This is half-joking, half serious. I was watching Dr. Strange the other day and there is a line that goes “When Western medicine failed…” which always pissed me off since acupuncture, tai chi , Chinese herbs and all that stuff has not cured shit in the Far east. They are still dying pretty much of the same stuff we do, right?
The other thing I had shamefully imagined and turned out to be obviously false was fights. Thanks to YouTube and other video hosting places, we now know that fight in that side of the world do not look like scenes from a Jackie Chan or Bruce lee movie, but resemble pretty much the ame we have seen here: Stupid and graceless. This is from Thailand, go to 00:30 for the fight
We have been lied to all our lives! 🙂
Statistically in America, only about 1% EVER try to learn a martial art. Most do it as kids and give it up quickly once it becomes work and isn’t as fun. Fewer than 10% stick with it long-term, and of those fewer than 10% earn their black belts or golden sashes or whatever the “top rank” is (which is never the real top rank; it’s where the real work begins).
I don’t have the numbers for Eastern countries, in some of which a particular martial art is considered a national pride (in Korea it’s Tae Kwon Do, Thailand would probably be Muay Thai), but as more cultures “modernize”, it stands to reason that fewer will try it out, and even fewer will stick with it.
Ergo, the odds that any random street scuffle will involve a skilled martial artist are shockingly low. Even more so because skilled martial artists rarely let themselves get involved in street scuffles in the first place. Yes, Jackie-Chan-style fights are rare indeed!
The male train operator attempted some flying kicks, which would have been impressive if they weren’t so completely inefficient and ineffective. It appears to me that he was one who trained for a few months or a year as a kid — enough to learn some basics, not enough to learn self-discipline — and has been out-of-practice since then, but still thinks that qualifies him as top-tier tactical ninja. The other guy was just pissed off and willing to start swinging.
If martial arts fights were common, would there be a market for martial arts movies?
There’s the one about how the Chinese are into future planning- like centuries into the future planning.
Which, if you know about Chinese history, is a rather stupid idea. Where did “get conquered by Mongols” or “get hooked on opium” or “the Cultural Revolution” get planned in the past?