Kung Fu, Once Central to Hong Kong Life, Is Waning (nytimes.com)

[julz]

Saw this discussion the other day: Kung Fu, Once Central to Hong Kong Life, Is Waning | Hacker News
About this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/asia/hong-kong-kung-fu.html

Hong Kong has a strange relationship with it's history: for instance, until recently very little of the old architecture was valued or preserved. That's starting to change now.

 

[Juany118]

Saw this discussion the other day: Kung Fu, Once Central to Hong Kong Life, Is Waning | Hacker News
About this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/asia/hong-kong-kung-fu.html

Hong Kong has a strange relationship with it's history: for instance, until recently very little of the old architecture was valued or preserved. That's starting to change now.

I think people forgot the perfect storm that made Kung Fu so big in Hong Kong. The following are simply a few of the issues (the article hits on a few of them)
1. People fleeing the main land to get away from Communists.
2. Many of these people remembered the days when the West and then Japan alone basically tried to change Chinese culture to mirror theirs and were thus very Passionate about things emblematic of their culture. As an example Yip Man would not teach Westerners and refused to wear Western clothing in his daily life.
3. The streets were much more violent. Many Martial Arts Schools were, arguably, little more than Street Gangs.
4. Changing technology/habits. When I was growing up it was "mom I am going of to Chris's house" and she knew we would be riding big wheels or heading to the ball field for a pick up game of baseball with the rest of the neighborhood. Now it is often assumed to play video games.
5. Other arts have a shallower learning curve.
6. Since their culture is not under threat, well we all tend to take things not under threat for granted.
7. Many of the best students, not all but many, of the great Masters of the post war period moved to the west overtime.

There are a lot more reasons of course but those are the ones I came with off the top of my head.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Its waning in Beijing too.

It was in hiding for a while, then after 1976 it reemerged and now it is waning

Makes me wonder how it is doing in Taiwan