Hanquan-Cai-en191f11s25

Chinese Martial Arts

Many people in the United States or other countries first know Chinese Martials Arts by watching Jet Li, Bruce Li and Jackie Chen’ movies, their movements are obviously different from Karate, Taekwondo and other Martials Arts, which characterized by its fancy technics, elegance, flexibility and variety. However, over 90% of the international Chinese Martial Arts fans only know very limited knowledge about it.

Generally speaking, “Chinese Martial Art, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term Wu-Shu, and popularly as Kung-Fu, are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China”.(1) however, from a more technical perspective, it means way much more than that; except its function of fighting, Chinese Martial Arts has also been considered as one of the most precious Chinese traditional cultures and has a dramatic influence on our society in the aspects of our body health, self-defense and culture heritage and so on. Especially, its influence to the world is increasing since more and more people become interested in Kung Fu all over the world in recent years, therefore the topic of what Kung-Fu really is becomes very popular among these foreign Kung-Fu trainers and enthusiasts.

The genesis of Chinese martial arts has been attributed to the need for self-defense, hunting techniques and military training in ancient China. Hand-to-hand combat and weapons practice were important in training ancient Chinese soldiers. There has been lots of different sayings and versions of who was the first people created it, “the earliest one can be traced back to over 4000 years ago, who was called Yellow Emperor, the first leader of China”.(1) Afterwards, Chinese Martial Arts had developed basically into three systems of combat wrestling system, no-holds-barred weaponless fighting and weapon fighting after reforms and changes during different period of time such as Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty and so on. The modern concepts of Wu-Shu were fully developed by the Ming and Qing dynasties, and Shaolin temple played a dramatic role in its development.

The Shaolin style of wushu is regarded as amongst the first institutionalized Chinese martial arts, it was used for defense of Shaolin temple and the country at the beginning stage, “however by the second half of the Ming period (1368--1644) Shaolin’s military reputation had been firmly established, the martial arts training had been fully integrated into the monastery’s regimen, and its monks had created their own quintessential fighting techniques”(Meir, 2008), that’s one of the reason why that the Shaolin temple has been so influential in the realm of martial arts until today.

Maybe a lot of foreigners also watched the movie “Shaolin Temple” acted by Jet Li almost 34years ago, it is a movie in which the martial arts of Shaolin temple was being expressed thoroughly and precisely, which even resulted in the phenomenon that many people considered the Shaolin temple as Chinese martial arts, however it is not true. The history of the Shaolin Temple is not identical to the evolution of the Chinese martial arts. The monastery made important contributions to the development of late imperial fighting, armed and unarmed alike, and its military history mirrored trends that have transformed the martial arts in general. Nevertheless, the history of the martial arts is larger than the temple’s. “The fighting techniques with which we are familiar today---such as Taiji Quan, Xingyi Quan—emerged during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries by a combination of economic, religious, and political factors that far exceeded the monastery’s reach” (Meir, 2008), furthermore, a lot of other martial arts school that were formed afterwards also created a big influence on the whole martial arts system.

Today, Chinese martial arts is no longer used for war, therefore nobody is required to learn martial arts like before, but there are still a large number of people in China practice martial art. People today practice martial arts in China for different reasons, some of them learn it because it is the treasure of our culture, some do it because of its power of self-defense and body health, some of other learn it maybe because of nature of elegance and think that it is fashionable; however, there are also some other people who contributed to a big part of its total population practice it for competitions. After the foundation of China, the national martial arts committee was formed in Beijing, and they started creating a new martial arts system purposely for competition, therefore in recent years, many martial arts tournaments were held by different international, national or provincial organizations every year, which motivated many young people like me to participate in martial arts, a lot of schools have been offering martial arts class and establish their own training teams in order to win the medals from those tournament, which however in my personal perspective is causing the martial arts to deviate off the path of its nature, since we now put too much emphasis on the competitive martial art, which however only can represent a little part of the whole Chinese martial arts system, so as to result in the situation that a lot people learn martial arts without understanding its real meaning and many other martial arts styles are being ignored.

