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Humans of Wing Chun: Pablo Andrés Durán Chaparro

Pablo Andrés Durán Chaparro 1988 The Hague Information Manager Colombia

Year of birth: 1988
Profession: Information Manager
Place of residence: The Hague

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Passionate, loyal and joyful. I am someone who can lose myself completely in something. If I find something interesting, I prefer to read, listen and watch everything about it. Almost obsessively, I must admit. I want to know everything there is to know about it. That's how I ended up with Wing Chun, albeit in a roundabout way.

It started with the American rapper Stic from Dead Prez, who is perhaps one of the most influential people in my life right now. His lyrics have a political message, make me think and reflect on self-awareness and health. It's a kind of motivational hip hop that is grounded in everyday reality. The more I listened to his music, the more I wanted to know about him. I followed him on social media and started reading his book.

At one point, I read about a book he recommended: Be Water, My Friend, written by Shannon Lee. This book deals with the teachings of Bruce Lee and was written by his daughter. The book also discusses the martial art Wing Chun. Since I had done Kung Fu myself as a 4 or 5-year-old and had taken short courses in martial arts such as Aikido, Karate and Kung Fu at university, I was immediately interested. However, I was not familiar with Wing Chun, so as I often do, I dove right in. I started looking for places in The Hague where Wing Chun was offered, and that's how I ended up at WuDae.

Humans of Wing Chun

What I really like about WuDae is the way everything is approached here. It's such a different atmosphere from what you see at some other gyms. Because, of course, I did a lot of research and reading to see what the options were when choosing a school.

At WuDae, I immediately noticed how everything here revolves around the people rather than the teachers. Humans of Wing Chun is a good example of this. The members have their say, not the teacher. Furthermore, a lot of attention is paid to appearance here. Everyone wearing the same WuDae shirt, the style of kung fu and the interior of the school, it all appealed to me right away. Once I arrived for a trial lesson, my feelings were confirmed and I realised that I was in the right place. I had made the right choice. 

Pablo Andres Duran Chaparro 1988 The Hague Information Manager Colombia part 2

A warm welcome

The diversity of people at WuDae made me feel welcome right away. The nice thing is that there are also many people here who speak Spanish. People from Colombia, like me, but also from Puerto Rico and other Spanish-speaking countries, and people who are learning Spanish and want to practise the language. The fact that I am still learning Dutch is not a problem here either. There is a lot of understanding and both the trainers and the members help me with this.

Because people feel at ease, everyone treats each other with respect and kindness. Rules are implicit. It's not like you walk into the school and immediately see a big sign with rules of conduct; here, you understand the rules intuitively.

For me, those manners are very important. I suffered from a shoulder injury for years and had surgery for it. So it was essential for me to be able to train safely and without too much strain. At WuDae, that's possible. You follow your own rhythm, train at your own level, and others respect that.

Flexibility

Another reason I chose WuDae is the flexibility you have here to train. There are so many different classes every day, and you can choose when it suits you best. I now try to train Wing Chun twice a week, and if I have time, I add an extra training session. In any case, I do the Impact class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes the Kettlebell training on Saturdays.

Personally, I prefer the longer classes in terms of duration. It gives me the space to really master a movement. With the shorter classes, I sometimes feel like I've just got the hang of something and then the class is already over. Still, I also really like being able to take those classes when I have less time and keep up my skills that way. I sometimes call them “maintenance classes” for myself. I also really enjoy the sparring during the Impact classes. It gives me the chance to put what I’ve learnt into practice. I also think this is really important, because it will stay with me should a situation arise where I need to defend myself or my family.

Wing Chun is something I’d love to master completely one day. Not just to be able to protect myself and my family, but also because it’s such a beautiful sport. Maybe I can even teach it to my little boy in the future. That sounds like great fun.

Getting the most out of life

As clichéd as it sounds, the best moment of my life was the birth of my son. As soon as he was born, I already felt the urge to do things right. As long as he was healthy, everything would be fine. He is now 8 years old and I am incredibly proud of him. As my son grows up, I find myself entering that mid-life crisis that people between the ages of 27 and 40 often experience. I find that the older I get, the more afraid I become of things I wasn’t afraid of at all before. It makes me reflect regularly. Then I wonder what my younger self would think of this.

I used to be quite the activist. I wanted to make a difference for others, especially for the less fortunate in society, and I was involved in politics. Now I sometimes wonder: am I doing enough? Am I getting the most out of life? There’s still so much I’d like to do. My political interests are still there, and I still want to be of value to the society I live in.

Pablo Andres Duran Chaparro 1988 The Hague Information Manager Colombia part 3

For example, I enjoy volunteering. I help out in the Spinozahof community garden and look after the tandem bikes for Fietspret voor twee. I also enjoy cycling myself, especially on a road bike. I do take part in races, such as those in Valkenburg or Amsterdam. We cycle laps of up to 150 kilometres, which I absolutely love. I’ve also discovered the Dutch Language Café. There, you can play board games and take part in a pub quiz. And of course reading and writing, I enjoy doing that in my spare time too.

The continuation of the interview with Pablo will soon be available here!

Text and photos by: Robine Hillen

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