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Thread: Shaolin's K-Star

  1. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by Faruq View Post
    In fact, I'd venture to say that if the winner isn't a master from Canton, Shanghai or Hong Kong-we all know it's fake and just to drum up more tourism.
    they could be from malayasia or singapore. china isnt the only place with chinese
    Quote Originally Posted by Psycho Mantis View Post
    Genes too busy rocking the gang and scarfing down bags of cheetos while beating it to nacho ninjettes and laughing at the ridiculous posts on the kfforum. In a horse stance of course.

  2. #62
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    nandu are the difficulty rules for modern wushu. and involve jumps and balancing acts.
    Quote Originally Posted by Psycho Mantis View Post
    Genes too busy rocking the gang and scarfing down bags of cheetos while beating it to nacho ninjettes and laughing at the ridiculous posts on the kfforum. In a horse stance of course.

  3. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by brothernumber9 View Post
    Pardon my ignorance, but what is 'nandu'? That is, what generic flavor or styles are lumped into it?
    No. That just means "difficult moves". It refers to added flips, half axels, front flip landing on one foot etc. Stuff that was added to forms to demonstrate "high difficulty" and are basically just gymnastics. They were calling them "nandu" (literally: difficult level) moves. For the olympic wushu that was being proposed they had a scoring system that included bonuses for including these moves.

    Quote Originally Posted by Faruq View Post
    Oh, I wasn't talking about Sanda, I was talking about gong fu. LOL. And I had heard that all the good people that weren't killed fled to places like Hong Kong, the U.S. and Canada. But I was being facetious. I see I didn't put my 'LOL' after my statement.
    Ok. Then just tone town my post about 3 notches but I'd actually still correct you on the history. Much of that DID happen but not NEARLY to the degree that is described by those from those areas that are suppoesdly the only areas with real stuff and I am not just refering to Sanda either. Sanda fighters often come from the same areas as traditional fighters becaues the people just tend to be tougher there. You get a lot of Sanda and Shuai Jiao people coming from Mongolia for instance. Mongolians tend to be bigger and stronger than your average Han Chinese. They really love their shuai jiao too. No real flight of Shuai Jiao people as a result of the political upheaval. Different cultural context. The other place I was alluding to is Shandong, up in the northeast. Again, people tend to be taller, harder drinking, rougher etc. in that regiond. Some hard core fighters from that area. Hebei is the home of Baji and Pigua and heavily Hui. The Hui really love their fighting. Lot's of Hui here in Xi'an. That's why you have to much good Tongbei around here. Cangzhou (in Hebei) is mostly known for Baji and Pigua. Let's not forget Beijing.

    It's not just film that warps the perception of where great martial artists come from. It's also simply the ability of people to leave. Most Chinese immigrants come from Hong Kong because....it's no big deal to leave Hong Kong. Then you get a lot from Guangzhou because that is a coastal city and also probably the richest province in all of China so those people can afford to leave. Shanghai has a similar situation. Very international even back in the Republican era. If you wanted to flee China, your best chance would be through Shanghai or Guagzhou. I bet some of those old masters who fled from those areas really did feel like "everyone was leaving". But if you were just a **** peasant somewhere in Guangzhou.....

    No one was going anywhere.

    In Xi'an it turns out there was a huge INflux of martial arts activity during the 50's and early 60's. My Shiye, Zhang Xiangwu, was a mid level general for the KMT. When the communists took over they didn't execute him. They relocated him and he of course had to retire from the military. He retired in Xi'an where he took up teaching MA privately. My own teacher "cut his teeth" fighting during the cultural revolution. Lots of street violence around Xi'an in those days. We can also "thank" the cultural revolution for all the excellent Chen style in Xi'an. It has even been called by some a "second Chen Village". Again, this was due to some of the forced relocations. Some really good people from Henan ended up in Xi'an.

    Shanghai remains a center of traditional arts as does Beijing and Shanghai. I am not convinced Guangzhou has particularly much but Hong Kong sure does.

    Anyways, the only people who fled the country were those with enough wealth and influence to do so. Martial artists are not known for being especially wealthy or influential.

  4. #64
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    Well said omarthefish

    A lot of people forget that financial point you make at the end of your last post. It's an important one. I think even more people miss why the Cultural Revolution even started. China didn't destroy itself because commies are evil. It destroyed itself because the nation was on the brink of disaster. Preceding the CR was the three hard years, a horrific period of drought complicated by a population explosion. Countless people starved to death. Revolutions happen when people are hungry.

