ARTICLE: Kung Fu International
Benjamin talks about his love of martial arts
INQUILAB MAGAZINE - Issue 1, 1996/7
In September 1995 for the first time in history, Kung Fu Masters from the Shaolin Temple in China took to the sky for a World Tour. The day after their Wembly performance I went along to see them at the London Arena in the East End of London. On arriving at the Arena I was struck by the variety of people lining up to get in, there were Buddhist Monks, Police Officers, Street Gangs, Hippies, an Asian Self Defence Club and Neo-Nazis, all united in the struggle to get in.
Kung Fu means different things to different people, those who are not familiar with it tend to automatically start thinking about Bruce Lee or other comical Jackie Chan movies. Others conjure up images of people in white suits breaking bricks with their bare hands. Most of all there is a strong smell of machismo or very feminine women who can suddenly jump up, somersault 3 times and beat 6 men up at the same time. This makes life very difficult for people like me who take Martial Arts very seriously.
Much of the history of Kung Fu is 'shrouded in mystery' and various schools will give you their own versions but there is much that is recorded and taken as fact by most martial artists.
The term martial arts simply means the art of waging war. Fighting and exercising have practically been around since the dawn of time but today's use of the term martial arts represents the formation of fighting systems on what the Chinese believe to be scientific principals. Kung Fu is the oldest systemised branch fo the martial arts and has its roots in India, it is in fact a breathing science, some practicioners prefer to call it a 'Yogic Science'.
The Shaolin Temple lies in the Songshan Mountain in the Henan Province of China and is undisputively the home of Kung Fu. At its centre is a fresco showing Indian, Chinese and African students training together, yet more evidence that the exchange of both goods and ideas between continents existed long before the idea of the International Monetry Fund or the United Nations. The temple was built by court decree towards the end of the Fifth Century AD in honour of an Indian monk, but the legend really begins with the arrival of Bodhidharma.
Bodhidharma was a wandering Zen Buddhist Monk who was known to the Chinese as Ta-Mo, the son of King Sugandha of India. He renounced his birthrights and set off in pursuit of truth and knowledge. For many years it was believed that he was lost in the mountains of the dead, then he surfaced at the Shaolin temple where it is said 'he found the monks in an emaciated state'. What he did next was simple but simply revolutionary. When he gave the Chinese students yaga exercises which require them to be still, the students monks did not understand that simply sitting inthe Lotus position requires fitness and breath control, often the Chinese monks fell asleep, so Bodhidharma gave them what some called 'moving yoga' which was the forerunner of what we now know as Tai Chi.
Tai Chi is a slow set of moving breathing exercises that is used for self defence and health reasons but its main purpose is the cultivation of Chi, or Prana, energy rooted in the breath. With the ability to control your Chi you are able to perform feats that may seem impossible to many people or at least very painful, the demonstration at the London Arena was full of such stunts, swords were pressed against a monks throat, bricks smashed against bodies, bodies pressed into sandwiches of nails and one head smashed one iron bar. I once trained with Tibetan monks who really took these ideas to the extreme, so for me the Shaolin monks seemed quite tame but these are family shows so I can understand why the really spectacular stuff would be left out.
An obvious weakness of the Shaolin monks exhibition was the lack of women, absolutely none were to be seen, yet the most popular style of Kung Fu was devised by a woman and improved upon by another woman whom the style is named after, it is called Wing Chun. A nun called Ng Mui worked for many years trying to develop a fighting system which did not require great muscular strength to be effective, after her death one of her students, Yim Wing Chun continued her work and to this day 'Wing Chun' Kung Fu is practised in the same manner all over the world the way Yim Wing Chun taught. The style is noted for its economy of movement, its no frills effectiveness, its simplicity and its ability to overcome opponents who may be many times stronger than the practicioner.
To put simply, both these women realised that generally speaking, women did not have the muscular power of men and the principle of meeting force with force was a misguided macho one. Instead they drew power from Chi and met force with gentle responses that turned force back on the opponent, in doing so Yim Wing Chun was able to overpower all the male fighters in the temple and completely change peoples ideas about the fighting arts.
The more one studies the martial arts, the more one is able to see the limitations of the womens self defence courses that have become so popular over the last decade. When self defence skills are needed they must flow naturally, there is no time to try and remember that 6 months course you did 5 years ago and your attacker will not square up to you in the way they used to in class. When I taught women Kung Fu, I found teaching the history of the art very rewarding, passing on the tradidtion was a joy but I had to be realistic. I installed in my club a telephone box, a cocktail bar, a car shell and even a bed, because in today's world these are the places where women are most likely to be attacked.
The martial arts developed in many ways to suit the size and the culture of different people, the Japanese developed Karate, Koreans have Tae Kwon Do, Thailand had Thai (kick) Boxing, Africans have Capoiera and Indians have Kalaripayat. There are thousands of variations but Karate is familiar to most people and has been most successful at adapting to the sports arena. Some martial artists (like myself) are not keen on competition in the art but one cannot help but notice that most of Britain's Karate World Champions have been Afro-Caribbean and Asian decent. These prize fighters are young people who take to self defence tuition to protect themselves from racists on the streets, they then move on to competitions when they see the opportunities before them, competitions themselves do not generate great amounts of money but sponsorship and product endorsements can.
One of the most prolific karate clubs in England is an Asian Womens club based in Southall who can be found doing demonstrations at concerts and open days all over the country. Clubs such as this one encourage women to practise regularly as opposed to the crash course option. Most people don't walk the streets in karate uniform, and this, I am informed, is the reason why one teacher is teaching female students seld defence techniques whilst they are dressed in Shalwar Kamise, Sari's and Jeans. More and more people are seeing the benefits of the martial arts for health reasons and some doctors are encouraging people to practice to help with respiratory problems, depression and weight control, but beware, there are also many mediocre teachers who devise their own styles, they may claim links to great Chinese legend and then go out to make all the money they can.
If you are considering joining a club it is best to read about the various styles first, talk to people whao have some knowledge of a style but don't be fooled by people who claim their style is the best, no style is the best. Choose a style that suits your size, gender and emotions. Although Kung Fu is rooted in Buddhism its practise is non-religious but it is useful for meditation purposes in the same way that yoga is, and most of all don't believe the hype, it's not about high kicks and breaking bricks, it comes from the East and increases your peace and in time you will find that it's all in the mind.
