That's wierd

[Xue Sheng]

I ran into an interesting cultural thing the other day China vs. the West.

My wife is an OMD from North China and we were discussing exercise, activity and sports for people over 60 and I was surprised to hear her say that where she is from it is just considered plain weird if a person over 60 is doing basketball, volleyball, soccer, going skiing, hiking or any number of things that we here in the west hope to be able to do when we are 60 and over. And yes a lot of people under 60 do these things there, even hockey.

However when I asked here about the 2 guys I saw doing Long Fist in Beijing that were likely in their 80s or 90s she said that’s fine. A lot of older people do martial arts. But yet most other physical activities are considered weird if you are over 60 in North China.

And then it hit me :idea:…. If I can…… I’M RETIRING THERE!!!! YAHOOO!!!!
MA all day and no one cares… as a matter of fact it is expected:boing1:…. I never much liked volleyball anyway.

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

Sounds a bit like heaven rather than the middle kingdom

 

[CoryKS]

Sounds a bit like heaven rather than the middle kingdom

Meh. I like skiing and hiking.

 

[Drac]

MA all day and no one cares… as a matter of fact it is expected….

My kinda place

I never much liked volleyball anyway.

I sucked at ALL sports...

 

[terryl965]

sounds like your own piece of heaven

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Sounds great Xue but I would have a hard time giving up other athletic activities.

 

[JBrainard]

My kinda place



I sucked at ALL sports...

We must be kindred spirits or something...

 

[Xue Sheng]

Sounds great Xue but I would have a hard time giving up other athletic activities.

Ah but you see your missing the beauty of it.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up anything, just that no one will think you are strange for spending hours and hours doing MA or ask you why you are doing it at your age, they will just think you are weird for the other stuff, it doesn’t mean you can’t so them.

And hell I have been called weird for much of my martial arts career by non-martial artists, in Beijing I can stand in front of a tree and beat the living daylights out of it and the only thing someone might say is “oh you train Sanda” or “you should try hitting it this way” and if the Police walk by they may join me. My Sanda Sifu was asked to stop hitting trees and using them for pull-ups outside his office by the PD here.

So I'm called wierd if I decide to play soccer, I can handle that.

 

[bookworm_cn317]

That sounds........ AWESOME!!!! All I would have to do is learn Chinese, and I'm all set to join you!:wink1: