Wushu

Chinese guy


I have a question to ask... one of my heros is Seagal, and he impresses me a lot. I read that he left home and went to Japan to train for a number of years. I would like to know how I can do this and become a martial arts student in a Chinese village. I've always had a passion for martial arts since I was 15 but I want to train all the time. Im from NJ and Im 25 yrs old.. I would like to know what villages will be willing to take me in? What will it cost? How much money should I bring? What do I have to do to get them to accept me as their student.

If you have any tips please help me would appreciate it thank you

Anon



Um..................


Er..................


Ok lets get this straight not all Chinese people know martial arts. While a lot of people gather in Chinese parks and practice Tai Chi all over the place. Some people like my granny who appears to be immortal steals Chi from trees in the park regularly I'm sure she steals it off me when I visit her as I always return with more grey hair...... never trust REALLY old Chinese people who look young.

A lot of my generation do because we had to learn to fight or would be beaten to crap by bullies. I still got beaten up a lot. Simply somebody going to a remote Chinese village to train is a western trope and it is a plot device utilised in movies and literature. Like Kill Bill 2 Where the Bride goes to train with the old Chinese stock character?

Add in a training Montage like this



and this



And woot after a short 5 minute training session the hero becomes a killing machine. Doesn't work I'm afraid. On that note I freakin' hate training montages. As it gives false hope that you can get good at something in a short often painful amount of time.

It does not happen. Consider how many guitars are lying unused in people's homes since they gave up after time. However since you're wanting to go live there for a long time it may work out eventually. Unfortunately if you went to a village in China a lot of people probably would not be able to even practice wushu properly. You may even find a shyster who would teach you bollocks and you would not learn anything at all.

I suppose you could try the shaolin temple school which is $360 a month. Note how they say YEARS on their website rather than weeks. I.e. 3rd and 4th year you get a discount. But I don't know if this is a scam or not. They also teach Northern Style Martial arts and Wushu only which southerners like my Dad scoff at Northern styles. Since they look good with great flare and style, but when it comes to fighting they are less good which explains the popularity of brutal piss poor looking wing chun and Chow gar practiced in the UK Chinese community.

Tbh I would probably find a local school and practice and ask opinions as to if he is any good or not. For instance in Manchester there is a Chow gar practitioner, he is Welsh and looks completely unauthentic but he is pretty damned good.

I would note however ALL Chinese Martial arts are not as invincible as Jet Li likes to portray, ok it is better than nothing. But simply techniques such as Wing Chun are based on superior blocking such as this video here.



This means that Chinese martial arts practitioners often are glass cannons. In that they can dish it out but because they block and parry everything they are completely unused to being hit. While watch any Thai boxing (art of the eight limbs) or even traditional queensbury rules boxing and these people spend 10 rounds knocking the hell out of each other just absorbing blow after blow. Sure sure not getting hit in the first place is probably wiser but if you're gonna dish it out you sure as hell ought to be able to take it too.



However enjoy a fake wire based martial arts film fist of legend