I’ve been wanting this kind of historical and anthropological discourse regarding martial arts for a longgggg time! Great work, Eric!

@RonSalas

Жыл бұрын

I was going to comment this exact thing. Great video essay

Especially the lion dance. Everything about the lion dance is fortune, festival, spirituality, and local culture and agriculture. There were so many little nik nak when I was doing lion dance in Hawaii it just felt the tradition must have gone far back into the mist of history. Awesome piece, Eric!

Another wonderful deep dive. I hope this series has 50 parts ;)

I understand these videos aren't immediately getting tons of views, but having something like this out in the open is absolutely amazing. It may be esoteric and niche, but this is very much a legitimate effort to digest something very obscure while being very worthwhile and beautiful in a sort of universal way. When people want to write better, they refer to a dictionary or a thesaurus. If someone wants to become more versed in fight choreography this type of video you made is the equivalent resource. I could go on and on about how much of a service you are doing with your efforts. Ultimately though, I just have to say thank you very much for your work, and I look forward to the next one.

Your knowledge is amazing. Looking forward to the next episode 👍 Living in HK, I rarely see HK ppl getting involved in such analysis. Many won't even know such history. Such a shame

can't wait for the next episode

Very cool video. I appreciate the deep dive into the nuances behind Chinese martial arts.

@Azazel5021

Жыл бұрын

the coach

Thus is an amazing video! The research itself would be worthwhile but your narration and editing make this one of the best deep dives into the history and anthropology of Chinese martial arts. Commenting for the algorithm. More people need to see this.

These video essays are as entertaining as they are informative. 👍

Really enjoying this series. Well researched, entertaining and super interesting.

Just straight killing it. Looking forward to the opera episode.

Can't wait to watch the continuation!

Amazing as always

Great stuff Eric, thank you.

Thanks Eric, that was great👍👍!

fascinating stuff, can't wait for the next episode!

Thank you for this Eric! Very interesting to join you in this little deep dive. Netflix should invest in this.

Fascinating stuff 👍

Fantastic vid, a lot of work went into this. Thank you Greatest kicker in the world!

Great video, would love more

Been following you since the Rope A Dope days, and it's awesome to see HK-influenced stunt people like you really delve into the history of the martial arts that made you wanna set up a camera and kick your friends around in the first place. The Hollywood machine has been cherry-picking bits and pieces of asian cinema for so long that american audiences rarely question when Captain America does a corkscrew spin after getting hit, or cgi Luke Skywalker plowing thru an army of droids with a lightsaber in the Mandalorian, as if that style of action was just always how it was. Really cool to see you respect the roots. Also i never thought i'd be treated to a mini-history lesson on the roots of gun-fu 😂

The theory that northern Chinese martial arts use more exaggerated movements to hide their true intentions from the central government sounds similar to the supposed origins of Capoeira. As in both being martial arts disguised as non-martial performances either in the form of dance or other choreographed routines. There's probably other examples of this around the world I haven't heard of. I don't recall if one of your community posts mentioned this or not...

Nice documentary and research! Very thorough. Well you probably know from researching that Yu Emperor was doing the pacing of Yu which was Bugang pacing of the big dipper, by which he saved the worldly from the flood by accending to the heavens in trance right?

The clip of Fu Sheng doing Fu Hok and Chi Kuan Chun doing Five Animals isn't from Executioners from Shaolin but from the 3 Forms of Hung Kuen prologue for Chang Cheh's 1974 classic Men from the Monastery.. Nonetheless great video

The part where Alexander Fu Sheng is performing the tiger & stork (crane) is from the "3 styles of Hung school's kung fu" It was a promo to "Heroes Two" i think, not Executioners Of Shaolin. Fu Sheng wasn't in Executioners Of Shaolin.

awwesom

The argument you presented of the northern and southern style of Chinese martial arts makes sense when you explain it. I was told that northern style differ to southern due body stature ie; northern Chinese tend to be taller and lengthy, which in, why kicks are involve in the forms--compare to southerners, who are shorter, hence more arm movements.

@EricJacobusOfficial

Жыл бұрын

I can't imagine how that could drastically affect an aesthetic.

