BREAKING BOARD-ERS:
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting

November 2, 2009 by Sean Jaramillo 

Multiple styles flow through funky Chinatown

“It’s an ancient Chinese art, and everybody knew their part. From a feint into a slip and kicking from the hip.”

These are lyrics from the legendary song “Kung Fu Fighting,” by Carl Douglas. For most people outside the martial arts, this song from the 1970s is one of the only places where they can get knowledge about Kung Fu.

The other places include Bruce Lee, Jet Li movies and the 1998 Disney classic, Mulan.
Bluntly put, what most people know about the subject of Kung Fu is pathetic.

As someone who wants to get the real story behind other martial arts and their practitioners, Kung Fu seemed to be the ideal start.

To find out about Kung Fu, I attended a training session with the UNLV Chinese Martial Arts Association.

What I quickly discovered is that Kung Fu is not a single martial art. The term ‘kung fu,’ or ‘wushu,’ refers to the entire collection of the more than 400 Chinese martial arts.

Keoni Everington, the instructor for the class, described the array of styles that make up the Chinese martial art system.

“Kung Fu itself means ‘skill acquired through hard work.’ That can be anything – calligraphy, sewing…” Everington said. “In China, they are different, but in America they are all the same [art].”

Everington noted that many of the martial arts are deeply connected to religion and consequently, the philosophies of the arts mimic those of their respective faiths.

“Shaolin is a Buddhist [art] and Bagua and Tai Chi are Daoist,” Everington said. “Tantui is a Muslim style, so there are even Muslim Chinese martial arts. I try to teach a little of the backgrounds and [my students] are tested on it.”

With this background in place, I began the class, which started out by running in a circle.

Those cats were fast as lightning.

During stretching, I discovered a little tidbit that made the experience feel so much more authentic: each student is taught Mandarin Chinese. Everington said that he teaches the language to the students as they advance in the art.

After running and stretching, it was time to practice the five basic forms and some basic techniques.

The techniques were Greek to me – or in this case, Mandarin – since the style focused on more fluid stances. For someone who is used to direct, powerful stances, this emphasis seemed bizarre.

Miles Robinson, a member of the club and former karate student, said the style difference was what attracted him to the art.

“Karate is really much more rigid compared to kung fu,” Robinson said. “It’s much more fluid forms, [like the] animal forms and much more unorthodox.”

Club member Jameson Lee addressed one of the myths about the legendary fighting style.
“A lot of people don’t think you can use it, but you can,” Lee said. “I’d say you can use it more than boxing. It’s self-defense.”

Another aspect about kung fu that I was not aware of was that most Chinese arts do not use a sash system – also known as a belt system. Everington has introduced one for his students at UNLV and his former students at Winthrop University and he feels that it has yielded positive results.

“I find it helpful to motivate the students and keep them on track,” Everington said. “I never thought I’d do it, but it turns out to be pretty good. I make them earn it, though.”

The test to advance to another belt is a unique one. Besides the skills themselves, students are given a written test on the history of the art, culture, religion and language.

Funky Billy Chin and Little Sammy Chung were not there, but there was a sizeable group of UNLV students participating. The class itself had more than 10 students and nearly all of them stayed for at least an hour after class to hone their skills.

One thing that everyone in the club advocated was to look for a fighting style that fits your personality. Everington said that he went through multiple arts before finding the art that he is using as his base, baguazhang.

“I was looking for something more traditional,” Everington said. “Bagua was used by guards of the last dynasty and is considered the highest martial art in China.”

What I took out of my time with the kung fu students is that the stereotypes of Chinese styles are grossly over-simplified. The styles in kung fu cannot be limited to just what is seen in the movies.
If I tried to go through all the Chinese styles, I would complete my degree before getting halfway through the styles.

At the same time, the dedication that is seen in the movies is very real. It is this kind of dedication that resonates in every style of fighting and I am glad to see where it originated.
I hope to take that dedication into my training, as I am testing this Saturday and through the rest of this column.

I know now that I must be swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
Sorry, had to do it.

Breaking Board-ers is a column in which one martial artist explores fighting styles to try and knock out Hollywood stereotypes, one roundhouse kick at a time.