20 Questions with Dr Jon Xue Zhang

Dr Jon Xue Zhang is a man of many talents — not only is he a highly skilled martial artist, he holds a Phd [more about that later], a musician, stuntman, actor and author, but above all… he is simply a thoroughly nice guy!

I had the pleasure of meeting Jon in 2021 at The Japanese Martial Arts show, held in Wolverhampton and was introduced to him by our mutual friend Lucci Del-Gaudio, who was hosting the event and had co-organised it. Some souls you take an instant liking to and Jon is such a soul. Softly spoken, he is immensely knowledgable, highly skilful without a bone of boastfulness or ego, and always eager to muck in with the rest. We had a brief chat and spent a few minutes together on stage handing out certificates during the evening event. I had to leave a little early, so we exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch — I had already told Jon, that I would love to feature him in Lift Hands and he was happy to oblige.

We stayed in touch and I sent a few back issues of Lift Hands to Jon over the Christmas period and finally managed to catch up with him in Cambridge in April, where our friend Neil Kirkland from Adaptive Martial Arts had organised a workshop with the man himself!

Post an highly energetic and informative workshop [and many, many photo ops later], I finally managed to prize Jon away from the crowd of enthusiastic participants along with my sidekick and videographer — Christine Batcheler — and began our 20 Questions…

LH: Are you ready for this? So, we are here with Dr Jon Xue Zhang… did I pronounce that right?

DJXG: Fantastic, not bad at all!

LH: [Laughing] Just wanted to make sure and confirm that you are not Master Wong? [Both laughing hysterically]

DJXZ: Thank you! Thank you, for getting that right!

LH: Right, 20 Questions Jon! The idea is you say whatever you want to — whatever comes to mind. There’s no right or wrong answer, it’s simply what comes to mind. However, just before we begin, a little bit about your

background — please tell us.

DJZX: I’m a martial arts and self-defence practitioner and instructor. I’ve been training since I was five. I have cross-trained in multiple disciplines such as various forms of KungFu, Karate, Aikido, JiuJitsu, Hapkido, Arnis and Silat. I have spent over 26 years training under an SAS Instructor, who I consider my main teacher. I’m also an actor and stunt person.

LH: And your Phd is in?

DJXZ: Metaphysics!

LH: Exactly! That is something out there! Now the question that I wanted to ask you was, and this has nothing to do with the 20 Questions — Has your Phd, the subject… Metaphysics, has it had any influence upon your martial arts?

DJXZ: Absolutely, it has! Especially with the meditation aspect of my training! Also, it helped when I worked as the psychologist with the Saudi Arabian National Tae Kwon Do team and with their training as well.

LH: Wow! That’s fantastic! Ok, so here we go, your 20 Questions. If you could have personally witnessed anything, what would you want to have seen?

DJXZ: The signing of the Declaration of Independence… I saw Nicholas Cage steal it in National treasure! [Laughs]

LH: That’s interesting! I don’t think we have had that one before. All right…What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

DJXZ: [Laughs]… Either solve crime or commit crime! Banks it is… head over to the jewel bank!

LH: [Laughing hysterically] Why not, why not indeed — a modern day Robin Hood! I think you are the second

person now to have said that! As a child, what did you wish to become when you grew up?

DJXZ: A superhero!

LH: A superhero? Any particular one?

DJXZ: No, I just wanted to be a superhero! And if I couldn’t be a real life superhero then I would settle for playing one in a film.

LH: Okay, which you have!

DJXZ: Yeah! Dreams do come true!

LH: Absolutely, absolutely! Ok… What animal best represents you and why?

DJXZ: A Panda!

LH: Why?

DJXZ: I’m built like a Panda, not as hairy! I’m just as pale! I’m very clumsy and I roll off objects!

LH: Okay! What is your greatest strength or weakness?

DJXZ: Greatest strength… erm, it has to be my leg press. I can press over 620 kilos, fifty reps! Yeah, and as for my weaknesses — ha, ha… I’m a big softy!

LH: [Laughing] You know what, I think most martial artists tend to be… we are, we are big softies. We tend to be tough on the outside but inside — it’s all mush! This is one of my favourite questions… What is your favourite memory of any one of your grandparents?

DJXZ: Holding hands with my grandpa as we walked down the stairs in this restaurant. Yeah, he was still coherent at the time and I remember just feeling the strength of his hands. Yes, it is something I will always remember.

LH: Nice! How do you want to be remembered?

DJXZ: As a nice person! A kind person who helped other people and hopefully that kindness extends to other people as well… anything that I did for them, I’d like them to pass to others as well.

LH: Fantastic! What have you always wanted and did you ever get it?

