CMA in China

[Glycerine0160]

I have been away from martial arts for a while. I will make this brief to expedite this post.
I am looking into teaching English in China. I am 23 years old, and am ultimately hoping to pursue a career in international relations.

Regardless, I want to know if it is more likely I would find Wing Chun in rural or urban China?
I assume urban China would most likely be the answer, but then, what could I expect to find in terms of martial arts in rural China?



I ask this because one program for teaching English in China asks you to choose if you would like to teach in Eastern cities or towns, or in more rural areas.
Actually, I have found specifics on the program. The rural area would be located in the GuangXi province, if that helps.
Outside of the obvious excitements of learning a new culture, pragmatically, I would love to leave the entire experience becoming fluent in Mandarin and excelling in a Chinese martial art, preferably WC.
I have done two years of a weak JKD program, and did a few months of private lessons with a WC teacher.


If all of these questions seem to be too broad to answer, let me leave with a more narrow question.
If two critical components of what I would like to gain from China (outside of the abstract gains like self-fulfillment, cross-culture experiences) are martial arts and linguistic proficiency, would a rural or urban setting make any difference?



Thank you,

-Ryan.

 

[ggg214]

about CMA
where you locate is not the point, but who will be your teacher is. if you can find a real master, even in a small village, you will grab the key of that style. so if the CMA is one reason to determine your choice, i suggest to visit some local CMA forums to see whether there is a real master.
by the way, WC is a typical art in south China. not so many players in middle or north China.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I'd vote city not rural unless you are Chinese and/or can speak like a native. China tends to be the exact opposite of the West when it comes to safety cities are much safer than countryside.

Also a foreigner showing up in a rural area that does not speak the local dialect is much less likely to find a teacher that you would in the cities. And even there, as a westerner, being taken seriously and not charge exuberantly large sums of money is difficult.

And where do you plan on teaching English, School, University, Some English language business?

Many of the real live schools and universities want at least a bachelor’s degree and there is also another Certification they want as well, I will have to look it up since it slips my mind at the moment


As to CMA get solid leads before you go if at all possible and if you are truly serious

 

[Glycerine0160]

Thank you.

First, I think you both restated the most important MA notion, that the teacher is the most important part of the art.
Second, that's what I was looking for. Xuesheng makes the point a foreigner might have a more difficult time finding marital arts. I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I certainly will come off as foreigner.

This being said, I'm going to try to find if I can get a more precise location as to where I would be staying if I did the city/town route.


I received my Bachelor's last January. Teach English programs typically do not require any Chinese language experience, but I have taken 3 semesters and I try to keep up with it even now. I can read and write simplified Chinese at the intermediate level. My oral communication is not quite as good as my reading abilities, hence why I want to go there.

From what I understand, this one program in particular excludes participation in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, etc. That is because the rules are more stricter (like all rules, they're more enforceable in the bigger cities.) For example, I believe you need a year or two of teaching experience for the bigger cities.

 

[Xue Sheng]

There is a Certification needed to teach in Beijing and many of the bigger cities but I cannot remember what it is. Beijing is Government Central so they tend to be a bit stricter with the rules there...especially if someone is watching and hiring a foreigner to work in Beijing is watched since it takes government permission for the visa.

If you speak a bit of Mandarin and you can read it you will be taken a bit more seriously than the average Westerner that shows up to train Martial Arts.

And speaking as one with blonde hair and blue eyes….if you go to non-tourist places…. Expect to be stared at…A LOT.

 

[mograph]

And speaking as one with blonde hair and blue eyes….if you go to non-tourist places…. Expect to be stared at…A LOT.

In the seventies, a friend of mine went to China with her parents. She was a tall, attractive blue-eyed blonde teenager. In a department store, she tried on a turtleneck sweater. When she popped her head out of the neck, she looked up and saw that the mezzanine above was full of Chinese people. Staring down at her.

Her feeling was "okaaay ... step away from the merchandise and back out of the store ...."

On the same visit, when she and her parents went to a park, they could hear an announcement being made on a loudspeaker in Chinese (naturally). They later found out it was "foreigners are now entering the park". Then there was something about how the locals should behave, no spitting, kissing, something like that, because foreigners were present. Good fun.

 

[Xue Sheng]

In the seventies, a friend of mine went to China with her parents. She was a tall, attractive blue-eyed blonde teenager. In a department store, she tried on a turtleneck sweater. When she popped her head out of the neck, she looked up and saw that the mezzanine above was full of Chinese people. Staring down at her.

Her feeling was "okaaay ... step away from the merchandise and back out of the store ...."

On the same visit, when she and her parents went to a park, they could hear an announcement being made on a loudspeaker in Chinese (naturally). They later found out it was "foreigners are now entering the park". Then there was something about how the locals should behave, no spitting, kissing, something like that, because foreigners were present. Good fun.

No announcements when I was there but I was in areas tourist do not go to and man was I stared at. It was not until the second week I realized what was going on and stopped it completely by accident.

