Martial arts instructor receives Queen’s Young Leaders Award

SINGAPORE — She picked up an Israeli martial art called Kapap in her first year as a bio-engineering undergraduate, while on the road to recovery from the eating disorder anorexia.

Before that, Ms Qin Yunquan was just “like any other student” wanting to get a degree first and “figure out what I want to do later”. After about nine months, her teacher, Mr Teo Yew Chye, invited her to become an instructor.

She came to know of the traumatic experience of a student, who was attacked by the very person she had tried to return a lost item to. It sparked what Ms Qin, now 27, felt could be her calling in life — to equip people with self-defence skills, and a force for good in the community.

She has since trained thousands in self-defence, including groups such as abused women and foreign domestic helpers, the deaf and blind, as well as the elderly. About 30 to 40 per cent of her company’s profits are channelled into community work, she estimated.

Ms Qin, the chief executive of Kapap Academy, is one of 60 young people from the Commonwealth receiving the Queen’s Young Leaders Award 2017.

The award, part of the Queen’s Young Leaders Programme, celebrates the achievements of young people aged 18 to 29 who are inspiring leaders in their communities, and includes at least one person from every Commonwealth country.

Ms Qin will get to meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace next year to receive her award, and be allocated a mentor with relevant experience to support the development of her work.

Ms Qin, who received the news about a week ago, said: “Regardless of the award, I would’ve done what I do anyway. But the award ... gives me the belief I can do it on a larger scale than I (previously) thought.”

The self-defence skills Ms Qin — who is also a national wrestler —teaches to paying students and vulnerable groups are adapted to the civilian context, where a Kapap response might be considered excessive.

The training is realistic and the methods do not take long to pick up. “Anything that’s too complicated, it won’t work (in a real-life situation, because) you can’t remember it and the fear factor kicks in,” she said. “So whatever we devise has to be very simple.”

Seven to eight in 10 of Kapap Academy’s students are female, and Ms Qin also role-plays potential scenarios with students so that they would be less fearful in a real-life situation.

She comes across at least one case a month of a student with prior bad experiences such as getting mugged overseas or having been in an abusive relationship.

Meeting these individuals has increased her conviction in her cause. “I don’t believe people should be bullied or abused, and I wanted to make use of whatever skills I have to help these people,” she said.

The company has entered the Malaysian market and there have been interested partners from Thailand and China, said Ms Qin.

The journey so far has not been easy. Ms Qin has faced scepticism in the male-dominated industry, and initially went against her parents’ wishes in her career choice.

She was skinnier in the past, and it “wasn’t easy” for them to see their daughter going through physical hardship and coming home with bruises from training, for example. But they have largely come around, she said.

Her mentor, 57-year-old Mr Teo, had started Kapap Academy after his brother was killed in a street attack. He handed the reins to Ms Qin around 2013, and had nominated her for the award.

“I honestly felt that she cared for (the students). That’s when I told her I wanted to hand over (the academy) to her. She told me, ‘Maybe I’m not good enough in martial arts’,” he recounted. “I told her, it’s not the skills, it’s the heart. Skills, I can teach you; but if you don’t have the heart, I can’t force you.”