There was one Summer when my father and I watched a bunch of Tai Chi related films, for some reason. We watched “Ip Man” 1, 2, and 3, “Man of Tai Chi” (I don’t recommend this one), and “The Grandmaster”. Since then, I’ve been mildly interested in Tai Chi.
Seeing the poster for this film, I had assumed it was about Ip Man (I should really read the descriptions) and decided to watch it. It turned out to be a documentary about Tai Chi master Cheng Man-Ching coming from Taiwan to New York City in the 1960’s and teaching a variety of people, notably hippies. It was interesting to see this man and his teaching create a microcosm of Americans learning Tai Chi in New York City. From the footage in the film, it seemed that their community was tightly-knit and everyone appeared so care-free (maybe a symptom of being in the 60’s).
As I’m thinking of what to write, I’m reminded of a short clip I saw this week from a new Netflix show hosted by Bill Nye. I’m not entirely sure what the show is about, but the segment I saw was a brief rant about “cultural appropriation”. From what I understand, this phrase apparently describes how someone of one culture adopts certain elements or lifestyles of another culture. An example given in the clip was what “[white people] have done to yoga”, presumably making yoga look bad by practicing it. I think this is ridiculous, and goes against the idea of America as a melting pot, however cliche that phrase may be. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of “cultural appropriation”, and it seems to me that some people understand it as a form of racism. If people weren’t morally permitted to embrace and/or practice aspects of other cultures, I think that should be considered more racist than “cultural appropriation”. The people who chose to learn from Cheng Man-Ching certainly weren’t being racist, but today they would be considered perpetrators of “cultural appropriation” by some, which is absurd.
I watched all of the movies you mentioned as well, although I would like to point out that the Ip Man movies are loosely based on the life of Grandmaster Yip Man, a master teacher of Wing Chun Gong Fu, not Taichi. One of Yip Man’s most famous students was Bruce Lee. Lee, among other things, is known for having taught (first his own interpretation of Wing Chun, and later the “style” he developed called Jeet Kune Do) in America, and many of his students were not Chinese. I agree that to accuse a non-Chinese person learning a Chinese martial art of appropriating the culture or asserting that one must be of a certain culture in order to appreciate it is a little ridiculous. I believe that a distinction needs to be made between being willing to learn and respect something that is new and disrespectfully attempting to emulate a “cultural element”.