Taiwan Today

As used in today's films, the term is a misnomer. It really refers to mastery of any of the several Chinese martial arts. The movie variety is Shaolin Chuan, developed by Buddhist monks

Martial arts of China go back more than 2,000 years. Nearly everyone has heard of Chinese shadow boxing (Tai Chi Chuan). Such derivatives as Karate and Judo and Taekwondo have been associated with Japan and Korea rather than China and are fairly well known in the West.

But Kung Fu - what is that? What does it have to do with the Chinese martial arts - or was it invented by the Hollywood TV and movie star David Carradine or perhaps by the American-born Chinese Bruce Lee? Kung Fu, as the term is used in the West, was not widely practiced or even widely known among the Chinese before the current television and film craze. Now it's a household work in the Republic of China, Hongkong and overseas Chinese communities all over the world.

In fact, some practitioners of the other Chinese martial arts look down their long noses at Kung Fu. David Perry, police inspector of the City of London and honorary secretary of the British Karate Control Commission, recently said that the nine Karate organizations of the world do not recognize Kung Fu. Some opinion holds that Kung Fu is a variety of street fighting which does not belong in the Karate-Judo-Taekwondo parlor.

Historically, Chinese bodily contact boxing is said to have originated in a time when warlords roamed China and sought to disarm all but their own private armies. Deprived of weapons, the people resorted to fists and feet and sticks to defend themselves. Tales of magic feats grew up along with the development of "Kung Fu's" (connoisseurs) of the manly art.

As used popularly today, the term Kung Fu is a misnomer. In its correct and narrow use, Kung Fu means expertise in either of the two great schools of Chinese boxing: Shaolin Chuan ("fist") or Tai Chi Chuan. However, it is Shaolin Chuan that has come to be identified with what Westerners now call Kung Fu.

Some small truths may be discerned in the Carradine Kung Fu television series. One of these is the Shaolin Temple and the frequent flashbacks to the hero's training in Kung Fu from small boyhood. Shaolin Chuan originated at this temple in Honan province of North Central China. In 519 A.D., in the fourth year of the reign of Hsiao Ming of Northern Wei, Master Ta Mo, a Buddhist monk, came to the temple from the state of Liang. He taught the temple priests the art of self-defense. Out of this came the Shaolin Chuan School of Chinese boxing. It is referred to as the "outer" or "hard" school in contrast to the "inner" or "soft" school of Tai Chi Chuan. "Outer" implies external physical strength and rigidity of movement; "inner" emphasizes the circulation of "chi" (life force and energy).

As the Shaolin school grew and its fame spread, strict rules were adopted and enforced to assure that practitioners with Kung Fu would not go out into the world to misuse their strength and power. There were 12 rules for students. Disobedience was punished with dismissal. Life was intentionally hard so as to develop the body and steel the spirit. Falsehood was beyond the pale. Graduates were to respect and help the people; they were not to violate the law. Errant graduates were to be pursued by the priests and put to death.

Shaolin students were chosen with care. The secrets of the masters could be shared only with those of high moral standard. Vigilance had to be constantly maintained lest the temple admit someone of evil intentions and be corrupted. The Kung Fu masters were said to have kept some secrets in reserve for use against malefactors. Teaching priests were all of Kung Fu rank. The Carradine series repeats recorded history in its flashbacks of the training regimen at Shaolin temple.

In later times, Shaolin Chuan came to have Southern and Northern sects and these were subdivided into many branches. The Southern Kung Fu have emphasized the use of fists, while the Northerners placed stress on legs and feet.

Until the arrival of Kung Fu movies, Tai Chi Chuan was much better known outside China than Shaolin Chuan. Tai Chi refers to the universe that is to be understood in terms of the interaction of Yin and Yang. The feminine Yin is represented by the moon, the earth and the female. The masculine Yang is exemplified in sun, heaven and the male. The eight principal movements of Tai Chi Chuan are consonant with Yin and Yang and also with the Five Elements of water, fire, wood, metal and earth.

