My cultural awakening: Jackie Chan films inspired me to become a kung fu instructor

Since I saw a VHS of Rush Hour at a sleepover as a kid, the martial art has given me increased body positivity and helped me find a community

When I was 12, following my parents’ divorce, I moved with my mum and sister from London to Australia, leaving behind my dad and& a& large extended family. It was destabilising and demoralising. Throughout high school I was bullied for my accent, clothes and looks. While Australian girls seemed like flowers thriving under the brutal sun, I& felt like a sweaty, acne-prone gremlin who craved the dark and cold of home.

Shortly after moving, I befriended a& girl who had lost her mum. Suffering in our own ways, we found release in watching the 1998 action comedy Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as detectives trying to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a& Chinese diplomat. My friend had the film on VHS, and we put it on one night when I& was sleeping over. This became a regular activity, and we would fling ourselves around her living room recreating fight scenes. It was the silly, uninhibited fun we both desperately needed, and my first taste of kung fu.