Racist gangs killed my student

When I first started teaching in Chinatown, London, my students were mostly Chinese. Very few Westerners were allowed to join. Even though I was teaching openly to the public, deep down I was worried how my Master would react if he found out that I openly taught his art to Westerners.

They mostly were restaurateurs having their own family takeaway businesses. There was one particular student who reminded me of how I was when I was his age. He was eighteen at that time and was the only son in the family.

The main reason he started training with me was to learn to protect himself and his family business because they were always subject to abuse, racism and people who were trying to collect protection money from them.

It was too much for the family to handle as the perpetrators were there most evenings trying to cause trouble. Even the police were called, but once they had gone the perpetrators would come back again, making it hard for the family to endure any more. I went to his restaurant and stayed there for a week to help them to deal with these bullies. One evening six of them came along, chanting racist and verbal abuse to the parents, so I went behind them with a stick behind my back and whacked it across the back of their legs. Three of them fell to the ground and the rest stood there, stunned by my actions. I held the stick and pointed it at them indicating that if they moved I would use it again.

My student leapt over the counter and together we cornered them. They got scared and dragged their friends on the floor away, and I warned them never to come back. I carried on, staying there for a few more nights, fearing that they might come back with more people, but after a week they seemed to have gone for good. I told my student if they came back again, to lock the door. Under no circumstances to go out into the street to confront them. This was far too dangerous because they might have had knives or weapons.

I left hoping not to hear from these people again. After one month I recieved a caller to my home and it was the mother of my student saying that the perpetrators had returned and there were seven of them, and that her son had run out after them with a baseball bat. I was stunned and also worried about what could happen to him as it could be a trap to lure him away so that they could take out their revenge on him. I rushed to the restaurant but he was not back.

I went searching for him and eventually I found him in a dead end, lying on the floor, lifeless. I called the police and it turned out that he was stabbed several times in the chest, back and even his groin. I was so angry and saddened that he had not listened to me. It hurt me so much seeing his parents’ faces and their grief for their lost son — a waste of a life. They came to the West like me to have a better life and did not deserve this. I couldn’t believe that there was no protection from such a cruel act of violence.

After two weeks the police arrested five of them and it went to court but we were told there was not enough evidence to convict them, as no weapons were recovered and they managed to produce alibis. I was shocked and horrified and asked myself, is there no justice. What could I do?

I was thinking about going after the people myself but my Master said that an eye for an eye makes the world blind and instead we needed to learn from this lesson. In my heart I had thought that this student could have been my successor and I was heartbroken losing him. I looked after the family for a while and no one came back to the restaurant to bully them.

Thinking back, the world is full of injustice. The British always boast of human rights, yet where were the rights for my student? The laws are meant to protect each and every one, yet where was the justice in this case? Yes, I appreciate the freedom you get living here, but as foreigners I wondered if we were treated differently, I was confused.

Until now I was still seeking an answer. I finally found it through my training, learning to connect my body, mind and soul. I found inner peace and I learned to forgive these people and I now understand I can’t change the past. Those people will one day be punished, not by me, but through Karma — what goes around comes around.

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