A young African boy came to China to look for the flying heroes he had seen in kung fu movies. He did not learn to fly, but other lessons had made him a hero in his own homeland, and an ambassador in China, where he has stayed for the last 30 years. He Na finds out the details.

Children often have big dreams, to stand in the limelight in front of the cameras, the football field, or even in politics, but perhaps Luc Bendza had the grandest dream of them all. He wanted to fly.

It was a special kind of flight he dreamt about - to be able to float through the air like all those heroes he saw in Chinese kung fu movies.

While flight has proven impossible, the 43-year-old from Gabon's fascination with Chinese kung fu did lead him to great things. He has won several international martial arts awards, he speaks fluent Mandarin, and he has appeared in several movies and made numerous appearances on Chinese television.

In addition to his acting, Bendza now works as a cultural consultant at the China-Africa International Cultural Exchange and Trade Promotion Association in Beijing.

Kung fu movies were popular in Gabon in the 1980s and Bendza was a huge fan.

"I really admired those people in the movies who could fly. They were able to fight for justice and help the poor. I wanted to be just like them, but when I told my mother I wanted to go to China and learn to fly she thought I was crazy," he recalls.

Bendza began by studying Chinese with the help of Wang Yuquan, a translator working with a Chinese medical team in Gabon. Sometimes he skipped school to study with Wang, and also called him in the evenings to talk about China.

"When my mother heard me speaking Chinese on the phone she was surprised," he says.

"She even took me to see a psychiatrist. But I told her that I had made my decision no matter whether she agreed or not."

Then Bendza opened a video rental store without telling his parents and saved $1,000 to help fund his move.

"In the 1980s, $1,000 was really a lot of money. When I presented the money to my parents I could see the surprise on their faces," he says. "After they had confirmed the money wasn't stolen they both sighed with relief."

But they were still not convinced. What finally swayed them was a phone call from Wang.

"I begged Wang to make the call," says Bendza. "Wang told my parents how serious I was and asked them to give me a chance."

Bendza's parents were both government officials and had hoped he would follow in their footsteps. However, they accepted his plans, while also betting with their son that he would soon return.

It was 1983 when Bendza moved to China, at just 14 years old. There were no direct flights so he was forced to travel through several countries on a long arduous journey.

"It was a really long and complicated journey for a child, but luckily I wasn't abducted by traffickers," he says.

Bendza's uncle worked at the Gabon embassy in Beijing and picked him up at the airport.

"He was puzzled that I kept looking left and right, my eyes searching for something," says Bendza. "I was looking for people who could fly."

His uncle laughed when he said this and explained that it was movie technicians who made people fly.

"I kept saying no and begged him to find the flying people for me. So he took me to Beijing Film Studio where I saw actors flying, hauled into the air on ropes," he says.

He was disappointed and after just two months in Beijing, decided to go to Shaolin Temple in Henan.

"There were few foreigners in China in the 1980s, especially black people from African countries. Wherever I went people pointed fingers at me like I was from another planet, but I wasn't annoyed because they were all very friendly," he says.

"The people at Shaolin Temple were really amazing. Although they couldn't fly like in the movies, still their martial arts made a deep impression on me. I told myself I had gone to the right place."

Bendza's Mandarin still wasn't good, so after less than a year he left the temple and returned to Beijing where he studied Mandarin at university for a year.

After that he enrolled at the Beijing Sport University studying traditional Chinese martial arts.

"I stayed at the university for more than 10 years and finished both bachelor and postgraduate studies," he says.

"I really need to thank those teachers who not only taught me Chinese martial arts history and other subjects, but also helped me build a solid foundation for being a real martial artist."

Bendza's natural aptitude for martial arts, and hard training saw him progress rapidly and won him recognition from many martial art masters.

"The teacher would put a nail with the sharp end up under your bum when you were practicing a stance so if you lowered yourself too far the nail would hurt you," Bendza recalls.

The tough training paid off though as Bendza won awards in China and abroad.

He also attracted the eye of directors and he went on to play roles in both movies and television series.

He did not tell his mother about these successes, and she only found out when she read about him winning an international martial arts competition in France.

Bendza began to gain recognition for his achievements in Gabon, but the media there were initially unkind. One newspaper ran a front-page cartoon of him standing with two suitcases, a foot in China and a foot in Gabon, but with his head turned toward China. The insinuation was that he had turned his back on his homeland.

"The media used the cartoon to show their dissatisfaction," he says. "When I returned to Gabon my mother told me I had to do something to change this bias against me. She took it very seriously."

Bendza organized a free martial arts show as a way of changing opinions and media coverage become more positive.

"When I left, my parents saw me off at the airport and told me they thought I was great. When they said that and my mother hugged me, I cried like a baby. That was the first time in 10 years I had won recognition from my mother," he says.

Martial arts changed his life and he has hopes to promote it across Africa. But his work has also moved away from purely performing toward promoting cultural exchanges.

As a member of International Martial Arts Association, he organizes Chinese martial arts teams to perform and teach in Africa.

Bendza has been in China for 30 years and witnessed the country's reform and opening up process. He married his Chinese wife in 2007 and they have a 16-month-old son.

"I have become used to life in China and enjoy being here with my family very much," he says.

