CMA depicted in French cartoon from 1845

[DdlR]

http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/20...ducation-1845/

Possibly one of the earliest European depictions of Chinese martial arts.

[justsome]

that's quite a website. thank you for the link.

[Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs]

DdlR, I've read the text under the picture because the picture gave of a vibe that it wasn't representing a CMA. The leg and body position made the kick look more like a push kick than a frontkick and both persons are wearing boxing gloves.
Not very common in CMA unless it's SanDa.

The French text and the English translation use "Savate", is this a mispresentation because the text was written by a French author and he called all kick and punch styles wrongfully "Savate" or were there French Savate schools on mainland China (especially Beijing) around that period with the French being there permantly for business?

[DdlR]

DdlR, I've read the text under the picture because the picture gave of a vibe that it wasn't representing a CMA. The leg and body position made the kick look more like a push kick than a frontkick and both persons are wearing boxing gloves.
Not very common in CMA unless it's SanDa.

The French text and the English translation use "Savate", is this a mispresentation because the text was written by a French author and he called all kick and punch styles wrongfully "Savate" or were there French Savate schools on mainland China (especially Beijing) around that period with the French being there permantly for business?

I think it's very likely that the cartoonist was improvising, possibly even basing the image on a sketch of two savateurs (hence the boxing gloves, Western-style training equipment on the walls behind them, etc.) - I'm pretty sure that it wasn't intended to represent a realistic portrait.

Given that Le Charivari was a satirical magazine, it's likely that the artist was simply riffing on a report that a French traveller had offered on CMA, to the effect that they "boxed" with feet as well as hands (hence the savate reference, which was probably facetious) and that Chinese youths from good families practiced kickboxing, which would have seemed exotic and amusing to French sophisticates in the mid-1800s.

[Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs]

I think it's very likely that the cartoonist was improvising, possibly even basing the image on a sketch of two savateurs (hence the boxing gloves, Western-style training equipment on the walls behind them, etc.) - I'm pretty sure that it wasn't intended to represent a realistic portrait.

Given that Le Charivari was a satirical magazine, it's likely that the artist was simply riffing on a report that a French traveller had offered on CMA, to the effect that they "boxed" with feet as well as hands (hence the savate reference, which was probably facetious) and that Chinese youths from good families practiced kickboxing, which would have seemed exotic and amusing to French sophisticates in the mid-1800s.

Thanks for the information.
I had a suspision that it would be author/cartoonist "artistic freedom", but I wasn't sure since the French, Dutch and British were very active in the Orient around that period.
I wouldn't have been astound if they had tried to open fencing schools, Boxing gyms and Savate schools to educate the "yellow barbarians".

[Permalost]

Interesting. Looks like fencing equipment in the background as well.