If a 500LB gorilla walks into a restaurant and sits down you ARE going to stare. Same idea, this blonde foreigner shows up to a place foreigners don't go and the people there will stare at you. I was in a rather fancy restaurant there and I noticed an entire table of people staring at me, I looked at them and then they realized what they were doing and went back to eating. I then noticed out of the corner of my eye the table next to me doing the same thing and I looked at them and got the same result, they stopped staring. After that it became fun.

If I am in the Forbidden City, at the summer palace or the temple of heaven or at some hotels no one cares. But drop me in the middle of a little (and very good) Restaurant on a little back street about 8 blocks away form the Forbidden city and believe me... you get noticed

Next time should be fun because I will be in places foreigner don't go and I will be able to talk to them in Mandarin... let the games begin :EG:

 

[fangjian]

There is a Certification needed to teach in Beijing and many of the bigger cities but I cannot remember what it is. Beijing is Government Central so they tend to be a bit stricter with the rules there...especially if someone is watching and hiring a foreigner to work in Beijing is watched since it takes government permission for the visa.

If you speak a bit of Mandarin and you can read it you will be taken a bit more seriously than the average Westerner that shows up to train Martial Arts.

And speaking as one with blonde hair and blue eyes….if you go to non-tourist places…. Expect to be stared at…A LOT.

When I was in China about 10 years ago, I studied Mandarin, Calligraphy and of course would train my wushu. If you show interest in their culture, they will have a great respect for you, even if your Chinese accent sucks. Not like here in the USA. A foreigner tries to speak English and he will likely be belittled and yelled at. " Learn to speak English!!"

99% of my time in China was spent in a rural area outside of TaiZhou, in Zhe Jiang province. I was followed around like a rockstar. They had never seen someone that wasn't Chinese before. They stared but it was just out of curiosity, and usually harmless in nature.
If you stay away from places like Beijing and Shanghai, you can get very goo deals on room/board, mandarin class, and wushu training.

 

[East Winds]

My last time in China, I went in via Tashkent and then over the border into China, then journeyed west to east and onto Beijing. Having white hair and a white beard my problem was with old women who constantly wanted to touch me!!! Apparently that was because I was supposed to be wise and lucky!!!! A bit disconcerting, but I got used to it.

Best wishes

 

[Xue Sheng]

My last time in China, I went in via Tashkent and then over the border into China, then journeyed west to east and onto Beijing. Having white hair and a white beard my problem was with old women who constantly wanted to touch me!!! Apparently that was because I was supposed to be wise and lucky!!!! A bit disconcerting, but I got used to it.

Best wishes

That is better than a woman I know that went with her husband to the countryside of China about 20 years ago. She was, now how shall I put this delicately, shall we say rather well endowed. Every village they stopped at some old woman, sometimes more than one walked up to her and touched her chest because they could not believe it.

Her husband a blond, got his hair and mustache pulled at just about every village too, they had never seen “Yellow Hair:” and did not believe it was real

 

[bully]

I posted this in the WC forum thread too:


I trained in China recently here :

http://www.chinashaolins.com/

It was full time ie Monday to Friday but some of the students taught English at the weekends in a local uni.

Wing Chun is not that well known in China, that statement may suprise you but it is true.

Foshan would be a good place to start, you will get very good tuition there and you can supplement it again by teaching English locally. Contacting the local Foshan kung fu association http://www.fschinwoo.com/en/a1.htm and seeing if you can train and teach at the same time.

If you want to know about the training, have a look in my thread.

Good luck, it was one of the best things I have ever done and certainly is up there on my 8 month travels in Asia.

A quick edit as I re read your post....I found a rural setting better for interacting with the locals. As with most places, the city/town people have a faster paced life and are less freindly due to time constraints. The school I stayed at had Mandarin lessons in the evenings and ample opportunitys to chat to the translators at the school. I think lots of the schools are setup in a similar manner.

As for HK, yep ,plenty of places to train but cost of living is expensive. To have cheap accomodation you would have to commute a long way to train with any of the main players. 30-60 minutes on the subway each way soon takes the shine off training etc. However Shaun Rawcliffe did it in his early days according to the book I read. Thats probably why he is well respected and dedicated....lol unlike myself ;-)

Lol also if you want to get noticed more than Westerners already do, wear shorts in all weather and temperatures. I do at home even when its winter. The Chinese found it hilarious and in supermarkets etc they grabbed their freinds etc to point at the idiot Westerner in shorts ;-)

Enjoy, it was a great experience for me and my wife.

 

[East Winds]

There is a superb book which I have read and re-read many times about a westerner (with no Mandarin!!!) who went from England to China at the time of Tiananmen Square episode to learn Taijiquan. It documents his experiences and difficulties encountered during his 5 years in China. It is "Tai Chi Training in China - Masters, Teachers and Coaches" by Howard Thomas. ISBN No. 1-874250-70-7. Truly inspirational and informative!!

Very best wishes

 

[jackwushu]

I spent two months doing wushu and traditional martial arts in Beijing. Absolutely awesome experience, in fact I just wrote about it here =)

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1401708#post1401708

When I was studying there a bunch of the other guys around were teaching English part-time. I know some were very qualified and others really weren't but managed to get jobs anyway. I think some of the staff at bridgestochina helped them get jobs and some found jobs by themselves. They all made MOOORE than enough money for their living expenses while there! I was very jealous... hahah.