Commercialization of the Martial Arts in China

The March issue of National Geographic has a brief, but generally good, article on the effects of commercialization on martial arts instruction in China. The long and the short of it is that in China, like the US, there is a tension between teaching an art for its own sake and teaching with an eye toward popularity and profitability.

China has developed what essentially amount to "kung fu mills". Dengfeng, home of the Shaolin Monastery, has 60 large kung-fu schools with 50000 students; these guys make the biggest US chains look like a bunch of pikers. One of the first thoughts which crossed my mind upon reading the article was to wonder what would drive someone to enroll in one of these behemoths? Part of their appeal seems to be that some segment of the Chinese public looks upon them as a form of vocational training:

These schools fill their ranks with boys, and increasingly girls, from every province and social class, ranging in age from five to their late 20s. Some arrive hoping to become movie starts or to win glory as kickboxers. Others come to learn skills that will ensure good jobs in the military, police, or private security. A few are sent by their parents to learn discipline and hard work.

This is a major contrast from how things are in the US. Very few people here participate in the martial arts thinking that they're going to be movie stars, and I expect that only a slightly larger number expect to use their skills in a professional capacity. Rather, they're mostly interested in self-defense, fitness, building personal discipline, and, finally, art for its own sake. Who in China is catering to those people?

That's where it gets really interesting. There are a bunch of smaller schools, more akin to what we have in the US, which coexisting uneasily in the shadows of the major institutions. Part of the article consists of an interview with a gentleman named Hu Zhengsheng who runs one of these smaller schools. He tells a familiar story about the difficulties of keeping the lights on and convincing students that high kicks alone don't make good kung fu. He might adopt a more commercial, mercenary mentality, but would risk losing something essential in his school if he did so.

Seeing how this plays out the same in China as the US makes me wonder whether there must inevitably be a loss of quality as a school scales up (and thus becomes more commercially viable). That, I think, would make an excellent question to pursue in a follow-on post.