
A dissident who beats up Tai Chi masters - _bxg1
https://deadspin.com/he-never-intended-to-become-a-political-dissident-but-1838706430
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mrbonner
One of my "sniff" test to evaluate a martial art is whether it is taught in
the police academy or in the military. I used to rely on the Olympics to do
this kind of evaluation but not now due to heavy inclination toward the "art"
form more than "martial" form.

For example, Jiu-jitsu, Karate-jutsu, Krav maga are very popular among police
academy & military camps around the world. Even Ken-jitsu is taught in Tokyo
police academy as well, though not very popular outside of Japan. Those
martial arts are designed not only to be very practical in physical contact
(neutralize opponent in the shortest amount of time) but also increase the
mental toughness. Their cousins (replace the jitsu with do) are more sporty
and humane, thus popular in the Olympics.

Growing up watching a lot of Kung-fu/Wushu movies from Hong Kong, I was amazed
how artistic it was: beautiful kicks, long-rally sparring time. After getting
into Ken-do and boxing, I noticed a typical sparring match lasts at most a few
minutes. Then, I came to realize that how a practical martial art is vs. the
one with more emphasis on art form. I'm sure certain styles/forms of Kung-fu
are more practical (i.e: focusing more on neutralize opponent) as they were
intended to be. But over time, the dramatization of motion pictures destroy
its original purposes.

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ksec
Wing Chun is also taught and used around the world in police academy &
military camps. But that is not to say it is better than Muray Thai, and I
don't see Muray Thai being used for this purpose.

>Growing up watching a lot of Kung-fu/Wushu movies from Hong Kong

The problem with Kung-fu/Wushu itself, it is for one people over idolise it,
second being it completely lost most of its root in Mainland China during the
2nd World War and later CCP forbid the use of it. ( At one point they over
emphasise science / Guns / technology and calling Wushu as old fashioned and
not up with time during the Cultural Revolution, of course in reality CCP
doesn't want to arm people with fighting skills ) Most of the Grand Masters
ran for life and arrived to Hong Kong during that time, that quickly spread
out as a culture and hence why later you see many Kung Fu movies from Hong
Kong.

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jbob2000
> According to Xu, more than 100 martial artists looking to avenge Wei
> challenged him in the aftermath of the fight. Xu took out a pencil and
> paper, ranked his challengers in order of priority, and set about in earnest
> on his now-famous quest to “fight fakes” (“fake” and “battle” are homophones
> in Mandarin). As of this writing, Xu has fought 17 of those challengers in
> public matches. He has defeated them all.

This is straight out of an episode of Letterkenny, where one of the guys
proves that he’s the best fighter in the town. Hilarious episode, can’t
believe it actually happens in real life. Season 1, episode 2 if you’re
curious.

~~~
52-6F-62
I'd like to second Letterkenny. I grew up in a SW Ontario town about that
size. It's so true to form it's uncanny.

~~~
noir_lord
Third.

It's a truly hilarious show and the writing is phenomenal.

If you like clever wordplay it's great.

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ericmcer
It doesn’t seem crazy that these master would allow people to believe their
teachings. That would just make them convincing woo woo con men. To actually
stand in the ring with someone and fight bare knuckled, when your opponent is
younger and has 50lbs on you is insane though.

Are they really that delusional about their training? If so that actually is
dangerous, if you are 120lb woman you shouldnt behave like you can easily fend
off large men, no matter how good at tai chi or pressure points you are.

~~~
pasabagi
I agree - this is definitely the really bizarre part. The fact that not just
one, but multiple people have proactively sought out this guy to fight is
insane. I mean, the first one I can sort of understand. Obviously, you still
have to have some serious brain problems to want to fight a guy who looks like
that, but it's at least normal-human-range levels of self-deception.

But surely, after seeing the initial Tai Chi master getting the crap beaten
out of him, then the next, then the next - what on earth is going on? That's
more than drinking the Koolaid. That's watching all your friends get poisoned,
then going to the punch bowl and getting yourself a cup.

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rasz
Its a Face thing. You cant not speak up when your students expect their Sifu
to 'stand up to the bully'. You cant deny the dude a fight after he shows in
your dojo with cameras.

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seibelj
The Chinese government is just so pathetic, like why be afraid of this guy?
The deep insecurity shows such weakness. Letting your people point at the man
on top and call him names shows strength. Banning someone from taking a train
for beating up scam artists is so incredibly lame.

