When I was growing up, almost every kid I knew was enrolled in class for karate or tae kwon do, but I never knew much about the history of martial arts.
As it turns out, almost every culture in the world has developed its own martial art at one time or another, from Morris sword dancing in the U.K. to Korea’s tae kwon do tradition, which you can see demonstrated here by a very fierce little girl.
That said, no country in the world has a martial arts tradition quite like China’s. The first Chinese text to describe unarmed combat techniques dates back a whopping seven thousand years to the fifth century BCE.
And that tradition has continued unbroken right up the present day. What we now call “kung fu” here in the U.S. is actually a catchall term for dozens of different traditions going back millennia, in particular the wushu tradition.
These days, the tradition is mostly maintained in schools associated with the Chan Buddhist order of Shaolin monks, who are well known for their unusual and uncanny athletic abilities and fighting skills.
Despite the long history of the practice, it wasn’t until 1978 that the first official “Kung Fu” academy was opened at the Shaolin Temple. Today, that academy is still closely connected with the monastery and is the most prestigious in China. It instructs more than 35,000 students in any given year. You can see those students demonstrating the results of their hard work in the mesmerizing video below.
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