If you have watched some of the Chinese martial arts movies, you will observe that so many different kinds of strange weapons are used in it, because there are generally 18 different kinds of weapons we use in Chinese martial arts such as sword, staff, spear and so on, most Chinese styles make use of training in the broad arsenal of Chinese weapons for conditioning the body as well as coordination and strategy drills. “Weapons training are generally carried out after the student is proficient in the basics, forms and applications training. The basic theory for weapons training is to consider the weapon as an extension of the body. It has the same requirements for footwork and body coordination as the basics” (1). The process of weapon training proceeds with forms, forms with partners and then applications. Most systems have training methods for each of the Eighteen Arms of Wushu in addition to specialized instruments specific to the system.

As to different styles of Chinese martial arts, there are hundreds of different styles of Chinese martial arts that have developed over the past two thousand years, many distinctive styles with their own sets of techniques and ideas. Also, there are many themes common to different styles that lead many to characterize them as belonging to generalized "families" of martial art styles. There are styles that mimic movements from animals and others that gather inspiration from various Chinese philosophies. Some styles put most of their focus into the belief of the harnessing of qi energy, while others concentrate solely on competition and exhibition.

Nevertheless, it is almost impossible for anybody to clearly distinguish the differences between all these styles; therefore, some general categories were made in order to differentiate them, for example, “external and internal (or hard and soft); and it can also be categorized by location, as in northern and southern as well, referring to what part of China the styles originated from, separated by the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang)” (2); moreover it can even be classified according to their province or city and according to religion, aspect.

Firstly, let’s focus on external and internal styles, external styles are what most people associate with Chinese martial arts. They are generally fast and explosive, focusing on physical strength and agility. External styles can be both the traditional styles focusing on application and fighting, as well as the modern styles adapted for competition and exercise. Examples of external styles are Shaolinquan, with its direct explosive attacks and high-kicking aerial maneuvers. External styles begin with a training focus on muscular power, speed and application, and generally integrate their qi aspects in advanced training. “However internal or "soft" styles focus on the practice of what they call "internal" elements, such as awareness of the spirit, mind, qi (breath) and the use of relaxed leverage rather than muscular tension, some internal stylists say that the difference between internal and external for them is mostly the distinction of the inside and the outside of the body” (2). The reason for the label "internal," according to most schools, is that there is a focus on the internal aspects earlier in the training, once these internal relationships are apprehended they are then applied to the external applications of the styles in question. The extended periods of time that beginning students are expected to work on very basic principles in most internal schools is to learn to involve the entire body in every motion, to stay relaxed, with deep, controlled breathing, and to coordinate the motions of the body and the breathing accurately according to the dictates of the forms while maintaining perfect balance. Today, only a few traditional schools teaching internal styles, even though such training was originally a part of all internal styles. This is especially evident in schools located outside of China. Most schools teach forms that are practiced for the physical benefits only, as this is what most modern students are looking for and as these students seldom have the time or devotion to reach far enough in their training to start focusing on the martial aspects.

There is another important classification of martial arts styles we should mention, which was categorized by location, southern and northern style. As to northern style that have evolved from northern parts of China such as Henan province and the Shaolin Temple. “It is said that northern styles put more focus on legwork, kicking and acrobatics. Some say this is because the northern Chinese were generally taller than those living in southern China, and that they made their styles take advantage of their greater range of motion, especially in their legs. Others claim that the terrain of northern China is more suitable to kicking techniques. Southern styles however are styles originally practiced in southern China, in the provinces south of the Yangtze River. There are sayings that because of their shorter height, the southern Chinese developed styles that were direct and powerful, mainly developing their upper body strength and speed”(2). Anyway, both styles are popular in China now, and we can often see these different styles’ forms in our modern competitions.

As I mentioned above, they are just two of the general classifications for Chinese martial arts, we have no idea how long it needs to fully explain all sorts of different styles, such as Taijimen Baguamen, Bajimen, Fanzimen, Piguamen and so on so forth, all of them have their own core concepts and unique advantages, it is like an ocean of martial arts, you can see it clearly, but you have no clue how wide and deep it is.

Based on its history, we know that Chinese martial arts have been used from war in ancient China to self-defense, competition, art, culture and movie in today’s Chinese society. It is undeniable that the Chinese martial arts have been having a dramatic influence in our society. “Firstly, it greatly influenced the culture of Chinese. The concepts as well as the use of Chinese martial arts can be found in popular culture. When we look into the history, the influence of Chinese martial arts is usually seen in books as well as in the performance arts specific to Asia” (3). In recent times, Chines martial art greatly influenced the movies and television that targets a much wider audience leading Chinese martial arts to move beyond its ethnic roots and have a global appeal. Moreover, Chinese martial arts also have a big influence on our literature, and body health. Lastly, it also largely helped our mentality and morality; technically, Chinese martial arts are not only about self-defense or body training but also dealt with the system of morality and ethics, which helped us with the cultivation of inner harmony between the emotional mind and the wisdom mind and the sense of human life as well as social values. Altogether, Chinese martial arts are not just a skill but also a philosophy.

