WulinNZ Let Motion Create Emotion

A bead of sweat stings my eye as it rolls over my brow & rests, slowly diluting on the surface of my naked eyeball. A minor discomfort compared to the ache I feel in the belly of my thigh muscles, both legs, bent & burning, slaving over a hot oven dish of Horse stance.

The year is 1995. One of the best years of my life. The coach is Professor Chen Jia Jun, a native to Shang Hai China, & he drips with prowess of martial ability. Forearms thick like a tug boat’s ropes, calves & thighs that embody the term Iron & Silk.
I glance over to my 2 brothers Michael Wix & Dominic Skinner, to see if their shaking as much as I am….hard to say. Dom is always smiling, & Mike is a machine that uses pain for fuel.
Another bead…a momentary sting…what is all this for? Why do I pay someone to keep me in this high stress position?

“Kung Fu is simple-Not easy!” my coach barks. With his heavy accent, I almost shrug it off as bad English. But then I stop shaking, & the burn in my legs becomes a wash of warmth, the sweat in my eye is softened, as I realize how profound the last sentence coach Chen just said. He turns to see if any of us actually listened & not just heard him. I note he acknowledges my kung fu brothers & I. Then he says “Just like life!”

The year is 2007- one of the best & one of the worst years of my life. I finally found someone to love & marry-but now I hate Wu Shu. Hate, with its absolute meaning. I look on Youtube, & see all these back flips in Southern Fist forms with shallow screams & cry at the old romantic notion of “Northern legs, Southern fists”
For the last 2 years I have been debating on what discipline I will start, when I leave the path of Wu Shu. Maybe Kendo? It seems a lot of the Japanese styles keep tradition & value. Or maybe I should drop self defence all together! & start a new life skill, like rock climbing, or swimming…even running!
I hate Wu Shu…it’s new found beauty is ironically ugly.

Whatever happened to Wu Shu? What happened to the hardness of spirit & attitude, the building of the indomitable spirit? Instead of the hardness of a trick, & difficulty of a flip?
Whatever happened to the coaches like Chen who strive to school the values of martial techniques & application? Instead of the mass production of rubber bands & bright flashy lights clothed in multi coloured silks?
What happened to the respect of some of the oldest fighting systems in history? Now the mock of movement & mimicry of dance & gymnastics combined?
I say again…Whatever happened to Wu Shu?

Seems long gone are the exaggerations of a technique in form to burn the muscle memory & exploit the use of an application. Now it’s the screaming, red faced, shallow hype of an empty promise of power during a multi flipping Nan Quan form.
The errors in my grammar pale to the error we are allowing to develop in the modern representation of Wu Shu.

Where is the Qi in the Qi-Ah these days?

If China is really a Republic of the People, then I guess the people have spoken. It seems that the fight to keep the Art of War techniques is under attack, as it was during the boxer rebellion. Like then, I hope for a revolution. A revolt against the revolting. I want to celebrate the history passed through the ages, & pay respect to the blood shed to get Chinese Martial Arts to my brothers & I in far away New Zealand, by continuing to teach the applications of old & remembering them through practices of new. Doing forms, then taking each technique & drilling its application. Respecting its value, so that it can be kept safe & not used against my fellow man, but to stop conflict as it was originally designed-when need be, & need be only.

Many struggles, I have learnt are solved by a shift in paradigm. It’s a Simple idea, but not an Easy one.

Kang Ge Wu of the IWUF, while flanked by Wu Shu legend Cai Yun Long, spoke to a room full of people I was once privy to, & said” Wu Shu does not apply today-in the age of guns & missiles, as we are not at war. Instead we should use terms like Guo Shu.”
I found peace this year, the day I made that paradigm shift. I see what is now practiced at the competitions & universities throughout China on the velvet carpet, is Kuo Shu. If you “choose” to study Kuo Shu deeper, you will discover Wu Shu. If you want to study Wu Shu deeper, you will find Traditional Wu Shu, this will lead to Kung Fu. But only if you choose.

It’s now 2008-I haven’t changed disciplines, I just stopped practicing for a year-pondering. And I’m still not happy, it’s August, I turn 35 years old.
So I think about that day in ’95, & I smile knowing that I chose to be put into those high stressful positions, while I felt the burn. This helps me find the path, where the journey becomes warm, & no longer a burn. I do this to develop Kung Fu. I have now returned to Wu Shu.

You were (as always) right Chen Lao Shi, it really was Simple, but it wasn’t easy. And because it wasn’t easy, the lesson was more fulfilling.

Your student-
Louis aka Chan

Authors note:
I propose that the new form of Wu Shu, with all the flipping & multiple spins that have no martial application whatsoever, be labeled Guo Shu or anything else that does not say “martial”.
All Wu Shu predating this (which seems to be early Yuan Wen Qing generation & earlier) is called Wu Shu, & the traditional stylists like Wing Tsun & Shuai Jiao etc continue to be called Kung Fu, since it is these individual disciplines that require Gong Fu to be proficient at them.
I am keen to hear sound & valid debate on this, so feel free to email me at whoami@wulin.org.nz, or pop in for a chat on our training nights.

Till then, train hard & live well.