Hidden Wulin documentary series

[MaartenSFS]

You lot are part of the problem with your terrible attitude. This documentary shows the current state of TCMA. All over China there are still people working tirelessly to preserve these arts and you shit all over them from the comfort of your luxurious homes (compared to most of these people). You haven't got a clue what it's like living in China with a troubled past and uncertain future. You think these people have insurance? Retirement? Many, if not most, don't. A lot of these groups are obviously fighting and making the most of what they have - which isn't much.

Full contact fighting is very important, but it isn't everything. I have learned valuable lessons from my Master, who is a fighter, but also from some that weren't - at least not at the age when I met them. That doesn't mean that they have nothing to offer. Not every teacher can be an excellent fighter and not every fighter can be an excellent teacher. You want to see TCMA in the UFC? Then go to China, learn an art and come back and fight! There are so many wonderful people that are living the culture out there. Young people are enamored by foreign arts that can earn them a lot of money. They aren't taking up traditional arts. YOU, the readers, are literally the last hope.

Documentaries like this are the only lifeline to get the word out and you lot are acting disrespectful and making a mockery of it. I don't care if there are those that quibble about what did or didn't make the cut and other nonsense and who said what. I lived in China for eleven years and worked my arse off. I travelled to many places and met many masters. This documentary is a very accurate representation of what I saw. Goddamn do I miss it. There will come a time, in the near future, where all of this is gone and you helped destroy it!

[Strange]

Brother Suckinlhbf,

let me go out on the limb.
my view is that old chinese qian zhuang did cma a great dis-service when the "invent"/implemented
the yin piao; almost overnight the need for highly skilled escorts evaporated.
of course, there are other socio-economic-legal factors, but i think you catch my drift.

when westerners are humble, they say they a mere shadow of their master.
In min nan dialect, having a shadow is real and not having a shadow is not real or fake.
i do not know if the current collective state of cma now casts a shadow.
but i think if "money" caused the problem; one must also use money to solve it.
Ppl nowadays are very practical, but that i mean that without the right amount of
money, there would not be any motivation to do the hard and bitter basics right.

For eg, there were imperial martial arts examination. This had the backing of the
imperial court and emperor. the flower cannot grow by just itself, the soil need to
be also rich in nutrient.

Do you agree?

[suckinlhbf]

Brother Strange,

Most of those teachers in the series are just mediocre. Using them to promote TCMA for fighting is a joke. Well, they deserve credit and respect trying to preserve CMA. But I don't think the series can give an impression that TCMA can fight. It is understandable as the editors are not in martial arts.

There were many great teachers before, and we know how they end up after civil revolution in China. Instead of promoting TCMA, they put up Modern Wushu, and used outsiders to lead insiders. The Government prosesses most of the information of TCMA and they know who's who. They can do a lot of things but they don't. Political reasons????

Let's accept the reality of the current status of TCMA. We feel good on our illusions, and we are fooling ourself at the same time.

[Strange]

yes, you are right.
during the cultural revolution many ppl with real skill had to
hide their skill and practice.
it was a time of great and extreme absurdities, producing a multitude of unimaginable nonsense.

"outsiders to lead insiders"
this line you say is enough for a group of ppl to drink and talk through the night.

My brother, chinese still have moxibustion and acupuncture....
I hope with a few needle at the correct acupoint and some heat into the key meridian
perhaps cma health can still be recovered.

[suckinlhbf]

Thanks, brother. It is just been too painful to see the change of TCMA and the Nation as a whole.

[C.J.W.]

I've watched 3 episodes so far and liked how they chose to focus on the socio-cultural aspects of TCMA in a humanistic manner.

Having said that, like most shows produced by CCTV, the series still has an undertone of propaganda -- in this case the Chinese government's attempt to "save face" and restore the public's faith in TCMA as well as rationalizing the numerous humiliating and highly-publicized defeats suffered by all the so-called "grandmasters" in the past few years.