Is Kung Fu Misunderstood?

[cjperk]

Chinese Martial Arts has one of longest documented histories of fighting techniques in the world with thousands of years of history. I find it hard to believe that other "upstart" arts have come up with things so revolutionary that CMA haven't done it already long ago. All I here is that it is magical won’t work in a real fight and that  unless you are Chinese you cannot be teaching real kung fu and therefore must not be legitimate. So it seems allot of people are looking at CMA and are deciding to go with other systems. Going to MMA and BJJ they seem to be the hottest wright now do to the UFC fights. Some see UFC events as "martial arts" but yet it has little virtually nothing to do with real martial arts. It seems that most people want what is popular and the latest trend/fad. For a while it was Karate, next Korean, then the Kung fu, then Filipino, and now Mixed Martial Arts. To really learn an art takes a goodly portion of a life time and most people do not put that amount of energy into to many things, again they see Kung Fu and most CMA as "magical" "fantasy" type arts forms that wouldn't work if put to the test. Does anyone else getting that feeling other than myself?
Jim

[James Walters]

Fads come and go. The arts that are most flashy get the most media attention these
days, especially with a public with no real conception of what a martial art is.

Now, if we really wanted to propagate our art and garner a lot of publicity, we could train a stable of fighters specifically for going into the ring and taking out the MMA, K1, BJJ, etc fighters. These individuals would have to dedicate themselves to this regardless of the costs - as this sort of training takes a toll on everyone involved.

The ultimate martial art is a B2 with a load of standoff thermo-nuclear missiles

[Jogun]

I wouldn't say it was the flashiest, the kick now is effectiveness.  All people know is they see guys getting into a ring and really beating the crap out of eachother.  At the start of UFC there were people that came from 'kung fu' and 'karate' backgrounds.  They got the crap beat out of them by people practicing BJJ and wrestling.  A black eye for all arts that claim/seem to be traditional unfortunately, whatever traditional means.  Besides, it is hard for people to believe something that they feel is counter-intuitive to their common sense.  Oh well, their loss.

[Jogun]

videos of "masters" like the one from this thread don't help people's perceptions either.

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=374829#post374829