Wu Shu Not Martial

[Foiling Fist]

Interview with former Shaolin monk, Zhang Lipeng, by Barbara Malvik

BM: Why do people ask you "Is wushu kung fu?"

Zhang Lipeng: So many Europeans and Americans think wushu is kung fu - kung fu is wushu. Wushu translates to English as "martial art." Fifty or sixty years ago, China's president, Chairman Mao, changed kung fu to become something that looks like gymnastics - like dance, and just beautiful - not form or fight.
Because Chairman Mao didn't want people to train for fighting because he was so worried about people trying to...

BM: ...to take his power away.

Zhang Lipeng: ...to take his power away. That's why they say kung fu is very dangerous. Chairman Mao's real bodyguard was from Shaolin Temple.
…
His martial arts were so amazing. So I think that's why Chairman Mao wanted martial arts ended. He saw his bodyguard, Shi Xuyu, was so good at training in martial arts. Can you imagine if somebody else - in China there are so many people who can do training very well - if somebody else used him, then what? So that's why he changed them to martial arts.

BM: Chairman Mao made it illegal to train in martial arts?

Zhang Lipeng: Yes. All martial arts. You could not have swords or anything. He's the one who changed everything. That's why right now they have the modern martial arts and the history martial arts. In history martial arts you train one form for twenty years. In modern martial arts you jump up and down, you flip around; beautiful, nice movements-that's not kung fu. That stuff is only for looks.”

From: http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=591

[omarthefish]

I'm pretty sure the "bodyguard" me refers to is Xu Shiyou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Shiyou). It's spelled slightly wrong in the article.

That dude is widely thought of as the most skilled Shaolin fighter of the 20th century. I have never heard of him as a bodyguard but he was a major general in first the KMT and then later in the PLA.

From the Wiki, linked above:

Xu Shiyou (1906–1985; Chinese: 许世友; pinyin: Xǔ Shìyǒu) was a general in the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Born in Hubei, Xu grew up studying martial arts at the Shaolin Temple for eight years and he later became a soldier in Wu Peifu's warlord army. After having served as a lieutenant in the Kuomintang army, he joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1927.

[Mountainway1]

Real Classical Wu Shu is just as tough and brutal as any application oriented art. Classical CMA is something most people in the world do not practice due to a lack of urgency to develop such skills. People are more interested in making money becuase that is more important for most in this era of humanity. For those who wish to realize the skills of times past should consider a professional fight career. You are paid to unlock the highest levels of your art. MMA competition can be a opportunity for Classical Chinese Martial Artists if they re-prove the relevence of CMA by may of demonstration. In my area that is what we are doing. We compete against gyms that have UFC level fighters as training partners and when we step into the cage they know they had better be ready to bring it. We do not win everytime but we always leave with more respect for CMA. Drill, drill, drill is our motto. Remember it takes about 10,000 hour of practice to unlock real skill.

[IronFist]

So it's his fault?

[taai gihk yahn]

to this thread?

I mean, it's not like it's some big revelation, "OMG! PRC-sanctioned standardized wushu ISN'T about fighting? Oh, the humanity!"

really now...

[bawang]

i think chairman mao pretty cool guy. he destroy china and not afraid anything.

[Foiling Fist]

Mao was good for building up and unifying China, but was bad for the martial arts.
To add balance to my criticism, see the book; 'Red Star Over China, by Snow; for a good glimpse of Mao's beginnings.

From Wiki: "a book by Edgar Snow, is an account of the Communist Party of China written when they were a guerrilla army still obscure to Westerners. Along with Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, it was the most influential book on Western understanding and sympathy for China in the 1930s"
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Star-over-China-Communism/dp/0802150934

The combined effect of banning martial arts, Buddhism, and free speech; resulted in a stop of all creative thinking, and developement that was not approved.

This might have been justified right after he came to power, but was not justified in the Cultural Revolution, and is dead wrong now.

The only reason that China is promoting Wu Shu, is for luring the gullible, tourists, fame and money.
How can one claim to be a man, let alone a fighter or a warrior; when they are afraid to speak up?

[wenshu]

Ok. Um, at least you're not spamming. . .yet?


The combined effect of banning martial arts, Buddhism, and free speech; resulted in a stop of all creative thinking, and developement that was not approved.

This might have been justified right after he came to power, but was not justified in the Cultural Revolution, and is dead wrong now.


