I just discovered that my Sifu, Bryant Fong, is featured in an interview in this magazine. Funny how he never seems to mention these things to me ahead of time...I just discovered it by paging thru in my local Borders.

It is the November/December, 2006 issue, starting on page 48.

The article is about the evolution and problems in Modern Wushu, as well as it's failed bid to become a demonstration sport in the olympics in Beijing.

Just thought I'd share.

I just discovered that my Sifu, Bryant Fong, is featured in an interview in this magazine. Funny how he never seems to mention these things to me ahead of time...I just discovered it by paging thru in my local Borders.

It is the November/December, 2006 issue, starting on page 48.

The article is about the evolution and problems in Modern Wushu, as well as it's failed bid to become a demonstration sport in the olympics in Beijing.

Just thought I'd share.

Interesting I bet it will be a great read! I am surprised that China did not organize themselves well enough to get Wu Shu into the Olympics. What happened?

That is great and I wonder the same thing how come they did not get on as a demostration team?

Well, he explains it quite a bit better in the article, but I'll try and give a synopsis:

Looks like China is developing modern wushu in directions that other countries can't match. They are the creative minds in the art, and they have state supported teams who do nothing but train. One thing they are doing is really boosting the level of dangerous acrobatics and other difficult techniques in the art. Not all the other countries want to do these, since they are dangerous and are leading to a lot of injuries, and they have nothing to do with real martial arts. But China is just sort of calling the shots and saying "this is our game, if you want to play, then play by our rules". Its turning the sport into a real "elite" sport that most cant keep up with.

In addition to that, outside China it is really disorganized. there are no standardized tournaments, or judges training and stuff. So in the end, the Olympic Committee just doesn't believe they are organized enough to make it worth while, so they aren't giving it the green light.

There are a bunch of pictures of him, but most are really old, like from the 1970s and 1980s and stuff. In some, I hardly recognize him! He's almost 60 now!

I'd really like to take a look at that article, FC. I have to say, it seems like a very strange strategy. If country X wants to get a sport into the Olympics that they're way ahead of everyone else in, common sense tells you that they have to make a lot of compromises and accomodate other countries' angle on the sport or they're going to get no cooperation. Because country Y is probably not going to want to give country X a chance to beat country Y yet again in the medals count.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Tae Kwon Do, the Korean national MA and martial sport, just happens to be the most widely practiced MA, with millions of very successful competitors outside Korea. The US, UK and a number of other places have shots to medal in TKD in any given tournament---Greece won silver in 2004, after all! (OK, Nikolaidis was KO'd as part of acquiring his silver, but it was still an Olympic silver, eh?). With wu shu, though---given the disparity you refer to between China and the rest of the world, it's hardly surprising what happened. I wonder if they'll try again down the line with a more inclusive and cooperative approach. If not, I don't think they're ever going to have a shot.

I'd really like to take a look at that article, FC. I have to say, it seems like a very strange strategy. If country X wants to get a sport into the Olympics that they're way ahead of everyone else in, common sense tells you that they have to make a lot of compromises and accomodate other countries' angle on the sport or they're going to get no cooperation. Because country Y is probably not going to want to give country X a chance to beat country Y yet again in the medals count.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Tae Kwon Do, the Korean national MA and martial sport, just happens to be the most widely practiced MA, with millions of very successful competitors outside Korea. The US, UK and a number of other places have shots to medal in TKD in any given tournament---Greece won silver in 2004, after all! (OK, Nikolaidis was KO'd as part of acquiring his silver, but it was still an Olympic silver, eh?). With wu shu, though---given the disparity you refer to between China and the rest of the world, it's hardly surprising what happened. I wonder if they'll try again down the line with a more inclusive and cooperative approach. If not, I don't think they're ever going to have a shot.

Well, the final word is actually not yet in, but it really doesn't look good at this point. I am sure there are those who will continue to work on this in the future.

You are right, it is a weird approach, but it seems this is what China is doing. I guess there are some myopic individuals over there running the show.

Personally, I always questioned the wisdom of doing this. I kind of feel that not everything should become an olympic event. It kind of screws things up in a lot of ways. Martial arts already has a lot of issues and problems and I think this just might make it worse. I've never been interested in the Modern Wushu myself. I told Sifu in the beginnning that I only wanted to study the traditional arts, and he has always respected my wishes in that.

With the extreme techniques they are pushing in the competitions now, a huge percentage of the competitors have injuries. Even the Beijing team, everyone has all their joints wrapped due to injuries, or for extra support because of the danger of the techniques. It's just kind of nonsense, at some point. The competitive career is very short, and the athletes are very young because you just cant do these things for very long. It's very myopic, in my opinion.

I just discovered that my Sifu, Bryant Fong, is featured in an interview in this magazine. Funny how he never seems to mention these things to me ahead of time...I just discovered it by paging thru in my local Borders.

It is the November/December, 2006 issue, starting on page 48.

The article is about the evolution and problems in Modern Wushu, as well as it's failed bid to become a demonstration sport in the olympics in Beijing.

Just thought I'd share.

That's pretty cool. Sounds like a great article too, I'm gonna have to check it out.

Well, he explains it quite a bit better in the article, but I'll try and give a synopsis:

Looks like China is developing modern wushu in directions that other countries can't match. They are the creative minds in the art, and they have state supported teams who do nothing but train. One thing they are doing is really boosting the level of dangerous acrobatics and other difficult techniques in the art. Not all the other countries want to do these, since they are dangerous and are leading to a lot of injuries, and they have nothing to do with real martial arts. But China is just sort of calling the shots and saying "this is our game, if you want to play, then play by our rules". Its turning the sport into a real "elite" sport that most cant keep up with.

In addition to that, outside China it is really disorganized. there are no standardized tournaments, or judges training and stuff. So in the end, the Olympic Committee just doesn't believe they are organized enough to make it worth while, so they aren't giving it the green light.


I believe that the problem lies with the direction that modern wushu has taken in the past decade. medals and championships are being awarded in wushu competitions to those who can do more flips, more spins and more flashy actions. now what is the difference between this and figure skating? not much. they are being awarded for difficulty of flips and speed of movements.
whats the problem with this, some might ask. while with each passing year, martial artists at a younger age are able to do more difficult acrobatic moves. at what price? the essence of wushu is sacraficed.
let us not forget that wushu was created as a form of self-defence. as an art of war. as a means of protecting and to help those who cannot help themselves. with every passing year and modern wushu requiring more and more aerial acrobatics, wushu steps further and further away from its original intentions.

as for the olympics, the reason why they would not put wushu to be a recognized sport is because they were not able to come up with a set of international standards in terms of how to judge the competitors. some wanted to judge it by having a set of "acrobatic movements" that they had to complete with each form. but others fought for the traditional side of wushu.

That's awesome about your Sifu being in the magazine! Good article, too. I only wish that the Olympic Committee would have allowed them to go ahead and organize Wushu into an Olympic Sport. That really would have been something. They have obvious reasons for not wanting to do so, but at the same time I must say, it would have been something remarkable to be able to sit back and watch Wushu at the Olympics lol. That would have been great.