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The book tells the story of the metamorphosis of a catholic Caledonian Lad into a revered martial artist and a professional police officer. The anecdotal style makes an easy read and has an appeal to a wide ranging audience.
It begins with tantalizing glimpses into the influences in the author’s formative years that laid the foundations for the tenacity and focus that is apparent throughout.
Entertaining and occasionally tragic descriptions of the camaraderie of life in The Hong Kong Police Force makes a stark contrast with accounts of darker sides of the lives of the police officers and citizens.
There are inside the door views of martial tai chi together with behind the scenes accounts of training, full-contact fighting, martial school rivalries and the effective application of the art when patrolling the streets of Hong Kong.
The final chapters provide the reader with pre tourist views of Beijing, Shaolin and The Wudang Mountains. The book concludes with the author’s return to the homeland and his meeting with his first UK martial student .
The reader is left anticipating the development of the emerging international tai chi instructor, scholar and traveller.
That’s another story.
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Ladan Niayesh Professor of English studies, and Wudang Taichi chuan instructor
Wild Colonial Boy is the long-awaited memoirs of Dan Docherty, the enfant terrible of the British and European taichi scenes over the past several decades. Though the jacket blurb calls it an ‘autobiographic novel’, what makes it ‘novel’ rather than ‘a novel’ is the wealth of first-hand information it gives on the formative years of an internationally acknowledged martial artist. The account covers the author’s upbringing in his native Scotland and his initial training in karate with no less than Yashinao Nanbu himself, his nine years with the Hong Kong police in the 70s and early 80s, his training years with the brilliantly unorthodox Sifu Cheng Tin-hung, and his years as a competitor and fighter for the system in South-East Asia. As we turn page after page of pleasantly couched anecdotes with witty titles, we follow the perspective of a younger Dan through the legendary ‘Fragrant Harbour’ of the 70s, with its colourful bars, notoriously corrupt police, and thriving martial arts scene walking the fine line between what is legal and what is legitimate. Of particular interest to readers versed in martial arts are the details about master Cheng’s training methods – or lack thereof at times! But the best testimony of that legacy is no doubt the success story of this Scottish student who brought the system back with him and made it possibly the most respected fighting school of taichi in Europe in the following years. But that is a story that would call for a next volume.
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Dan Docherty is a remarkable man. I first heard of him in the mid-eighties through my interest in
martial arts. By the end of the nineties, I had met him and begun training with him. Over the
years he has told many stories of how he ended up where he is. My feeling has always been;
you should write this down. Now he has.
Mr Docherty writes with humour and warmth of his journey from the south Glasgow Alter boy to
Hong Kong police inspector and south East Asian full-contact international champion. It is way
more than just Dan’s story, it also tells the story of those who helped him along the way.
I find it to be deeply interesting and can’t recommend it highly enough.
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Wild Colonial Boy is the latest book by Dan Docherty, teacher, author and an influential figure in the European Tai Chi Chuan community. Dan's latest book is a departure from the usual subject of Tai Chi Chuan and has written an autobiographical novel. Unless you're a student of Dan's, few know about his background and his career in the Royal Hong Kong Police. Some of this has been briefly mentioned in previous books and magazine articles.
The book starts off with Dan's account of his childhood growing up in Glasgow. We then follow the beginnings of a long journey in martial arts, starting with Karate. After university, we follow Dan's time in the Royal Hong Kong Police, where we learn of his colourful experiences as a police inspector and training under his master the late Cheng Ting Hung. The comradery, conflicts, the arrests and the objectives met are also mentioned. After almost a decade in Hong Kong, Dan then left the Royal Hong Kong Police and returned to Britain.
I have found Wild Colonial Boy to be a very interesting, entertaining and easy to read. It is satisfactory on a number of levels. If you're a fan of old Hong Kong and what life was like back then or cop stories, then this book is for you. I could relate to Wild Colonial Boy on many levels. Back in the late 70's, I lived along Canton Road with my grandparents, which was only a few blocks from Argyle Street, where Dan once trained. Those days I remember well. Life back then was quite colourful, people worked harder and Hong Kong was a different place to how it is now. We Hongkongers often speak of the collective memory regarding old Hong Kong, but it is nice to read a Westerner's perspective. From Dan's account of his training, one can see that it was not easy. The countless hours invested and balancing that with the duties of being a police inspector. I rather enjoyed the accounts on police work and life in the Royal Hong Kong Police. The scenes were described vividly and whilst reading those chapters, they reminded me of scenes from numerous films I've seen. If you're familiar with the Hong Kong cop and gangster genres, then you'll understand what I mean. Wild Colonial Boy is about eating bitter and embracing the lessons that life throws at you, without which one could never succeed. Thank you, Dan.
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As a student of Dan's, I enjoyed the book very much. The stories are easy to read and fun to follow; the humor raw, but sincere. No one else could have written this book: the convergence of intellect, education, experience - theory and application - is unique. Of particular interest, as a student, there is plenty of tai chi in the book, applied in many ways. So theory is expressed in the ring, and on the street. And the body of work that is Dan's lineage has been fleshed out and deepened - its value increased immeasurably. The legacy he leaves will not soon be enlarged on. We are all indebted.
