Kung fu made superstars and millionaires out of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee, who in turn helped inspire millions of young people to study the traditional martial arts only to end as unemployed, uneducated and disillusioned.

In 2000, there were more than 12,000 kung fu boarding schools in China with a total enrollment of more than 1 million full-time students, according to a magazine published by the Wushu Sports Management Center under the General Administration of Sports of China. 

Today the number of kung fu schools and students are less than half of what were at the turn of the century, say people who have had long careers in kung fu, which is known as wushu in China.

Contacted directly by the Global Times a spokesperson for the Wushu Sports Management Center surnamed Li said comprehensive statistics regarding kung fu schools and their enrollment are not easy to compile as several government departments and agencies have jurisdiction over the sport and the schools.

Li couldn't estimate how many kung fu schools had closed and by how much enrolment had dropped. Yet many experts involved in kung fu say their experience suggests an obvious and dramatic decline in the number of kung fu schools.

The experts say there are several key reasons for the precipitous decline including unfulfilled expectations, a lack of opportunities after graduation and an improved public education system.

Bad schools tarnish reputation

Cutthroat competition among schools at the height of the kung fu craze led to a serious decline in their quality and the tarnishing of the reputation of kung fu as a builder of young minds and strong bodies, several experts told the Global Times.

Zou Guojun was a student of kung fu at the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, which was made famous by an early Jet Li movie in 1980s. He has witnessed the ups and downs of kung fu schools in Henan.

He told the Global Times that half the schools near the city of Dengfeng, where Shaolin Temple is located, have closed.

More schools will close

In 2004, Dengfeng was home to almost 100 kung fu schools but only half were still operating in 2010 and now have an enrollment of 60,000, reported Guangzhou Daily.

 "Only half of the schools have survived, and others are on the verge of going bankrupt," said Zou who was once a kung fu champion and coach.

Over the past decade, parents and students have also complained that students are not well cared for and are sometimes subject to physical abuse at kung fu schools that jumped on the bandwagon and operated on shoestring budgets.

The regimented training required of kung fu students starts with strict adherence to the rules as laid down by the school's master.  "Any breach of discipline, let alone talking back to an instructor, is often met with corporal punishment," said Zou who is also the General Secretary of the China Committee, World Boxing Council.

"Kung fu schools provide lower-level education and their operators and teachers are not well trained," complained Zou, who blames a too-rapid expansion of kung fu schools during the 1990s. He says many of the schools were motivated by profit and recruited staff with dubious qualifications.

Many children who are sent away to kung fu schools are troubled. They have dropped out of public schools or have not done well enough to further their education. Their parents enroll them hoping the strict discipline the schools impose on their students will straighten out their children.

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