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| Shaolin kung fu master appeals to legislators for protection | |
| 2005-03-14 | |
| A top kung fu master from Shaolin Temple has urged China's legislature to enact a law to better protect the world-renowned martial arts centre's trademark rights, state press reported. "China needs to make a law at an earlier date so that Shaolin kung fu and other intangible heritage are better protected within a legal framework," Xinhua news agency quoted master Shi Yongxin as saying. The 1,500-year-old temple, known as the cradle of China's martial arts, is under siege from competitors taking advantage of its name, said Shi, a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament. Shi cited a brochure that read: "Want to practice Shaolin kong fu? Come to Japan." "We have to wake up to the fact that some other nations might have already begun to capitalize on our traditional know-how to sharpen their own competitive edge and make profits amid fierce international competition in a globalised society," he said. Trade mark infringement problems? But you Chinese would never do that, right? Bwahahahah!
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| Posted by:Spot |
| #6 Sounds right ODA, Phil. The best non-black belt at our TKD school is the young man who, as he explains it, went to a bad school where he had to fight several times a week. Even among the black belts, most can do pretty kicks and such, but they treat it as a sport rather than a real-life tool. I used to do Kung Fu 2-man black belt forms with Mr. Wife until he explained what all those lovely dance moves actually meant. I had nightmares for weeks thereafter. Still do, when my girls explain what a particular combination is supposed to accomplish. But that's why I made sure their father told them what the kata moves mean from the get-go -- I want them to be able to use their skills, not just look [very, in my biased opinion] pretty. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-14 11:53:20 PM |
| #5 Dcreeper: I doubt that's the only problem, but then again my background is mainly hapkido with a little t'ai chi and karate way back when... by concentrating on the showy exposition stuff (and if you look at any wushu forms competition from China you'll know what I mean) they're spending a lot of time, effort, and ultimately cartiledge on stuff that looks good rather than is useful for defending yourself. As far as I can tell, this shift happened in China back in the 50's and 60's. And I think they wanted a method that was useful for teaching adolescent atheletes military discipline without actually being useful for an old person who isn't an athelete but doesn't want to be mugged. They have too many people who think it should be all about acrobatics and not enough push hands (or sticky hands). Disclaimer: I'm not particularly _good_ at this stuff, I'm just speaking from my viewpoint as an out-of-practice practicioner with arthritis. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-03-14 11:38:10 PM |
| #4 People who fight are good at fighting, people who kata are good at kata. |
| Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American 2005-03-14 10:54:41 PM |
| #3 this is really bizarre.. in my experience, if a school is making lots of money, it's just watered down crap for the average joe.. most people can't handle the real thing.. if anything, capitalism ruins martial arts styles. (Ti Quan Do and Tung Soo Do are great examples of this) (I once sparred a guy who claimed to have gone to china and did the whole shoalin thing for a couple years, he sucked. Couldn't deal with basic misdirection or psychological stuff. At the time I just figured he was a big fat liar, but after reading this... I wonder… his katas were quite lovely... maybe the USA isn’t the only nation with the capitalism problem) (-er side note to anyone who feels like misreading me, ‘capitalism problem’ refers to the issue of martial arts teachers degrading their styles in favor of bringing in more students and ONLY that.) |
| Posted by: dcreeper 2005-03-14 9:30:38 PM |
| #2 Hey! Guy's gotta make a living! |
| Posted by: David Carradine 2005-03-14 8:20:49 PM |
| #1 Of course, there's also the matter that depending on who you ask, said temple may or may not have cultural continuity with the original Shaolin monks. Also, for a while the Communists were actively persecuting many practicioners of the martial arts; then they started more "official" martial arts schools based around techniques that you have to be young and extremely fit to do (i.e. all the acrobatic Wushu stuff). At least that's the impression I've gotten. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-03-14 7:59:48 PM |