Cultural suppression is China's national pastime.

One could even conclude that this very tendency towards cultural suppression is actually nourishment of the struggle necessary for monumental greatness in art.
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljcq7wOYwC1qa6me5o1_400.jpg



The only reason that China is promoting Wu Shu, is for luring the gullible, tourists, fame and money.
How can one claim to be a man, let alone a fighter or a warrior; when they are afraid to speak up?


<contemptuous sarcasm>Yes, thank you, that is very insightful.</contemptuous sarcasm>

Almost two billion people all utterly lacking in any capacity for or history of culturally subversive creative thinking because of the Cultural Revolution and censorship. . .
http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2011/05/chineseegg.jpg

http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8523806/Man-behind-Great-Firewall-of-China-pelted-with-eggs.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8523806/Man-behind-Great-Firewall-of-China-pelted-with-eggs.html)

[SimonM]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that while he's a decent architect, Ai Weiwei is mostly a crap artist.

And he's more tax dodger than he is democratic activist, regardless of what people might like to believe over here.

[wenshu]

Fair criticism to be sure and I wasn't making reference to him because of his activist status. I just like that picture and I don't know **** about the modern Chinese art scene other than for a time it was rich with creative self expression that surpasses anything in the decadent west. He just happened to be the name I know of to be associated with it, there are certainly better examples I could have chosen.

[David Jamieson]

What China needs is a 60's revolution and a drug habit.

then she'll get creative again.

right now, it seems that copyists are called artists and artists are called criminals. So we don't actually get to see an art scene.

Art is a commentary on life, and when life is dystopic, crap police state brainwashed sh1t, then art is too contradictory to the perceived reality.

I'm not talking about avant-gardes who wipe poo on canvas and name it "life". These people do that out of sheer frustration and a frank inability to articulate their thoughts through art. So, they hit the lowest common denominator. Which oddly enough, hits the widest audience.

Real artists paint the problem in the hopes of finding a solution when working in regards to social commentary through art.

anyway...blah blah blah who cares about art right?

[Ray Pina]

China is remarkable right now. It's so focused.

Whatever it was, the country definitely seems to be moving in the right direction for the average person. More education. More food. More money.

Giving up Kung FU is equivalent to giving up Billy the Kid cowboy dreams. That's not what the country needs right now. It needs engineers, physicists and economists... not iron palm.

[bawang]

i support traditional classical art and music and i think the prc governement should give more funding for those. but smearing menstral blood or making giant statues of penuses should be left to the americans.

[Scott R. Brown]

i support traditional classical art and music and i think the prc governement should give more funding for those. but smearing menstral blood or making giant statues of penuses should be left to the americans.

I the menstrual blood "thing" is European!

[wenshu]

Personal taste in avant garde art isn't the point.

[SimonM]

Wang Guangyi

http://www.e-flux.com/show_images/1220549531image_web.jpg

Playful sense of humour even if he does sort of beat the theme to death sometimes.

Yue Minjun

http://www.artspeakchina.org/mediawiki/images/thumb/b/b8/Yue_Minjun-Execution.jpg/575px-Yue_Minjun-Execution.jpg

I am not fond of his motifs but I can't deny he has talent.

Another Cynical Realist,

Fang Lijun

http://www.escapeintolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/01702.jpg

And finally, my personal favourite of the Contemporary Chinese Art greats - Zeng Fanzhi

http://www.initialaccess.co.uk/admin/artistimg/22.jpg

http://artmarketmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Zeng-Fanzhi-Mask-Series-No.-21-%C2%A3800-1.2m1.jpg
I'd say all four of these artists are both more talented and more subversive than Ai Weiwei, but they pay their taxes, and don't jump in front of cameras to shout about how oppressed they are, so they don't get into trouble.

[MightyB]

Interview with former Shaolin monk, Zhang Lipeng, by Barbara Malvik
From: http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=591

Good article - a lot of it has been discussed to death on this board, but somehow it's validated when a Shaolin Monk says the same things that a bunch of us wannabe neophyte knuckleheaded forms faeries who haven't seen the reelz have been saying for a long time.

[GeneChing]

His new DVD, THE LAST KUNG FU MONK (http://www.kungfumagazine.net/index.html), is our sweepstakes this week (ends this Thursday 09/08/2011)

Here's the ongoing thread on him in the Shaolin forum. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44685)