The life of Carlos Ray ‘Chuck’ Norris is an action-packed one, spanning everything from military service and martial arts to action films and serving as the inspiration for thousands of satirical factoids about his heroic feats. In between pounding the Republican campaign trail and promoting everything from home fitness equipment to World of Warcraft, the ultimate tough guy has even stamped his boot print on Phnom Penh.
Shy and bullied as a boy, Chuck’s worldview underwent its first blistering punch to the jaw while he was serving in the US Air Force in the late 1950s. His time in Korea was spent not drinking Soju and whoring, but rather studying the indigenous Tang Soo Do martial art. Eventually he returned to America complete with black belt, established Karate schools throughout the country, and put all he had learned into founding his own system of Chun Kuk Do (‘The Universal Way’), which mixes Eastern and Western fighting techniques (Norris later made history by becoming the first man from the Western hemisphere to achieve an Eighth Degree Black Belt Grand Master ranking in Tae Kwon Do).
By the late 1960s, the martial arts career of this icon-in-the-making was an unstoppable hurricane of roundhouse kicks, but even that wasn’t enough to feed the beast inside. It was about this time that Norris befriended Bruce Lee, who launched his acting career by casting him as the villain in Way of the Dragon. Like a meteor, Norris ascended into the stratosphere of film where he has remained for more than half a century: he has more than 40 films, 23 starring roles, and a television series, Walker Texas Ranger, which ran for eight and a half years, under his belt. When not busy clobbering opponents, he was writing books on martial arts and Zen; two autobiographies and two Wild West novels – although legend has it Norris didn’t ‘write’ those books; the words simply assembled themselves out of fear.
After the cancellation of Walker, Texas Ranger, he seemed to fall from the limelight, but Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep; he only waits. With the success of US talk show host Conan O’Brien’s Walker Texas Ranger lever (which, when pulled, shows comedic out-of-context clips from the show), and the explosion of Chuck Norris internet facts, this god-made man arose once more – and immediately wrote an ‘official’ Chuck Norris facts book, just to set the record straight.
It has long been suggested that The Great Wall of China was built to keep Chuck Norris out, but failed miserably. Today, the man voted Top Dudeliest Dude by Maxim magazine in 2007 is at least partly responsible for bringing Dim Sum and, for authenticity’s sake, a Chinese Dim Sum chef to Phnom Penh’s Golden Sorya Mall. Inspired by the illustrious icon, American ad executive Mike, a Michigan native, last month opened the Chuck Norris Dim Sum restaurant/bar, where Eastern discipline meets the free spiritedness of the Wild West.
The restaurant will later this month be throwing a Chuck Norris party complete with Shake-weight contests, in which challengers shake a device shaped like a dumbbell six inches from their face to obtain strength and vigour; a spicy food-eating contest, where victory goes to whoever can ingest the most Chinese mustard in one sitting; martial arts-style board-breaking contests, and more (details in our next issue). In the meantime, remember: where old meets new, where East meets West, you will find Chuck Norris Dim Sum.
WHO: Chuck Norris disciples
WHAT: An ass-kickin’ restaurant launch party
WHERE: Chuck Norris Dim Sum, Golden Sorya Mall, St. 51 (between Heart of Darkness and Pontoon).
WHEN: To be confirmed (Watch This Space)
WHY: Chuck Norris roundhouse kicks people in the face first and asks questions later