Martial Arts Training

Kung fu is a Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as Kung fu, are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families", "sects" or " schools" of martial arts. Examples of such traits include physical exercises involving animal mimicry, or training methods inspired by Chinese philosophies, religions and legends. Various martial arts including Kung Fu were influenced by Indian martial arts which was brought over along with Buddhism.

Kung fu is practiced for its health benefits, including a means for dealing with tension and stress. Among the martial arts, there are two basic types: the hard martial arts and the soft martial arts. The latter are also called internal arts. Examples of the hard martial arts are karate and kung fu (wushu). Examples of the soft martial arts are ba gua and tai chi.

Styles which focus on Qi (Chi) energy manipulation are labelled as internal, while others concentrate on improving muscle and cardiovascular fitness and are labelled external. Geographical association, as in northern and southern, is another popular method of categorization.

Western cinema's relationship with martial arts has been a rocky one. Like many genres, kung fu has drifted in and out of fashion, but it has never regained the same popularity as its glorious heyday in the early 1970s. After breaking into the United States and Britain with TV hard men like The Saint and The Green Hornet duffing up the occasional bad guy, the revolution really kicked in at the cinema. When Bruce Lee -- who had already made waves in America as the Green Hornet's karate chopping sidekick, Kato -- appeared in the Chinese-made "Jing wu men," or "Fist of Fury," he established himself as the genre's poster boy.