Fu Guogang practices snake boxing. PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

As 2025 marks the Year of the Snake, Fu has received more opportunities to present the fighting style for various public occasions since the New Year's Day holiday.

When Fu begins waving his arms and twisting his torso, he conjures up the vivid image of a snake, coiled in wait and ready to strike.

As his body undulates in smooth, curved lines, the man in his 50s shifts hands and bends his fingers until they are tightly clasped, resembling a serpent dancing on air.

"Snake boxing imitates the snake's natural feeding, fighting, tumbling, coiling, entangling, and rapid striking movements. The serpentine movements are cleverly combined with attack and defense techniques," Fu says.

These movements are refined for martial arts applications, such as quick strikes that mimic a snake's bite, fluid body movements that emulate slithering, and the ability to dodge attacks with swift changes in direction the way a snake evades its predators, he explains.

"For instance, adopting a snake's fluidity allows practitioners to intertwine with their opponents in defense and strike them from angles they would not expect in offense," he says.

Since snakes are more common in China's southern regions, snake boxing has been much more widely practiced in the south than in the north, including in Zhejiang, Fujian, Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, and Hong Kong.