In his 1986 memoir about martial arts training in Communist China â??Iron & Silk,â? author Mark Saltzman wryly notes that it can be difficult to change trains in Canton with a seven-foot bag containing â??five swords, four sabres, a staff, a halberd, two hooked swords, some knives and a nine-section steel whip.â? Saltzman had as much documentation as he did metal, showing that he was a legitimate student of a well-known martial-arts master and that the weapons were not antiques.
Yet Chinese government busybodies nevertheless felt the need to play what he called â??their favorite game, Letâ??s Make a Regulation,â? looking for any possible means to stop him from going about his legitimate business. The only way he could get on the train and make his flight was to put on an impromptu martial-arts demonstration right there in the train station. â??Somewhere in mid-air,â? he noted, â??my pants split wide open from the base of the zipper to the belt line in back.â? The officials let him move along.
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