~~~
shitgoose
all governments are pathetic. did US government show strength while dealing
with Liberty Dollars?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_dollar_(private_curren...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_dollar_\(private_currency\))

governments are dumb but sometimes they are able to identify the most
dangerous threats with great precision.

~~~
lenkite
Making and distributing your own private currency in the US with a dollar
sign, the dollar word and the words "Trust in God" was clearly construed to be
a federal crime. Let's be honest here - that sort of action would be criminal
in _any_ nation.

Does China have a law that prevents contenders from challenging Tai-Chi
masters ?

~~~
shitgoose
It is not clear what federal laws are broken specifically by using words
"Dollar" and "Trust in God".

The point I was making is that Tai-Chi became part of mythology created by CPC
that is bonding the society. Slightest challenge is not tolerated. Same with
Liberty Dollars - these coupons do not violate any laws, but challenge the
state's monopoly on money creation.

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Quekid5
This is a "magical thinking" vs. "thinking" exercise. I absolutely applaud him
for doing it.

I can't imagine standing up for rationality being this costly (personally). I
think we underestimate how fortunate many of us are.

~~~
chillacy
There are some entertaining takedowns of mind readers and faith healers on
youtube, glad the government doesn't try to protect tarot reading as some sort
of cultural gem.

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CM30
Reminds me of the folks at Bullshido, who do similar stuff to expose martial
arts frauds and McDojos outside of China. Wonder if this guy has an account
there, or is considering English versions of some of his videos? Definitely
feels like they'd find a larger audience here.

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mrageh
The best way to know whether a martial art is useful in combat is to see if
it's used by professional MMA fighters.

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BubRoss
Tldr: He has MMA training. People who pretend they can fight using martial
arts that have no full contact sparring or resisting opponents stand no
chance.

Some have fooled themselves into thinking they can fight. They get their ass
kicked and end up humiliated by their own delusion.

China is embarrassed that their traditional martial arts don't work for MMA or
self defense.

~~~
Quekid5
I think the CCP angle is interesting because they want to project this image
of 'perfection' in the rest of the world. The only problem is that almost
everybody knows it's BS. So are the powers themselves ignorant of what the
"West" thinks of them? What gives?

EDIT: I suppose I should add a little thing here for people who take the more
practical angle: The point during these fights is that there's an idea (in how
the announcers set it up) of Western vs. Eastern/Chinese. He's just
demonstrating that there's 'it works' and 'ineffectual'. Aka: Science!

~~~
agota
I think you are overestimating the percentage of the general population that
understand that traditional martial arts are BS (with obvious exceptions such
as Muay Thai).

A regular person with no previous martial arts training is easy prey for the
"masters".

That's why these traditional martial arts gyms still exist.

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_bxg1
I think the takeaway is not that "traditional martial arts are BS", but that
the CCP cares only about appearances, and so has funded legions of false
masters in an attempt to project cultural superiority, and this guy is calling
them out on it.

It's a microcosm of their entire propaganda-state and the corruption that it's
rife with. Even their finance reporting follows the same pattern.

~~~
Quekid5
You absolutely nailed it. Thank you.

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ezoe
All so called self-claimed traditional martial arts masters who oppose the Xu
are pathetic in terms of body mass. On a hand-to-hand combat with no rule,
body mass works. Joint lock works with equally trained fighters.

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specialist
This is about contradicting the powers that be, not martial arts.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Persecution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Persecution)

