French Yoann Birling, who has been practicing Tai Chi for years, thinks that the match did not prove Tai Chi to be worthless. Photo: Li Ying/GT

 

A recent video of an MMA fighter defeating a Tai Chi master within seconds has gone viral, and it has triggered a discussion regarding the values of Tai Chi and other forms of Chinese martial arts.

The MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong, 37, said that Tai Chi is "fake," and that there is no value in traditional martial arts because "they cannot be used in one-on-one combat" anymore, the Global Times reported. In an attempt to defend their discipline, several Chinese martial arts masters have challenged Xu, including a monk from China's renowned Shaolin Temple in Henan Province.

Some people believe the MMA fighter's provocation against Chinese martial arts masters is part of a larger motive to gain fame and attention, and some doubt whether traditional martial arts are qualified for modern combat. The debates go on both in and outside of the martial arts and combat sports community. There are foreigners who are also trained in martial arts. Metropolitan has invited several foreigners who practice Chinese martial arts to share their opinions.

Is Tai Chi combat worthy? 

The result of the bout surprised Stephen, an American from Chicago, because he believed that the Tai Chi master would win.

Stephen grew up watching Bruce Lee movies and benefited from Tai Chi himself. Practicing Tai Chi has helped him recover from a spine injury he sustained almost a year ago. However, considering the outcome of a fight can be changed by merely one hit, he thinks MMA would be more suitable for one-on-one combat.

"MMA is way more qualified for today's combat," he said. "MMA fights are more 'dirty.'  Competitors grapple with each other and try to throw each other on the ground." From his own perspective,  it is not practical to use Tai Chi in street fights, and that kickboxing would be his choice of style if he found himself in that situation.

Belgian life coach and Tai Chi instructor Kathy De Leye, who lives in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, agrees only partially with Stephen.

"I would say that Tai Chi is suitable for practical combat. The practice is more suited for defense. Maybe that was the mistake," she said. "Knowing the movements of Tai Chi doesn't mean you can fight. You need to practice if you want to fight. It helps your body go into a mode to defend yourself."

Seeing the video of the fight, she explained that the biggest reason the Tai Chi practitioner went down so quickly was because he lost his balance. "He was backing up [when he lost his balance]. Normally with Tai Chi, you are using the strength of your opponent, and you are very grounded," she said. "Maybe he was afraid of that fighter? Or it was something else. A normal Tai Chi practitioner should know the techniques."

De Leye admitted that it is difficult to find good Tai Chi masters in China. "I see a lot of people practicing Tai Chi who are not focusing on their internal energy. Their balance and grounding are not good."

A mismatched match 

French Michael Duchet has been practicing martial arts since he was a teenager, and he learns from masters at the Shaolin Temple. He considers the fight in question a mismatch.

It is not a fair match if there is not tolerance for cultural differences and different methods of training, he said. 

"There's no way a Tai Chi practitioner could beat an MMA fighter in an arena. The methods and purposes of their training have huge differences," he said.

He pointed out that practicing martial arts requires not only diligence but also morality. "A real 'match' should be how each person would handle a situation such as seeing a lady being bullied."

The lack of martial arts morality is a result of today's modern society, which is always in a hurry, he said. "As an MMA fighter, he should be stronger than any 'frauds,' but it doesn't prove that he knows the real meaning of martial arts," he added.

Michal Roucka, a 26-year-old from the Czech Republic and student at Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, said that the result of the bout was exactly as he would expect, and that it is surprising that the Tai Chi master did not go down earlier.

"I saw some videos like this before, and sometimes traditional masters go down after one punch," he said. In real life, however, bouts like this are not common. "I think most people understand that you cannot compare these two styles."

Roucka has been practicing Chinese martial arts for 11 years, as well as kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Krav Maga (a military self-defense system developed in Israel). He thinks that he might not even be able to take the MMA fighter in the video, but he would last longer in the ring by combining all the strengths of the different styles of combat he has trained in.

Roucka does not agree that traditional martial arts are more for health purposes while MMA and other forms are more for real combat. "Practicing MMA can also help one grow spiritually, and traditional martial arts are very useful too!" he said.

"Traditional Chinese martial arts and MMA are two totally different things. You cannot compare them," he said.

Fighter vs style 

Shanghai-based Italian Kleber Battaglia, 37, has been practicing martial arts for 28 years. He came to China to follow his teacher, a master in Wing Chun, who is a student of the Hong Kong kung fu master Yip Man.

In response to the current doubts against Tai Chi and traditional martial arts as a whole, people confuse people with styles, he said, adding that one person winning only means that he is a good fighter.

He said there are three things that are crucial to traditional martial arts, which are health, combat and spiritual development. Those forms that focus on combat include MMA, taekwondo and Wing Chun, which specialize in close-range combat that involves striking and grappling. "But it doesn't mean they are more complete or better than other forms such as Tai Chi."  

There has been both praise and doubt toward Xu's actions, especially after him saying that he is eliminating fake martial arts and artists.

"I do believe there are fake masters in China, and that really does give a bad name to traditional Chinese martial arts," Battaglia said. However, as far as Xu's "counterfeit campaign" goes, he does not think it is the right approach.

"I don't agree with going around challenging people out of the blue," he said. 

Some foreigners who practice Chinese traditional martial arts say that the fight was neither fair nor the right way to compare the two styles. Photos: IC

Making Tai Chi great again 

Some of the foreign martial artists have expressed their concerns over the development and inheritance of Chinese tradition martial arts.

Yoann Birling, a French graduate student in Beijing who majors in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), does not think people should come to the conclusion that MMA is better than Tai Chi, or that Tai Chi is useless just because of one fight. "When conducting a scientific experiment, we would never compare one single case from one method and another case from another method; it's just not logical," he said.

Birling has been practicing different styles of Tai Chi, including Yang style and Chen style, as well as free combat. For him, practicing Tai Chi was for health in the beginning, and later he realized that the philosophy in Tai Chi, especially the philosophy of yin and yang embodied in the practice, help him gain a deeper understanding in his TCM practice.

The ongoing discussion may be a sign of feelings of inferiority, he said. "Maybe it's because nowadays people tend to uphold things that are more 'scientific,' or things from the West. They consider their traditions, including TCM, valueless."

Battaglia pointed out that traditional martial arts are losing influence among modern Chinese. "Interest in traditional martial arts is going down," he said. "People are looking toward the West at kickboxing, taekwondo or MMA."

He pointed out that one of the problems with people practicing traditional martial arts is lack of passing on and sharing their practices with each other. He believes masters of different styles should get together and learn from each other.

"They always believe stories about how good their ancestors were, but if you are stuck with things developed 300 years ago, you are dead. It's not working anymore," he said. "All the good masters should get together."

Wang Han contributed to the story.