WuShu

[tkdman102088]

jus to add this to your forum wushu is the martial practiced by jet li...any one who has seen his movies have seen wushu especially in the one when he is doing it on the roof of the building at night.

[Goju_boi]

yes jet li did wushu, however he's also done other arts in his time.

[tkdman102088]

yes however jet li's main martial art has been wushu since age 8. He has practiced all forms of Wushu but he practiced about 6 main styles of wushu. Visit jetli.com for more info on him.

[ovine king]

from an article

"When Communist Party come to power, goverment called wushu masters to go out from underground. In 1953 since 8 till 12 of November First All-China Sport Games took place in Tianjing, 75% of it was wushu exhibitions. 139 styles were demonstrated, competitions in hand-to-hand combat (without any gears), weapon combat (on long and short weapon) and lifting of heavy weights (ancient chinese sport) were held. After seeing such a power goverment got frightened. Secret societies were dispersed. Simultaniously a Committee of wushu reforming was organized. Famous wushu master Cai Longyun on the base of huaquan (blossomed fist), zhaquan (fist of Zha), paoquan (cannon fist) hongquan (fist of stream), piguaquan (fist of chopping and hanging), shaolinquan (fist of Shaolin temple) and some others created a new sport competitional style changquan (long fist). On the base of five style of Guangdong province (styles of Hong, Cai, Li, Liu and Mo families) it was created new sport competitional style nanquan (southern fist). Names of movements were changed, as a result movements lost mental contents: realy, "crushing mountain strike" is different from "fist bang on a palm"."

complete article here:

http://wushu.gungfu.com/

more articles:

http://www.zhenwei.org/History/HistoryMartialArts.htm#PhaseTwoTheCommunistParty

http://panda.bg.univ.gda.pl/~kwachu/YMAA/MA_HISTORY.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wushu_%28sport%29

the thing that has been practiced for the past 50 odd years known as wushu is nothing like what wushu USED to be. Even though in the native tongue they are refered to using the same two characters, in reality, wushu CAN NOT really be used to refer to styles such as Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Chow Gar and all other proper chinese martial arts.

going back to jet li and what he practiced.

what he practiced was the different routines that were created (and hence sanctioned) by the wushu association (as mentioned in the above linked article). While they are different forms, they are not different styles of wushu. It was all part of training in the ONE style that is known as (international/modern) wushu.

[Goju_boi]

in other words wushu has been drastically watered down?

[KF Dude]

in other words wushu has been drastically watered down?

Yes. The emphasis of Wushu is the performance of standardized forms. Like gymnastics or figure skating. Practioners of Wushu have great flexibility, jump kicks, tumbling & arcobatic skills. At most Kung Fu tournaments Wushu has it's own separate divisions from the traditional styles.

[battousai16]

it's beyond being simply "watered down". it's been watered down specifically to take out any combat efficiency. kind of like making 4 qts of lemonade with a 2 qt. can. therefor, hopes of "taking out 3 trained black belts armed with batons" is a little far fetched. i think jet li is pretty too, but i take what he does with a grain of salt. i advise you to do the same.

[ovine king]

it's not even watering down as things were more or less re-desgned from scratch.

Using your lemonade analogy, it'd be like making 4 pints of lemonade with 3 and a half pints of water and half a pint of a solution made of lemon flavoured candy (with appropriate additives+preservatives) and telling people it's fresh home made lemonade.

[Goju_boi]

hmmm I guess. all I know is that wushu look's like a great work out

[xingxing]

hey all,

i have to agree to the lemonade or watering down to modern wushu. but at most wushu schools in dengfeng and henan province (i'm not sure about the other areas) modern wushu classes are combined with sanda/san shou, again adding a bit more of the fighting aspect. there are many traditional routines that are still practised/offered, but most students dont want to learn these because they do not look that great when performing. most of so called wushu is just performance based, sadly but true. doesnt mean that its not a good workout, not that after many years you might not be a good 'fighter', too. it depends on the person and whether one only sees beauty in the moves or also applications.