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Q: Do you think there are any differences between today’s martial arts teaching and the martial arts from the time when you learned from the old generation of masters?
A: Now there are basically two ways to study martial arts, one is martial arts college, and the other is to learn from a traditional martial arts master. The government sets up martial arts colleges and students will have a very wide knowledge from human anatomy to physical training. Their practice focus on basic fundamental training (jibengong), and they have a very solid contemporary theory and knowledge. Most students will have very good foundation of martial art, for example in the waist and legs. The other way you learn martial arts is from non-government organization or being disciple of some old masters. To follow their own training and practice methods and study their own style of traditional martial art which came down from their lineage.

While I was young, Chinese martial arts got criticized. The culture revolution had a very bad influence on martial arts. Many famous masters couldn’t teach in public and also they dared not to accept students. Some masters from old time were influenced by gangster culture and they usually could be very conservative about their teaching. Masters and disciples could never have a close and sincere relationship.

Nowadays, the entire environment is very favourable for studying martial arts. Today the government promotes Chinese martial arts and masters are more willing to teach. You can find good teachers and martial arts gyms, and also traditional and modern martial arts books and videos are available.

However, the young generation of today have a better life and they have more choices in their leisure activities. Martial arts for them might just be another kind of fitness exercise and they won’t practice as hard as we did at our age. Even we didn’t practice as hard as our masters who practiced for making a living. I always feel deeply sad that we could never reach their level of skill.

Q: What kind of requirements did old masters have for students and disciples?
A: There used to be quite high requirements from the old generation of martial artists. They usually wouldn’t teach you any real stuff until you were their official disciple. Student, disciple and official disciple are three different ranks about how close the relationship could be. The requirements of being official disciple were the highest and included qualities of moral aspect, physical fitness and study capability.