Everybody knows Chinese Kung Fu today, and it is always working for a Chinese to start a conversation with a foreigner about Chinese Kung Fu. Take myself for example, since I am in America now and I have practiced Kung Fu for more than 10 years, there are always people come to me and talk to me when I practice martial art, because people are very interested in it, which is a good thing; because it is also having a big influence to the world. Unlike around 100 years ago, China was invaded by many developed countries, because Chinese back to then were considered as being weak and incompetent; however, things changed completely today, nobody in the world will look down to us again partially because of our Chinese martial arts. Moreover, based on the benefits of Chinese martial arts related to our body health, especially Tai Ji, more and more foreigners are practicing it, and liked it.

In conclusion, Chinese martial arts, which is considered as one of the most important Chinese cultures, not only have been influencing the Chinese society for thousands of years, but also giving the world a new blood, which eventually will benefit all of us. As what I said above, there are too much to say about Chinese martial arts, I hope what I mentioned will give all of us a basic idea of what it is.

(1). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_martial_arts

(2). http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/6870-an-overview-of-chinese-martial-arts/

(3). http://www.martialfunk.com/basic-issue-of-morality-in-chinese.html

(4). Šaḥar, Mē'îr. The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Press, 2008. Print.

Process Description

After two interviews with people who are both from Ethiopia, I looked for my third Ethiopian interviewee, since I think it is better to interview three people with the same background. I asked a lot of my friends who know many people here, finally I met one who has been here for four years, I was very happy because I was very positive that she can speak very good English, which means that our conversation will be able to go deeper. I agreed to meet in a piano room at the performance center, where it is very quiet and no interruptions. As before, I gave her the question sheet first so that she could look at it and be prepared, and I took out my ipad and made sure that it was working. Finally, we got started, we have some very good conversations like their religions and culture; as what I expected before, and some of the answers she answered were pretty much the same as the other two interviewees, which is good from my perspective. Anyway, it took us about 20 minutes and went very well.

Personal Review

The third interview was very easy for me I think after the preparation and exercise of the first twos. I was not nervous at all this time since I know what I should do and how to avoid awkward situation. I think what helped a lot was the fact that my three interviewees are from the same country, which made me became very prepared after the first two interviews, and moreover, I could really envision the picture in my mind when I was listening to her, since I already knew the country very well. Altogether, I think the three interviews I had gave me a good understanding of what Ethiopia is like even though I had rarely known the country before. Furthermore, after all the experiences, I feel like I am no longer feeling nervous when I interview people I have never seen before, and it also taught me an important lesson of how to have an effective conversation and how to avoid awkward situation.

Country Report

My interviewee is from Ethiopia, which I never really get to know before; here is some information about it.

Ethiopia is located in the northeast of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million peopleand its capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is surrounded by Eritrea, Sudan , South Sudan, Djibouti , Somalia , and Kenya. Ethiopian is known as one of the oldest site of human existence in the world, its history can be traced back to thousands of years ago. “The politics of Ethiopia takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament” (1).

The Ethiopian economy is based on agriculture, “which contributes 42% to GDP and more than 80% of exports, and employs 80% of the population. The major agricultural export crop is coffee, providing approximately 26% of Ethiopia's foreign exchange earnings, down from 65% a decade ago because of the slump in coffee prices since the mid-1990s and increases in other exports”(2).

Ethiopia has almost 50 different domestic languages, but a lot of people know how to speak English that is the most popular foreign language in its country. Moreover, there are also numerous indigenous African religions in Ethiopia, mainly located in the far southwest and western country, and the most popular religions are Christianity and Muslim.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Ethiopia

2. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2859.htm#econ

Hanquan-Cai-en191f11s25

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Final Paper

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Chines Kung Fu Outline

The top three people in my third interview

third Interview Evaluation Sheet

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Third Interview

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The top three people in my second interview

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