Chang San-feng, the Taoist master and creator of Tai Chi Chuan, was watching a snake stalk a bird. Hopping here and there and chirping excitedly, the bird exhausted itself. The snake waited, poised for attack, then struck. Some of the snake's technique was incorporated in Tai Chi Chuan.

This "shadow boxing," which supposedly can fell a man without touching him, develops maximum circulation of the inner energy or "chi." Muscles are flexible and breathing natural. The movements are gentle and flowing, the rhythm slow but as continuous as the cycles of the earth. There is no forcing. The boxer with Kung Fu takes advantage of the opponent's strength to reinforce his own. This is often stressed in the Kung Fu movies, although they owe more to Shaolin Chuan than Tai Chi Chuan.

According to the adepts, the Tai Chi Chuan boxer must be calm of mind and devoid of tensions - a refuge of quiet in the midst of movement and even conflict. This calm is reputed to be a force in itself, enabling the Tai Chi Chuan exponent to overcome mere might and muscle.

As practiced by most Chinese of today, Tai Chi Chuan is a health-giving exercise rather than a means of self-defense. The muscles are toned up and the flow of "chi" enhanced by the gentle and graceful movements. Young or old, male or female, anyone can learn Tai Chi Chuan and derive benefit not only from the use of nerves and muscles but also from the development of abdominal breathing. Tan tien, the spot just below the navel, is said to be a reservoir of vigor and vitality.

Tai Chi Chuan masters prescribe their art for a variety of illnesses. Cheng Man-ching, a 72-year-old expert of Taiwan, said he was weak as a young man and suffered from tuberculosis. He effected a partial cure in only a year. Several additional years were required to raise him to the acme of health that he enjoys today.

Prof. Cheng claims to have subdued Kung Fu of the Shaolin Chuan persuasion without appearing to use his hands. This was a case of pitting the opponent's strength against the opponent. An American judo champion was sent on his way with sore knuckles after walloping Prof. Cheng in the chest, abdomen and kidneys. The professor learned Tai Chi Chuan from Yang Lu-shan, one of the last masters of the Ch'ing dynasty. One story of Yang is that a doubter unleashed two ferocious dogs to test his ability to defend himself. The dogs dashed at the master and tried to bite his legs, then retreated to their kennels, howling as though in pain. No one saw Yang move and he walked on as though nothing had happened. The next morning the dogs were found cowering in their kennels, their food untouched.

Classical Tai Chi Chuan movements have descriptive names. They include such colorful appellations as "Brush the Tail of the Sparrow," "Golden Cock Stands on One Leg," "Embrace the Tiger to Return to the Mountain" and "The White Crane Spreads Its Wings." All these and many more must be mastered by the boxer attaining Kung Fu. Although the connoisseur may reach his status of excellence in various ways - as through the development of "chi" by acquiring Buddhist or Taoist breathing skills as well as through exercise - he is the only practitioner of the unarmed martial arts who is competent to kill. Although Shaolin priests were not supposed to take life, not all who attained Kung Fu rank were good men.

These are some of the specialties of the Shaolin Chuan Kung Fu:

- Ching Kung. This is the Kung Fu of lightening one's body in order to make prodigious leaps. Learning should begin before the age of 10 and requires a minimum of 10 years of daily practice. Adepts believe they are able to control the "chi" and thus go sailing over walls or walk upon the waters. Leaps of 20 feet would have to be seen to believe. The stars of Kung Fu movies have the assistance of catapults and other mechanical devices. Practice must be carried out with weights attached to the body. The legs may be bound to prevent them from bending.

- Tien Hsueh. Paralysis, unconsciousness, injury and even death may result from pressure on the 365 nerve centers or "hsueh men" (hollow gates) of the body. Shaolin Kung Fu specialized in pressure on 36 nerve centers of the front side of the body and 24 centers of the back. Herb medicine antidotes are available for victims of a less than lethal attack.

- Tieh Sha Chang (hands of iron sand). The hands are soaked in herb preparations and treated with iron dust daily for as long as three years. The palms are gradually toughened until the barest touch will break a walnut shell and a blow can fell an ox. The hands of a Karate master must be similarly toughened until he can break dozens of files or a plank with the side of his hand.

