History of Modern Wushu... anyone?

[soulfist]

Where does "wushu" come from? I know the short story is it was created during the culture revolution when kung fu was banned, but isnt there more to the story than this? It must have been created by people who knew kung fu already, who could the founders/creators of this be?

[David Jamieson]

A gathering of various known kung fu masters designed a sporting version of the national arts and removed much of the martial aspect in favour of gymnastic aspect at the behest of the communist leaders before, during the mid point and at the end of the cultural revolution.

It in essence was a communist plot to keep martial heritage alive but taking the rebellious nature of martial arts out of it and turning it into an expression of that which served the purpose of nationalism without the danger of revolution.

in my humble opinion.

[brianlkennedy]

The history of modern Wushu is interesting and more complex than the simple idea "The commies took the fighting out". The modern Wushu program was an extenstion of both the Jingwu program and the National Guoshu programs. As to the development of the PRC's Wushu program, the best (and actually one of the only) english language discussions of it is in Prof. Kang Gewu's book.

Like many folks I used to believe that the PRC's Wushu program was responsible for the fact that Chinese martial arts had lost its combat aspects. But---as I take a harder historical look it becomes obvious to me that Chinese unarmed martial arts had lost its combat aspects much earlier, probably by the mid 1800s with the arrival of pistols into China In fact many southern martial arts systems never really had anything that could be seen as serious fighting.

take care,
Brian

[bawang]

in an interview with yu hai he stated it was the athletes themselves who decided to move toward flashy performance. the spectators wanted to see flashy exciting moves.

[omarthefish]

The history of modern Wushu is interesting and more complex than the simple idea "The commies took the fighting out". The modern Wushu program was an extenstion of both the Jingwu program and the National Guoshu programs. As to the development of the PRC's Wushu program, the best (and actually one of the only) english language discussions of it is in Prof. Kang Gewu's book.

Like many folks I used to believe that the PRC's Wushu program was responsible for the fact that Chinese martial arts had lost its combat aspects. But---as I take a harder historical look it becomes obvious to me that Chinese unarmed martial arts had lost its combat aspects much earlier, probably by the mid 1800s with the arrival of pistols into China In fact many southern martial arts systems never really had anything that could be seen as serious fighting.

take care,
Brian

What he said.

I wouldn't have had the balls to go all the way back to the 1800's but at the very minimum you have to go back to the Nanjing Academy and before that, the Jingwu days and even if you want to go all "Commies spoiled kung fu!" you have to realize that before they were repressing it in the early 70's they were promoting it in the 50's and 60's. Sport Sanda was pretty much a pre-cultural revolution PRC invention. The communist party has promoted fighting arts when it suited them and repressed them when it didn't.

[soulfist]

Good stuff, thats the direction Im looking at!

How about the date, like the 60's? There must have been many people involved and I guess northern and southern practitioners. Ill look for that Prof. Kang Gewu book, thanks Brian!

I hope some others will share what they know, there must be alot to the story.

[David Jamieson]

I don't disagree with Brian or Omar and I agree the process was much longer.
The PRC involvement in that process in regards to what is wushu now can't be minimized though.

[Ben Gash]

Good stuff, thats the direction Im looking at!

How about the date, like the 60's? There must have been many people involved and I guess northern and southern practitioners. Ill look for that Prof. Kang Gewu book, thanks Brian!

I hope some others will share what they know, there must be alot to the story.

People have already said, it was fluid. Probably the start of the mentality that led towards the evolution of sport Wushu was the promotion of Kung Fu as a nationalistic exercise for improving the health of the nation during the early republican period.