telophase | (no subject)

So I'm watching, off and on, this British show on martial arts that a friend downloaded for me, and it's your absolutely typical mix of information and misinformation about the martial arts. The host is some sort of kung fu guy and he's all "OOoOOOoooOOO teH mYstIcAL PowAh of cHI!!!1!!!!!1!!" and going around various bits of the world interviewing various martial arts guys and - the best part - getting beaten up by various masters. There's some wacky arts and some serious ones as well; primarily played for sensationalism, but OTOH that's how they've always been played, even in the areas they originated.

I am lucky in my anthropological training, because I can switch off the bits of me that know a little about martial arts and are curled up in the corner whimpering, and instead view the cultural context that the host is in and how it borrows from all these various things.

I couldn't quite restrain that part of myself during the fourth episode, which I just watched. The host was in a bowling alley watching some break dancers (an Enligsh bowling alley and English dancers, BTW) and was all "You see, this can be made into an effective martial art with just a little bit of adjustment" and I actually screamed "THAT'S BECAUSE BREAK DANCING DEVELOPED FROM CAPOEIRA YOU NIMROD!!!" at the monitor. Not a word about capoeira did he give, just mentioned the similarity of some of the moves to kung fu moves. Nimrod.

There's a certain amount of "martial art" tricks meant to impress the rubes shown as well, and taken seriously, but they're really tricks that just about anybody can perform and just look impressive.

And then the host gets beat up again and I cheer up.

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He sounds sort of like Crocodile Hunter: "Ooo-er, this here deadly reptile hates to be disturbed and has jaws that can snap a steel plate in half." Pokes reptile in the gut. "Ouch! Ooh! He's biting me, he's biting me! Gerroff!" Only with martial arts. I'd watch that show.

Heehee. In the show I just watched, a couple of flavors of Tai Chi masters twisted the hell out of his limbs, and a ninjustu* guy beat him up with a sword. And then there was a strange flavor of Tai Chi master who spent a lot of time hitting himself in the head.

If you feel like risking sporking your eyes out from the misinformation and chi manipulation scenes, I can burn it to disk and send it to you. :)

* I always remain extremely skeptical whenever anyone invokes the word "ninjutsu" but if it involves the host getting beaten up, I'll go with it. THe guy was at least Japanese and old, instead of American and in his 40s like all the other people who claim to be ninjutsu masters seem to be.

Oh - here's the BBC program guide (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/mind_body/index.shtml) for the show.

I can poke holes in you with the power of my MIND-CHI! ARR!

I shall BLOCK YOU with the POWAH of my VOICE! AAAAIAIAIAIAIIAAIAIA!!!!!!!

AH! NO! YOUR VOCAL CORDS ARE TOO MUCH FOR ME!

I AM THE SUPREME INTERNET MARTIAL ARTIST!!!! *falls over*

Oh no! Another one has succumbed to the great master Gravity! His neferious deeds shall not go unpunished! WE SHALL LIBERATE OURSELVES FROM THE CONTROL OF GRAVITY AND FLOAT FREELY THROUGH SPACE!

Okay, I'll stop now.

Goes to prove that there is always a master greater than you.

XD

You are much stronger than I am. I *hate* that "chi power" garbage. I'd have been throwing things and yelling at the screen within about 15 minutes of the first episode.

It's where the anthropological mind comes in handy - the ability to look at something and think "This is the way it was explained in China for millennia, and it's still an active belief, and this is how it fits into the culture - I wonder how they're adapting it for modern life?" I find the things people construct to view the world fascinating. :)

Mind you, it doesn't stop me from shrieking "YOU ARE FEELING STATIC ELECTRICITY, PUTZ!!" every time the host shows the rubes that They, Too Can Feel The Chi Powah Emanating From Him.

Heh. Haven't seen the show, but as I consider most of the TV show hosts I've seen...

I must agree that seeing a TV show host get beaten up on a regular basis can't help but be a cheering-up sort of experience. *g*

Yes, it is. OK, most of the time he doesn't actually get hurt, but the masters don't just apply a little pressure and stop the move - they tend to slowly apply the hold, and as the host talks about what, exactly, it's doing to his leg, they continue holding and eventually end up sloooooowly tossing him into, say, this handy pile of lumber. (That was an 80-something-year-old Filipino master.) The slowness kinda helps, because we, and the host, can see it coming a long time off, and he can't get out of it, and we savor the anticipation.