Pewee Russian, headmaster of the Chinese Wushu School in Monrovia, capital of the West African nation of Liberia. [Photo provided to China Daily]

No history of wushu in the West African state of Liberia would be complete without mentioning one man. He has devoted his life to Chinese martial arts.

As a young man and a martial arts fanatic, Pewee Russian was determined to change his country's perception of Chinese martial arts, seen by many as a violent foreign culture.

Against all odds, Russian dedicated his life to learning wushu and by the late 1990s he was becoming an expert. At that time, fewer than five people in the entire country were taking an interest in wushu, he says.

As a boy, Russian lived with his foster parents, who attempted to distract him from martial arts. He found it "tedious and challenging" to keep his mind on wushu.

They told him that learning martial arts was a dead end, but nevertheless he persisted.

When civil war began ravaging the country at the end of 1990, it proved a setback for his wushu studies.

"We had a Chinese master in Liberia who didn't stay too long in the country and when we started learning wushu we couldn't go too far because of the war," he recalls.

When the war was over, after more than 15 years, wushu was almost extinct. However, a resilient Russian still carried the passion in his heart.

"One of the things that really drew me closer to Chinese martial arts is the discipline, the culture - it makes your mind disciplined. I think wushu is my calling," he says.

In 2010, the Chinese embassy in Monrovia awarded him a short-term study course at the Shaolin Temple in China. That was the beginning of a comeback for the sport in his life.