First of all, most people who practice martial arts are "ordinary people". How to define this "ordinary person"? It can probably be understood as "workers, peasants and soldiers". There is no "learning" here, because many scholars, or scholars, look down on people who practice martial arts and think that a martial artist has no knowledge.
And who are those who show their skills to the public and benefit from them? They are not "ordinary people", but "actors" whose status is far lower than that of "ordinary people" These people are inferior people who even ordinary people don't take seriously.
Therefore, even in the modern open era, many martial arts people still hold the mentality that people can't treat it as a play and don't want to show their hands and feet in front of the public.
As we all know, there is a performance group in Shaolin Temple. Some people will say that Shaolin Temple is so famous that it is not afraid of being seen by others. This is what they don't understand. You can take a closer look at the ages of most members of the Shaolin Temple Performance Troupe. Most of them are between 10 and 20 years old, and only a few leaders or responsible persons are around 40 years old. In other words, these performing groups are dedicated to performing for people, and these members are more actors than martial artists. At the same time, they are not practicing kung fu, but simplifying or performing routines after adapting.
Look at most martial arts competitions in China, which one is better than skill? Aren't they all doing somersaults and splits on the court, just like playing a monkey show? Those moves are fast, but where is the strength?
Let's talk about visiting folk masters. It's not that all the masters are living in seclusion, they just live like other ordinary people, work to make money, support their families and live their own lives. The master's life is not so beautiful, even some colleagues and leaders of the master don't know that there is such a martial arts master around him. Because there is no need for kung fu in daily life, and kung fu is only a kind of physical activity when the lives of these masters are not threatened.
Actually, the master is not that hard to find. In recent years, some enlightened martial artists have opened museums to teach students at the request of some people, or made their martial arts research into teaching videos or books for publicity. For example, Master Wu Lianzhi, the head of the open-door octupole boxing, is an ordinary farmer. Before a Japanese game company found him, everyone in the village knew that he knew martial arts. Now the whole world knows that there is a kind of kung fu called Bajiquan in China, which is inseparable from the Japanese game company and Mr. Wu's propaganda work on Bajiquan.
In addition, martial arts masters in many cities practice in parks, squares, lawns and Woods near their homes, so if you pay close attention to these places, you will find that some old people play different boxing methods from others. Of course, this requires a good eye to judge. I have heard of a martial artist in Tianjin: It is said that there is an old lady in her seventies who practices swordsmanship in the square next to the Tianjin Tower every morning. The double knives she used, each weighing more than 40 kilograms, were handed down by her master. The old lady has been practicing knife skills every day for decades. She jumps the double knife really fast, and most people will feel scared when standing next to her within 10 meters. Of course, I didn't hear her legend in the next few years, and probably the master has already traveled west by crane.
Generally speaking, there are some kung fu masters, but they are not as exaggerated as in the novel. Most of them are ordinary people, and some martial artists will teach students in public schools, but most real masters will not entertain the public with their own kung fu on the stage, because they think it is an insult to their personality and a degradation of their own kung fu.