A LIFE IN FULL

The Dragon’s Journey

Before Longy Nguyen became known for his hands, there was everything that made them.

The Dragon’s Journey tells the story of Duy Long Nguyen — Longy — from a childhood in wartime Vietnam through Saigon, escape, migration, Japan, a new life in Australia, martial arts, massage, professional sport and a career that eventually crossed into some extraordinary rooms. It is a story about family and survival, but it is also frequently funny, unpredictable and difficult to categorise — much like Longy himself.

DUY LONG “LONGY” NGUYEN

FOREWORD

Two familiar names open the story.

The foreword to The Dragon’s Journey was written jointly by Rupert Murdoch and Frank Lowy in 2004. Their introduction does not focus on celebrity. Instead, it points to the scale of Longy’s life: war, politics, violence, refugees, integration, racism, family, adversity and the unusual ability to keep moving through all of it. They describe Longy as one of the more remarkable people they had met, and return repeatedly to his perseverance, his family and particularly the influence of his mother, Teresa.

FOREWORD BY
RUPERT MURDOCH & FRANK LOWY
2004

Original 2004 foreword page by Rupert Murdoch and Frank Lowy

II Corps advisers and ARVN counterparts at II Corps Headquarters in Pleiku, February 1972

II Corps Headquarters, Pleiku, February 1972. Longy Nguyen’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Hien, Inspector General, is pictured in the second row, fifth from the right, among II Corps advisers and their ARVN counterparts.

THE STORY

The treatment table comes much later.

Longy’s story begins decades before the famous clients, sporting dressing rooms and film sets. He was born Duy Long Nguyen on 17 October 1964 into a large Vietnamese family living through war. His childhood in Pleiku was filled with contradictions: army compounds and bunkers, Catholic school, animals, martial arts, family picnics, gunfire, mischief and a mango tree that became almost a second home. Then came Saigon, the fall of South Vietnam, his father’s imprisonment, a changing city and a family trying to work out how to survive. The Dragon’s Journey follows those events through the eyes of someone who rarely behaved like a passive observer.

THE STORY

The treatment table comes much later.

FAMILY

At the centre of the story is his mother.

Teresa Nguyen runs through The Dragon’s Journey from beginning to end. She was a businesswoman, a mother of seven and a source of extraordinary strength within the Nguyen family. She pushed Longy toward discipline when he resisted it, tried repeatedly to keep him out of trouble, helped shape his instinct to look after other people and remained the person to whom he was most deeply attached. Longy’s earliest hands-on practice also happened within family life. As a boy, he began experimenting with techniques he had observed and learned around him, often working on his mother Teresa’s tired legs. Those early experiences became part of a much longer education in touch, movement and the body.

Longy Nguyen as a child with his mother in a garden

The dressing room grapevine worked quickly.

Longy’s work moved deeply into professional sport during the 1990s. Rugby league became a major part of that world, including work around players such as Terry Hill, Adrian Lam and Tony Iro. His wider sporting client list grew to include figures from boxing, athletics, motor racing, golf, horse racing and tennis. Names appearing through the story include Linford Christie, Darren Campbell, Maurice Greene, Troy Waters, Shannon Taylor, Alan Jones, Glenn Seton, Rodger Davis, Jim Cassidy and Pat Rafter. What connects those names in the book is less fame than referral: athletes told other athletes.

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Then word reached a film set.

One of the book’s most memorable sequences begins with Hugo Weaving. Longy treated Weaving while the actor was working on The Matrix in Sydney. Soon Laurence Fishburne arrived after Weaving recommended Longy to him. A few days later came another call. Fishburne had spread the word on set, and Keanu Reeves had heard about Longy. What began as another referral eventually drew Longy into the world surrounding The Matrix films. The book also places him among an extraordinary broader group of public figures over the years, including Tom Cruise, Elle Macpherson, Brendan Fraser and Deni Hines.

LONGY NGUYEN

Chronic neck pain & headache treatment

Paddington & Milperra, Sydney

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