Traditional Wushu vs Cinematic Wushu

[Jimbo]

I'm with bawang on that one. if you look at the guys training at the muay thai gym I attend and compare them with those where I train kung fu, the difference is obvious. That's not to say there is no masculinity in kung fu, but sport fighting tends to draw it more, at least in my experience. If that was the experience of most, you would think kung fu would be as popular as MMA. As I've said before, if fighting was seen more - san da, shuai chiao, etc. then more masculinity would be attracted to it. Guys who want to fight are instantly turned away because they are under the impression that it's all forms, smoke and flowery techniques - things that attract the "nerd" group.

I agree with this. Of course, a competitive fighting environment attracts more testosterone-fueled types, usually a younger crowd. It is something that a lot of people (males especially) need to experience and get out of their systems while still young. It is a natural stage of life for (many/most) males. If it's suppressed, it can come out in unproductive ways.

Even if KF were taught in an MMA-style environment, I still believe that MMA as it's seen today would still outstrip KF in popularity because it's streamlined and the standard methods (MT, BJJ, boxing and wrestling) are already in place, for obvious reasons. Even when somebody comes in, fights differently and is successful, that "new" art is never sought out for standard MMA. Even if a KF guy went in and won using obvious KF techniques, he would be seen as an aberration at best. He is usually also viewed as "just lucky" or boring, especially if he doesn't stand and trade like rock 'em sock 'em robots. Audiences generally don't tend to like or accept unconventional things, even if they work well enough. And the KF crowd would probably be criticizing that he really wasn't using KF or was doing it all wrong. That type of unproductive, passive-aggressive backstabbing among CMAists is another common issue that holds KF/CMA back.