A revered kung fu master may be Italian in roots, but he’s Chinese in heart
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With 36 years of practice under his belt, Italian Kleber Battaglia has become a martial arts master and now runs a school in Shanghai to try to pass kung fu on to younger generations.
The 45-year-old is acknowledged as an “inheritor” of the art of Wing Chun (咏春), a style characterized by lightning-fast punches.
He is following in the footsteps of grandmaster Ip Man and his student Bruce Lee, who popularized Wing Chun in the West. Hollywood stars such as Robert Downey Jr and Nicolas Cage are known to be fans of Wing Chun.
Despite his Italian roots, Battaglia said “inside of me I’m Chinese.” He has found his calling in passing kung fu on to China’s young generation.
“To me, it’s very important because kung fu is truly a treasure of humanity,” he told Shanghai Daily.
Battaglia runs the Absolute Kung Fu school in Shanghai, where his students reverentially call him Shifu Bai, or Master Bai. In his trademark style — loose-fitting Chinese attire and a ponytail — he looks like the classic characters of old-school kung fu movies, like Jet Li’s Wong Fei-hung.
“Many young Chinese people are not interested in kung fu anymore,” he said. “I really hope when they see a foreigner doing it, they will think, ‘What’s going on? A foreigner? Let’s get into it!’”
Battaglia fell in love with kung fu when he was 9, after watching kung fu movies starring icons like Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Jackie Chen.
“If you ask me why I love kung fu, I really can’t tell you,” he said. “It’s like asking me, as an Italian, why I love pizza. I just don’t know. I can only tell you that it comes from my heart. Kung fu puts me in touch with my body, my self-awareness.”
His parents were supportive and sent him to an Italian kung fu teacher. But gradually, something felt just a little bit off.
“What I was learning was different from what I saw in kung fu movies,” he said. “I started to discover that what I really liked was the style Bruce Lee called Wing Chun.”
But finding the right Wing Chun teacher in Italy proved elusive.
“They were just teaching the fighting aspect of it but missing something culturally deeper,” he said. “Kung fu is more than just about fighting. It’s not some exercise in a gym, but rather a lifestyle that you live 24/7.”
After graduating from university, Battaglia became a psychologist. Not for long.
His life changed in 2009, when he met Wan Kam-leung, who studied under Ip Man’s celebrated student Wong Shun-leung — the man said to be most responsible for Bruce Lee’s training.
“It was mind blowing,” Battaglia said. “Wan was exactly the kind of master I was looking for. It wasn’t just his incredible skill, but also that he imbued his movements with Chinese philosophy.”
Six months later, Battaglia quit his job in Europe and followed Wan to Hong Kong, where he went into intensive Wing Chun training, practicing six hours a day. Four years later, he emerged from obscurity to becoming Shifu Bai — a revered title that comes from his Chinese name Bai Qibai.
Battaglia said he had intended to build his kung fu career in the US, but Wan suggested he go to Shanghai.
“He told me there’s no better place than Chinese mainland, the birthplace of Chinese kung fu, to truly practice the art,” he said.
It was a big challenge for a foreigner to try to teach kung fu to Chinese people, but he took the bull by the horns and opened a kung fu school.
In 2013, he opened Absolute Kung Fu, with some initial trepidation. Many martial arts practitioners from other kung fu schools came knocking on the door to challenge the newcomer, but he earned their respect with his skill in kicking and punches.
The school has grown in the past 11 years, moving into ever larger premises in several relocations.
Paolo Chilelli, his fellow countryman whom he met at a kung fu event at Mount Huangshan, came on board in 2018 to co-manage the school.
“I’ve taught at least 1,000 students so far,” Battaglia estimated. “They are roughly aged between 25 to 45.”
Over the years, he has traveled across China to study under renowned masters, such as Guo Weizhan.
Digging deeper into traditional culture
When he’s in Shanghai, he often practices in parks, a favorite venue for kung fu enthusiasts. His current haunt is Zhongshan Park after he moved into a nearby old neighborhood.
“There are many people in park practicing kung fu, and I really love to interact with them, especially the elderly,” he said. “It’s one of the main reasons why I love China. The parks here are so alive.”
Battaglia is also trying to dig deeper into traditional culture by learning Chinese classic texts, calligraphy and the erhu, a Chinese two-stringed instrument.
“Chinese philosophy is a blend of a Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and other disciplines,” he said. “Kung fu is influenced by them all.”
Currently, he’s studying “Daodejing” (《道德经》), or “Tao Te Ching,” a classic Chinese text written around 400 BC by Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism.
“It has influenced me a lot,” Battaglia said. “I believe that everything that happens to you and all the people you meet in life have a very specific reason and teach you something. This might be very typical Chinese thinking.”
But most of all, the core essence of Chinese philosophy, according to him, is “the art of change.”
“Everything is in constant flux,” he said. “China is now changing so fast. The Chinese can keep up with it better than foreigners because that is part of their mentality for approaching life.”
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