Park incident, China

[GrahamB]

Board member pandrews is currently in Beijing, sampling the local martial arts. He had a funny incident in the park today that I thought I'd share:

So old guy in the park (Ditan Park) pissed me off a little. I was minding my own business doing my xing yi practice, there's not so many people doing gong fu in the park in the evening. I'm just going through animals, making up linking sequences etc.
A woman starts filming me. Like for a good 30mins doing all my animal links. And I'm not bothered she thinks it's cool keeps nodding and smiling. I'm happy to let her film even though it's not my best stuff, I'm putting a lot of effort in do its a bit of a workout too.
Then an old dude and a young guy come over and watch for a couple of minutes and I stop for a rest and immediately the old dude is in my face speaking loudly. I have no idea what he's saying so I just say I don't understand I'm English, I don't speak much Chinese, I'm practicing Xing Yi Quan.
He shouts at me Xing Yi Quan! Ta de Shanxi Xing Yi Quan! (He has Shanxi style Xing Yi Quan). And he points at the young guy. I smile at him and shake his hand I say Shanxi Xing Yi hen Hao (very good) and give a thumbs up. He smiles back.
Old dude continues to rant at me says something something dark side (not really) he says something something Laoshi Ma? (teacher?) so I assume he's asking who my teacher is. Like it matters he's just seen my stuff. So I say my teacher is an English man.
He goes off again Zhong Guo (Chinese) this Zhong Guo that. Every so often almost spitting the word Yin Guo (English). So I say tradition from Guo Yun Shen (famous xing yi master) and he gets right next to me and just bellows Sun Lu Tang (another famous xing yi guy). I'm thinking 'I'm in fucking China mate, doesn't that tell you I'm serious about this?'
And he keeps on, at which point I'm thinking 'fuck off old man' but I smile. And he points at the little guy and says something and makes a little movement to show the kind of movement Shanxi guys do, kind of short and sharp with a bit of shake. And I'm like ok yeah I can do that, and I do some Pi Quan and Beng Quan (xing yi movements) with some short, bright power.
The woman laughs (at the old guy I think) and films me doing it. The old man is visibly getting more pissed off he's raising his voice and getting animated and points at the young guy again I look at him and he's got an expression like 'he's nothing to do with me man!' I shake his hand again and smile as if to say 'I've got no issues with you dude'. He seems like a cool young guy, he understands I can't make out what the guy is saying but he knows that I know he's saying shit about me.
Old dude keeps it up a bit and I'm tired of it all and I just say 'Ni de gong fu' (your Kung fu) And gesture to where I was training in a way that is saying go ahead and show me your stuff. He gets flustered now and waves me to go away and he half turns away but I just stand there like 'I was here first mate' he looks at me with a death stare for a moment then walks away. The young guy goes too and stretches against a tree, I can still hear the old guy ranting loudly Zhong Guo gong fu, Zhong Guo xing yi quan, Yin Guo...blah blah blah. All talk no sausage old man.
I do another few lines that I make up mixing animals and elements and then the woman stops filming, she says something I don't understand but smiles and goes over by the old man and young guy, I get my stuff and leave, I wave to the woman and young guy, the woman waves back. Old man just stares at me.
For the most part the Chinese guys I've met in the park have not really wanted to join in with me but have come over been really positive and love that a foreigner has come to participate in their culture and heritage. I really like the Chinese people they are great but I think the older generation can be a little racist. But this old dude was just on his own planet. I mean if that had been in England and someone got in my face and literally shouted at me from point blank I would have floored them. But it wouldn't happen even in England. In this case I thought it might not go down well trying to explain to the Beijing cops that I'd knocked out a grandpa because he said my gong fu was rubbish.
Just a bit of a shitty superiority complex attitude to have. Wish I could have spoken a bit more Chinese I would have given him a piece of my mind. No matter writing about it has helped me vent a bit and I'm not bothered now. Better to ignore the negativity.

[MaartenSFS]

It happens, mate. I've met a lot of crazy people in the park over the years. Just last week a man was walking by and said that my master shouldn't teach "the Western Devil" because I'd come back and beat him to death. "No. I'll come back and beat YOU to death!" I said. It was the first time I've heard anyone call me that in over nine years. Overall, most people are fine. At most people will just interrupt or take photos, which is annoying, but I can get over it. Was interrupted by a woman with the CRAZIEST EYES I've ever seen several weeks ago, talking about FLG.

[Bao]

I have no clue why western people wants to practice alone in public Chinese parks. I would never ever do it. For reasons mentioned above and for many other reasons as well. I like to practice focused without stupid people interrupting.

Chinese people like to watch things around them, stare, comment, ridicule. I have no idea why anyone would to put on a show like a circus clown in front of people who just want reasons to laugh and ridicule. Seems strange and stupid, IMHO.

If there's an accident on the streets, it's more likely that people gather around and just stare instead of doing anything. The Mindset of many Chinese is an enigma, and I have no urge to explore it further using myself as any kind of a bait.

