Chen Hongjun, master player of 16.5-kilo Green Dragon Crescent Blade

Residents around Sanpailou Street in Nanjing can always see a white-haired man doing martial arts in the square. He uses a blade, double swords and iron ball. As a man over 70, he can do various tricks with objects weighing tens of kilos, which spellbinds many citizens. On the afternoon of January 26, our reporter, out of admiration for this man, arrived at Sanpailou square, and had the good fortune to meet this man who was doing stunts and wore an exercise jersey and a red ribbon around his waist. Our reporter learned from people familiar with him that the man was called Chen Hongjun, and was 78 years old. Chen lives in the nearby residential community and had been doing martial arts exercises for many years. When he was in high spirits, he went to the square and demonstrates his unique talents.

He can use several kinds of heavy cold weapon

In spite of his white hair, he was slim and had no wrinkles on his face, and he was quite fragile in action. During the talk, Chen took out two large iron balls from somewhere and a passerby, out of curiosity, picked them up and was stunned: "This has to be at least 5 kilos?" Chen laughed and said with ease: "the two balls weigh 10.5 kilos, but I can raise them up with a single hand." After that, he did so and made the two balls rotate in his hands. Applauds were heard from the audience, and Chen put down the balls calmly. In fact, the previous exercise just served as a warm-up. Later, he got out several other weapons: a moon fork, a Guangong blade, a harpoon. "What is the weight of the moon fork?" asked an elderly lady who, out of curiosity, touched the fork inserted into ground. Chen answered in reply: "about 11 kilos." Then Chen picked up the blade, and walked in the square center. After a salute to the audience, he began to show off his blade skills.

Among the sound of flashing blades and bells, the sun’s rays reflected by the blade complemented with the red ribbon on the weapon, a show that dazzled the audience. With a ribbon on the end and bell in the front of the blade, a scene of flashing rays of the sun and a rhythmic sound gained praise from the gathered onlookers. Wave after wave of applause was heard. Chen continued to explain to other people proudly: "This is a replica green dragon crescent blade, which was custom-made by a craftsman at my request, and it weights about 16 kilos." As he explained this, he lifted the blade above his head, and threw it into the mud ground along the road. "It must be expensive," someone said. After a moment's murmuring, he said: "When I was an apprentice, I sent for someone to cast this blade, and the material alone cost me as much as 200, not including the cost of labor." In one motion, Chen made a beautiful move and half of the blade was in the ground instantly. Following that, Chen took up a clean and shining silver harpoon, and said:" It is small, but it is more than 5 kilos." While talking about it, he held the bottom end of the harpoon and made a circle in the sky…