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Wild Colonial Boy is the account of a young Dan Docherty leaving his home in Glasgow to pursue his dream of becoming a tai chi master practitioner and instructor through a career in the Hong Kong Police Force. On the way, we learn, amongst other things, of the workings of the RHK Police, the seedier side of Hong Kong, the relationship between master and pupil… All told with sensitivity, wit and humility. The chapters are extremely short which makes the book easy to dip in and out of. Having been a pupil Dan’s for three decades, I have heard some of these accounts. It is fascinating to have this part of his life story laid out in this detail. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Wild Colonial Boy and highly recommend it. Looking forward to any next instalment.
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Having known Dan Docherty largely from afar for more than 25 yrs, it was marvellous to string all the bits of story and rumour together. In-person there is never enough time for more than a snippet or two. A larger than life personality fleshed out for readers to see. Dan is both well-read and well trained so it was a pleasure to read about the roots that helped make the man. This is a well put together novelistic journey from Glasgow to Hong Kong and beyond and back to London. There are good stories and plenty for those interested in the making of a great no-nonsense martial artist.
Having seen photos of Dan both in the 'white silk pyjamas' and now a kilt... I guess I can rest in peace.
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Ostensibly, the autobiographical book is first a brief description of the author's childhood and adolescence in Glasgow which is then followed by an account of his time in Hong Kong including the Royal Hong Kong Police, his relationship with tai chi and his sifu Cheng Tin-hung, and his full-contact fights. That overview does not, however, do justice to the book.
Personally, to my shame, I'm not an avid reader. I will discard most books after the first chapter or two. Rarely, I find an author who I can "get along with" and then I will actively seek out almost everything they have written. Dan Docherty's writings have generally fallen into that latter category. He has a talent for deftly blending the gravely serious with humour, and life's trivialities with wisdom. So I was looking forward to reading Wild Colonial Boy, and I was not disappointed.
This year has been demanding in many respects. Wild Colonial Boy was perfectly timed: it afforded a brief moment of respite, taking a journey vicariously through a unique period in Hong Kong and within environments that very few of us would ever have experienced personally. There is a sense of a genuine commitment to providing an accurate and faithful account of events, and of trying to convey the world there as it actually was and not an interpretation thereof. The author is also honest and open of his own internal processing of events and how he navigated some very fraught situations.
Anyway, I would certainly recommend the book to others and indeed have already done so.
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A truthfully told and hilarious history along with a wonderful window on worlds mostly beyond my ken (so far as i can gather in any case). Dan's devilish sense of humour & the rich threads of irony in life's tapestry that he identifies & elucidates moved me to mirth more than once. That said, there are no holds barred in the poignancy & disclosure departments either and many ahead from those days might blush or cry if they were only alive to know. My one disappointment in this cracking candid ball of yarn from the glory days of 'what kung fu dat' was in reaching the end too soon and feeling that I'd only all too recently gotten started.
Thanks a million, Dan for the incandescent insights into some of the major makings of the man. Here's to you, who's like you? none but the devil himself that I knew.
"Old age hath yet his honour and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
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Wild Colonial Boy - Tales of a Kung Fu Cop, is Dan Docherty's latest book. An autobiographical novel spanning the time from Dan's childhood in Glasgow through his time in the Royal Hong Kong Police, and training with Tai Chi Chuan Sifu Cheng Tin-Hung until his return to London in the mid-eighties. For all of Dan's many students, it is, of course, more or less irresistible, but I think it contains a lot of material of interest for everyone else too. The small chapters, each dealing with a separate topic, makes it easy to read and hard to put down.
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Mr Docherty's telling of his adventures in Hong Kong rings with adventure and wit. The peculiarities of the Royal Hong Kong Police, the dealings and intrigues of both officers and citizens alike, are brought to vivid life by a narrator whose telegraphic style is by turns droll and colourful. I would recommend this book as a window into a time and place that hardly seems possible now, from the pen of a martial arts maverick who is sometimes errant, sometimes righteous, but never dull.
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Not really a novel as described in the blurb but a very entertaining collection of anecdotes from an unusual life. They start in Dan’s formative years in Glasgow through his time in the Royal Hong Kong Police and finish when he started to teach taijiquan for a living in London. I am looking forward to the “Water Wars” and other tales in volume II.
This book gives a real flavour of life in the second half of the C20 both in the UK, Hong Kong and as a Brit travelling abroad when Lonely Planet was in its infancy. Well worth a read even if you are not a student of Dan’s. I highly recommend it.
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Loved this book. Not so your basic novel, but more of collection of experiences.
Written in dry and sarcastic way, which may put the reader a bit off balance from time to time.
I have known Mr. Docherty for over 20 years, and have to say this book describes his character perfectly. Slaintè my friend!
