Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993                   TAG: 9305090081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ULI SCHMETZER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: BEIJING                                LENGTH: Medium

CHINESE `DAGGER LADIES' CAN PUNCH OUT A LETTER, TOO

She is a bodyguard, and she is the newest passion among the newest of affluent Chinese.

Her arrival on the market has hurriedly converted army camps and state-owned physical education colleges into bodyguard training centers. Army drill sergeants and masters of the kick-chop-knee blows popularized by the late Bruce Lee find it far more lucrative these days to school female protectors than soldiers.

In Shanghai, Guangzhou (Canton), Wuhan and Nanjing, instructors complain that they can't turn out enough female bodyguards to satisfy the company bosses and wealthy entrepreneurs who consider employing a Dagger Lady not only a status symbol but a good investment.

After all, said Jiang Bailong, dean of the martial arts faculty at Wuhan Physical Education College, why can't a trained woman handle an assassin or a thief as well as a man?

And Dagger Ladies have the added advantage of being cost-efficient: They can double as secretaries, receptionists and public relations officers.

"Our 130 trainees are already assured of jobs today, well before they graduate in September," said Jiang. "Lots of Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Singapore businessmen and joint ventures have asked for them. But so far, not one American company has requested a graduate."

Jiang studied the American movie "Bodyguard," in which Whitney Houston hires Kevin Costner as her bodyguard. He found that, like Costner's character, most male bodyguards do a lot of standing around - something the cash-conscious Chinese are loath to see.

So he and other instructors thought about how to devise a Western-style bodyguard with Chinese characteristics, and what they came up with was a multipurpose female.

The cost of the six-month bodyguard course at Wuhan is 3,500 yuan ($620), the wage of an average worker for 14 months. But when the state-owned college, which once trained top athletes, advertised its new course this past winter, more than 3,000 women applied for the 130 places.

They were given a written test. Those shorter than 5 feet 3 and without a high school education were eliminated from the start.

Age and looks are not important, Jiang insisted. He said his youngest trainee is 17, the oldest 32. Some are married, some single.

"There is nothing to stop a Chinese woman from being a very good bodyguard," said Wang Geng, whose firm in Nanjing is currently training 70 female bodyguards - not only in shooting, parachute jumping, judo and boxing but also in law, psychology, etiquette and foreign languages.

"With a little technique a Chinese woman can easily defeat any strapping 6-foot-tall man," Wang crowed.

Jiang is more philosophical: "People show more respect for a woman than a man. So if she is a bodyguard she earns their admiration and is more likely to get support from bystanders in a tight situation."

Dagger Ladies still come relatively cheap in China at 1,000 yuan ($172) a month. Although this is three times the average wage, instructors claim it's neither the money nor the glamour that attracts so many women.

"It's the demand for their services and the knowledge they are assured of a job. Suddenly, society needs female bodyguards, and we cater to that need," said Jiang.

In fact, demand is so great that the army's Physical Education College in Guangzhou has instituted a two-month Dagger Lady crash course.

What of the danger of becoming romantically involved with their clients - just as it happened in "Bodyguard"?

"Not a point for discussion," Jiang snapped. "These ladies are professionals, and they will know how to protect themselves. I resent society's prejudice that a woman working closely with a man will have to offer additional kinds of services."