    Nandu wasn't only proposed. It's been implemented. It's been a significant factor in international wushu competitions. You'll have to check out our next issue, the NOV DEC 2006, because we tackle the implications head on. Time to subscribe.


    BTW, I've taken up monitoring Jack Tu's progress on his dad's thread in our media forum.
    Gene Ching
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  5. #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    A lot of people forget that financial point you make at the end of your last post. It's an important one. I think even more people miss why the Cultural Revolution even started. China didn't destroy itself because commies are evil. It destroyed itself because the nation was on the brink of disaster.
    It destroyed itself because the nation was on the brink of disaster because commies are evil. Not exactly commies, but the commies running the govt. over there. As everybody always points out, those are socialist nations, not communist, and the only true communes existing are the kibbutz or something.

    Anyway, I'm not sure how destroying culture and temples would help them with the food problem. The entire thing happened not just because of the drought, but because of Mao's social engineering programs, relocating city people to the country and all the other stupid stuff they did.

  6. #66
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    evil commies, eh?

    I suggest you do some research on China and the precursors to the Cultural Revolution. It's not as simple as evil commies. Try starting with the 'three hard years'.

    This thread fell off the main page, so I've moved it and merged it with this one.
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  7. #67
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    The thing that you have to get is that it's not that destroying temples and denegrating academics will help people who are starving. However these actions were nothing to do with Marxist or even Maoist ideology. Read through Marx and I challenge you to find something saying that intellectualism is inherently bad. Rather they were people trying to simultaneously distract themselves from their problems and to find somebody to blame.

    If you went over to China you wouldn't hear much about the CR but you certainly wouldn't hear ANYTHING good about it.
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  8. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    I suggest you do some research on China and the precursors to the Cultural Revolution. It's not as simple as evil commies. Try starting with the 'three hard years'.

    This thread fell off the main page, so I've moved it and merged it with this one.
    Yeah, you are right. You can't really blame the stupidity of the entire human race on a few people.

    I guess it is to blame of the stupidity of the human race->evil commies->Mao.

  9. #69
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    The results are in

    I posted the results here. Overall, the show was a smash hit in China, apparently. They will probably do another.
    Gene Ching
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  10. #70
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    I sent them some fight footage in the spring and I was invited out to California to attent the trials but it was last minute, and I would have had to pay for flight and hotel and I couldn't get off work.... they also wanted you to do form and applications.... they made it very clear there would be no contact. No actual comparing of usuable skill.

    This disapointed me, because how do you compete with the level of martial arts already available on TV (TUF) by showing Wushu... it will only make KUng Fu look rediculous.

  11. #71
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    There's a reason why it's called K-STAR...

    The show was intent on discovering new martial arts talent for movies. This was not about who was the best fighter at all. That was clear from the outset. The competitors had to have movie star charisma. They had to show all kinds of talents, not just martial arts, but music, painting, dance, singing, other unique skills that are needed to be a Chinese celebrity. In that regard, it was akin to a beauty pageant. They did do some sparring, but that was only one facet, and I think that was more to test their character then to determine who had the best fighting skills. The competitors just needed to be competant sparring guys. They weren't looking for the next sanshou or MMA champ. Sandawang was all about fighting. This was more about showmanship.

    If you expected to fight your way in, Ray, I think you misread the nature of this competition. Did you submit a talent?
    Gene Ching
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  12. #72
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0clfM7kO80

    ending credits and video montage from the 2006 K-STAR televised martial arts competition. Where 36 Martial Artists chosen from over 100,000 applicants from across the globe compete in the largest scale reality produced TV show in China co-sponsered by the Shaolin Temple.

    Sorry Gene i accidently deleted my other post =[ Could you bring it back? Haha

  13. #73
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    Nice to have you on board, Philip

    Unfortunately, once a thread is deleted here, it's gone for good.

    There's a pic of you in our upcoming issue (Jan/Feb 2007, on stands in the next week or so). We have a short article in that issue covering K-Star. That must have been quite an experience to be part of - truly extraordinary.

    BTW, I noticed some gettyimages watermarks in your little youtube video. Why were those watermarks there? Didn't you clear them with getty?
    Gene Ching
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  14. #74
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    A K-Star related article

    I was going to find an Olympic Wushu thread, but I got lazy, so I'm posting this here.

    Olympic dream kicking at school of hard knocks
    (Reuters)
    Updated: 2006-11-21 09:19

    Lu Jinming felt like he had been kicked in the guts when he heard that martial art wushu would not be a demonstration sport at the Beijing 2008 Games.

    "We are still very hopeful of it becoming an Olympic item," Lu sighed, as he studied 10-year-olds brandishing swords and launching flying kicks metres away from him.

