Traditional Chinese martial arts are not fought on the ground. Generally, once your opponent is forced to the ground, the fight is over. However Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a full contact combat sport that includes ground-fighting, is becoming increasingly popular in China. MMA usually takes place in a cage and consists of a combination of striking and grappling. MMA is one of the most popular fighting styles practiced in the United States. MMA can be any combination of boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, taekwondo, karate, judo, or other styles.
The grappling component is mainly based on Brazilian Jiujitsu, or BJJ, which is known as a game of "human chess" and is a Brazilian ground-fighting version of Japanese Jiujitsu. Perhaps not quite as cool as the Brazilian influenced martial art capoeira, Brazilian Jiujitsu is a ground-fighting combat sport similar to wrestling. You must take down your opponent to the ground, gain dominant positions for points, and then submit them (meaning that they give up by tapping the mat or the opponent). The main difference between BJJ and wrestling is that in wrestling you must pin your opponent's shoulders to the mat, but in BJJ, you must manipulate their body until they give up by tapping out. This can be done through a number of different submission holds, including joint locks, which cause enough pain to force the opponent to give up (like bending the arm or ankle), or choke holds, which cut off blood or air circulation to the brain. Here are some more photos of BJJ.
Some of you may remember that I practiced a type of Kung Fu called sanda (散打) last year, a Chinese combat sport similar to kickboxing. I originally planned on continuing training for sanda when I returned to Nanjing, but gave up after the first class. So I started looking for something different to engage with the Chinese community. At the end of October, I finally found my community engagement and cultural exchange activity at a Brazilian Jiujitsu club, a mix of both foreigners and Chinese training jiujitsu, and many for the first time. Learning this sport has been an incredibly challenging and rewarding experience. I am ecstatic to be training for such an exciting, unique, and thrilling martial art. After my first training session, I was hooked, and have been engrossed in learning the ins and outs of the martial arts tradition and community ever since.
The first thing that attracted me to BJJ was that it originally kind of, sort of, in a way reminded me of rugby, in the sense that there is somewhat of a stigma of girls practicing it, and there is a significant amount of pain involved. There's really nothing else like an open tackle at full-speed or the intensity of a scrum or ruck, and it was a thrill that I missed. I needed an outlet for my stress and my frustration. I found that release at the Frontier Asia BJJ dojo, a community of like-minded people looking for a challenge and a good work-out. BJJ is nothing like rugby at all (besides the fact that both sports allow me to consistently maintain a minimum quota of bruises on my limbs), but it was the initial aspect of pushing gender boundaries and releasing frustration that first encouraged me to try it out.
The best part about BJJ, besides a great strength workout and learning a new martial art, is Team Malevolent China, the community of people I have come to regard as good friends. There's nothing else quite like being part of a team, and a team that rolls around together trying to put the other in pain is a bond that can't be replaced with anything else (kind of like the bond of living in China together).
Training for Brazilian Jiujitsu in China is quite interesting because the new BJJ and MMA trends in China embody the tension between the old and the new that Chinese society is experiencing. As China rapidly develops its economy, it finds itself struggling to maintain the traditional ways of life that date back thousands of years while simultaneously embracing Western traditions (like Christmas) and ideas (like consumerism and individualism). The pressure to preserve culture while embracing innovation and new ways of life is a phenomenon that can be seen in many different aspects of Chinese culture, from the food to the language, as well as my own research on urban landscape transformation. The development of traditional martial arts in China is no exception. There are some people that want to maintain strictly traditional Chinese martial arts, but the reality is that the martial arts scene is changing around the world, and MMA and ground-fighting is a new movement. Although I don't think that traditional martial arts will ever disappear completely, it's really only a matter of time before ground-fighting and MMA takes hold in China. At the same time, martial artists are using their training in traditional martial arts and adapting them to be used in the cage during MMA fights. Some say MMA will be the next Chinese martial arts revolution.
As evidenced by the considerable number of young Chinese men and women at the dojo learning BJJ (we had over 7 new Chinese students at training last week), this ground-fighting/wrestling combat sport is trending in China, and there are predictions that it will make a big impact on Chinese martial arts. Things are changing fast in China, and Westernization already has a solid grip on Chinese culture. After joining the BJJ dojo in Nanjing, I realized that martial arts is the perfect example of this predicament. Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiujitsu are the new Western influence on Chinese martial arts.
As important as it is to hold on to the past and maintain traditional values, everything is influenced by new developments from the outside, and such outside influence and new innovations can hold great benefits. In terms of Chinese martial arts, outside influences from Brazil are changing the traditional style of fighting that's been in place for a long, long time. Many would argue that China has a lot to learn from those ground-fighting Brazilians. After all, a fight doesn't necessarily end when someone is taken to the ground. It serves as a reminder that innovation, evolution, change, and outside influence isn't necessarily a bad thing, and incorporating the new doesn't mean that the old must be destroyed. It's about finding a balance between the two, and blending the benefits of tradition and innovation. Easier said than done.
As important as it is to hold on to the past and maintain traditional values, everything is influenced by new developments from the outside, and such outside influence and new innovations can hold great benefits. In terms of Chinese martial arts, outside influences from Brazil are changing the traditional style of fighting that's been in place for a long, long time. Many would argue that China has a lot to learn from those ground-fighting Brazilians. After all, a fight doesn't necessarily end when someone is taken to the ground. It serves as a reminder that innovation, evolution, change, and outside influence isn't necessarily a bad thing, and incorporating the new doesn't mean that the old must be destroyed. It's about finding a balance between the two, and blending the benefits of tradition and innovation. Easier said than done.
It's an exciting time in the martial arts community in China and it's exciting to be a part of these rapid cultural changes. It's fascinating to witness great changes not only in urban socio-spatial patterns, but also the transformations in something as deeply embedded in the culture as traditional Chinese martial arts.
Here is a documentary on BJJ if you're interested in learning more. Here are some pictures for your entertainment; I'm the one in the blue shirt. If the ponytail didn't already tip you off.
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| Our BJJ coach, Fred, demonstrating a technique |
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| Fred and Gennady demonstrate a move while the rest of the team watches |
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| After Fred teaches us different submissions, escapes, and other moves, we usually have about 10-15 minutes for 3-minute rounds of grappling, also known as rolling. Here I am rolling with Huayu. |
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| Huayu and I are on the left, Gennady and Yaakov on the right |
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| Sean and Huayu |
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| Huayu and me |
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| Rollin' |
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| Looks like Fred has Gennady in a submission hold |
柔术- rou2 shu4- literally, "gentle art," aka jiujitsu
Great and very informative blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing a tremendous post.