REAL history of kung-fu

[mellow]

What BENEFIT does traveling to a specific country to learn an art provide over learning it from a teacher who has never been to the country the art was born in?

That looks like a legitimate question that you of all people seem most qualified and eager to answer Jubs.

[jubaji]

That looks like a legitimate question that you of all people seem most qualified and eager to answer Jubs.

If you're talking about learning and training the mechanics of an art, it doesn't necessarily provide an advantage. If you're talking about preparing for real competition, I would say that it is no advantage beyond the likelihood that in a country where a given sport is more popular you will find better competition to train with and an environment that strongly supports the endeavor. However, when you are talking about an 'art' where the understanding and transmission of that art is closely tied to cultural attributes related to concepts and ways of communication (which may not necessarily be any benefit to the art in question as pertains to practical efficacy at all), then it may make a difference because you cannot really understand a culture and people unless you've spent a considerable amount of time living there (really living there - not sitting on a tour bus or serving on a military base or some such).

Of course, the original comments were about "researching" a given country, seemingly in general, and in that case real experience can make a very big difference. I had read a lot about China's expansionism under the Qing dynasty, about the communist takeover, and about the Cultural Revolution, before I ever set foot in China, but when I sat down and had a long talk with a man who had been sent to work in Xinjiang in the 70's as a punishment for being educated and heard about how he was seen by the local people and how it would sometimes 'snow' in summertime from nearby above-ground nuclear testing, I gained an understanding of the reality behind this history and how it all tied together in ways that I never could have from books and translations. Of course I had seen the events in Tiananmen Square as covered by the media, but when I talked to students of mine who had actually been there, when they told me about friends they lost there and showed me photos they had taken at the time and kept very, very carefully hidden ever since, I understood more about it than I could have from books or the western media coverage at the time.


You don't have to 'be there' to get quite a lot, but there is quite a lot you won't get any other way.

Ask Ben.

[Ben Grimm]

It's exactly as Jubaji said. In terms of martial techniques and application.... it's all relative to the instructor's skill level. But going overseas and experiencing a new culture, well it really opens your eyes to a deeper understanding of culture and of life. There are things I've seen and heard, that you can't just learn from books. I could talk about them, but it would literally take years.

[Birmingham]

bruce lee wrote a good paragraph or two about the origins of chinese kung fu, in his first book.

but personally, i would first rather define where the words "kung fu" come from. Kung Fu means Work Hard (hard work)... and this has been around longer than people have been speaking chinese

[JadeDragon]

TigerClaw can give you the real history of kung Fu. And if he can't he'll make it up.

You know TC is a legend in his own mind.......lol.

[Ben Grimm]

He'll quote directly from Shaw Brothers movies.

[Birmingham]

i haven't read tigerclaw's long post, but from what i did read ("You are wrong. From the Shaolin Temple different fighters escaped and we have some styles still with us today") tigerclaw was right. 5 elders escaped the burning of the shaolin temple, two of which passed on much of what they knew, including the pole, the butterfly knives, and empty-handed boxing, down the line eventually reaching me.

[Ben Grimm]

Depends on whose version of events you read.