Taiwanese Arts.

[arnisador]

The current issue of Black Belt (July 2003) includes an article on traditional Taiwanese arts and states that they are distinct from Chinese arts and that, like karate, were influenced first by Chinese then later by Japanese arts.

I had always assumed that Taiwanese arts were simply southern Chinese arts.

 

[thekuntawman]

when i lived in taiwan, in the 1970s, i learned lion dance as a separate art from kung fu. we spent a long time learning the buddah dance, which was mostly gymnastics, then the lion was treated as a skillby itself. i havent seen any chinese martial arts schools that did this.

also my mom studied in a school that taught kyokoshinkai and hapkido. they said that kyokushinkai was korean martial arts in japan, which i know is not true, but that is what they told my mom. she also studied a knife technique that was suppose to be taiwanese only style. i know that in the south, like near taichung and tainan, the people have lots of pride and consider themself different from chinese people, even though they speak the same language. my mom believes that taiwanese kung fu is more combative in practice.

oh, also, we had a family friend who did "combat tai chi", which only had one form in the style. he is still there, i think. his name is joe morris, nickname "kung fu joe"

 

[yilisifu]

Yes, I believe that these are largely southern forms of kung-fu, but the Taiwanese would refer to them as "Taiwanese arts" mainly because they loathe the PRC....

 

[Randy Strausbaugh]

Originally posted by thekuntawman
... they said that kyokushinkai was korean martial arts in japan, which i know is not true, but that is what they told my mom.

They probably made that claim because Mas Oyama was Korean.:asian:

Trying to avoid life's potholes,
Randy Strausbaugh

 

[yilisifu]

Yes, that's true. His real name was Choi Yung Li.

 

[paihequan]

I believe that Kung-Fu Magazine is currently running some interesting articles on Taiwanese Martial Arts and Instructors:

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=351

:asian:

 

[arnisador]

Was there anything that the Taiwanese arts were known for before the Southern Chinese influence?

How ethnically distinct are the Taiwanese from the Chinese? Is it analogous to the Okinawans and Japanese or, as I always assumed, rather less separate? I don't know much about the history of Formosa!