did well, taking gold in Jian (sword) and silver in the Chen Style compulsory empty hand form.  I was very excited to discover that he would be joining me in Brunei and subsequently in the Philippines for the duration of my travels.

This is where the story gets interesting and I suppose this is the entire reason behind the article.  I have always valued Jonathan as a student.  It’s hard not to hold some special regard for an accomplished student who decides to validate your work with their loyalty and hard work.  However, during the whole of this trip, I have shared a room with Jonathan.   That is not generally a thing that I like to do, but, both of us have a budget to keep and it made sense.  I have shared hotels with him before, at seminars and camps, and found him to be exactly the kind of room mate everyone wants.  No drama, no annoying issues, generally its just laughs and unconsciousness and back to training.

This has not been an easy trip.  There have been a couple of factors contributing to the difficulty, one is my health and the other major potential concern, was the fact that the Manilla leg of the trip was a personal invitation for me alone, to train with GM Macapagal and his team.  I put GM in a difficult position when I let him know that a student of mine would be joining me on this part of the trip and asked if he could join us.  I did my best to make it clear that I had no expectations of having the invitation extended to my student.  However, this teacher follows the old traditions, and as such he needed to take extra steps to receive us and explain his position.  He met us for coffee and took the time to share a meal with us and exchange pleasantries and stories, before inviting us to his home.  It was at this time that GM very politely and carefully explained, that he simply could not be seen to be, overlooking his traditions and extending the invitation that was mine, to my student.  Jonathan was welcome to come along to the sessions and assist me in documenting, but that was the limit.

I did my best at the time, to make it clear that we would absolutely honour the boundaries as they were stated.  We were infact impressed with the care with which these boundaries were stated.   I looked into other training opportunities for Jonathan and checked in with him about his take on the situation.  This is one of the areas where I am very impressed with his character.  Jonathan was completely unfazed and in fact, has been happy to serve in the role as assistant and also to document the process of my education in Kalis Ilustrissimo.  He has been there each day that we’ve had training booked.  For those of you who know me, you will realize how much value this has added to the trip.  I am not one for documenting, I generally get way too caught up in any given experience to remember to take video or even pictures.  Jonathan has been on it every step of the way, he has humbly taken the lead in documenting and smoothly incorporates every suggestion and instruction that I have given.  I couldn’t ask more from someone being employed for the position, let alone from someone investing their own funds into making this happen.  While he is not being trained, it is clear that Jonathan has become part of the group, that he has been embraced by this community, he was even invited to join us for the meeting of the masters from Paete.

My gratitude however, requires another acknowledgement.  Both in Brunei and here in the Philippines, my health has encountered disconcerting challenges.  In Brunei I came down with a fever that took me out for an evening, I have no idea what it was but I do know I was not able to care for myself.  Jonathan took care of everything without question.  I was given meds, water and herbal teas.  He went and found extra blankets and even gave his blanket when no other was available.  I was in one of those states where i required more blankets, and less blankets.   There have been times during the training where I have become dehydrated and found that i had electrolytes and water in my hand before I even knew it.  More than once I had to ask him where the water in my hand had come from.   During our first week in the Philippines I struggled with swelling in my feet and hands.  It was not only disconcerting, but painful and taxing on my energy.  Again, Jonathan was there to help me find the vitamins, meds and electrolytes that I needed to get things under control.

It doesn’t end there, it gets better.  Jonathan is hilarious, there is seldom an hour that passes that I am not reeling with laughter about some quip or observation he has made.  Each challenge along the way is met with this humour and I love that approach.  I often dwell or get critical about things that seem out of sorts, but in his presence the tendency is  countered with levity, impressions and occasional dark sarcasm.  I guess what I am trying to say is that I would travel with this guy anytime.  He is a great student, a great martial artist and therefore a great associate.  But,  aside from all that he is a great, caring friend and supremely easy to get along with. 

I am looking forward to seeing Jonathan Pang become famous in the film world and respected in the martial arts world.  These are two social scenes that one person can rarely balance.  I trust that his character will carry him through, and I can see by the communities that have embraced him, that these qualities attract other people of fine character to him.  The future looks bright, and I am very proud to be standing here to witness him in the early days of his success.