GLOBAL WUSHU CHAMPION
TAY YU XUAN
YEAR 2, COMMUNICATION STUDIES
With gleaming sword in hand and graceful yet precise jump kicks, communication student and wushu exponent Tay Yu Xuan clinched a silver medal at his first Southeast Asian (SEA) Games outing last year.
But the road to victory is tough. It can take the 22-year-old five to six years to perfect just one move. Now, Yu Xuan hopes to use the filmmaking skills he learns in NTU to tell the stories of sports people like him.
“There are many struggles and interesting experiences in the sports community that I want to share through films and videos,” says Yu Xuan of combining his twin passions of filmmaking and sports.
Photo: Singapore National Olympic Council
He is also thinking of using the $5,000 grant he gets as an NTU Talent Scholar to promote wushu among the less fortunate in Singapore.
Yu Xuan is an expert in taijiquan, a Chinese martial art that combines languid motions with fast, explosive moves, as well as in taijijian, which incorporates a double-edged sword into taijiquan moves.
Training is hard, with nightly sessions after school and sometimes on Saturdays. On weekdays, he returns to his Hall 11 room only around midnight.
As a spirited boy who loved watching Karate Kid movies, he took up the sport at the age of seven after being wowed by the flying kicks his primary school seniors pulled off during Chinese New Year celebrations.
Grit and taiji glory
“You may think taijiquan is a sport for the elderly, but wushu has really taught me discipline, patience and perseverance,” he explains. “There have been many occasions when I wasn’t selected for competitions. Instead of being upset or giving up, I’m patient with myself and continue to train consistently, so I’d be ready if an opportunity comes along.”
And come along it has. Aside from his SEA Games silver medal win last year for taijiquan and taijijian, Yu Xuan is ranked world number two for taijijian in the World Wushu Championships.
He is now eyeing the taijijian world number one title in the 2025 World Wushu Championships. He came very close to winning last year; his competition scores were tied with the champion, but he ranked second after tiebreaker rules were applied.
Besides making him stronger, contemporary taiji fuels his creativity. For competitions, he carefully chooses music to go with eye-catching moves that start gently but speed up to wow audiences and include powerful punches, meticulously timed jumps and dazzling spinning kicks.
Kickin’ it behind the camera
When he’s in school, the action happens behind Yu Xuan’s video camera. The aspiring filmmaker started making videos while in Victoria Junior College. He recalls a pivotal moment that led him to study communication in NTU.
He says: “I went for a university visit, and at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information, I came across magazines from the school’s Going Overseas For Advanced Reporting (GO-FAR) practicum, filled with articles from Bhutan and South Korea. The stories were so interesting that this memory stuck with me when I was picking my major.”
Whether it’s wushu choreography or video editing, both test Yu Xuan’s creativity, pushing him to create a unique experience.
Photo: Tay Yu Xuan
SEA Games silver medallist and communication undergrad Yu Xuan filming a documentary with classmates at Sentosa.
The second-year student says: “I remember my parents tearing up when I got my first international gold medal in wushu when I was 18, and how my friends’ eyes welled up after watching a mini vlog I made for our overseas volunteering trip. This feeling of accomplishment never gets old. It drives me to continue doing what I do, even if I have to endure late nights and miss out on my social life.”
This story was published in the Mar-Apr 2024 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.
