Is Shaolin-Do for real?

[Kymus]

Based on what?

My experience with and study of Japanese culture and also the experiences and writings of gaijin living in Japan.

I'm pretty sure Peter Payne just recently wrote about the gun issue, but I can't seem to find the article. Interestingly, I found something that is on topic, regardless:

Often Japanese will not see the real America for all the preconceptions they have in their minds, which is why every woman in the U.S. is perceived as "blonde" and every man as "tall," even if they're not. Except for hunting in rural areas, there are no guns in Japan, and Japanese often obsess over them, asking people how many guns they keep in their house or visiting the many shooting ranges that cater to Japanese tourists. (link)

There's also the issue of the recent Toshiba commercial for the スイパンダ (SuiPanDa) which is being called racist because of the big nose and the heavily gaijin-accented nihongo.

[Kymus]

You've seen what 'Japan' thinks, or what a few people in Japan might think? I notice that some people speak of an entire country's population as if it's some monolithic entity.

I'm not an expert on Japan, but, I've studied their language and culture for years. There are foreigners (gaijin) living in Japan that express the same thing.

There are certain things you can just expect in Japan. It doesn't help matters much that group-think is heavily encouraged and I'm sure that only adds to it.

[Jimbo]

I'm not an expert on Japan, but, I've studied their language and culture for years. There are foreigners (gaijin) living in Japan that express the same thing.

There are certain things you can just expect in Japan. It doesn't help matters much that group-think is heavily encouraged and I'm sure that only adds to it.

Yes, but all Japanese people are not the same. A lot of Westerners say that 'all Japanese (or all Asians) look/think alike.' And if you reversed it, there are places or areas in the West you can say the same thing about and be every bit as right.

I'm of Japanese descent (though not native Japanese; very different), yet I can't count the number of non-Asian people who have assumed I must think, know, or follow the same beliefs/thoughts/habits, etc., as some other Japanese/Asian person they know. That gets very old, very fast. So when I see moronic stereotypes as in the vid, I don't see the humor in it at all. Sometimes a stereotype can be funny, depending on the spirit in which it's done. That vid just appeared to be made out of stupidity.

[Kymus]

If I meet someone who has a clear Japanese accent, I'll assume certain things about them based on Japanese culture. If they walk and talk like any other westerner, then I think of them as a westerner.

People get this all the time, regardless of race. (For example)

I think the people you are talking about just don't understand culture.

Every time I speak to a Japanese person in Japanese, they compliment me on my Japanese, whether it's horrible or actually decent. It's a cultural thing. Does that mean every Japanese person in the world will do that? No. But it's safe to bet on it.

That vid just appeared to be made out of stupidity.

Well, yea, that's the point of a parody. People say I don't see it as being racist because I'm not Asian. Ok, fair enough. But I don't feel like the aim is to be racist, just like the aim in the Japanese video I linked to isn't trying to be racist; it's blowing out a stereotype (blonde hair, big nose, heavily-accented Japanese-speaking gaijin with catch phrases that loves bread) to a specific audience (Japanese people).

[SoCo KungFu]

Yeah that blog by the Peter In Japan guy I have to disagree with. I lived there for 4 years and not once was I ever asked about guns or anything of the sort. The only guy that ever mentioned to me stereotypical western appearance to me was another American (expat) trying to get me to do a photo shoot for some clothing store I'm guessing was his.

I have been to Hawaii and I know the gun "clubs" that are being spoken of. I fail to see how that is them stereotyping westerners though. That's westerners realizing that they can rake in money providing tourists something they don't get to do at home. If anything it says more about what we think of them, than the other way around.

This is what I'll say about Japanese observations of foreigners, based on what I've gotten from them while I was there (warning: anecdotal). They think we work too hard and don't know how to relax. Which is funny because we say the same about them. They think we are too forward emotionally. Even if its just something small, they don't talk about it and trying to mediate a conflict, even between friends, can be a painful endeavor. Oh and Japanese have plenty of swear words. And once you're friends, they aren't afraid to teach them to you (so much for that overly polite Japanese modesty).

[Kymus]

Yeah that blog by the Peter In Japan guy I have to disagree with. I lived there for 4 years and not once was I ever asked about guns or anything of the sort.

Peter Payne's lived in Japan for something like over 20 years and his company, J-List is in Japan. He's married to a Japanese woman as well.

Maybe it depends on the region?

I've found the blonde hair stereotype to be common in Anime when there is a gaijin character. Although, this may also be because Japanese animators generally convey personalities through hair color (like the red head is usually the tsundere).

[Alex Córdoba]

Yes, but all Japanese people are not the same. A lot of Westerners say that 'all Japanese (or all Asians) look/think alike.' And if you reversed it, there are places or areas in the West you can say the same thing about and be every bit as right.

But we can agree that they are sexual pervs.

[Judge Pen]

My wife is of Japanese descent, but she was born in America. My in-laws were raised in Tokyo and Osaka but have been living in America since the 1960s. They both live with us now. It's easy to assume that my experiences transfer to a broader cultural experience, but I've never been to Japan myself and my understanding of the language is barely conversational. We laugh about many of the sterotypes within my own household and how many of them are based in truth and how many are exageratted.

To turn this back to the topic of the overall thread, my father-in-law holds a black belt in judo and a brown belt in shorin-ryu karate (his judo background translated into a wrestling scholorship to BYU which brought him to the US in the first place). We talk about our own martial arts background often and he does not see any Japanese flavor in SD (for whatever that is worth).

[kwaichang]

I have always said that. so I agree KC

[Kymus]

We talk about our own martial arts background often and he does not see any Japanese flavor in SD (for whatever that is worth).

I don't think it looks like Karate. I think it (well, the vast majority that is on YouTube) looks like a Karate guy trying to do a Kung Fu form. Or perhaps a kid watching a Kung Fu flick and then trying to do a form or something. Mostly, it's just people waving their arms around; no jing.

There are also movements that just don't make sense (like the odd tai chi form from the China video, and 2 of the fan forms I've seen). This isn't Karate (as in, real karate) but McDojo-style Karate.

Without knowing what it was, exactly, that Sin The made up, what was original, and what was gotten from books, I'd just shoot it out there that of the stuff I've seen on YouTube, there are movements that look like Kung Fu to me because they have a certain kind of flow, but again, it's the (sloppy) way the person moves.

[kwaichang]

GMThe taught this form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz1TZ...z7OW4XVdZr5abQ
anyone who took the form will you please C/C this with what you learned KC

[hskwarrior]

GMThe taught this form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz1TZ...z7OW4XVdZr5abQ
anyone who took the form will you please C/C this with what you learned KC

how could Sin The have taught this form when it says it was created by the guy in the video?
i've never met or experienced something so shameless as Sin The and the karate style known as Shaolin Do.

[Judge Pen]

how could Sin The have taught this form when it says it was created by the guy in the video?
i've never met or experienced something so shameless as Sin The and the karate style known as Shaolin Do.

It says that: "Shi De Yangs version." It does not say he created the form.

[Judge Pen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM-rmPJ-V4o

This is very very close to the version I was taught. I'm curious to get the opinions of those on this example.

[kwaichang]

I reviewed my DVD of the Hua 2 man set and it is just about verbatim. very few differences. if any worth mentioning KC