7 votes

The bizarre world of fake martial arts

4 comments

  1. [4]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    This was surprisingly interesting, and more than a bit depressing... especially the last part about Xu Xiaodong and what he has suffered (and continues to suffer) for daring to oppose the Chinese...

    This was surprisingly interesting, and more than a bit depressing... especially the last part about Xu Xiaodong and what he has suffered (and continues to suffer) for daring to oppose the Chinese government's nationalistic narrative regarding the "supremacy" of traditional Chinese martial arts. China's "social credit" system is absolutely terrifying to me for exactly that reason... the man's life was essentially destroyed just to try to stop him from showing how easily proven false that delusional narrative actually is. :(

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      krg
      Link Parent
      Yea... traditional martial arts can be good to do if you just want to stay active and instill some discipline in your life, but the danger for the practitioner comes from thinking highly...

      Yea... traditional martial arts can be good to do if you just want to stay active and instill some discipline in your life, but the danger for the practitioner comes from thinking highly choreographed drills can approximate an actual fight. China's policy of trying to tie traditional martial arts to their identity and trying to advertise it as an effective form of fighting backfired a bit with Xu Xiaodong (a middling mixed martial artist by his own admission) dissuading them of their illusions. And, yea, sucks that they tried to make his life hell for it.

      ...and, also, those qi "masters" are just downright bonkers.

      3 votes
      1. cfabbro
        Link Parent
        Speaking of Xu, since he seems such an interesting guy I decided to look for more info and found a great Deadspin article on him and the treatment he has suffered that might also interest you: He...

        Speaking of Xu, since he seems such an interesting guy I decided to look for more info and found a great Deadspin article on him and the treatment he has suffered that might also interest you:
        He Never Intended To Become A Political Dissident, But Then He Started Beating Up Tai Chi Masters

        3 votes
    2. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        The article may have mentioned that event first as a story hook, but you have the timeline completely backwards in your head. He only recently came out in support of the Hong Kong protestors. From...

        The article may have mentioned that event first as a story hook, but you have the timeline completely backwards in your head. He only recently came out in support of the Hong Kong protestors. From wikipedia:

        In August 2019, Xu spoke out on Twitter, Sina Weibo and YouTube questioning the governments reporting of the Hong Kong protests... He was subsequently visited by Chinese authorities and had his Weibo account wiped for the eighth time.

        And if you read the rest of his wikipedia and check the dates on the citations you will see that his troubles began before that. E.g. being banned from hosting any more tournaments at his gym (8 November 2018), being forced to pay hundreds of thousands of Yuan in fines, publicly apologize on social media for seven consecutive days, and having his social credit score lowered to "D-level" (24 May 2019), etc.

        2 votes