一个非洲男孩来到中国，为了寻找他曾经在功夫电影里面所见的飞檐走壁的英雄。他没有学过飞檐走壁，但是他的一些功夫让他成为了他家乡的英雄，也成为了中国的功夫大使。他在中国呆了30年，了解了很多中国的文化。

孩子们经常有远大的梦想，在闪光灯下万众瞩目，在足球场上英姿飒爽，在政坛运筹帷幄。但也许Bendza有着最远大的梦想，他想要飞檐走壁。

他梦想的是一种特别的飞行，能够在空中漂游，像他所看的中国功夫电影的英雄一样。

尽管飞行被证实是不可能的，但是因为对中国功夫的迷恋，来自加蓬的43岁的他也做成了很多事情。他赢得了几项国际武术奖，会说流利的普通话，他也在一些中国电影电视里扮演了一些角色。

除了这些，Bendza也在北京的中非国际文化交流和贸易促进协会做一名文化顾问。

功夫电影在20世纪80年代在加蓬非常的流行，Bendza是一名忠实的粉丝。

“我真的很羡慕那些在电影里面飞檐走壁的人，他们为了正义，为了帮助穷人而战。我想要和他们一样。当我告诉我的妈妈说我想要去中国学习轻功的时候，我妈妈说我是疯狂的。”他回忆道。

在王宇权（音）的帮助下Bendza开始学习中文，王宇权是一名驻加蓬的中国医疗队的翻译，有时候Bendza翘课向他学习中文，经常在晚上的时候让他讲关于中国的故事。

“当我妈妈在电话里听到我在学中文的时候，她很惊讶。”他说道。

“ 她甚至带我去看心理医生，但我告诉她不管她同不同意，我都已经决定了。”

Bendza偷偷开了家出租录像带的店，为他的出行准备了1000美元。

“在20世纪80年代，1000美金真的算是很多钱了，当我把那些钱给我父母的时候，我从他们的脸上看到了惊讶的表情。”他说，“在证实那些钱不是偷了的之后，他们都松了一口气。”

但他们仍然不确信，王的一个电话才使他们动摇了些。

“是我求王打的，”Bendza说，“王告诉我的父母我是认真的，希望他们给我一次机会。”

Bendza的父母都是政府官员，希望他能走他们给他铺好的路。但是，他们同意了他的计划 ，只是希望他能够早点回来。

1983年，Bendza第一次来到中国，当时他才14岁，没有直达的航班，所以他只能在那次艰难的旅行中穿过好几个国家。

“那真的是一场又长又艰难的旅行，多么幸运我没有给人贩子绑架了。”他说。

Bendza的叔叔在北京的加蓬大使馆工作，他在机场接他。

“ 他对我左看右看感到困惑，好像我一直在找什么”Bendza说，“我在找可以飞的人。”

他的叔叔笑了，解释道，那只是电影特技。

在接下来的住在北京的两个月里，他感觉到很失望。决定要去河南的少林寺。

在20世纪80年代有一些外国人住在中国，特别是来自非洲国家的黑人。无论我到哪，人们都用手指着我，好像我是外星人一样。但是我并不觉得愤怒，因为他们都很友好。

在少林寺的人们真的很棒，尽管他们不能像电影里的人飞檐走壁，但是他们的功夫还是使我印象深刻，我告诉我自己我到了正确的地方。

Bendza的普通话并不好，所以不到一年他就离开了少林寺，在北京的一所大学里学习普通话。

之后，他又进入了北京体育大学学习中国功夫。

“我在大学里呆了10几年，拿到了本科和研究生学位。”他说。

“我真的很感谢那些老师，不仅仅教我中国武术历史，还有其他的一些学科。他们为我成为一个真正的武术家奠定了坚实的基础。”

Bendza对武术天生的领悟力还有艰苦的训练让他进步飞快，赢得了很多武术大师的认可。

“老师会在你屁股下放上锋利的钉子，当你练习蹲马步的时候，只要你稍加放松，那些钉子就会伤害你。”

艰苦的训练汇报给Bendza的是国内外的许多奖项。

他也被很多导演看重，让他在电影电视里扮演一些角色。

关于这些成功，他并没有告诉他的妈妈，他的妈妈是在看了他在法国赢得了国际武术竞赛奖之后才发现的。

因为这些成就，Bendza开始在加蓬获得认可。但是媒体起初并不友好。一份报纸的头版刊登了一格漫画，他拿着两只行李箱，一只脚站在中国，一只脚站在加蓬,但是头却在中国。这则报道暗示了他转身背对国土。

“媒体使用漫画显示他们的不满。”他说，“当我回国的时候，我妈妈告诉我，我必须做一些事情来消除偏见。她觉得这件事情非常的严重。”

Bendza组织了一个免费的武术秀以此来改变一些观点，也想使媒体的报道变得更正面些。

“当我离开的时候，我的父母送我到机场，告诉我他们认为我是最棒的。当他们说这个的时候，我的妈妈抱紧了我，我像个小孩一样的哭了起来，这是10年以来我第一次赢得了我妈妈的认可。”他说。

武术改变了他的生活，他希望在全非洲把它发扬光大。他的工作已经不是单纯的表演，而是促进文化交流。

作为国际武术协会的一名成员，他组织中国武术团队在非洲表演和教学。

Bendza已经在中国30年了，见证了中国的改革开放进程。在2007年，他娶了一个中国的妻子，现在有一个16岁的儿子。

“我已经习惯了这儿的生活，我非常喜欢跟我的家人住在这里。”他说道。

本文来源：中国日报网