This is so informative and interesting, with regards to the meaning behind animal styles, that's a pretty good theory and it makes sense especially when the mention of "medicinal styles" was said... Maybe to the Chinese martial arts was more than just systems of fighting and self defense, may it's philosophies played out into everyday life as well, I know that in Mandarin and Cantonese, Kung Fu or Gong Fu means "hard work" or great effort, so Kung Fu according to the Chinese doesn't really always have to involve martial arts, it could involve any form of hard labour, any particular skill or talent or craft, if you were a stonemason or architect your Kung Fu was construction and building, if you were a doctor, your Kung Fu was medicine and healing, if you were an artist, your Kung Fu was painting and creativity, a musician, your Kung Fu was music and so on....not to mention how many people involved in these various crafts or skills were themselves also martial artists like the famed Wong Fei Hung, who was a physician and practitioner of the Hung Gar Kuen style of Wushu so it makes sense that for someone like him the idea and philosophy of Kung Fu would bleed into both his clinical practice and his martial arts and he would probably develop physical forms and movements based on his clinical practice as well and find a connection between the two

Let's gooooo

Hi from France and thank you for your work here. I really like this new serie. I'm very interested about martial arts history and evolution through time and culture, and it's really rare to have such good quality content about that subject. Your approach is really close to anthropology of technics and history of art and i hope to see more of your work. About wing chun and southern styles I heard other theories why it look like that, it would be closely related to sailors and prostitutes working on "red junk" in the region of HK. A lot of clues could influence that theory (short movments because of lack of place in boat cabins, long pole derivated from boatman's pole, mookjong derivated from mast and cleats, legend of wingchun and the idea that is a women style). There is also maybe a mutual influence with FMA, the Hubud drill is very close to chisao. I can find the sources if you want. Anyway I really learn a lot from your documentaries, thank you again!

@EricJacobusOfficial

Жыл бұрын

Happy to look at other theories

Part 3?

I agree that animal form in martial art have more ritualistic purpose than practical. I am Malaysian, Silat is my country martial art and we have animal based Silat. Before the Islamic awakening, Silat is imbedded with shamanism and summoning animal spirits is a part of the practice. We call the spirits to aid us in battle, medicine, luck/wealth and even transformed into the animal (lycanthropy, weretiger, ect) either you believe it or not. Today, all these un-Islamic rituals in Silat have been cleaned out and the animal movements are just exercises (but still, there are those who practice shamanism secretly). We can say that today generation of Silat practitioners either know the original purpose or have no clue at all about these animal movements. I personally know this because my family is descendant of shamans, so I am quite aware about such things. And I agree that it is related to clans, there are Malay tribes who popular as being weretigers, I mean they can transform into tigers...and there are a lot of transformation stories about people turned into snakes, eagles, fishes, ect....

@Badguy292

Жыл бұрын

That's awesome! But sad that it's being slowly outphased.

@MizanQistina

Жыл бұрын

@@Badguy292 Nah, Silat is our national martial art, it is not outphased 😁 Only shamanism and occult practices are diminished replaced with science and technology

@EricJacobusOfficial

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing.

@Badguy292

Жыл бұрын

@@MizanQistina Ahh, that sounds a little less ominous, thankfully. Though I do like occultism and spiritual stuff, it's nice to hear that the martial art itself is still going strong!

@MizanQistina

Жыл бұрын

@@Badguy292 Silat is popular now, although underrated, but we have a lot of surprises that way 😁 I know that western world is skeptic nowadays, nobody really believe in magic, i too becoming skeptic after going through some "things", I try to rationalized it with science but keep open minded. Once, I saw with my own eyes my late brother possessed, he becoming tiger-like and bit of lizard-like, he didn't fully transformed but he act like the thing. his eyes rolled become white, his tongue keep going in and out like snake and he crawl. There are lot of scientific explanation for that if we want to dig out, perhaps mental state, bipolar, trance, whatever...but I did saw in a glimpse a shadow tiger-like figure running and jumping out of the window at that moment. So...science? Magic? According to my late grandfather, it was what western people called "wizard's familiar", my people call it "saka", it passed down to generations because of the contract made by ancestors with the spirits...

SGT cameo

Doooope

What movie is that clip from at 19:47????

Lets NOT gooo!

Sorry, Eric, but "shock MMA guys"? I haven't been following but in the years I did follow I never heard of any Chinese martial art being prominent in any way. We have some Karate or TKD, but hardly anything from that Chinese tradition in the high levels.

@HDsharp

Жыл бұрын

Ever heard of the two asian brother inmates who took on an entire team of prison officers in riot gear? Look up prison stories. From testimonies only Asian individuals have taken on an entire gang and beat them all. Never anyone from another background creed or culture. That's what real kung Fu is capable of.

action talks makes me want to unsub

@EricJacobusOfficial

Жыл бұрын

It's a free country man