Nice to see some more Fins around here.
And now to the point,
"I have noticed in chineese martial arts an attitude that states that its the way that is important, not the end. So wouldnt the concept of kung fu be a bit out of place in chineese martial arts??"
I canīt see exactly why.
I think it could be said that is the journey which is important and brings all of the emotion and experiences while end is more like a destination where we will eventually be sent to...I hope Iīm making sense here.
Translations vary considering this is chinese but "technique","energy-time","hard work" (one of those more popular translations) and "skill gained from hard work" which pretty much supportīs monk weedīs explanation.
Things being like that,kung-fu/gong-fu is a broad description generally accepted in western regions and around the world.
"Wushu"=martial art is a more specific way to describe chinese martial arts but can easily be linked to olympic/sport related,modern CMA which I think,has been also described as "huafa" meaning "flowery fist" or something like that.
Other names could include "kuatsu" which also relates to chinese MA,but which is probably rare.
After all,these are just words used to describe something greater.
I might still like to point out that "local" terms like "kung-fu" which is chinese,is logically best used to describe Chinese martial arts.Besides this,it can be more appropriate to talk about arts with their related names:-
kung-fu/wushu etc.=indirect chinese terms used to describe CMA.
budo="martial way","way of seizing weapons"=japanese term used to describe japanese arts (it wonīt probably harm at all to mention that term "budo" may be used loosely to describe nearly any art(ist)-"budoka"=martial artist (best used to describe a practitioner of JMA)
mudo="korean martial arts".This is my own understanding of this word and I believe it to be decent.
Some words in japanese and korean are similar,like "do"=way.
Again,a more specific term solely for korean arts.
Young korean martial art of "han moo (mu) do" basically means the same.
The sunsetīs setting down.Lay me on the forest floor.
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I do not necessarily stand behind all of the statements I have made in the past, in this forum. Some of the statements may have appeared to support a biased view of reality, and may have been offensive. If you are a moral person and were hurt by comments that I made, you can PM me about it and I will apologize if I find your cause reasonable.
-FC, summer of 2006-