the far out east

The martial arts come from very specific cultures and today carry many elements of that. But this leads to some very inaccurate ideas about the cultures themselves.

I hear a lot of martial artists talk about how wrong we do things in the west (and by west, I mean that ethnocentric, mildly racist 'west' of North America and parts of Europe): we dabble too much, are too egotistical or unfocused. Predictably, most of the talk I hear is from western practitioners.

Many of us hold Japan, China, etc. as some mystical land of wisdom and patience. We've frozen this already unrealistic portrait of a culture: after only seeing a few heavily edited bits and pieces we've assumed what's in the rest of the book.

After two months of living here I can say that everything you don't like about our culture is enthusiastically present in China. It's just as much a worry obsessed, consumer whore, shallow hateful culture as back home. There are good bits, of course--just as there's good and bad bits everywhere. My Shifu (ooo, dropping some mandarin spelling on y'all) even complains about how Chinese people don't take care of themselves as well as Westerners.

But let's take it one step further. After all, we're not necessarily talking about your average Chinese citizen. Well, the two Shaolin masters--as in grew up in the real Shaolin temple--I see everyday are, unsurprisingly, pretty human. They aren't stoic, infinitely wise men (it always seems to be men with this stereotype) who stroke beards and mostly grunt. One loves zombie movies, and my Shifu has fairly short temper.

So stop comparing cultures. The martial arts is a product of a certain worldview, yes. But that worldview is not an accurate picture of Oriental culture, both modern or ancient. Consider the rhetoric of medieval European chivalry compared to the brutal and often cruel practices of knighthood. So much smoke for the size of the fire.

At the same time, the martial arts has become a worldview of it's own. Embrace the humility, patience and accountability of our practice rather than a five point exploding palm or any other fantasy we like to tell each other. And don't project some imagined values on a different culture.