- Ta Ching (beating the well). The student stands above a well at dawn and "beats" the waters from a distance. After several years he will be able to fell an opponent at a distance of a hundred paces - or so the old tales claim. In modern times, as the Chinese Boxers found out at the turn of the century, guns are a more reliable way of inflicting injury at a distance.

The Shaolin Chuan Kung Fu and other masters of the Chinese martial arts have many weapons at their disposal - spears and swords, axes and halberds, staves and bludgeons, whips and chains. The nunchaku consists of two 12-inch chunks of polished wood strung on each end of a chain. Whirled around the hero's head, the blocks fly off at 180 miles an hour to crack the villain's head. The wood blocks may be joined by a thong with which the opponent can be garrotted. Sharp-pointed sticks used instead of blocks may come in handy for jabbing and stabbing.

The Carradine series has shown some of the training of the Shaolin Chuan Kung Fu. It was arduous. There can be no doubt that even with the mystique removed, this school as well as those of Tai Chi Chuan produced hardy battlers who performed remarkable feats.

Kung Fu movies are a development of the last few years. They grew out of the swordsman films of the 1960s. These catsup bottle epics were based on knight errantry tales of troubled times in China. Bandits were not always bad guys. Some Robin Hood types stole from the rich and gave to the poor. They warred with the powerful and unjust and protected the weak and the good.

The heroes and heroines of these movies depended primarily on weapons in combat, although a lot of magic trickery soon began to creep in. Popular in Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities, swordsmanship didn't catch on in the West. Kung Fu didn't bring anything new to the martial arts but made the physical feats more interesting. The worst Kung Fu films - and many are so bad they have never been exhibited - are phony and unbelievable. The best have utilized camera techniques, slow motion and increased characterization to produce a movie resembling a better grade Western.

In 1972, Run Run Shaw, the Hongkong movie magnate, persuaded Warner Brothers that the West was ready for Kung Fu. Warner executives sat through showings of "Five Fingers of Death" without any great enthusiasm but decided to take a chance. Kung Fu was a hit from the beginning. Paul Heller made "Enter the Dragon" for Warner's at a cost of US$800,000. This is peanuts for Hollywood. The film will gross US$25 million in the United States and Hongkong alone.

Kung Fu's big star has not been David Carradine but Bruce Lee, born in San Francisco while his Chinese parents were touring with an opera troupe. Lee attended the University of Washington in Seattle and taught other students Chinese boxing. He won the California karate championship and was co-starred in the "Green Hornet" television series.

Lee made his first Kung Fu film in 1972. "The Big Boss" set Hongkong box office records. Then came "Fists of Fury" and "The Way of the Dragon." The last earned US$1 million in Hongkong in the first 10 days of its run. Only 32, Lee died in Hongkong in mid-1973, leaving his last film - "Game of Death" for Warner's - only half completed.

Others are waiting to take his place, including a number of female Kung Fu specialists. In Asia, men actors have never been as popular as women. A girl who could catch on with Kung Fu fanciers would be assured of fame and riches. Several have tried but no one has yet emerged with Lee's presence and Kung Fu skills.

What of the impact of Kung Fu on impressionable young minds? In Taiwan, considerable care has been taken to keep offensive materials off television. Swordsman and Kung Fu violence has been tempered. Whether made domestically or in Hongkong, the films exhibited in movie houses may be not glorify violence for violence's sake.

Anything seems to go in the United States. Violence is not cut. Most of these films are "Restricted" - meaning that anyone under 17 must be accompanied by an adult - but the rule is not enforced. One writer has reported that in Los Angeles, "Gangs of 10 to 12-year-olds race up and down the aisles, throw things at each other, talk loudly through passages of inactive dialogue and practice their Kung Fu battle cries. Half a dozen armed security guards patrol, and sometimes vicious, bloody fights break out. You do not tell a tough, frustrated, overexcited black adolescent what to do: but on the other hand, a 180-pound black security man with a heavy nightstick does not stand for much insolence. Hence, the in-cinema action sometimes rivals the on-screen mayhem."

