Kung Fu Masters
Aug. 22nd, 2008 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaideni finished reading Kung Fu Masters this morning.
Jose Fraguas interviews 21 masters of Chinese martial arts. the methodology was to ask mostly the same set of questions to each, and then edit to the interesting answers. i would have gladly heard more from many of them, and it's wonderful that he spoke with them while he could. (like Ark Y. Wong, who has since passed away. he started teaching classes in 1921. book was published in 2002.) my only real disappointment is that there's no interview with Lily Lau.
it's not an instruction manual, although it does have pages of serial photos attached to some of the interviews. i find that sort of thing to be useless at this point. maybe they will offer more information to me when i have more experience; right now stills of sparring are like dancing about architecture.
the personal stories are entertaining. the education opportunities are in nuggets of philosophy, and the comparisons one can do at the end of the book. (tidbit: i got a clearer understanding of why and how there's a karate dojo in every town in the US, and so much less kung fu even though it has been taught in the States for a good hundred years.) i found myself marking multiple pages and scribbling down quotes. i was surprised but pleased to discover blank pages marked "notes" at the end of the volume.
i don't know how much it has to offer to followers of other martial arts, but it was a useful read to me and i think it would be entertaining to a fan of martial arts films for the insights into real vs staged and the multiple discussions of the impact of Bruce Lee on the field. (tidbit: Jeet Kune Do was not quite meant to be passed on to students. supposedly Lee quickly figured out that designing a system to his strengths meant that only he could do it properly...)
Jose Fraguas interviews 21 masters of Chinese martial arts. the methodology was to ask mostly the same set of questions to each, and then edit to the interesting answers. i would have gladly heard more from many of them, and it's wonderful that he spoke with them while he could. (like Ark Y. Wong, who has since passed away. he started teaching classes in 1921. book was published in 2002.) my only real disappointment is that there's no interview with Lily Lau.
it's not an instruction manual, although it does have pages of serial photos attached to some of the interviews. i find that sort of thing to be useless at this point. maybe they will offer more information to me when i have more experience; right now stills of sparring are like dancing about architecture.
the personal stories are entertaining. the education opportunities are in nuggets of philosophy, and the comparisons one can do at the end of the book. (tidbit: i got a clearer understanding of why and how there's a karate dojo in every town in the US, and so much less kung fu even though it has been taught in the States for a good hundred years.) i found myself marking multiple pages and scribbling down quotes. i was surprised but pleased to discover blank pages marked "notes" at the end of the volume.
i don't know how much it has to offer to followers of other martial arts, but it was a useful read to me and i think it would be entertaining to a fan of martial arts films for the insights into real vs staged and the multiple discussions of the impact of Bruce Lee on the field. (tidbit: Jeet Kune Do was not quite meant to be passed on to students. supposedly Lee quickly figured out that designing a system to his strengths meant that only he could do it properly...)
