New Video

[Phrost]

We just uploaded this short clip of Jet Li giving a Wushu demonstration on the Tonight Show.



His views on Martial Arts are fairly controversial. Some have accused him of outright labeling martial arts as "useless", and contributing to the McDojo-ing of Chinese Martial Arts through Sport-oriented Wushu.

From his website: www.jetli.com

With the advent of technology, you have guns, cannons, nuclear bombs, and other advanced weapons. Learning wushu no longer serves the purpose of fighting hand to hand against tigers, outside invaders, and so forth. Today, if you kill or maim someone with an astounding wushu move learned from some ten-year intensive training program, it will not help you to survive. The police will catch you for murder, society will frown upon you, and the whole deed would have been much more quickly performed through pulling a trigger on a pistol with a silencer...

Now, wushu can pave the way to a career that earns big bucks. Big bucks translate to a higher standard of living, which is a boon for survival. Notice that the goal (survival) is the same. It’s only the path to survival that’s different....

Self-defense is another reason why someone today might practice wushu, but I do not really advocate this particular end. If you’re faced with a problem, it’s better to go to the police or seek recourse with some reliable authority.

Is there any wonder why there's a growing rift between practicioners of "Kung Fu" and "WuShu" sport stylists?

[timcraig]

"Is there any wonder why there's a growing rift between practicioners of "Kung Fu" and "WuShu" sport stylists? "

No.

How has hand to hand fighting changed through the use of hand guns, bombs, and other advanced weapons? It hasn't, hand to hand is still the same, it's hand vs (insert modern weapon here) that's changed.

If you kill someone using an astounding wushu move(which would be amazing/unlikely in and of itself) for no good legal reason such as true self defense, then the police should catch you, and society should look down upon you. It's because you used violence unjustly that you'd be in trouble, not because you used wushu.

[Nihilanthic]

Hmm... he did a form he must have practiced thousands of times... oh my, he must be a master fighter at choreographed fights! Hmm... that choreograph-fu must be excellent in his movie career!

<Me> John, what do you know about Zen Buddhism? <John> *smacks me*
<John> I'd have to smack you sometime...

[Mercurius]

Jet Li's a fine one to talk about the use of martial arts in self-defense. Maybe he could spare one of the wires he uses to help him do something a man twice his age (Jackie Chan) could do unassisted and use it to choke the next guy who tries to mug him?

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And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!