{"id":3611,"date":"2010-06-14T00:13:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-13T16:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chengduliving.com\/?p=3611"},"modified":"2011-05-13T12:38:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T04:38:34","slug":"kung-fu-family-in-chengdu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chengduliving.com\/kung-fu-family-in-chengdu\/","title":{"rendered":"Kung Fu Family in Chengdu"},"content":{"rendered":"
Whenever we think of China, a few things come to mind. One of them, invariably, is kung fu (gong fu ?? in Chinese) and the image of lithe, powerful masters flying through the air, pulling off impossible kicks and possessing the deepest of secret knowledge governing body and mind interactions. Every young Westerner has imagined being a gong fu master at one time or another and the typical fantasy is being re-made, once again, in the Karate Kid, which opens this week<\/a>. Images like these, whether seen in the movies or imagined in the backyard with your friends, are the stuff that dreams are made of and have little to do with reality.<\/p>\n Or do they?<\/p>\n Traditional gong fu, the kind that Pai Mei employed to turn Uma Thurman into wonder woman in Kill Bill<\/a> and the type of gong fu old Jackie Chan classics, like Drunken Fist<\/a>, display in copious amounts is hard to find anywhere these days. Pads and mirrors have replaced wooden dummies and piles of stone. Parents pick up their children after a belt ceremony instead of leaving them at the Master’s school for months at a time to be molded by an iron fist. Master’s are “coaches” now and are beholden unto the parents instead of disciples bowing down before their Master and pledging their lives to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But traditional gong fu still lives, after thousands of years, and we here in Chengdu are lucky enough to have our own Gong Fu Family school right outside of Chengdu in a town called San Sheng Xiang. The school was founded by Master Li Quan, the eighth student of Grandmaster Dai Kang of the Dai Shi Men Marital Arts School, which practices a traditional form of the Emei Style Southern Fist Gong Fu System <\/strong>(known in Chinese as ??). <\/strong><\/p>\nSouthern Fist Kung Fu is the Real Deal<\/strong><\/h3>\n