Xah Lee, 2006-11-27
There is a form of kung-fu called 八卦掌 (bagua-zhang) , or, 8-trigrams palm. I've always wanted to learn kung-fu, and is fascinated by it, but never in my life studied it. Anyway, i find this style of kung-fu particularly fascinating. (but i don't really know gongfu to say much)
In the movie The One, the “good guy” character played by Jet Li uses this style. (The “bad guy” character uses 形意拳 (Xíngyìquán) style.)
In the Tekken 3 video game, the character Ling Xiaoyu's (凌曉雨) fighting style is bagua-zhang.
In Dead or Alive, Helena's fighting style is 劈掛拳.
The most interesting game in Versus Fighting genre, is Virtua Fighter. Unlike other fighting games, Virtual Fighter tries to be realistic. So, in a sense it is a martial arts simulator. Two-person hand-to-hand combat simulator in the form of a video game controlled by joysticks and buttons as inputs may seem ridiculous, however, Virtual Fighter at least captures the artistic aspect of the fighting styles.
For example, in Western Boxing, we can see that the characteristic movement is the various punches (jab, cross, hook, uppercut), and the characteristic leg movement. (jogging or shifting). In kick boxing, added to the punches are various attacks using the legs. While in wrestling , in particular the show-oriented professional wrestling, the characteristic movements are lifting of the body with various skull-breaking or neck breaking or spine-breaking slams, and also joint locks.
The modern martial arts simulator such as Virtua Fighter or wresting games is fascinating because they actually simulate the real body movements of these fighting styles, and present it in a video form of 3D dummy characters. In this presentation, your visual perception gets to focus on the body movement itself. For example, you can actually learn some of the fancy bone-breaking wrestling throws from video games. (at least in the form.)
Some of these games are developed by having sensors attached to the real martial artist, and record their movements in 3D while the actor perform the moves. (called motion capture.)
As computer technology marches forward, i'm sure it'll become more and more realistic. Perhaps within 10 years, martial arts simulating games can use motion sensors attached to the player's body parts as the input system. So that, the player actually engages himself in physical exercise. (such physical-exercise engaging video game is already on the rise. For example, in the game Dance Dance Revolution)
Martial arts itself is interesting, from a mathematician and artist's eye. In essence, it is the finding of the optimal system of body movement, to defeat your opponent, with the human body as the base and constraint. The human physiology plays a major role. For example, bones, muscles, joints, pressure points, the understanding of their function, characteristics, movements, are all import in developing a system of martial arts from the science point of view. (of course, martial arts as they are by tradition, are not developed out of scientific principles, but experience)
Of all the martial arts, one form particularly attractive is the Chinese martial arts, known as kung-fu. Although it is true that most film depictions are ostentation and choreography, but real kung-fu do possess high level of dance-like stylistic and precise movements.
One particular sports game originated from kung-fu, is called pushing hands. Two persons stand face to face within a arm-length distance. The goal is to push your opponent off-balance. (The first to fall or move feet, loses the game.) The game is very simple, but you'll be surprised how a muscle-man can be trivially thrown off by a old push-hands master.
In the last decade, there's a all-out martial arts competition called mixed martial arts. The gist of the sport is to fight empty-handed in all ways you can, to defeat your opponent. But for practical reasons, the rule evolved to ban certain attacks, such as gouging the eyes, hitting the groin, biting, fish-hooking (insert fingers into mouth or nose and tear). One essential aspect in such competition, is to see what is the ultimate martial arts style. May it be punch-oriented like boxing, or kick boxing, or with strikes like karate , or with fancy stances and hand techniques like kung-fu, or the grappling and throwing techniques in wrestling — everything goes.
It is also in such competition, we see practical scientific advancements in martial arts. Namely, away with all the oriental philosophies associated with kung-fu, away with the various nationalistic and pride associations with different schools of martial arts, away with showmanship as in pro wrestling. The goal, is simply to win a competition that simulates hand-to-hand combat of two human animals to the death.
Note that, in countless Chinese martial-art films, there are many Chinese heros so depicted that are Chinese nationalistic fantasies loosely based on history. Such heros include: 黃飛鴻 (Wong Fei Hung, 1847-1924) and 霍元甲 (Huo Yuanjia, 1867-1910) .
The stories from the movies imbued into Chinese's people's minds are basically war-mongering garbage. Nevertheless, it doesn't stop Chinese from believing them. Ask any Chinese, even those with a college degree — chances are — they know nothing about the historical facts regarding these people.
In the same way, the WASPs are happily brainwashed by WASP heroisms and cultural superiority that regularly comes out of Hollywood.
Bruce Lee (1940-1973), born in San Francisco, is one of the first to take kung fu with science. Despite all the moronic kung-fu and movie-star brouhaha and myths surrounding Bruce Lee, he is a man of science and rationality. Here are some quotes from wikipedia:
Bruce Lee's evaluation of traditional martial arts doctrines is nowadays seen as one of the first steps into the modern style of mixed martial arts.
Bruce Lee was an American Born Chinese born at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco, California in 1940 to his Chinese father Lee Hoi-Chuen and Chinese-German mother Grace Lee.
Bruce's Cantonese given name, 振藩 (Zhènfán), literally means “invigorate San Francisco.”
He enrolled at the University of Washington as a Philosophy Academic major. There he met his future wife Linda Emery. Bruce and Linda married in 1964 and had two children together, Brandon Lee (born 1965) and Shannon Lee (born 1969). Brandon, an actor like his father, died on a movie set while filming The Crow on March 31, 1993.
Bruce Lee felt that many martial artists of his day did not spend enough time on physical conditioning.
Lee believed that the abdominal muscles were one of the most important muscle groups for a martial artist, since virtually every movement requires some degree of abdominal work.
he was also a proponent of cardiovascular conditioning and would regularly run, jump rope, and ride a stationary bicycle.
Another element in Bruce Lee's quest for abdominal definition was nutrition. According to Linda Lee, soon after he moved to the United States, Bruce started to take nutrition seriously and developed an interest in health foods and high-protein drinks. He ate lean meat sparingly and consumed large amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Bruce Lee is interred in Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Some animal forms.
A particular technique.