Few people claim they can make one hand grow longer than the other.

But Liu Zhi Cheng does just that. Matching the creases of his wrists, he closes his palms, fingertips touching.

"See, they are the same," he nods. "Now I will change them."

Sitting back in the padded metal chair, he turns down his eyes, his body suddenly still for a few seconds, then trembling at his shoulders. After about a minute or two, Liu raises his head and holds out his hands, fingertips no longer touching, with one reddened pair visibly resting beyond the other's tops.

"I don't know what happened. I just know I can do that, that's all," Liu said, laughing. His secret? Directing the force of qi, the body's internal energy, into his arm and finger muscles to make them extend. "I just use my brain, think about it, use the qi, make it go into the finger."

For Liu, associate professor and vice director of the Biomechanics Laboratory at China's Beijing Institute of Physical Education, that ability is just one small example of a large part of his personal life and work -- attention to the body's forces and movement.

Specializing in sports medicine and bio-mechanics, Liu is currently visiting Penn State to further his research on improving athletes' performances through computer analysis of their movements.

Gesturing at a computer-simulated printout of a diver, Liu smiled.

"Human movement is really complex . . . sometimes you can improve the complex," Liu said.

-- -- --

In the dimly lit bio-mechanics lab, the rounded rooms are dotted with posters of athletes, computer print-outs of skiers' movements, a maroon plastic head waiting to be battered inside different helmets and, in almost every room, a computer.

Within the broad field of bio-mechanics, most of the research done in the lab focuses on sports.

"The purpose really is first to help people improve -- it might be an elite performer or a handicapped athlete," said Biomechanics Professor Richard Nelson. "The second point is to reduce injury."

Walking to a large metal projector, Liu demonstrates an example of gathering data for such research from a film of skiers at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. At each frame, Liu pinpoints 22 different coordinates of the skier's body, which are punched into a computer. For each movement, the computer analyzes the body's exact position, velocity and the different forces acting on it.

"It takes a long time. It is very boring, until you just start to do it automatically," Liu said. "It requires a high level of concentration. "

That boredom pays off when the analysis is applied to an athlete. Explaining a print-out of a diver's performance move by move, compared with a computer correction of his mistakes, Liu said the computer often reveals mistakes the human eye can miss.

"Sometimes the gymnast cannot see it because the performance is over so quickly . . ." said Liu, a former gymnast who has twice worked with the Chinese Olympic gymnastics coach. "I use the computer to show the results. It's very important to show the person and also important to show the coach, for technical reasons. If the arm is moving in the wrong direction, you will move in the wrong direction."

-- -- --

Over a dinner of egg rolls and stir-fry, Liu listens to some friends explain the discipline and tradition of their martial art. A former- martial arts instructor and honorary member of the Board of Trustees for the World Tang Soo Do Association, Liu first met with the association's Penn State Martial Arts Group back in 1983. After three years of red tape, Liu was responsible for some of the association's members traveling to China's Shaolin Temple, the world's center of all martial arts - - the first non-Chinese group ever allowed in the temple.

"It was on his say that the Chinese government allowed us in, to train and tour," said Mike White, a Tang Soo Do instructor. "Thanks to Mr. Liu, at Shaolin Temple, we have our association plaque inside the temple."

Back in China, Liu combined his martial arts experience with modern research, studying the art of several martial arts masters.

Eagerly showing pictures of the masters, Liu explains the basic principle of his martial art: taijiquan, using someone else's force against them. At the highest level, taiji, masters use the qi in fighting.

"Only a few people in China know about it now, so excellent an example of Chinese culture," Liu said.

The body's internal energy is also used in doing, martial arts exercises used in maintaining health and curing diseases, which Liu practices regularly. Standing in his office, arms moving gracefully, Liu shows the calm, slow movement and concentration the exercises involve.

In China, these exercises slowly are becoming accepted as a way to cure everything from cancer to simply being overweight. Shaking his head at the thought of runners in Rec Hall, Liu, eyebrows raised, shrugs.

"You can do other exercises besides walking -- that is boring -- that are healthy. Some of those women are very fat, walking. They can do exercises to lose weight without medicines. It keeps you in good condition to do anything," Liu said. "Most people do not believe it. It just works, that's all."

But for Liu, these exercises are not just a matter of personal health. They are part of his Chinese heritage.

"Now its open, the whole country is open, including the Chinese traditional medicine," Liu said quickly, noting the government kept information about such parts of Chinese culture shrouded for years.

It is a side of himself and his country Liu would rather not talk about.

After their dinner, White leans over, out of Liu's hearing.

"He doesn't like to talk about it, but this guy went out on a limb. For (Liu) to say, 'Let this non-communist group into the country,' that took a lot for him to do that," White said.

-- -- --

Currently in the U.S. on an extended visa, Liu does not talk much about his family in China or the days before his research.

"If the Chinese government hears I say something bad -- that is terrible to my family," Liu said.

But despite these restrictions, Liu is full of plans for himself and his research, noting he would someday like to teach a class about taiji and possibly work with some University athletes.

"I have a lot of friends here who have been very kind to me -- especially here, at the lab, everyone has been kind to me," Liu said. "People are very open, I like that."