    "But unfortunately the decision is out of our hands."

    As a senior coach at Beijing's prestigious Shichahai Sports School, Lu has championed wushu -- both a contact and exhibition sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts -- for decades and watched graduates mount podiums from regional championships right up to the Asian Games.

    The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, loath to endorse more than 28 sports at the Summer Games after years of expansion, have slammed the door shut on wushu for Beijing.

    An international wushu tournament is scheduled for 2008 but it will lack the demonstration status that Korean martial art taekwondo enjoyed at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics on its way to becoming a full sport at the Sydney 2000 Games.

    With an estimated 60-80 million participants in China alone, the problem is not that wushu is too much of a fringe sport for an Olympic club that welcomes beach volleyball and BMX cycling at Beijing 2008.

    It was rather that wushu's highly technical nature might baffle some audiences, Lu said.

    "For most foreigners, the spirit and culture of wushu is hard to understand," Lu said.

    BAFFLING ROUTINES

    Watching Lu's 16-year-old prodigy Zhang Fan perform a "Taolu" routine is a case in point.

    After one-and-a-half minutes of leaping, spinning kicks and blood-curdling roars, Zhang left the training floor panting, making way for a spear-wielding trainee.

    Taolu wushu is the Chinese answer to floor gymnastics, with athletes performing choreographed routines but with kicks, punches and weapons rather than flips, ribbons and balls.

    Zhang's highly watchable performance is nonetheless difficult to judge.

    A routine's elegance, flow and difficulty -- even the expressions and roars of the performers -- make up the final score.

    "In all aspects I want to do well, the thing I most fear is laziness," Zhang, Beijing champion for his age group, said.

    Zhang wants to take on the world and beat it. He wants to join the cream of Shichahai's alumni -- an elite group that includes Olympic table tennis gold medallist Zhang Yining and Athens Games taekwondo champion Luo Wei.

    Ironically, Zhang may have a better shot at Hollywood stardom than a podium finish at the Olympic Games.

    Wushu skills may not be appreciated by Olympic audiences but Western movie-goers watch them regularly in kung fu movies.

    MOVIE SCREENS

    Global box office smashes such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and Zhang Yimou's "Hero" have put wushu techniques on western screens and taken its masters to Hollywood.

    Shichahai's most famous wushu graduate was a driven youngster called Li Lianjie, a wushu world champion before he went to Hollywood to be reborn as Jet Li.

    "He was so focused, so full of energy...and very clever," coach Lu said.

    Zhang is also a fan but more for Li's legacy than his movies.

    "Because of Jet Li, the world knows wushu," he said solemnly.

    It may be some time before Beijing's wushu team produces another superstar of Li's calibre, but China's Shaolin Temple is fast-tracking the process -- via reality television.

    Shaolin monks have teamed up with a Chinese production company to create "Legend of the Shaolin Monk Warrior" -- a show aimed at unearthing the next martial arts hero.

    Masters from across China and the world will battle each other for a shot at Hollywood stardom, local media have reported.

    Frowning, coach Lu admitted that he had not heard of "Legend".

    "Well, we do things differently to the Shaolin Temple," he said. "But it would certainly be a great way to promote the school and wushu."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  15. #75

    Thumbs up Kungfu Star Global Martial Arts Competition Videos!

    For those of you who don't know Kungfu magazine wrote an article for their shaolin issue about China's K-STAR Martial Arts contest...


    On March 30th 2006, Shenzhen Satellite Television together with the Shaolin Temple, declared the official start of the First "Chinese K-STAR" Global TV Contest.

    The contest would be the largest and first contest on such a global scale ever produced by China. It's aim, to search for potential Kungfu stars globally to find a new spokesperson of Chinese Kungfu for new generations.

    After a half-year process of searching and eliminating over 100,000 applicants from six contest divisions in China (Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Shengyang, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Beijing) and six overseas contest divisions (North America, Germany, Russia, Italy, France and Australia) the top 3 contest division winners would emerge to compete in the World Final Competition.

    In September of 2006, 36 Kungfu practitioners from abroad would arrive in Shenzhen and began a tour of China's cities and media stations to give performances and face eliminations.

    The contest would begin after two-weeks of closed door training and zen studies at the birthplace of the martial arts... The 1,500 year old Shaolin Temple

    blah, blah, blah
    I brought you guys some video from the comp (Chinese Language Only) ^_^

    K-STAR Shaolin Temple Seclusion (Part 1)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcY8fr-JuOo

    K-STAR Shaolin Temple Seclusion & 18 Lohan Perform (Part 2)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9s9L50FnUQ

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