The Powerful Ideology: Chinese Kung Fu

Bruce Lee, the Chinese who brought the word “Kung Fu” to the Oxford English Dictionary and the world, and the person who broke the stereotype from western people to Chinese. He had a lot of different titles, including, martial artist, martial art instructor, founder of Jeet Kune Do that was a kind of the hybrid martial arts philosophy, screenwriter, producer and philosopher. Personally, my martial art career is similar to Bruce Lee from starting learning Chinese Kung Fu since young to win national or international martial art rewards. In the video, Bruce Lee, demonstrates a lot of different types of Kungfu to the movie director from Tai chi, Shao ling to Bai he, and he also comparing the Chinese Kungfu, the ancestor of any Korean and Japanese martial art, with other countries’ Kungfu such as Taekwondo or karate. Bruce Lee argues that the Chinese kung is not only one kind of the martial art, but also involving the ancient Chinese philosophies, being persistent and never being afraid challenges and the philosophies of Kungfu also runs through my growth and lead me to grow up when facing obstacles. However, it is not necessary to practice Kungfu to understand the philosophy involving in it, because the ideology involving in the Kungfu is full of our life.

Bruce Lee’s whole life was a legend that was full of challenging, but the ideologies involving in the Chinese Kungfu runs through his life and become the foundation of his own style martial art Jeet kune Do. Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco and lived in a Kung Fu family. His father Lee Hoi-chuen was the famous opera star and Tai chi master. In once street fighting accident, Bruce Lee was impressed by the Chinese Kungfu Wing Chun and started to train with Yip Man, the Wing Chun master. The first time when Yip Man saw Bruce Lee, he asserted that Bruce Lee would die before 40 years old, so he did not want to accept Bruce Lee as his students. However, Bruce Lee’s persistence touched him and started to teach Wing Chun to Bruce Lee. The process of learning Wing Chun was the first time that Bruce Lee learnt the philosophies involving in the Chinese Kung Fu. Wing Chun emphasizes a relative high, narrow stances with elbows close to the body with smooth movements, but find the right chance to defeat enemy with only one powerful punch. the process of learning Wing Chun is tough because Wing Chun involves three different and complex forms. In order to understand the essence of Wing Chun, Bruce Lee stayed with Yip Man everyday to practice for three years. At first, Yip Man was not very optimistic for Bruce Lee’s martial art career, because Bruce Lee’s legs had different length for each one. However, Bruce Lee never give up and finally understand the essence of Wing Chun, which was the first time Bruce Lee being exposed to the philosophies in Chinese Kungfu.

In U.S, Bruce Lee faced a lot of challenges from opening the martial art school to the breakthrough of Hollywood but the ideology of Kungfu was always with him . When Bruce Le came to Oakland’s Chinatown in 1964, Lee had a controversial private fight with Wong Jack-man, because Bruce Lee wanted to spread Chinese Kungfu to white people and teach them, which betrayed the rule in the Chinatown, no teaching outside Chinese. However, Bruce Lee thought Chinese Kungfu should not limited to only Chinese people and kung fu masters had the responsibilities to bring Kungfu to the world. Therefore, Wong Jack-man wanted to defeat Lee in order to stop him teaching kungfu to white people. However, Bruce Lee was never afraid of challenging, and Lee won the fight easily. Bruce Lee’s route of joining the Hollywood is also not smooth. Because Bruce Lee is not tall enough and strong enough, the Hollywood director did not think Bruce Lee would be a great fit for the martial art movie. However, Bruce utilizes his own strength to prove for himself by doing a lot of challenging movements. In 1971, Bruce Lee played his first leading role in the Big Boss and broke the stereotype of Chinese.

Although I did not achieve as many achievements as Bruce Lee, the Kungfu philosophies also runs through my life and teaches me to become a mature person. Growing up, I was always fascinated by Kung Fu movies and dreamed of one day becoming a martial arts master myself. As I was taking a walk at a park near my home one summer, I saw a middle-aged man waving a three-meter stick in the air and moving fluidly through a routine of some sort. I watched and tried studying his moves from afar. After observing him for some time, I finally approached him and asked, “Will you teach me Kung Fu?” He paused and replied, “Learning martial arts requires 3 things: time, effort, and persistence. None are dispensable. If you still want to learn martial arts, come back to the park tomorrow at 6am.”

I arrived at the park the next morning at 5:30am and found the man already sitting on the park bench. He said, “This is the first lesson. Persistence will be essential to learning martial arts.” Practicing martial arts was physically and mentally challenging. However, I continued to meet with my Master every morning after that. Eventually, I started competing and winning championships at martial arts competitions both in China and abroad. Because martial arts was a part of my life growing up, I decided to start a martial arts club at my high school after moving to the United States as a way to not only teach others self-defense but to also incorporate a piece of home in an environment that was completely foreign to me. However, the process of establishing the martial art club is not smooth as Bruce Lee’s career in Hollywood. For the first year, there were only three people in the club, which disappointed me a lot. However, my master’s talking of the Kung Fu philosophies were always on my mind. I tried my best to teach these three people and we had a great show in the biggest school assembly. As expected, in the next year, we successfully recruited 20 more people. The philosophies of Kungfu helped me to overcome obstacles and find the way in the lost cause.

Is it necessary for people to practice Chinese Kung fu in order to understand the philosophies in it that is a question many people would wonder about. The answer would be no. The philosophies involving in Chinese Kungfu is already taught people since people were still children. For example, the famous anecdote “the race between torte and the hare” also has the philosophies involving in the Chinese Kungfu such as being persistent, and it is a popular story. However, story is just story. It is easy for people to understand the essence of the story, but to practice it is difficult. However, practicing Chinese Kung Fu provides a straightforward way for people to understand the valuableness of these philosophies, because being familiar with Kung Fu requires the great amount of the repetitions, which cultivates people’s persistence, and in order to overcome the strong enemy, it requires the courage. Therefore, it is not necessary to practice Chinese Kungfu to understand these philosophies, but it a straightforward way. Being persistent and having the courage to overcome obstacles can be valuable for people’s work and life. For example, as me, when I faced the difficulty of establishing the club, I did not give up and tried to find the way to solve the problem.

The philosophy involving in the Chinese Kung Fu inspires Bruce Lee and sets the foundation for him to establish his own martial art style and also inspired him to become a philosopher. It support me to overcome obstacles in the life. Kungfu is not only a type of martial art, but more importantly, it is a powerful ideology.