"Jianghu" and "kungfu" are two words that cannot be ignored, and they represent the two most essential features of martial arts. Jianghu is the stage of martial arts, and kungfu is the props of martial arts. The most appropriate interpretation of "Jianghu" is the line of Ren Weixing in "The Laughing Proud Wanderer of the East": "If there are people, there are grudges, if there are grudges, there is Jianghu, and people are Jianghu!" This is an elevated interpretation, and this is indeed our ideal jianghu. As for "kung fu", it seems not to be easy to elaborate, and it seems to be interchangeable with "martial arts". I think "kung fu" and "martial arts" should be the same, referring to our Chinese martial arts hodgepodge, and foreign countries for the Chinese martial arts is also "martial arts" and "Kung Fu". The term "wushu" seems to be slowly becoming a kind of official language, gradually moving closer to the direction of sports. As a result, the term "kung fu" is favored.
Chinese kung fu has a long history and is heavily influenced by Chinese culture. One of the most important aspects of kung fu is the moral character of the individual, which is not entirely consistent with the "chivalrous" spirit of Western society. Western "chivalry" is also a personal behavior, but it is more focused on honor, whereas China is more focused on the state of mind. In this respect, Chinese kung fu is a means of honing one's will and improving one's character.
When the movie was born, it was easy for Chinese films to draw from kung fu, and the result was the uniquely Chinese kung fu movie. Hong Kong movies are to blame for this. It is also for this reason that Hollywood also saw this piece of cake. They repeatedly invited Hong Kong martial arts directors to provide kung fu support for their movies, with Yuen Bajie being the most famous. From this time on, Chinese martial arts movies began to influence European and American audiences. The success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the beginning of Ang Lee's blending of Chinese and Western cultures, as he knew how to cater to Western tastes while maintaining Chinese characteristics. Hollywood has also finally gotten a hold of itself and released a movie this year to give back to the Chinese market, which is Kung Fu Panda.
Kung fu, and pandas, are totally Chinese. Watching 'Kung Fu Panda' was enjoyable, but it also created a lot of associations after watching it. They used a very simple story to give us a history of growing up with a panda. No matter the story of Kung Fu Panda seems so simple and straightforward to us, and so devoid of depth, it is so Chinese. And our Chinese characteristic martial arts culture has finally been gradually understood and interpreted by the West. In fact, it does not seem to be a coincidence that, starting from the opening credits of King of Kung Fu, those illustrations are the posters of some of the pinnacle works of Hong Kong's martial arts movies. For the King of Kung Fu movie, I think it should have been made entirely by the Chinese, but unfortunately it was still a step ahead for the West. And it seems to imply that the West has begun to take over our cultural market with a purely Chinese culture. It reminds me of the saying "learn from the barbarians to control the barbarians".
In this globally integrated society, two cultures that were once strangers to each other are constantly clashing and borrowing from each other. Our study of Western culture has reached a climax since the May Fourth Movement. We tried to find out how to make our country rich and strong from Western culture, and we did learn a little bit, but it was not enough. After the reform and opening up, we began to learn the western enterprise culture and management culture, and now these theories are more or less affecting our lives. At the same time, we seem to have forgotten our traditional Chinese culture. We are learning from other people's culture, and likewise Westerners are learning from ours. In addition to literary creation, which is a carrier of culture, movies have gradually become a cultural symbol in recent years. Through the symbol of movie, we can more or less see how confusing our own culture is. How to maintain oneself in the process of constantly learning Western culture has become a very tricky problem!
Western films naturally study Chinese culture for global economic gain, while Chinese filmmakers are constantly striving to be recognized by the West. And there don't seem to be many directors who have really blended Chinese and Western cultures well. John Woo, Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou seem to be ahead of the curve, but how many of them can keep up?
The fact that Westerners have managed to learn the complexities of martial arts in a decent way is an improvement in itself, and how we deal with this clash of cultures is an area we should keep reflecting on. Some people on the internet are boycotting Kung Fu Panda, but this boycott is weak if China's culture is not strong. Just look at the national box office receipts and you can see that the movie is very appealing. And as people are curious, the more they boycott, the more they want to see it, and this boycott seems to be having the opposite effect.
John Woo once made a very Americanized war movie, "Windtalkers," but it didn't do well at the box office. And when is China going to make a purely American movie for them.
Kung fu or box office, they are backed by culture!