Difference between a Karate punch, and a Gung Fu punch

[tufrthanu]

No he never said verbatim " I don't like karate". But it was very apparent from his attitude and his movies that he did not like japanese styles. You will notice that in almost all of he ones he starred in the kung fu practitioners were superior to the karate practitioners. And his writings and quotes on the issue seem to back this up.

[ysc87]

of course, because, as mentioned, what most westerners considered MAs during his time was karate. his writings and quotes are one the weaknesses of structures styles, karate just being the most obvious one.

*edit* oh yeah, what is "american" tkd? jsut wondering.

[tufrthanu]

It's basically what Jhoon Rhee taught in this country. Although alot of schools teach it as more of a freestyle system with karate and tkd mixed together.

[ysc87]

rhee? that guy from 'the best of the best'?

[tufrthanu]

Um no. That was Philip Rhee...and his brother as Dae Han. Jhoon Rhee is one of the most famous tkd practitioners ever.

[ysc87]

looked up his bio-- pretty impressive. buff for an old guy

not to mention that his pic with ali and bruce lee are pretty cool.

[y2_sub]

Define racist !!!

Someone that discriminates based solely on their race. Chinese and Japanese people are both eastern Asian, hence the term racist probably wouldn't apply.

Fair enough

"racialism is a form of discrimination based on race, especially the belief that one race is superior to another. Racism may be expressed individually and consciously, through explicit thoughts, feelings, or acts, or socially and unconsciously, through institutions that promote inequality between races" <-- Google

Don't get me wrong , i have nothing against lee , however , he always underestimated Japanese culture ( and martial styles ) , I recently watched one of his movies where he works with 5 karate-kas in a restaurant , those karate-kas take some serious beating from 2 common thugs while he destroys them (thugs) , and then , in all the movie ,he tried to show that Chinese boxing is better than Japanese karate

Well , thats a discrimination based on culture ....

[White Warlock]

Bruce Lee was both an actor and a martial artist. Actors have to be popular, or they don't get casted. He was making movies primarily for Chinese audiences, and there is a long-standing animosity between the Chinese and Japanese. Part of this has to do with the atrocities committed by the Japanese during WW2, but it reaches further back.

Anyway, it seems pretty pointless to get into 'why' Bruce Lee said it, or anything else. At face value, what he presents sounds intriguing. After further analysis, there's some truth to it, even if it is far too generalized. However, all things have their respective applications, under a given system.

Look, Bruce Lee was young. Younger than me at the time of his death, and younger still when he was interviewed and made those 'pompous' statements. He was playing a role, and he was doing it well. It was getting him tickets at the box office and earning him starring roles in movies. You can't take 'everything' he said at face value. In fact, i find far more truth in his writings, where ego and show are not being expressed, than i do for those times he puts on the mask, and speaks to the press.

[dippedappe]

I recently watched one of his movies where he works with 5 karate-kas in a restaurant , those karate-kas take some serious beating from 2 common thugs while he destroys them (thugs) , and then , in all the movie ,he tried to show that Chinese boxing is better than Japanese karate

Way of the Dragon. His second best film I think.

You forget something. That movie was partly to show his art of Jeet Kune Do. And in that movie, those waiters were supposed to have just started their Karate training when the thug's started to harass the restaurant. Lee was supposed to have studied for a long time, so it's only natural that he would be a better fighter than the waiters. And in the film Bruce Lee said this about Karate: "foreign or not, if it helps you when you are in a fight, then you should learn to use it. It doesn't matter where it comes from. You should realize that."

When he battled Chuck Norris in the last battle, Lee was using Gung Fu and Chuck was using Karate. And because of that Lee was loosing the fight. It was only when he started to use Jeet Kune Do that Chuck got beat up.

[A. Orstrom]

I have that film on DVD, and I always wondered how the waiters could be that bad and have black belts. Do they state in the film that they've just started? Perhaps I should sit down and see it again.