Magnus750
04-23-2001, 06:59 PM
This is a crying shame, for those of you who know what I'm talking about, the Chinese Martial arts are almost dead since their practice was banned around WWII time. I think that, at one time, the Chinese had the best and most complete fighting styles around, considering that Thai boxing and jujitsu both are descended from Chinese boxing styles. I found this article on a site written by a "wushu" student, and it kind of explains the changes that have occurred. It would seem that most of the so-called "traditional" martial arts are not traditional, since they have been changed into a showmanship performance art for show and exercise since at least the 1950's. What a shame. It's the same way with the cable ban and all the other obstacles that today's real martial arts scene faces. If our society pushes away the MMA efforts, or add too many rules and restrictions, we may never see real fighting styles get recognized. Anyway, here's the article:
"Wushu means "martial arts" in chinese, and in ancient times it was used primarily as a form of combat in china. Since 1958, china revised the old traditional wushu forms, combining them with peking opera, gymnastics, and acrobatics to create a contemporary art form that is aesthetically pleasing, visually exciting, and physically demanding. While the forms still contain kicks and punches, main emphasis is now on developing the physical abilities of the performer and on interpreting the flavor and the spirit of each particular style of Wushu. Contempory chinese wushu contains over 300 different forms; there are northern styles and southern styles, internal forms and external forms..."
There was a NHB event held in Russia before WWII that was won by Fang Yuk Tong, who was a strongman and Praying Mantis fighter. Some of the last real Chinese boxers were Lo Kwang Yu, the Praying Mantis fighter, and Wang Shu-Chen, the Hsing-I and Bagua fighter who was also very strong. Most of the old time guys were well trained in shuai chiao, chi kung, iron palm and had lots of strength.
It's a shame that since most people think of Jackie Chan movies and Jason Delucia, they will not bother with Chinese methods because all they know about is the showmanship styles that have no practical value.
You can still find jing training and iron palm, but nowadays the closest thing to Chinese boxing is probably Thai boxing or burmese style boxing, which is almost the same thing except that it allows headbutts and some groundfighting. It would still be interesting if we could see how Yu and Fang trained, because I guarantee that they did not hang out in a dojo and practice forms all day.
I would like to see a group of people do for Chinese boxing what the Gracies did for jujitsu and judo - take the sport amd performance elements out and make it recognized as a fighting style. The problem is, I can only think of four or five people off the top of my head who practice Chinese boxing and not "wushu" performance arts. San Shou is a step in the right direction, but it is not very popular and it might as well be another Thai boxing organization.
Just wondering if anyone out there has any similar sentiments...
"Wushu means "martial arts" in chinese, and in ancient times it was used primarily as a form of combat in china. Since 1958, china revised the old traditional wushu forms, combining them with peking opera, gymnastics, and acrobatics to create a contemporary art form that is aesthetically pleasing, visually exciting, and physically demanding. While the forms still contain kicks and punches, main emphasis is now on developing the physical abilities of the performer and on interpreting the flavor and the spirit of each particular style of Wushu. Contempory chinese wushu contains over 300 different forms; there are northern styles and southern styles, internal forms and external forms..."
There was a NHB event held in Russia before WWII that was won by Fang Yuk Tong, who was a strongman and Praying Mantis fighter. Some of the last real Chinese boxers were Lo Kwang Yu, the Praying Mantis fighter, and Wang Shu-Chen, the Hsing-I and Bagua fighter who was also very strong. Most of the old time guys were well trained in shuai chiao, chi kung, iron palm and had lots of strength.
It's a shame that since most people think of Jackie Chan movies and Jason Delucia, they will not bother with Chinese methods because all they know about is the showmanship styles that have no practical value.
You can still find jing training and iron palm, but nowadays the closest thing to Chinese boxing is probably Thai boxing or burmese style boxing, which is almost the same thing except that it allows headbutts and some groundfighting. It would still be interesting if we could see how Yu and Fang trained, because I guarantee that they did not hang out in a dojo and practice forms all day.
I would like to see a group of people do for Chinese boxing what the Gracies did for jujitsu and judo - take the sport amd performance elements out and make it recognized as a fighting style. The problem is, I can only think of four or five people off the top of my head who practice Chinese boxing and not "wushu" performance arts. San Shou is a step in the right direction, but it is not very popular and it might as well be another Thai boxing organization.
Just wondering if anyone out there has any similar sentiments...