One cinema guard said, "We can keep the little cats, the 10-year olds, in order. But you do not mess with the big ones, the 16 to 20s - they'll gouge your eye out, for nothing." Tensions are released in all-white neighborhoods, too. One theater manager said, "We get four or five seats slashed up at every show. They (the boys) walk out full of aggression."

Paul Heller, the Warner Kung Fu producer, thinks the American public - troubled by Watergate, and moral uncertainties - is identifying with the Kung Fu heroes who dispatch a hundred villains and have morals as pure as falling snow. People are tired of ambiguity and uncertain moral choices, he said. They want the simple answers of a hero such as they once saw in "Shane" and "High Noon." They are fed up with anti-heroes and they want to see the good guys triumph.

But do people take the Kung Fu heroes seriously or do they go to the movies merely for the sake of what the show biz paper Variety calls "Chop Socky? " So far the heroes have not been as convincing - except perhaps for the Shaolin priest played by David Carradine - as those of "Shane" and "High Noon." In Taiwan, producers and directors are convinced that Kung Fu will not survive and become an art form unless stories are written which depend more on plot and character development than on mindless violence.

Kung Fu is also big in Great Britain. There as in the States schools are proliferating and raking in millions from those who hope to practice at least a small part of what they see on the screen. Richard Mitchell, Labor MP from Southampton, wants to establish Kung Fu rules and license coaches. "Some kind of supervision at official level is essential," he said. "This can be an extremely dangerous form of physical contact."

Lajos Jakab from Crystal Palace says he could kill a man with his nose, or at least knock him unconscious. Derek Gordon of Blackburn claims to be able to render an assailant senseless with one finger. He walks away from a fight because of his deadly digit. He would rather be called a coward than a killer. Clifford Gibbs of Dunstable has so much confidence in Kung Fu that he need only talk quietly to a tough customer. A long, cool stare usually backs them off, he says.

Most of these British practitioners do not take kindly to the government's interest. English-born Gibbs, whose Chinese name is Chee Soo, said, "The government would do well to stay out of Kung Fu. It has no knowledge of the art, so it would not know what it was talking about. Who is qualified to pronounce on Kung Fu in this country? There are only a handful of true masters here and I am one. You can't apply a set of rules to Kung Fu."

Gibbs, who has been teaching Tai Chi Chuan for 40 years, is upset by too much Kung Fu publicity. "It is a slur against us," he said. "Untrained youngsters trying out what they see on the screen are giving us a bad name." In Britain, it costs £ 15 a year to belong to a Tai Chi Chuan club and tuition is another 30p an hour. At least three years of lessons and diligent practice are required to reach teaching rank.

Gibbs pronounced Judo and Karate to be Japanese and said there is no likelihood that the masters of Kung Fu will get together with the practitioners of these other martial arts. "Ours is an ancient and highly respected art with a long and distinguished historical background," he said. "You could hardly expect any true, self-respecting devotee of this Chinese culture to have anything to do with something Japanese."

Little boys and young men of Taiwan play at Kung Fu without excessive violence, injury or damage. There are probably any number of reasons, including the lower content of parental permissiveness. Films are not "Restricted." Anything that's too bad is not shown. The slashing of theater seats would not be tolerated. Neither would gang fighting in the aisles. Hongkong has a little more trouble with young gangs because of crowded conditions and higher rates of unemployment and school nonattendance.

Then, too, boys of Taiwan aged 10 to 16 are so busy throwing the ball around that they don't have much time to become Kung Fu addicts. Little League and Senior League baseball excellence is the connoisseurship that Taiwan small and medium boys seek. The reward of a trip to the United States for world series play is a greater certainty than stardom in a Kung Fu movie.

Whether of Shaolin Chuan or Tai Chi Chuan, the spirit of Kung Fu is ancient, honorable and respected - not unnecessarily violent and never destructive of life.  Those who have made Kung Fu otherwise are departing from both Chinese culture and history. If the extremism is removed from the presentation of Kung Fu, there is no reason why as entertainment, at least, this martial art of flying fists, nimble feet and the transfixing of an opponent with a look shouldn't remain on the film maker's production schedule along with the Western. There is a need for victorious good guys and a return to the hero who defends what is right. Kung Fu began as such a vehicle and could be again.