In 2007, Martial Edge was privileged to meet up with the kung fu instructor, TV presenter and martial arts enthusiast Chris Crudelli. Despite being the star of successful BBC programmes like Mind, Body & Kick Ass Moves, Birmingham born Chris is not entirely comfortable with the notion of TV stardom, as Ben Johnson finds out…
What is your earliest memory of the martial arts?
Probably when I was two or three years old being taken around central Birmingham. There was a venue in town that used to do martial arts competitions, and I had a couple of aunties that were really into it. Everyone was obsessed with the martial arts in the 1970s and they used to compete in competitions. I remember seeing those as a kid and also seeing some national competitions as well. It was all semi contact, but even back in the 70s there was still some bloody noses.
My second earliest memory is when I was five or six, and my mum’s brother brought round this brilliant film that he told us we had to sit round and watch. It was a Bruce Lee film, and I watched it and I thought that it was absolutely crap. I couldn’t believe that people thought that that was real fighting, and those sound effects: ‘Wa-choo! You killed my father!’ It’s dreadful, but funnily when I got into the martial arts I started to really appreciate those films and now I think they’re brilliant.
Do you look back fondly at your childhood in Birmingham, or was it a tough upbringing?
I did have a tough time, but I do look back very fondly, apart from the rain, because it was always raining. But I like Birmingham, it’s cool. I’ve got a lot of mates there. Brummies have a very unique, earthy sense of humour. You really don’t get many Brummies up there who are nasty. They’re all quite depreciating. Or self defecating, as some people say.
Is it important for a martial artist to have lived through a tough upbringing – does it make them a better fighter?
I think martial arts as an art form does help kids who have lived through unpleasant experiences in their childhood. I think it gives them a path and a root to self development which is really important, and it gives them a structure. The martial arts are a very important discipline for kids in underprivileged areas. I really believe that, and it has done me the world of good. It’s one of those things that can really turn your life around.
How did you first get involved in the martial arts, and when did you realise that you wanted to dedicate the rest of your life to it?
Basically, it was the first day that I joined a kung fu class. I was very young and I walked in to a class and I just instantly knew that this was for me. I saw a guy doing a form over in the corner and he was wearing a black uniform and had a blue sash around his waist, and I just watched this guy do a martial arts form and it was absolutely incredible. It was a moving experience for me, I have no idea why, but something just clicked and it made absolute sense and I thought ‘I want to be able to do that, but better!’ I looked at the instructor and said, ‘I want to do what he’s doing.’ Nothing got in the way after that. I was really lucky to have found my calling so early on.
When you were living with a Chinese family, did you experience any kind of a culture clash? And what did your friends think at the time?
I guess there was a culture clash, but it didn’t have as much of an impact on me as it could have done. I say that because I didn’t have much of a structure in my own life anyway, so I hadn’t really formed any rigid views or boundaries on what’s right and what’s wrong in terms of cultural values. I was fortunate that I was able to adapt without too much difficulty, really.
There were odd things, of course [living with a Chinese family], like being told to wash the cooker at two in the morning in the Chinese takeaway with no shoes on your feet and with oil on the floor making you slip all over the place. To get the oil off the cooker you have to apply downward and forward pressure, but if you do that then your feet falls from under you. I’m thinking, ‘what the hell am I doing this for?’ But that’s the western mind. We do tend to question authority, whereas the Oriental mind doesn’t question authority with the same degree of independence. The Oriental mind says, ‘there must be a reason for this,’ and ‘they’ve got my better interests at heart.’ The different way of life did take a bit of getting used to, but that’s because I was a bit of a rebel and a mouthy git.
Later on, I realised that learning to hold the ground while exerting forward pressure is a fundamental technique in martial arts, whether you’re on a slippy floor or not. You need your inner core to be very strong and solid so that you can issue forward force and the object that you are issuing that forward force into moves, and you don’t.
What did my friends think? I think they thought I was weird, but I was always a bit weird anyway.
When you moved to China, could you describe what the country was like around that time and what were your first impressions?
Sounds a bit silly, but my first impression was that I felt completely at home. It was wonderful. I was awe struck with the architecture and I loved the markets, the temples, the people, the food, everything. The first time I went to Hong Kong I was a teenager, I just got a plane and got out there. It was like being in Gotham City, coming from the sticks in Birmingham. You’ve got these huge monstrous skyscrapers everywhere, and this rush of people. It left a lasting impression with me.
One of the lasting impressions I have of China was when we were coming in to land into Beijing airport, and somebody was cycling with one of those big straw hats on, riding one of those black bicycles that you see all over the place in China, along the runway as we were coming in to land! We got so close to him that you could see that he had a basket full of vegetables in the front of his bicycle. I just thought, ‘Wow, that’s really odd.’ But you do grow to love China and its natural order. Someone once said that there is order within its natural chaos. I like that.
"Essentially, martial arts are about surviving a life or death encounter. To do that effectively you need to look at your own mind. You can’t just punch a bag for ten years and then think that you can look after yourself when someone mugs you." Chris Crudelli
Were you treated differently by your sifu and the other students because of your western background, and what lengths did you have to go too to prove yourself?
My sifu treated me really well to be honest, pretty much every sifu that I have trained under has treated me well. I think the reason is not because I am any different to the rest of the students but because I work bloody hard! At the time, I didn’t have much going in my life anyway. I had excluded everything else and I was just focused on learning and training, that’s all I was interested in.
If someone has reached the point to become a sifu they would have already put in a life time’s dedication into their art and they would be very passionate about what they do. If they recognize that someone is as passionate as them about this art form then they’ll extend their hand to you and they will teach you and help you grow. That’s always been my experience of it.
Yes, I think I did have to prove myself, but you have to when you’re an odd one out and you want to fit in, you have to try a little bit harder. And if you have come from a western background then you haven’t grown up with the same level of martial arts input around you that a Chinese person would have, and therefore you might not necessarily understand the philosophy, history, culture and language. So you have a disability when you start and you need to work harder. But if you love what you do then you don’t see it as hard work.
How did your spiritual outlook change during this time?
In hindsight I think it did. When I was young with my sifu in Hong Kong, I took part in a lot of shamanistic spiritual rituals, if you like. We would go off to the mountain on certain days of the year and we would prepare food for the spirits and play drums and symbols and traditional Chinese music. We would sweep the graves and conduct the ‘eye dotting’ ceremony on the lion whenever somebody opened a new business or has a happy event. It is a culture of luck and fortune. It was believed that a lot of these fortunes, or misfortunes, that take place in your life are to a degree controlled by the spirit world, and I was heavily influenced by that at the time. I know that your own future is in your own hands and what you decide to do and how you live your life is really up to you. But it did give me another view as to how other people live their lives.
It has helped me to not judge people. I don’t think anything is weird now, at all. If I’m in the middle of Africa looking at some voodoo ceremony or in the Philippines looking at some ritual where they insert amulets into their body, I don’t think that’s strange. I realise that we all as human beings are trying to improve our lot and there are lots of different ways to try and do that. So, yes, overall it has changed my outlook because I’m not so self centric, if you like. I don’t believe that my way is right or anybody’s way is right or wrong. There is no right or wrong, it’s just how you view things.
Interviews 
In 2007, Martial Edge was privileged to meet up with the kung fu instructor, TV presenter and martial arts enthusiast Chris Crudelli. Despite being the star of successful BBC programmes like Mind, Body & Kick Ass Moves, Birmingham born Chris is not entirely comfortable with the notion of TV stardom, as Ben Johnson finds out… 
Do you look back fondly at your childhood in Birmingham, or was it a tough upbringing?
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