--- title: This 66-Year-Old Chinese Ice Skater Has Some Awesome Moves description: In 1946 LIFE magazine's Jack Wilkes captured the elegant -- and energetic -- ice-skating moves of an elderly Chinese man named Wu Tang-shen. canonical: https://time.com/3878610/66-year-old-chinese-figure-skater-has-awesome-moves/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-07T18:31:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:47.821Z og:title: This 66-Year-Old Chinese Ice Skater Has Some Awesome Moves og:description: In 1946 LIFE magazine's Jack Wilkes captured the elegant -- and energetic -- ice-skating moves of an elderly Chinese man named Wu Tang-shen. og:url: https://time.com/3878610/66-year-old-chinese-figure-skater-has-awesome-moves/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt108e425d8ebc05c2/69884b08f887dc657fe8fe4e/140107-chinese-skater-1946-8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Wu Tang-shen, 66-Year-Old Skater, China, 1946 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This 66-Year-Old Chinese Ice Skater Has Some Awesome Moves twitter:description: In 1946 LIFE magazine's Jack Wilkes captured the elegant -- and energetic -- ice-skating moves of an elderly Chinese man named Wu Tang-shen. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt108e425d8ebc05c2/69884b08f887dc657fe8fe4e/140107-chinese-skater-1946-8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This 66-Year-Old Chinese Figure Skater Has Very Smooth Moves > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 7, 2014 6:31 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. "Mr. Wu Tang-shen does Chinese version of American skaters' Charlotte Stop. He is good but a little old-fashioned." Caption from LIFE. "Mr. Wu Tang-shen does Chinese version of American skaters' Charlotte Stop. He is good but a little old-fashioned."Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 7, 2014 6:31 PM UTC In February 1946 readers of a popular weekly magazine were introduced to exactly the sort of scene Henry Luce likely had in mind when, a decade earlier, he and poet Archibald MacLeish crafted their famous prospectus for a publication they initially pitched as “The Show-Book of the World.” The still-stirring opening lines of their prospectus ran thus: “To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things — machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man’s work — his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away. . . .” (Fortunately for everyone involved, Luce eventually settled on a shorter, better name for his publication: LIFE.) The energetic old fellow featured in this gallery, meanwhile, was photographed by Jack Wilkes — a native of Wales who covered WWII in Asia for LIFE. The scene was described in the Feb. 25, 1946, issue of the magazine in the following way: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- There is, alas, no record of what happened to Mr. Wu after Wilkes made his photos. LIFE never followed up on the old guy. But it’s pleasant to think that he skated happily ever after, to the end of his days.  Caption from LIFE. "Mr. Wu Tang-shen does Chinese version of American skaters' Charlotte Stop. He is good but a little old-fashioned." Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "This is a forward right outside edge. It should be performed with more ease but, after all, Mr. Wu is 66 years old." Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "In 57 years of skating Mr. Wu has added many wrinkles of his own." Above: Cantilever spread eagle. Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Wu Tang-shen, a 66-year-old avid ice skater in China, 1946. Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Mr. Wu cavorts through a ballet figure of his own invention." Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Wu Tang-shen, a 66-year-old avid ice skater in 1946 China, executes a bunny hop. Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "A friend of Wu's gets a push on the ice. Wu was once so good that no one would compete against him, so he judged figure-skating contests instead." Jack Wilkes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Mr. Wu leaves the ice. Skating does not tire him very much and he can still do all his tricks except for jumping over barrels." 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