After the trip to Hohhot, I pitched a story on the rise of MMA and corresponding decline (discussions of decline?) of kungfu to the Economist. They took the pitch and the result is this 400 word blurb on what happened.
There is really too much to write about this topic, and the story in the Economist, for me, is just a note of what was seen and spoken during that weekend in Inner Mongolia. I personally think that kungfu will inevitably demonstrate its usefulness in the ring, and that will be a big day for kungfu’s revival. Apropos usefulness, many people don’t realize that jiujitsu’s origins are in Mainland China and traditional Chinese martial arts … locks and submissions are a big part of the kungfu arsenal and it would be interesting to trace jiujitsu back and see what remains of the “mother styles” here in China.
The link doesn’t work when I click on it, maybe double check.
I found the story though: http://www.economist.com/news/china/21571472-new-forms-martial-arts-are-catching-despite-nostalgia-filmmakers-aint-kick
Congratulations! I know this is just the beginning of what you are going to write about kungfu and MMA, but it sure is a good start!
Should work, same link as the one you pasted. I have so much material about the topic, need another good venue. Will prostrate myself before some sports mags, and if there are no takers, then I’ll just post here.
Yes, kungfu has jointlocks. Standing jointlocks. How many of these have you seen in the ring? Near zero.
As far as I know, kungfu has no groundfighting (by which I mean wrestling on the ground, not Ditang&co). Groundfighting (and the locks used therein) was developed in judo and western wrestling. Brazilian jujutsu is not a style of jujutsu (contrary to the name), but of judo. Therefore, the connection between modern (brazilian) jujutsu and kungfu is slim to none.
In fact, the jujutsu techniques that might have been inspired by kungfu (=standing chinna) were quite unceremonially dumped out, because unlike ground submissions, they are were hard to pull off in a ring.
I don’t know whether this is good or bad; but it is nevertheless a fact.