[windwalker]

If there's an accident on the streets, it's more likely that people gather around and just stare instead of doing anything. The Mindset of many Chinese is an enigma

enigma cool word ,,,Its not an enigma to me seems very understandable from "their" view point.

I've played and practice in parks in different parts of China, and Taiwan..
I would echo whats been said, in any interaction I've found it best to smile.

At a park in Tianjin, a chen stylist wanted to push with me. My wife at the time translated...
I said ok, and he got tossed a couple of times not intentional...A older woman was watching.

She came over said something harsh to the guy, and pushed with me all the while talking to the young guy.
This time I was on the receiving end.

We stopped after awhile and left,,,I asked my wife who was that and what did she say...
she said "oh that was his mom, and she was telling him that what he did was wrong and it should be done like this"
Had to laugh,,,,way to go "mom"

[Ozguorui]

I used to get people smoking coming very close to me to watch me practice. I would tell them, "I don't care if you watch me, but if you are going to smoke, you need to stand 200m away"....they were normally so startled they just left....occasionally, I would say "you want to spar?" ...never had an acceptance...

[yeniseri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZPM3tb1AY

[MaartenSFS]

I fucking hate smoking... I decided not to study from several very skilled masters because of their terrible chain smoking habits...

[Bao]

enigma cool word ,,,Its not an enigma to me seems very understandable from "their" view point.

It's their viewpoint I have hard to understand. Or rather, I have a hard time to accept some people's viewpoint.

Btw, the old man in the OP probably didn't want to quarrel. Sometimes when people wants to discuss, educate or exchange ideas, it can sound quite hard. That's just something in the language.

[Michael]

Oh no, the old Chinese dudes who have to tell you stuff. You have to learn how to totally ignore them, as well as other weirdos. Be like the Russian women and never smile, scowl in fact; that's how you China to avoid this.

[Overlord]

I believe he is rather polite.
The racism I encountered in many ways were worse than this~

Now think about Li Cunyi were fighting in Eight nations alliance in 1900,
I will say the old man had done nothing, and wouldn't do a thing~
Especially seeing Guo Yunsheng teaching displayed by a foreigner in public.
Of course he wasn't happy~ but complain is the best he could do~

To understand what racism truely is, is good to check this clip~


Cheers

[Wanderingdragon]

Thanks for that clip Over

[grzegorz]

It sounds to me like it could be this is where dude has been practicing everyday for years and resents anyone else showing their stuff on "his turf." The Chinese do these things to each other too but since they know exactly what's happening they don't usually drag it out but sometimes a mini skirmish or loss of face ensues. They also wouldn't let someone film them, since you did they probably saw that as an "opening" to approach you. Next time I would just stop the interaction right there or find another spot. Yeah, doing Chinese martial arts alone in a park in China is a little like entering a prison yard without being a member of a gang, people will mess with you. Still train where you want just be aware at all times.

[mixjourneyman]

I never have this stuff happen to me,
seem to be missing out on the fun.


The craziest shit that ever happened to me was when I somehow got a phone number that used to belong to a gangster named Mr.Hong.
Every day I would get calls from sketchy ass loan companies, other gangsters, girls with cutesy voices and so on. None of them would ever tell me what it was that Hong did for a living, but they were very interested in knowing what I did. Eventually I started doing Mr.Hong impressions and acting like I was drunk.
i remember this one time I had a dude on the phone for like five minutes acting drunk and then suddenly accused him of being a Japanese spy. He fucking flipped out and started screaming at me, to which I kept yelling "Japanese spy, Japanese spy, you come here to kill the Chinese!!! Kill little Japan to death!!!" It was super fun. Another time I invented my own language and jabbered at a dude for like ten minutes, only to find out it was an acquaintance I had met at a book club meeting a few weeks before. good times

Henan is super chill because nobody looks at each other in the eyes on the street (there is a rule that if you look at someone too long they have an excuse to fight you).

[Overlord]

Thanks for that clip Over

No worries WD.
It took me a long while for me to understand where she comes from~
The truth is racial slavery is not the only issue, racial inequality had been endowed to us in every aspects of life, the moment someone mention Jesus or Egyptian~ you will think they are white folks~
In Starwar 1 to 6, there is not a single Asian dude making obvious appearance, yep with all the aliens in galaxies, Asians do not exist ~
In movie Interstellar, not a single Asian survived, you don't see any!
There is a reason why this is the way is~

[nicklinjm]

Paul, what you have encountered is pretty common in the world of TCMA in China. Many many Chinese (men, normally of a certain age) think that CMA is a jewel of traditional Chinese culture (which it is) and cannot be learned correctly / well by foreigners. The Chinese superiority mindset is common and well-known to most foreigners who have lived and learnt CMA in China, which is why I don't practice in parks any more.

Speaking Chinese is a double-edged sword. On the one hand (like in your case), you can't tell people to F off when they clearly deserve it. OTOH, you get to hear a lot of the snide remarks about foreigners - when it comes to CMA, everyone's an expert - even people who have never done kungfu in their life.

Anyway, hope it doesn't affect your overall view of China and hope your experience has been positive overall.