Americans Have Greater Potential
Training for Life
Inside Kung Fu 1982
by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong
Today’s Kung-Fu is not like 10 or 20 years ago. Now more people understand Chinese martial arts. Although there are plenty of unqualified teachers around, Americans try their best to learn real Kung-Fu and promote and promote their systems.
If Chinese martial arts have a failing in the Untied States, it’s because we need more qualified instructors, teaching full-time as professionals. So far pure Kung-Fu schools are few and far between. When you open Yellow Pages, you don’t find too many kung-fu schools. There are plenty of schools that advertise Kung-Fu, along with Karate, Ninjitsu, and anything else that you want to learn. Those are what we call “chop-suey” martial arts, taught by people who have mixed everything together, trying to sell whatever they think the public wants. They aren’t pure Kung-Fu systems.
There is a problem with these mixed-up styles. Many of the instructors learned a little here and a little there, but not enough for a full understanding of what they are trying to teach. They may teach fancy movements without knowing the applications, leaving their students seriously compromised in real fighting situations. They may also cause their students internal and external injuries through incorrect training practices, such as improper breathing methods, or dangerous techniques.
There are also a lot of Chinese teaching kung-fu from Hong Kong or Taiwan who once learned a little Kung-Fu. Then they come to this country maybe as a restaurant cook and tart teaching kung-fu or tai chi as a sideline business after working hours. Later, because these instructors were only part-time students, then part-time teachers, their schools close, leaving many students without a teacher. Unable to find a good instructor those students try learning from a book or a videotape, and the quality of their Kung-Fu drops even lower.
However, Americans have a great appetite for Kung-Fu. A large number of non-Chinese instructors make frequent trips to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China to learn directly from the Chinese martial arts experts. They do it because they know that we have a need for qualified teachers here. They can recognize the difference between true traditional Chinese martial arts and the “chop-suey” systems.
I don’t believe that today’s Kung-Fu has reached maturity. The few good teachers are located mostly on the East and West coasts, leaving the nation’s Midwest Kung-Fu starved. Many of this nation’s “chop-suey” schools spring up in areas where there are few good teachers.
There are more and more Chinese teachers coming here for temporary visits, teaching and spreading their martial arts. Many of them are Wushu (China’s new acrobatic martial art) coaches from Mainland China who teach only Wushu gymnastic exercises.
Occasionally traditional Kung-Fu experts from China visit the United States for short periods of time, teaching only pure tai chi or Kung-Fu. The only problem with visiting instructors or with the people that make only one trip abroad for a few weeks or a month is that there‘s not enough time to learn. It’s long enough to learn a Wushu form, but not enough to understand higher training levels like fighting applications or internal strengths. Only those Americans who stay in Asia for a long period or make frequent serious study trips should be called qualified Kung-Fu teachers.
In another ten years, things here will have changed. More Americans will have learned good Chinese martial arts from instructors here and abroad. Their knowledge will be at a higher level. At this moment, the quality of American Kung-Fu depends on us, American-based instructors, both Chinese and non-Chinese. We have to develop future experts from our own students. Our responsibility is to give them our best knowledge and help them become teachers. If our best students don’t become teachers, we won’t have enough people to promote our traditional systems.
The future starts now. I want to pass on my kung-fu and tai chi systems, not only to Chinese, but to anyone who wants to study and promote the martial arts they way they were intended to be practiced..
Americans are human beings like everybody else. Some people may say they aren’t built right physically, or they don’t understand Chinese philosophies, but the Chinese even say that about other Chinese. Northerners say that Southern Chinese aren’t built right for northern kung-fu. I see a lot of Southern Chinese do Northern Kung-Fu as well as Northern people, so why would Americans not be as good as Chinese? I have also seen Caucasian and Black Wushu stylists who do their forms just as well as Wushu people from Mainland China.
Actually, Americans have the potential to be better than Chinese at kung-fu and Tai Chi. They have more leisure time, more expense money and better nutrition. Americans consider martial arts a treasure, so they put more effort into learning and understanding Kung-Fu than do many people in the Orient. Americans have more time for diligent practice. They have more money and freedom to travel to whatever teacher they choose. For example, the average Chinese from Guangzhou can’t go to Beijing to learn from a high-level, because they don’t have they don’t have the time or money for travel and study. Even if they did have the resources, what would they do with it? They can’t make a living teaching martial arts in China today. At least here, people can use what they learn as a profession, giving them more incentive to research and study every facet of their martial arts, rather than just give it up after a few years. There’s no reason American martial artists can’t be better than their Asian cousins.
Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.
To learn more about martial arts training in San Diego visit: whitedragonmartialarts.com
Tags: Training for Life
February 12th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
When I was a toddler, my father was stationed in South Korea. I learned to speak Korean, had an ‘ojima’ or Korean nursemaid, and I believe that my love of Asian culture had its beginnings during this time in my life. As someone who spent a majority of my life being an American on foreign soil, I learned to deeply appreciate the beauty of other cultures and ways of life. To read that Grandmaster believes that American students have just as much potential to learn kung fu properly gives me hope that my studies are not in vain. I am constantly battling my ego as a student; I know that I have so much to learn, but I have so many moments when the ‘American’ in me forgets that kung fu is simply the act of practicing a skill over a lengthy period of time, not a series of fancy movements. I have gained so much from my studies at White Dragon; I am humbled to be part of a genuine kung fu school, with such a wise and generous Grandmaster. May we all live up to your expectations….
March 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for the nice comment. Living in America provides us with opportunities that are sometimes not present in other cultures. Even though many Americans may have greater potential, many lack the values which must accompany martial arts training. Values like discipline, respect, and patience are just a few. Living up to your potential always comes down to the individual and the choices that he or she makes.
March 28th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
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