Black Belt Magazine: Mark Cheng "Wu De" article

[HuangKaiVun]

Has anybody seen this article in the latest issue of "Black Belt"?

The author, Mark Cheng (I think), writes about how two students from another school approached him about lessons.

Cheng turned them down because of "wu de", or filial piety. It was his - and his sifu's - belief that a student should stick with one teacher. Supposedly that was the "Chinese way".

I didn't agree in the least.

Maybe it's because of my Taiwanese background, but in Taiwan it's common for top achievers to solicit the help of as many quality professionals as possible.

I would agree with the one-on-one thing only in a nonpaying sifu-student relationship in which the student was accepted as a son. But in the context of modern day capitalism, I cannot agree with this mentality.

I didn't like the article because I'm an Asian American sifu and didn't want people being afraid to study with me if they had another teacher.

What did you guys think of that article?

[taijiquan_student]

I haven't read the article, but anyway...My teacher has studied from many people (though he is a disciple of his main teacher), but he said he didn't get in trouble for doing it because they all knew about it and usually one teacher introduced him to the next (he's learned from 3 people, not including his "real" or primary teacher). Traditionally, it wouldn't be right for him to be learning from one person, and then sneak off to another teacher. Now, in America, things generally aren't run in the old way.

[Budokan]

"Has anybody seen this article in the latest issue of "Black Belt"?"

Alas, no. I don't waste my time with that kiddie rag anymore. But you're right in your philosophy regarding teachers, IMO.