Kung Fu?

[yat_chum]

What does Kung Fu mean?

[Inga]

Literally translated? Time and effort.

[Josh Young]

When I use it I think of it as "skill developed through effort/practice" and i consider it to be non-specific, as in it does not apply to martial arts alone.

But to many people it is undeniably used to mean CMA, Chinese martial arts, which is awkward as that China is a collection of diverse cultures and thus as a general term is very vague and almost meaningless. For example do we maintain that Tibetan traditions are Chinese because the Chinese occupy Tibet in a military way?

Do we say that Ireland is part of British culture?

I am just saying, or typing rather, that the modern use of the term
Kung-fu is itself problematic.

For me the only acceptable use is the rather literal translation and meaning.

Literally translated? Time and effort.

That is the only meaning that makes sense and it is not Chinese specific or even martial arts specific by any means.

this topic is better under General, rather than Shaolin.

[John the Monkey mind]

Northern Ireland is part of Britain if only because the majority living there see themselves that way (although that could change with birth rates). Sadly its a very sectarian place with two types of Christian intent on hating each other

Southern Ireland could be spoken about as having a strong connection to Britain as many Irish live in the UK and many people born in the UK are part Irish. Some of my grate grand parents on both sides of my family came from Ireland. If you talk about British martial arts you would most likely include Ireland. Ireland and Britain have a very mixed history with good and very bad.

To view the British as an occupying force of Northern Ireland is only one way of seeing it and within Northern Ireland itself a minority view. Honestly I am not connived that all Southern Irish want a union with the north. It is a very troubled region that mercifully has made some democratic progress with coalition governments. Much like Scotland and Wales it has had its own parliament for a number of years now. Its parliament is in addition to MP's sitting in the London Parliament, in fact much like Scotland and Wales it has more democratic representation built into the system that England gets. If the Northern Irish assembly voted for a referendum on leaving the UK they would be given one with no question. We have all come a long way from the 1930's and the miss trust after Ireland got its independence.

Tibet is Tibet and a totally diffident case being a recent military acquisitions still brutally repressed. Still you could legitimately talk about Tibetan martial arts along with arts from China as long as you referenced the distinction as grouping of martial arts need not be a political act.

Should Kung Fu ultimately be a term only applying to martial arts from China? Its meaning could be applied to all traditional arts that are not just external. Especially if they are from a country close to China and have been exposed to cross pollination with the culture of China.

[baihe shifu]

Life.

[yat_chum]

To paraphrase Mestre Pastinha

"Kung fu is everything the mouth eats."