by Arison Tamfu and Wang Ze

YAOUNDE, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Fabrice Mba's passion for Chinese culture in general and martial arts in particular budded in Cameroon's southern town of Sangmelima, where he grew up watching kung fu movies.

His elder brother was a projectionist, and little Mba often helped him sweep the movie theater.

For the first time, he saw Shaolin monks on the screen. "I discovered kung fu and Chinese culture. It spoke a lot to me."

Mba and his friends would imitate characters from the movies, but there was no kung fu club to train them.

At the age of eight, he left his home with his elder sister to settle in the capital, Yaounde.

Life was difficult for Mba, whose dad was absent and whose mom could not take care of every child because there were many.

"I grew up on the street," he said.

Mba's life changed with the arrival of a group of Chinese engineers in the 1980s. They built the Yaounde Conference Center, a China-aid project that remains one of the landmarks in Cameroon to this day.

Mba and his sister lived not far from the center. One of the Chinese engineers at the construction site was skilled in Chinese martial arts and trained regularly, to the amazement of Mba and his friends.

"I often went with my friends, and we stood from afar and watched (him training)," Mba recalled.

One day, the Chinese called them and asked them to take a posture, with knees slightly bent as if holding a tree in the arms. "We stood facing the wall. It hurt," said Mba.

After that, little Mba came every morning to learn kung fu with the Chinese. He trained hard, learning the fundamental elements of martial arts.

Mba returned briefly to his native town, Sangmelima, to help his brother, but life was difficult there, and he went back to the capital city, where he took odd jobs to survive.

His life took another turn in 2011, when he had an encounter with a co-director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Yaounde II, during one of his trainings.

Mba enrolled in the institute. "That marked a turning point in my kung fu journey."

Thanks to a scholarship, Mba got the opportunity to go to the Shaolin Temple in central China to receive training in martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine. Between 2015 and 2019, he went to the Shaolin Temple three times.

Today, Mba is a household name in Cameroon when it comes to kung fu and traditional Chinese medicine.

"I am the president of the Cameroon Kung-Fu Federation. I am a specialist in Chinese traditional medicine. I have been the president of the Association for the Promotion of Chinese Martial Arts since 2010, and I am also a cultural ambassador of the time of Shaolin," said the 46-year-old Shaolin disciple.

He runs a program that offers short-term training in physiotherapy and others to disadvantaged young people free of charge to help them find work. He also teaches kung fu in several schools.

"Be your own boss" is the slogan of his "Lotus and Water Lily" program.

"I train them to be morally upright and useful to society," Mba said. "I went through difficulties as a child, and I do not want them to face the same hardship."

Martin Mangwandjo is a student of Mba's. Now 29, Mangwandjo also teaches martial arts and runs a kung fu club of his own.

About seven years ago, he started learning kung fu with Mba, which changed his life.

"Kung fu has enabled me to fit into the social milieu more easily," said Mangwandjo, who has a congenital disability in his left leg and walks on crutches. "It has given me a winning mentality, because I've understood that a man's strength lies not in his physique but in his mind."

Now, Mangwandjo wants to do the same things as his mentor to help promote Chinese culture.

"I'd like to encourage other people, who have full mobility but still hesitate to take the plunge, telling themselves that these things are not feasible or not attainable, to really encourage them to embrace Chinese culture as I have," he said.

Mba's knowledge of and love for Chinese culture are also visible in the literary world. He has published several books of poetry and prose focused on kung fu, Chinese culture and non-violence.

"Martial arts is about moral values, peace, respect, and life," he said. "Cameroonians and Africans who read the books always come back to me, and say they now have a better understanding of Chinese people and their culture."

Mba said that as more people take up kung fu in Cameroon, he hopes to continue to offer valuable training to promote the culture.

"Promoting Chinese culture in Cameroon does not mean turning Cameroonians into Chinese," he said. "It's like putting Cameroonians in front of a mirror, enabling them to understand that through hard work, they can reshape their mentality, shed poverty, and achieve the results they want, just like the Chinese." Enditem

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