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| future of kung fu |
The Future of Kung Fu
Chinese martial arts have survived enormous changes.
They survived the disappearance of traditional weapons from the battlefield, political upheaval, war, revolution, modernization and the transformation of martial arts into sport and entertainment.
Today kung fu faces a different problem.
It must convince people that it is still worth learning.
Modern Students Have Different Expectations
Traditional martial arts often require patience. There is nothing wrong with that.
Developing good structure, timing, coordination and power takes time in any serious martial art.
But there is a difference between skill requiring time to develop and a curriculum being unnecessarily long.
A beginner should not need ten years before understanding how the system is supposed to work.
Compare this with boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai or Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
A beginner quickly learns the basic purpose of the art. More importantly, the student begins testing those skills against resistance relatively early.
Mastery may take a lifetime.
Understanding the basic fighting method should not.
Kung fu needs to make the same distinction.
Forms Are Not Fighting
Traditional forms are valuable.
They preserve techniques, combinations, body mechanics, strategies and sometimes very old elements of a martial system.
But forms cannot replace interaction with another person.
Neither can cooperative drills.
If a martial art claims to develop fighting ability, eventually the practitioner must work against someone who is actively trying to stop them.
This does not mean beginners should immediately engage in dangerous full-contact fighting.
Resistance can be introduced progressively.
Timing, distance, pressure and unpredictability should gradually increase as the student's ability develops.
The important thing is that the training eventually leaves the completely cooperative environment.
Kung Fu Must Be Tested
Modern combat sports have one enormous advantage: constant feedback.
A boxer knows very quickly whether his defense works.
A wrestler discovers immediately whether his takedown works against resistance.
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner cannot simply explain why a submission should work. Another practitioner is actively trying to escape from it.
Traditional martial arts need the same honesty.
If a technique repeatedly fails under realistic resistance, we should investigate why.
Perhaps the practitioner needs more training.
Perhaps the training method is wrong.
Perhaps we misunderstood the technique.
And sometimes we must accept the most uncomfortable possibility:
perhaps the technique simply does not work as we thought it did.
There is nothing disrespectful about discovering this.
It is how martial arts improve.
Tradition Should Be Preserved, Not Worshipped
Tradition is one of the great strengths of Chinese martial arts.
It connects us with previous generations and preserves knowledge that might otherwise disappear.
But preservation does not mean refusing to change anything.
Every generation practices in a different environment.
A martial artist living in nineteenth-century Guangdong faced different problems from someone living in twenty-first-century London, Belgrade, Taipei or New York.
Training methods should acknowledge that reality.
Preserve the forms.
Preserve the principles.
Preserve the weapons.
Preserve the history.
But understand why they are being preserved.
Tradition should provide knowledge, not prevent questions.
Respecting Chinese Culture Does Not Mean Becoming Chinese
Chinese martial arts cannot be separated completely from Chinese culture.
Understanding concepts such as lineage, teacher-student relationships, traditional terminology and historical customs can greatly deepen our understanding of the arts.
Students should learn about these things.
But learning about a tradition and personally adopting every aspect of that tradition are different matters.
A person can deeply respect Chinese culture without adopting Chinese religious practices.
A student should be able to study the history and meaning of ancestor rituals, for example, without necessarily participating in them personally.
Kung fu is now practiced throughout the world.
Its practitioners come from different countries, religions and cultures.
That diversity does not threaten Chinese martial arts.
It demonstrates how far they have travelled.
Internal Does Not Mean Supernatural
Another problem is the confusion surrounding "internal" martial arts.
Relaxation, coordination, structure, timing, breathing and efficient movement are real and trainable qualities.
But none requires supernatural explanations.
A highly experienced fighter often appears relaxed because unnecessary tension has disappeared.
Movements become smaller.
Timing improves.
Power becomes more efficient.
Actions that once required conscious thought become automatic.
These qualities can appear mysterious to beginners.
They are not magic.
They are the result of training.
Internal training should not be an excuse for avoiding physical effort.
Kung Fu Does Not Need to Become MMA
The solution is not to turn every traditional Chinese martial art into mixed martial arts.
Kung fu contains things that combat sports do not attempt to preserve.
Traditional weapons, historical forms, cultural practices, unusual training methods and regional martial traditions all have value beyond modern competition.
A White Crane practitioner does not need to become a kickboxer.
A Wing Chun practitioner does not need to become an MMA fighter.
But if either claims that a particular method works in fighting, there should be some way to test that claim against resistance.
Otherwise we cannot distinguish a functioning technique from a theory about one.
Adaptation Is Part of Tradition
Traditional martial arts were never created by people who refused to change.
Someone developed every technique.
Someone modified every form.
Someone combined previous knowledge in a different way.
Someone responded to the fighting problems of their own period.
Ironically, refusing all change may therefore be less traditional than adaptation itself.
Preservation should protect the identity and knowledge of an art.
It should not freeze it.
The Future
I do not believe kung fu must disappear.
But its future depends on what practitioners choose to preserve.
If Chinese martial arts become collections of increasingly complicated forms, unsupported fighting theories and supernatural claims, younger generations will have little reason to practice them.
If we throw away everything traditional and simply imitate modern combat sports, there will also be little reason for kung fu to exist.
The future lies somewhere between those extremes.
Preserve the history.
Preserve the culture.
Preserve the forms and traditional training methods that still have value.
Test fighting claims honestly.
Improve training methods when necessary.
Teach students efficiently.
And never be afraid to ask why something is being practiced.
Kung fu survived because generations before us adapted it to changing circumstances.
Its future may depend on our willingness to do the same.
References
For this one, four is enough:
- Peter A. Lorge, Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
- Fei Chen, Pierrick Porchet, Cuihan Li & Shaojun Lyu, “Safeguarding Authenticity versus Innovative Development: Methods of Protecting Traditional Chinese Martial Arts,” Martial Arts Studies 14 (2023): 31–38.
- Benjamin N. Judkins & Jon Nielson, The Creation of Wing Chun: A Social History of the Southern Chinese Martial Arts. SUNY Press, 2015.
- Meir Shahar, The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts. University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008.