Hello STEEMIT! I’m Janice Hung; I’m an International Wushu Champion, 10X Gold Medalist in Wushu, Commercial Model and Actress based in the Philippines. I began in Wushu. Perhaps most of you are not familiar with Wushu. Wushu is a Chinese Martial Arts originated from China, made famous by Jet Li and often used by a lot of Action Hollywood Films. This is a type of Martial Arts wherein we use different kinds of weapons, like the sword, spear, cudgel and a lot more. I was in Elementary when the Wushu Philippine Team came to my school and demonstrated Wushu. And I fell in love with this sport.
Wushu is a Chinese Martial Arts originated from China, made famous by Jet Li and often used by a lot of Action Hollywood Films. This is a type of Martial Arts wherein we use different kinds of weapons, like the sword, spear, cudgel and a lot more. I was in Elementary when the Wushu Philippine Team came to my school and demonstrated Wushu. And I fell in love with this sport.
What I will share with you is how Wushu changed my life and allowed me to achieve my dreams. I grew up in a traditional Chinese family. You know with Chinese everything is business. It’s not bad but I just didn’t see myself managing the family business. Coz I knew that I can be more productive and be help of others if I will pursue on my dreams, so I broke the tradition and became independent. My parents were against Wushu because they think it is just a waste of time. And they kept telling me that I wouldn’t excel in wushu no matter how hard I try since it’s a manly sport.
Day and Night my parents would always discourage me. I remember vividly, one day they didn’t allow me to train Wushu so they locked me up in the house but I was able to escaped and trained that night. When they found out, sad but my parents beat me up. I got bruises all over my body but far worst than the physical beatings are the disheartening and discouraging words they said. But that didn’t stop me because during those moments I’m already so decisive of what I want to become. And I told myself with conviction that one day I will be a Wushu champion.
When I was in high school, one day my classmate asked me to join a track and field competititon since she knows how hard I train in Wushu. So I said yes, because for me I’ve got nothing to lose it’s just a 2-day competition. Then to my surprise, I didn’t know that I have a talent in track and field. In that competition, I bagged 6 gold medals. So from then on I trained two sports already Track and Field and Wushu.
Because of my achievements in Track and Field a coach from a University offered me a Full Athletic Scholarship in College. It was so funny because remember my parents were so against any sports be it in Wushu or Track and Field they are now encouraging my siblings to also go into sports.
During my school days, I have a very crazy and busy schedule. Just imagine in the morning I go to school, in the late afternoon I train in track and field, at night I train in wushu and then when I get home I still have to study. Although I win medals in the national competition, I'm still the weakest link in the team coz I’m the only one who didn’t win in International competition at that time. That’s why I train trice extra hard than any of my other teammates. I'm the first person who goes to the gym and I'm always the last person who goes out of the gym.
Life in sports was like being in the military. We have a regimen for everything and everything was monitored. We cannot wake up anytime we want or eat anything we want. It’s a disciplined life. 80 percent of my time was spent in Wushu. With the Wushu Philippine team, foreign coaches train us. One day a new Chinese coach came, and then he asked me if I'm really serious in Wushu and if I wanted to win. Of course, I said yes in fact I’ve been training for so long and I already got so much sacrifices. And then he said “ Good, because I can see so much potential in you but… then he stopped. I asked him why? He said, “ Because all the potential I see in you is not for Taolu but for Taiji so you have to shift your event immediately. I was shocked because it means that I need to go back from the start again.
FROM TAOLU TO TAI CHI
In Wushu we have several events and as you can see Taolu and Tai Chi are two different events. It's like from basketball you are asked to shift to volleyball, although you both use a ball in the game but the manner of playing it, is different right? The training is different, the drills are different coz the discipline is entirely different. Of course, everything follows. Aside from that my competitors from different countries are all veterans in that event because they already have trained Tai Chi for 10 years or minimum of 5 years so in my head I got no edge over them. But that challenge didn’t stop me so I immediately answered yes to my coach. In my mind if they can do it then I can do it too. Because I know my self, I am a very dedicated person. Nothing is impossible. And what else should I be afraid from, at least now someone believe in me, my coach believe in me.
As a member of the National Wushu Team, we didn’t just represent our self or the team in international competitions. We represent the Philippines.
Our glory is the glory of the country.
In my journey I've encountered millions of reasons to give up like discouragement from my parents, I got bullied by some of my teammates, friends consistently pulling you down coz they don't understand you. 99% of the people around me told me to quit but 1% coming from my own effort, I told myself I will never give up especially right now that there’s someone already who believes in me because I've realized that I do have a billion of reasons not to give up.
That's why after long years of persistence and consistent training. Every second, every minutes and every hour was all so worth it because I finally end up winning. I won my first International Medal during the 23rd sea games then the rest is history.
With Former Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
Winning medals opened a big doors of opportunities for me like TV commercials, print ads, cover of magazines, billboards and TV Series.
Just recently I’ve been part of one of the highest rating TV Series in the Philippines, I was given an opportunity to be part of the Fantasy Series called Encantadia, I was given the role of Bathaluman Ether who is a Snake Goddess and played as one of the major villain in the TV series. Life is really full of surprises.
But with all these at the end of the day I’m just a simple girl who is passionate and love to do almost everything. I’m very athletic, I love Sports, I love to collect toys, play video games, I enjoy food a lot as much as I enjoy working out, I love traveling and do a lot of fun stuff like cosplaying and adventures but most of all I love to share.
I found fulfillment in helping others particularly the youth. I’ve done several programs and projects for them. I’ve done several feeding programs in different communities. And last year I launched Udefend Project it’s a self-defense training program that aims to educate and empower women and children. I tell you it is such a great feeling to lift people’s spirit and give them confidence.
I want this to be my platform to share my life or make it as an extension of myself and show the other side of me.
Welcome to my world.
Thank you so much! I am looking forward to enjoy this community and share more with you.
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