As many of you know, I have trained in and taught both modern wushu and traditional kung fu. My background in traditional kung fu was very very traditional as my teacher was in his 70’s when he began teaching me. While we probably were not as formal as many other schools, especially because I drove him around, helped him take his medications, etc. The atmosphere in the school was very traditional. We learned the traditional methods in forms and fighting.
What I mean by traditional is we were expected to know forms, applications of the forms (on multiple levels), Qi Gong, bag conditioning, etc. When students were taught new forms, they were expected to train on their new stuff on their own after they were taught. Each student had a somewhat individual path the teacher gave them. There was respect to the teachers and from the teachers from all of the students. There was school loyalty. There was Yum Cha after classes. Tournaments weren’t only about medal count. There were friendships (as in the case of Eagle Claw and Mantis going back generations) between schools. There were even rivalries (again, some going back generations) which made competition even more interesting.
In general there was excitement and enthusiasm to go to class…to go to tournaments as a team and to represent your kung fu style no matter where you were. Kung fu men were respected in society (especially Chinese society)
Is this lost in today’s age? As funny as it sounds…maybe the traditions peaked and began a rapid decline in the mid 1990’s. Maybe with the aging and dying out of that first generation of kung fu masters to come to the US, these traditions are being lost.
Why do I say this? I take an example from a recent demo I did with my daughters. This demo was done for the Association of Chinese Americans and in attendance were about 800 Chinese people of all ages. We demonstrated traditional mantis and eagle claw. One thing I noticed about Chinese kids is they all had their cellphones and they were almost always in the lobby area clowning around and not paying attention to the rest of the program(the kung fu was a small part of it). When I would be in the lobby, I’d ask these kids..“hey want to do kung fu?” almost universally the answer was “nah, that’s too hard” and they’d go back to talking on their phones or to their video games. When the kung fu part of the demo actually started, one older lady rounded up all the kids and made them watch. There seemed to be genuine disinterest on many of their faces and after the demo most of them went out to screw around in the lobby. By contrast, the older Chinese loved it and were very impressed.
Now, with classes going on, many of them don’t seem to appreciate the fact that traditions are in place for a variety of reasons and even less of them (almost all students) feel the need to work at it. They don’t want to learn forms that look like the last one they learned, even though much of traditional kung fu has that. I remember when I got to learn lion dance how thrilled I was and what an honor it was to learn it. Nowadays asking someone to learn lion dance is like asking them to take on extra work it seems. As in any other class, there are the few that hold on to and want to learn more of the traditions, but that group is a lot smaller than I remember it being when I was training.
Has anyone else noticed this? If so, what do you feel the main root cause is? I have the following thoughts on it.
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We live in a disposable society. Nothing is long term anymore. From our appliances to our marriages, everything can be used, abused and replaced as needed at our whims.
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We live in McSociety. Everything, especially since the advent of the internet is available right now to satisfy your desires (carnal, informational, etc.)with no longer than a 5 second wait. People can’t wait in line for 30 seconds anymore, let alone wait a couple years to see the results of a good kung fu program.
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The lack of a “reason” to do kung fu. Most people seem to want to “do something” with their style. The older notions of self-defense seem less important today than ever (when’s the last time you needed to use it?). The lack of competitions to show off your style contribute to it. I remember we used to have at least one tournament a month we could go to. Nevermind it was dominated by Karate and TKD, we could go show our style and “do something” with what we learned. Then, yearly was the big national tournament (NACMAAF, later USAWKF) that you trained for and looked forward to all year long. These opportunities have nearly evaporated.
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Some of the reason I think are faults within the traditional system itself as well . Those can be rigidness of the teachers, the incredibly long training time, the mass of information to be absorbed, lack of ranking to show progress and so students can have something to reach for, the need for some teachers to feel they have some empire to protect, the tradition where the teacher is almost worshiped.
So as people who love their traditions and who want to see the growth of good solid kung fu, how can we overcome these obstacles? Is it even possible (or worth it) to try and retain these traditions, or (for the sake of survival) should we all become MMA teachers for fighting with a blend of forms that are more wushu oriented?
