Martial Arts & Fighting Forms | Asian American Poll

MARTIAL ARTS & FIGHTING FORMS
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:12:46 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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I think taewondo is so great. It teaches balance with the mind and the body/and life. It teaches you to organize properly and to respect others. I love the fighting styles. So far I have gotten first place at every competition in state and out of state. I know there is always a first time for everything, so I do not feel that I am invinceable. I do however, feel I have a great deal of speed and power in my arms and legs. During a match I always focus on the weak points of my opponent. I always look for the open spots that are not guarded. Then when I am ready, I do my very best with all the energy inside my muscles. I am so focused on that, I never remember how many points I have achieved during the whole thing. I guess because I am more into improving myself and stregnthening my weakpoints.
Its such a big rush when we go to the competitions. I have a real korean grandmaster who instructs our school. It is such an honor to have him! He really is like a father to me.
mrs. myo swe mon Friday, May 17, 2002 at 05:51:46 (PDT)

Chinalova,

You don't know what you are talking about. There is ample proof to suggest that kungfu existed in China well before the coming of Buddhism to China.

The Chinese of the past (Han Dynasty and prior) were a highly militaristic people due to the conditions of fending off the borders against Huns. Not only did they develop a martial arts with weaponry, but with their hands, feet and other body parts as well.

Buddhism and other foreign influences may have helped shape the modern Kungfu as we know it.

Not only the Buddhist Shaolin, but the Daoist Wutang sect is also well reknown for its martial arts reputation, and Daoism preceded Buddhism for many thousands of years.

Even, some of the best wushu fighters in the past and their innovative styles comes from the Huimin (Chinese Muslims) and we can for sure attribute it to foreign influences (Turkic, Mongol, Tibetan, Persian) as well as them constantly being persecuted by the Qing emperors.

If you ask Koreans, they will also of course attribute the founding of Taekwando to purely native sources (which is largely true).

Yes, Buddhism derived from India. But, it wasn't the Hindus who introduced Buddhism to China, it was the Central Asians (Tocharians, Sogdians, Afghanis). The Hindus actually persecuted their own Buddhists in India. That is why many Buddhists of India later converted to Islam.

But, one thing for sure is that Chinese and Indians eat many of the same types of plants and vegetables. Sometimes, they even cook it in the same manner. Many of China's fruits and vegetables were introduced by Western nations (at that time in the past, western usually meant Persian, Hindu or any other West Asians).

But, seriously, if Indians had mastered their own forms of Kungfu, there wouldn't have been any successful invasions by Muslims and Moguls. The Chinese used Kungfu to expel the descendants of Genghis Khan within less than 100 years of Mongol Yuan rule, but Babur (a descendant of Genghis Khan) conquered all of India relatively easily until the British later came to do the same to them too.

Indians were always too peaceful and passive. The Chinese are less pragmatic and more logical. That is why Kungfu developed under China. The Chinese needed this kind of aggressive sport to fight nomads and serve their emperors and generals on the field.
Shang Tsung Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 22:50:48 (PDT)

I hope everyone knows this. Did you know that kung fu and karate originated in India? Now you know, people. The Hindus many thousands, and thousands of years ago taught this to the Chinese in China, along with Buddhism.
chinalova

if that was the case then how come I haven't heard of any indian martial art?
I always thought kung fu came from shaolin monks who copy the movement from animals and insects...
monk Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 22:01:48 (PDT)

i think the best martial arts is called, shao lin baseball bat style, its much more effective than snake or drunken monkey.

Base ball bat style is quite simple and easy to learn, you dont use nun chucks or swords but you do use a baseball bat.

the first technique i will teach is the head bashing technique, you have to hold the bat firmly and bash your opponents head to a bloody pulp.

and there you have it, youve learned the head bash technique.

seriously sometimes, the best fighting comes from the heart not all this robot kungfu or taekwando.
AZN Realist Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 21:33:27 (PDT)

chinalova (once again i most respond, cause you did not read my post last time):

kung fu has been traced by martial arts historians back to ancient GREECE!! Alexander the Greats troops brought a modification of wrestling and kickboxing ( some people call it Pankration) to India when he expanded the empire, from there it was brought to China thru India.

History 101 Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 15:45:33 (PDT)

chinalova

Kung-fu was in China thousand of years ago and it wasn't only in China. Each anicent culture had their own form of martial arts. Fighting is not ethnically exclusive though the Chinese have systematically catagories their fighting arts more so than others until they became a source for others like Japan and Korea.
Kung-fu was practise by the lonely farmer protecting his farm and village thus many martial arts in China are related to the region and village they are practised at. Shaolin and other temple arts were practised by the priest and monks because they had to protect their temples and of course the Imperial soldiers had to practise a form of Martial arts to protect the country and the emperior.

Martial fighting was a necessity and not started in Greece and spread to Asia. It was more like spread from the East to the West. Because during the ancient times while the Greeks and Romans had basic wrestling and boxing, the martial fighting had already became a high level art form in China. I serious doubt if Alexander The Great's army invaded China at that time if he would have be successful due to the fighting ability of the martial arts in China at that time.

Nowadays Chinese martial arts is more like a performance art. Even the so-called Shaolin teaching in America and in China are only showing State sponsored and socialist Wu-shu. The tricks of breaking breaks and doing incredible breaks are just basic physics exercises.

Don't get me wrong there is real kung-fu around but you have to search hard for them. Most are done by invitation only and when done it is just like basic punching, kicking and wrestling when using it function-wise. Because real kung-fu uses the same lines and forms of natural movements.

It is functional and useful as well as artistic to look at because it is also an art form as well.

It helps to learn Karate and other simplier martial arts like kick-boxing because of the complexity Kung-fu presents. (Like try a back-fist with one leg up in the air and the other hand underneath protecting the body- doesn't make sense but if you know how a back fist functions it helps in your practise of kung-fu).

Kung-fu is too complex for its own good but if you dumb down the form a little and make it simplier what you get is fluid karate because it is continous and flowing not stop and go as in Karate.

Mar-nut Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 14:57:04 (PDT)

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