DJXZ: I wanted to be at peace with myself! These days anxiety is a hell of a thing… and I wanted to be at peace with myself. So, I spent years working on myself and everything. Anything I didn’t like about myself, anything I felt needed changing, I’ve had to do the groundwork to be able to do that. And these days, especially having done that before the lockdown, I was very happy and content with myself, and just being kind to myself a bit more!

LH: You know what, that is a very important point because a lot of people don’t take time out for themselves! We mot our cars but we don’t mot ourselves!

DJXZ: It’s true! You know, it’s like erm, I can only donate money if I have money. I can only give you myself if first I have myself! So, if I want to help a lot of people, I need to know that this is ok first [touches his head and chest].

LH: Absolutely brilliant! I couldn’t agree more. Moving on… Do you know your heritage?

DJXZ: Yes, yes… Parents are from Taiwan and of course from China beyond that!

LH: Are you still learning who you are?

DJXZ: Absolutely! So, my name Xue, which is my middle name literally means ‘to learn’ — I am always learning. I’m a student for life! The more I learn, the more I realise there is to learn!

LH: Absolutely! What, if anything, are you afraid of and why?

DJXZ: I’m terrified from getting 10 missed calls from my mum! I mean who wouldn’t be? I’m like [panicking]… mum, what’s up? She’s like, “Oh, nothing! I’m just calling to see what you are up to?”

LH: I know that feeling! It’s something I understand! What is the most memorable class you have ever taken? That can be either as a student or as a teacher.

DJXZ: So, I took a seminar, I won’t say where — it was a few years ago. It was a seminar for fighters and if you were demonstrating a technique, they were not overly compliant, so, I had to prove it and push came to shove — more than it should have — and yeah, I had proof of concept and I could show in a live environment that the techniques I was teaching could work… especially when they had their gloves on and were coming at me! So, yeah, I think that that was one that definitely stands out!

LH: Well that’s one way to show that you know your stuff! Ok, onwards… What book has influenced you the most?

DJXZ: Erm… ‘SubQuantum Kinetics’! That’s an area of research I am interested in and it’s by Paul LaViolette, and it’s something I feel is a huge paradigm that seems to understand every other paradigm!

Wow! Ok, it’s something I’ll have to check out! What ridiculous thing has someone tricked you into doing or believing?

DJXZ: My friend told me that the Energiser bunny — he mentioned the Duracell bunny and I said, what about the Energiser bunny? — Was a part of the Mandela Effect and it doesn’t really exist! I was like… what? [See below] It really messed with my mind… I’m like what? My whole life I have known the Energiser bunny! And it turns out, I was vulnerable!

LH: [Disbelief]! Right, ok… Who or what has been the greatest influence in your life?

DJXZ: Probably my martial arts instructor! He trained the SAS and he trained me from a very young age and he’s still my instructor to this day — 27 years on!

LH: Wow!

DJXZ: So, with him… he has never shown me the same technique twice! So, if I didn’t learn it the first time around then I didn’t learn it at all! He’s a wealth of knowledge and he has been very generous to give my that knowledge.

LH: Excellent! Ok… What is the craziest thing one of your teachers has done or made you do?

DJXZ: Trying to throw him I suppose! He asked me to demonstrate on him… something I knew wouldn’t work on him — Especially in sparring and no it didn’t work at all! [Laughs]

LH: Right… We are nearing the end… When did you screw everything up, but no one ever found out it was you? Now remember… this is going out there!

DJXZ: [Laughs hysterically] Ok, the last night I was working on a set, it was in another country, I was doing laundry in a public launderette. All the other washing machines were empty and I decided to not only wash my own clothes but also pay for and start all the other machines — empty! When other crew members came in they were like… “Oh no! Why would somebody do this?” I’m like shaking my head… yeah what bastards! Ok… It’s out there!

LH: [Laughing] It is indeed!

DJXZ: It was hilarious! It inconveniences everyone for 45 minutes!

LH: Absolutely brilliant! Ok… If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film or science fiction?

DJXZ: Comedy! Comedy… absolutely, for sure! I’d get Nick Cage to play me!

LH: I’m glad you said him and not Master Wong! [Both laugh hysterically] If you could select one person from history and ask them one question, who would you select and what would the question be?

DJXZ: It’d be Bruce Lee and the question would be… “Dude, do you know where I put the remote?” — Just to see his face!

LH: Brilliant! I like that one! Last question. How would you describe your art in ten words or less?

DJXZ: Creative, varied, improvised and effective!

LH: Fabulous! Well, that was your 20 questions with Dr Jon Xue Zhang! Thank you so much! It’s been a pleasure and fun Jon, and I know we will be seeing more of you in the coming issues.

DJXZ: Thank you!

My thanks to Christine for once again helping record the interview and for her superb videography which allowed me to capture and edit stills from the video.

All images edited and copyrighted © Nasser Butt 2022 Videography: Christine Batcheler.