Twenty years on the floor. The most stubborn, honest companion I've ever had.
I started breaking at eight—self-taught on the concrete in a small Chinese coastal town, with childhood handstands, splits, and meditation as my only foundation. Twenty years later, the floor is still where I go to feel real.
By twelve I was the only kid in my hometown who'd taken a formal breaking class. At fifteen I took a train alone to Hangzhou for private lessons with Bboy DD (Skunk Crew, now DJ D'Roc)—and slept in a ¥99-a-night room with a broken lock and no hot water. The lessons were worth it.
I chose the UK university I went to because Newcastle was the largest breaking city in Britain—Just Jam, UK Uni B-Boy Champs, all of it. I joined Badtaste Crew's juniors. I lived five minutes from Dance City, where they trained. On my first beginner class with Bboy Rukus, he told me to come back to intermediate.
Then I met Crazy Grandma—the world's oldest competing b-girl, 73 at the time, who had started dancing at 68. That meeting reset what I thought a dance lifetime could look like.
Back in China, work consumed me. I left Bixin for Alibaba specifically because Alibaba's two-day weekends meant I could finally train systematically again. That's when I met my long-term teacher Lil Lowke (尧俊)—Red Bull BC One China Runner-up · China Youth Olympics breaking coach—and have been training with him since.
I've taken 10pm work calls in my training shoes. I've skipped chasing year-end bonuses to protect my dance hours.