Que Huafeng (www.qianlong.com):

The fight between Xu and Wei was first seen as a kind of publicity stunt, but later it triggered debate on modern fighting and traditional martial arts. Although Wei was soon brought to the ground by Xu, this does not mean traditional martial arts are no match for modern fighting techniques. It’s ridiculous to compare the two. Without unified rules and strictly trained referees, any kind of competitive fighting is meaningless. More importantly, the value of traditional martial arts lies not only in fighting techniques, but also in their culture and spirit.

Traditional martial arts also attach great importance to a moral code, which teaches practitioners that the purpose of learning martial arts is not to rob, bully or even kill others, but to build up health and help the disadvantaged. For thousands of years, all real marital arts masters have possessed high moral standards apart from their strong kungfu abilities. By practicing Chinese martial arts, people are supposed to learn traditional philosophy and combat techniques, as well as to build up health and have fun.

In the value system of traditional martial arts, people do not learn kungfu to show off, and they don’t need to prove how powerful they are. They learn it very diligently just to continuously improve themselves. The most striking difference between traditional martial arts and modern fighting styles is that the former possess a complete value system.

Traditional martial arts are not only precious cultural heritage for Chinese people, but also a cultural treasure for the whole of mankind. Attention to martial arts should not only focus on the fighting aspect; it should also be directed to the culture. We welcome activities that uphold both martial arts’ cultural essence and useful techniques, but we must keep alert to defamation caused by any kind of hype.