How Gordon Liu became a martial arts superstar thanks to Shaw Brothers movies like Dirty Ho and The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter

Liu made his name as the bald-headed monk in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin in 1978 and went on to appear in several acclaimed Shaw Brothers movies

Cast later by Quentin Tarantino in the Kill Bill films, Liu was an elegant fighter who learned kung fu from martial arts choreographer Lau Kar-leung’s father

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Gordon Liu (right) in a still from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, the 1978 film in which he played a bald-headed monk and which made his name as a martial arts actor.

Published: 2:30am, 6 Jun 2021Updated: 6:07pm, 6 Jun 2021

One of the greatest martial arts performers, Gordon Liu Chia-hui deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Jet Li Lianjie and Jackie Chan.

Liu, a protégé of martial arts choreographer Lau Kar-leung, became famous as the bald-headed monk in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin in 1978 – an image that has stuck with him since – and went on to star in a number of acclaimed Shaw Brothers films, such as Dirty Ho, Martial Club and The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter.

“He has generally appeared in films of some quality,” a Hong Kong critic wrote in 1981.

Liu came into vogue again during the martial arts boom of the 1990s, taking supporting roles in movies such as Last Hero in China, and yet again in the 2000s when Quentin Tarantino cast him in the two Kill Bill films. Sadly, the affable Liu suffered head trauma when he fell while having a stroke in 2011, and has been in a nursing home ever since.

Martial arts performers fall vaguely into different camps – actors who learn martial arts for their roles, former stuntmen who have picked up martial arts as their careers progressed, those who learn martial arts in Beijing Opera schools, and those who began their careers as martial artists and then moved into acting.