Introduction
Commands rapidly barked out in Chinese echo through the rooftop hall of Braddell Heights Community Centre. “站直 stand straight! 一二 HA!” It is 6 pm in the evening and in the hall, some 40 children, teenagers and older youth, are lined up in neat rows for their warm-up. Attentively and expectantly, they await Zhong Sifu’s next command. Starting from simple jumping jacks, the warm up gets progressively more difficult in terms of flexibility and execution. It is only when Zhong Sifu is satisfied that his learners have stretched enough that he and his assistant coaches break the group up into smaller classes for further instruction. Such a scene can be found throughout Singapore on any of the week. On a Monday evening, at a basketball court, perhaps together with increasing numbers of adult learners…the wushu community in Singapore gathers at various places around Singapore to practice, instruct and learn. This is but a little peek into the community, a community outsiders often associate with impossible physical feats, strict discipline and deadly skill.
Wushu (“武术” in Chinese – the Way of the Military when literally translated) is a fighting style developed in China. Legend has it that during the “Spring and Autumn” period in Chinese history (770 – 476 B.C.), the King of the Zhou kingdom held a sword contest. After seven days, a young woman emerged from the many competing swordsmen as the victor. It is said that from that fateful day onwards, her unique fighting style as well as her philosophical thoughts on martial arts have been passed down through the generations. Despite having a population that is mainly Chinese, wushu is not one of the bigger sports in Singapore. In recent years however, its numbers have been slowly but steadily increasing. This is partly due to the release of several highly popular martial arts films from Hong Kong and China. Moreover, the Singapore wushu community has seen the rise of several local stars such as popular actor and former national athlete, Vincent Ng. And just recently, the national women’s duilian team won gold at the Wushu World Championships in Ankara. In Everybody Loves Kungfu Fighting, we take the reader into the heart of wushu in Singapore to discover what it is, who are the people involved in it, where it has come from and where it is going. But first and before you explore our other stories on your own, a brief look at what wushu is exactly.
What is Wushu?
In some ways, the wushu of today is no different from that which emerged during the Spring and Autumn period. But in many others, there has been significant change. Where one school existed for perhaps a thousand generations, today, wushu is divided into two main schools: the traditional and the contemporary or competitive. The latter school was born in the modern era after separate efforts by Mainland China and the international competitive wushu body (IWUF) to modernize and standardize wushu. Contemporary wushu differs from its traditional predecessor in several ways. For instance, traditional wushu focuses on teaching learners to combat martially trained enemies. The Chinese character 武 in fact symbolizes this traditional philosophy. The lower part of the character “止” means “stop” and the second part “戈” symbolizes a weapon. When put together, the term symbolizes the idea of using military power to subdue violent conduct. Traditional wushu is thus more about practical offense and defense. Contemporary wushu on the other hand, is more of a performance based martial art. Unlike traditional wushu, it focuses on aesthetics and performance. In addition to this, where traditional wushu tends to be full systems in and of themselves e.g. the Praying Mantis style, contemporary wushu appropriates forms from many different and unrelated sub schools within traditional wushu. Since 1990, the IWUF or International Wushu Federation has drawn up a body of rules and regulations outlining what contemporary wushu is and should be.
In spite of these great many changes, people around the world (yet another change!) today still learn and practice wushu for very much the same reasons as the Han Chinese of old. Such reasons include its health benefits, learning discipline and toughness (as the Chinese say, the ability to 吃点苦) etc. Even today, children as young as the age of 5 or 6 are sent for introductory wushu classes. And not to forget, much like the ancients, we too are often caught spellbound by wushu displays whenever we catch them, be it on the silver screen, on TV or on the street. The stories that follow, capture the various facets of wushu and the wushu community in Singapore. As much as they are our opinions, they too are stories told by members of the community themselves.
Commands rapidly barked out in Chinese echo through the rooftop hall of Braddell Heights Community Centre. “站直 stand straight! 一二 HA!” It is 6 pm in the evening and in the hall, some 40 children, teenagers and older youth, are lined up in neat rows for their warm-up. Attentively and expectantly, they await Zhong Sifu’s next command. Starting from simple jumping jacks, the warm up gets progressively more difficult in terms of flexibility and execution. It is only when Zhong Sifu is satisfied that his learners have stretched enough that he and his assistant coaches break the group up into smaller classes for further instruction. Such a scene can be found throughout Singapore on any of the week. On a Monday evening, at a basketball court, perhaps together with increasing numbers of adult learners…the wushu community in Singapore gathers at various places around Singapore to practice, instruct and learn. This is but a little peek into the community, a community outsiders often associate with impossible physical feats, strict discipline and deadly skill.
Wushu (“武术” in Chinese – the Way of the Military when literally translated) is a fighting style developed in China. Legend has it that during the “Spring and Autumn” period in Chinese history (770 – 476 B.C.), the King of the Zhou kingdom held a sword contest. After seven days, a young woman emerged from the many competing swordsmen as the victor. It is said that from that fateful day onwards, her unique fighting style as well as her philosophical thoughts on martial arts have been passed down through the generations. Despite having a population that is mainly Chinese, wushu is not one of the bigger sports in Singapore. In recent years however, its numbers have been slowly but steadily increasing. This is partly due to the release of several highly popular martial arts films from Hong Kong and China. Moreover, the Singapore wushu community has seen the rise of several local stars such as popular actor and former national athlete, Vincent Ng. And just recently, the national women’s duilian team won gold at the Wushu World Championships in Ankara. In Everybody Loves Kungfu Fighting, we take the reader into the heart of wushu in Singapore to discover what it is, who are the people involved in it, where it has come from and where it is going. But first and before you explore our other stories on your own, a brief look at what wushu is exactly.
What is Wushu?
In some ways, the wushu of today is no different from that which emerged during the Spring and Autumn period. But in many others, there has been significant change. Where one school existed for perhaps a thousand generations, today, wushu is divided into two main schools: the traditional and the contemporary or competitive. The latter school was born in the modern era after separate efforts by Mainland China and the international competitive wushu body (IWUF) to modernize and standardize wushu. Contemporary wushu differs from its traditional predecessor in several ways. For instance, traditional wushu focuses on teaching learners to combat martially trained enemies. The Chinese character 武 in fact symbolizes this traditional philosophy. The lower part of the character “止” means “stop” and the second part “戈” symbolizes a weapon. When put together, the term symbolizes the idea of using military power to subdue violent conduct. Traditional wushu is thus more about practical offense and defense. Contemporary wushu on the other hand, is more of a performance based martial art. Unlike traditional wushu, it focuses on aesthetics and performance. In addition to this, where traditional wushu tends to be full systems in and of themselves e.g. the Praying Mantis style, contemporary wushu appropriates forms from many different and unrelated sub schools within traditional wushu. Since 1990, the IWUF or International Wushu Federation has drawn up a body of rules and regulations outlining what contemporary wushu is and should be.
In spite of these great many changes, people around the world (yet another change!) today still learn and practice wushu for very much the same reasons as the Han Chinese of old. Such reasons include its health benefits, learning discipline and toughness (as the Chinese say, the ability to 吃点苦) etc. Even today, children as young as the age of 5 or 6 are sent for introductory wushu classes. And not to forget, much like the ancients, we too are often caught spellbound by wushu displays whenever we catch them, be it on the silver screen, on TV or on the street. The stories that follow, capture the various facets of wushu and the wushu community in Singapore. As much as they are our opinions, they too are stories told by members of the community themselves.
