Now, the problem with such a generic definition is that you can actually use wushu to describe a whole range of martial arts. No one is going in to your town to pillage your treasure and steal your cows. The year was 1974, and wushu athletes would serve as the second group of ambassadors from the People’s Republic of China to ever set foot in the United States. Reproduced from Questions 2 and 3 in Selection of Questions and Answers — January 2000 Part 3. Many of the new, young athletes who studied with more traditionally minded masters had to learn entire systems of application — in the way the styles had been taught for generations — before focusing on the aesthetic performance of forms. He said, “‘武’ is made up of two characters: ‘止’ (zhi) which means ‘to stop’ and ‘戈’ (ge) meaning ‘dagger’, together with ‘術’ it means ‘the art of stopping the dagger.’ Wushu was never about starting/looking for conflict. Even though I had come to the conclusion that martial arts should be about not fighting, it was great to get that verification from the word itself. Since an athlete’s survival depends on receiving specific scores based on specific criteria, then that is the context under which their wushu develops. The trend has been There is a More Effective, Holistic & Non-Invasive, Safer & Pain-less Way ! – Shaolin • Kung fu became more popular in the west because of the efforts of Bruce Lee who popularized the term by playing the role of protagonist helping weak people using his Kung fu. Why I’m no longer training in wushu | Mark C. Moran. It is not even a style of martial arts. So, wushu, as an art form, is constantly evolving. That’s right. A super long time ago wushu was a method for keeping monks from being too sedentary. Wushu is wushu and traditional is traditional and never the twain shall meet. You explained it so well! Unfortunately, even within the “external” styles of Chinese martial arts, there is another division which vies for wushu’s identity as a comprehensive term. Currently, Traditional Kung Fu is as popular as ever and are the most practiced forms of Wushu in the world. Netflix CEO: Blockbuster didn't want to buy us. He fervently encourages more exchange between different styles, different groups and different methods and sees mixed martial arts as one of many platforms for such intermingling. Zhao’s specialty was monkey and drunken style. Wushu is a vast and diverse system/philosophy with far more depth than can possibly be explained in a casual conversation. So, if someone practices traditional kungfu forms, as distinct from modern wushu forms, but does not know how to use his art for combat, I would not call it kungfu. You get rewarded by society/people/life if your skill applies to survival in certain contexts. Thus, the word in Chinese society could be used for not just a martial art exponent but also for exponents of different skills such as a carpenter, tailor, electrician, or a karate expert. Zhao is one of the most decorated wushu champions ever. mentioning their membership in wushu teams in mainland China, bronze medal I love that philosophy and wushu are so symbiotic. • However, Chinese authorities have been promoting the phrase Wushu instead of Kung fu ever since communist China opened up its economy for the rest of the world. Cage Fights and Mixed Martial Arts in China. In my kungfu school, which is the only one that teaches wushu in my city, we never really spar. At the last moment, the government decided that neither form was appropriate for such a momentous demonstration. But on the other hand word “martial arts” is more used…. Clearly, some practitioners fall solely into one camp or the other.