Ha Chau kungfu artist passes away 88 yrs old

Legendary kungfu artist passes away

October 25, 2011  about News, Sports

LookAtVietnam - Great martial art instructor Ha Chau, who is called Ummo – Alien, died at the age of 88, leaving many legends.

Ha Chau (white) and his followers.

Ha Chau was born in 1924 in the southern province of Soc Trang. His father, Ha Chung, taught martial arts for his son when Ha Chau was only 5. At the age of 9, he was sent to Hong Kong to learn Shao-lin kungfu.
Within 15 years under hard training under the instruction of great kungfu instructors in Hong Kong, Ha Chau reached high levels of inner and outer forces. He could break rock and split wood by his hands. He could also let trucks run over his body.
Returning to Vietnam, Ha Chau and Minh Canh, who was a Southeast Asian boxing champion in the 1950s, set up a troupe to perform kungfur art in Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. The troupe was very famous.

A road-roller runs over Ha Chau.

1957 was a sad memory for instructor Ha Chau. At a fair, he performed a special show on Thi Nghe Bridge: holding two trucks which ran to two directions by chains. The two trucks could not move though their wheels span very fast. The bridge collapsed, causing some deaths and some injuries. To raise fund for victims, in 1958, on the bank of Xuan Huong Lake in Da Lat, he lied down for ten coaches with 50 passengers each to run over.
In 1961, the great martial art instructor made a new record in Tra Vinh province when he let a road-roller of over 12 tons run over his body. The instructor said this was among his most dangerous 3-minute shows. He admitted that he could sustain for around 30 seconds more.
In 1962, Ha Chau used his bare hands to kill a furious bull.
After 1975, the great martial art instructor lived hidden as a worker for a weaving enterprise. After that he traveled many southern provinces to create and make tools for kungfu training.
In 1988, he appeared again with new shows: driving 12cm nails into planks and pulling them out.
At Hanoi’s Hang Day Stadium in 1990, he performed top kungfu, like jumping up and puncturing a dried coconut, which was thrown up to the air, by one finger. He cut a string that was tied to two sugarcane trees by his hand edge, but the sugarcane trees did not fall. He also lied on 12 earthen pots, with a 150kg rock on his body. After that one man used hammer to break the rock but the earthen pots were untouched.
In the 1990s, Ha Chau was invited to perform in many countries.

The kungfu master breaks bricks by his head.

He performed a special show in which he lied on the ground, above him was a 300kg rock which was pulled up to the height of several meters. The rock was then released to fall on his chest, but the rock was broken into small pieces.
At the age of 83, Ha Chau still performed the following kungfu: using his head to break three bricks and chair legs at the Military Zone 7 Sports House in 2006.
He then lived hidden in District 2, HCM City with his French pupil – Philippe Gaudin. The great martial art instructor died last week and he was cremated on October 23 in HCM City.
PV