Kung Fu in China isn't what you think
- Thread starter TMA17
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MacPark
White Belt
I think he has some fair points and although I am no expert on the matter I believe he may be forgetting a few things. He states TKD schools are "everywhere". Whether or not this is true im not sure, but I would feel that many traditional schools probably dont advertise and have big shop fronts the way many TKD schools might. I have seen many documentary that suggest that traditional Chinese martial arts schools exist are all over china. I think you need to look a little harder. I like this guys vids and he sounds like a cool dude but I think to suggest that he might be right in some facts he might be off on others.
jobo
Grandmaster
Other than just being xenophobic, there no logical reason why the Chinese would stick with a ma system that is to the most part inferior to ma systems from other countries,
People from other countries may be attracted to it, by romanticism, it's a traditional ma, where as the Chinese may want some thing that actual works,
You don't need SEE Germans walking about in leather shorts, even though they are tradition, they tend to go with the FAR more practical trousers of the 21st century
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Guys got great Radio voice
He is not wrong, but he is not 100% right either, China is freaking huge, and a bit disconnected at times, and some of this is regional
Wing Chun is Southern, there are many Chinese Wing Chun teachers in Hong Kong and Southern China.
There is a Chinese teacher teaching Ip Man Wing Chun in Beijing...but as far as I know, he is the only one
There are a lot of touristy Kung Fu/Wushu places in Beijing
There are also MMA, BJJ, Kendo, TKD, Karate and various other styles being taught in Beijing
His view of the younger generation, that too is correct and it has been that for awhile. One chid policy however, the Chinese found a way around that, it is called married, have children, get divorced, marry someone else and have another child. And the one child policy was not enforced in the countryside
Rift between China and Japan, yes, but it tends to be older folks and it also tends to be more intense the closer you get to areas the atrocities were committed... Shanghai is one of those places. Can find the same animosity between Mainland and Taiwan, more on the Taiwan side of that. And he is correct, the younger Chinese (college age and younger) is really big on things Japanese, especially anime
There are a lot of folks teaching and demonstrating martial arts in Beijing that are doing it for Foreigners and it is mostly flash and show. However there are traditional teacher left in Beijing, but they are few and far between, do not advertise a lot and hard to find. I did a post years ago here on MT about the number of Baguazhang lineages that were dyeing. Much of that was due to traditional views of the teachers. They were old and old school, and they would not teach people who jsut showed up and wanted to learn, they needed to except them as a student. Younger Chinese don't want to wait..so they leave..the guy has no students, he dies and his art goes with him.
As far as the Communist government under Mao and the Chinese government view, yup. But if you look at the history of Dynastic Change in China, they suppress a lot of things that they think are threats, and martial arts and martial artists are generally looked on as a threat
Also crime rates in major cites in China tends to be very low, i walked in places in Beijing that I would NEVER even enter if it were NYC
Romanticizing notion of titles, yup.... a lot of that is for the foreigners. As far as the use of Shifu for taxi drivers, I believe that may be geographical. Did not hear it in Beijing....does not mean it is used now, it was not prior to the olympics in Beijing
He is not wrong, but he is not 100% right either, China is freaking huge, and a bit disconnected at times, and some of this is regional
Wing Chun is Southern, there are many Chinese Wing Chun teachers in Hong Kong and Southern China.
There is a Chinese teacher teaching Ip Man Wing Chun in Beijing...but as far as I know, he is the only one
There are a lot of touristy Kung Fu/Wushu places in Beijing
There are also MMA, BJJ, Kendo, TKD, Karate and various other styles being taught in Beijing
His view of the younger generation, that too is correct and it has been that for awhile. One chid policy however, the Chinese found a way around that, it is called married, have children, get divorced, marry someone else and have another child. And the one child policy was not enforced in the countryside
Rift between China and Japan, yes, but it tends to be older folks and it also tends to be more intense the closer you get to areas the atrocities were committed... Shanghai is one of those places. Can find the same animosity between Mainland and Taiwan, more on the Taiwan side of that. And he is correct, the younger Chinese (college age and younger) is really big on things Japanese, especially anime
There are a lot of folks teaching and demonstrating martial arts in Beijing that are doing it for Foreigners and it is mostly flash and show. However there are traditional teacher left in Beijing, but they are few and far between, do not advertise a lot and hard to find. I did a post years ago here on MT about the number of Baguazhang lineages that were dyeing. Much of that was due to traditional views of the teachers. They were old and old school, and they would not teach people who jsut showed up and wanted to learn, they needed to except them as a student. Younger Chinese don't want to wait..so they leave..the guy has no students, he dies and his art goes with him.
As far as the Communist government under Mao and the Chinese government view, yup. But if you look at the history of Dynastic Change in China, they suppress a lot of things that they think are threats, and martial arts and martial artists are generally looked on as a threat
Also crime rates in major cites in China tends to be very low, i walked in places in Beijing that I would NEVER even enter if it were NYC
Romanticizing notion of titles, yup.... a lot of that is for the foreigners. As far as the use of Shifu for taxi drivers, I believe that may be geographical. Did not hear it in Beijing....does not mean it is used now, it was not prior to the olympics in Beijing
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Much of what he says sound like one of my classmates who grew up on in China. He's always telling the students how Chinese in general view Kung Fu. But as far as the other stuff goes. I have no clue. I haven't read much about Chinese history. Much of my knowledge about Chinese History in reference to martial arts is by word of mouth, which is similar to what he's saying.
I left a comment in the video to explain that there are 2, somewhat different words for 'shifu', 师父 is the more commonly used to signify a master/teacher relationship, where as 师傅 is a respectful term for a skilled tradesman. These 2 terms may be used for a martial arts instructor, but there is a slight difference in the meaning.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
师父 literally means teacher(Shi) father(fu). This is the term you would use to address your own martial arts master. Depending on the convention within your school or lineage, a student may instead address his instructor as 老师 (general term for teacher) if he/she is not an ‘indoor’ disciple; this is the case for my Chen style teacher. For my Cheng Man Ching style teacher, all of us address him as 师父 regardless of our status.
师傅 refers to someone who is a teacher skilled in a certain trade or craft. Unlike the character 父(father), 傅 does not have a unique meaning as a stand alone word, except as a surname or in conjunction with other characters all forming compound words denoting some sort of teacher/master.
师傅 would be a term you use to address a martial artist or instructor who is not your own master. To me the term is respectful but less personal, although there is no rule to say you can’t use it to address your own teacher, it would seem somewhat diminished relationship wise. Conversely, I would never call a taxi driver 师父 unless he happened to be imparting his secret taxi driving skills to me.
