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If you blink it would be easy to miss the small but funky Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym, known simply by its acronym, SHBJJ (Shanghai Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu), tucked away in Ping On Lane, off Hollywood Road, in Hong Kong’s Central district.
Like most fitness studios around the world, SHBJJ was forced to shut its doors for much of last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, now the city has ended its strict lockdown measures, its owner, Alex Lin, a former hedge fund manager, has seen renewed interest in the sport.
“If there’s one thing that the pandemic did highlight, it was people’s thirst and demand for wellness as a whole, carried out in a community – the luxury of being able to exercise, go out for a run, or work out at the gym with other people,” says Lin, 48, a lifelong martial arts enthusiast with a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu – a version of the traditional unarmed combat and physical training centred on immobilising opponents.
“That hunger for human interaction has cemented the demand, and we have seen it shoot up even more [since] pandemic [measures eased].”
The Hong Kong-based Taiwanese businessman originally worked in finance in London and Chicago, before his company moved him to Hong Kong in 1997.