Foreigners cannot understand Xingyiquan

Posted by Tadzio Goldgewicht on Aug 21, 2011 in Xingyiquan | 5 comments

Struggling to understand when you don't have enough basic knowledge is a challenge.

I’ve heard this statement said so many times that I can’t even remember. I used to disagree with it but at this point in my life, even though I cannot really say I totally agree with it, I must admit that I agree more than I disagree. I agree because I firmly believe that the great majority of foreigners that practice or teach Xingyiquan know, in fact, very little of it, but I disagree because having the correct resources and instruction it is perfectly possible for a foreigner to acquire a deep understanding of Xingyiquan.

To say that foreigners cannot understand a certain expression of Chinese culture is something very common in China, especially in more traditional places like Shanxi, the birthplace of Xingyiquan. Of course, by common I mean it is common that Chinese people would think like that and use the statement while engaging in conversation with other Chinese, not with a foreigner. It is something Chinese say to Chinese and not to foreigners. Honestly, it is not something very nice to say because it implies that Chinese culture is so rich that foreigners will never be able to learn it to a deep level. It is also something bad to hear because as a foreigner it directly tells you that no matter how hard you try, how deep you go, you will never be able to get it because you are not good enough and there is no hope for you. There are situations in life that require this kind of attitude – to say something unpleasant that will sound equally unpleasant for the person to whom it is being sad, but this is not the case. This statement is just a reflection of one little particular that is shared between a great part of the Chinese people. They know it is not something nice to say and that it will probably hurt the other part so if you confront them directly they might, more than often, deny that they think like that. However, my personal experience tells me that this denying is just superficial and that (especially in the martial circles) that, in fact, is the current line of thought. Knowing that is not something nice, why do they still say it? Why do they still think like this?

The first kind of person who says that foreigners can’t really understand Chinese culture is the kind that in effect doesn’t understand the art of Xingyiquan, but this person is already culturally conditioned to believe that foreigners can never acquire a high level of understanding about any aspect of the Chinese culture. The idea that the Chinese culture is somehow superior to that of its neighboring countries is by no means a new one and it can be found in at least one very important literary classic. I will not explain here how this line of thought developed through time; suffice to say that it is still shared by many Chinese people in modern China. For these people, believing that foreigners can never acquire deep knowledge in any aspect of Chinese culture is something they take for granted, one of those things you might believe in but you really don’t know why you do so, you just believe. This teacher probably has not acquired a deep knowledge of his own art (even though he might not know it) but regardless of what his own level might be he will, by default, believe that foreigners will never attain it.

The second kind of person is that teacher that truly understands his art but is also conditioned to think that foreigners will never get it. This kind of teacher might be able to give one or two reasons to justify his point of view but these are arguments that can be easily proven wrong by a person with more knowledge on the subject.

At last, the third person that uses this kind of argument is just generalizing. What this person, who has equally acquired a very high level of understanding in the art, really means is that without the necessary resources, foreigners will never get it, and he is, I am afraid to say, absolutely right. Why does he generalize then? Because he has actually never heard of or met a foreigner that got those kinds of resources and having them, worked his way up to the point where he would acquire a deep knowledge of Xingyiquan. In fact, I have also never heard of or met a foreigner that fits those requirements.

The main difficulty for foreigners is to go beyond the basic understanding of the art. Foreigners will not have a background on Chinese culture; they usually find a teacher, enroll in a gym or follow the teacher to a park a few times a week and they train. They are learning the art, they think, but what they are actually learning is just a shell, which is usually empty. The forms and movements in the art of Xingyiquan are nothing; they are just recipients for something much more important. What actually fills these recipients (as my family understands) is something I will not discuss here and this knowledge is reserved for the ones who enter our family. Still, not having the cultural background makes all the difference for foreigners, and unfortunately not in a good way. What happens is that Xingyiquan, as a discipline, is directly related to several different expressions of the Chinese culture. Now the Chinese people, having been immersed in this culture from the day they were born, will have most of these cultural aspects internalized. Much like an English native speaker that intuitively “knows” all the grammar rules that are necessary for a fluent conversation, as opposed to the non-native speaker that will have to struggle to learn the grammar rules before being able to maintain a fluent dialogue. In the same way, the Chinese people are better prepared to study Xingyiquan. However, why is the background culture so important?

Chinese culture and western culture could not e more different. I would say that the only similarity is that the same cultural and social principles are present in both cultures. For example: the concepts of “respect”, “friendship”, “loyalty” and “love” exist in both cultures, but the way in which the Chinese people understand them is totally different from what a westerner would both expect or relate to. In the same way, there are cultural elements present in the transmission of Xingyiquan that are extremely hard for a foreigner to understand or even relate to. The foreigner would have to spend a long time learning about and identifying those elements, as well as relating them to his own culture up to the point where he would be able to, not only appreciate them as a cultural manifestation, but also relate to them and feel the social appeal that they most certainly have. This process (which I simplified for the sake of explanation) would require years of constant contact and uninterrupted exposure and immersion. Yet, this is just to begin to understand the cultural and social elements involved in the transmission of the basic levels of Xingyiquan. Therefore, unless a student has gone through the process I explained above chances are he understands very little about Xingyiquan. What he probably understands is what he has been taught- the usage of some empty shells for the execution of forms. Alternatively, he might have memorized the usage of some of the shells in combat. He might have heard his teacher say that the five elements are not set movements but rather five principles, and he might repeat the same things about the animals, but this is not it. Memorizing some instructions, techniques or theory related to, say, the five elements is valid (even though I would chose a very different teaching approach) and can be helpful in the case of foreigners that have no background knowledge on the Chinese culture, but it will not take the student very far on the path of mastery. Even though this is a common in the west, it is also used in China, but for different reasons. When most Chinese students teach foreigners they will probably choose this approach because it takes the culture background out of the equation, thus making it easier for foreigners to learn the very basics of the art and for the teacher to teach it. I understand that by reading this a foreigner practitioner might feel unmotivated to keep on training but there is a way out of it.

Most people take Xingyiquan for granted in the sense that they really believe that they can read a few books, talk to some people they regard as good teachers, understand the most basic theory and then memorize some movements, so they can repeat them in training and repeat techniques in fighting. This is not Xingyiquan. Xingyiquan is a very deep discipline and if one plans to really benefit from it, then one needs to have the background culture to be able to properly understand the most basic levels of the art. I believe most serious practitioner, the ones that actually put some thought in their daily practice, will naturally feel that what they usually get from their teachers in class might not be enough, almost as if they had a desire, a need to understand more about the culture. Feeling this urge they will look for different kinds of material to expand their base of knowledge – books, DVDs, seminars etc. This need to acquire some knowledge is genuine and I believe it arises from the student understanding that “there is something more to it”, and there is. Without this “something more”, (that actually is “a lot more”) it will be impossible to attain the higher levels of the art.
This background culture is inherent to every Chinese person who has received basic education and as a rule the more education they receive the more this culture might be present in their lives. Therefore, when a Chinese teach another Chinese they will obviously relate to the same inherent cultural elements, which are not present in the background of foreigners. So what happens is that the teacher transmits not only the art and the culture, but he transmits the art as a culture, which is something very difficult to accomplish with a foreign student, because as I wrote above the process will be very difficult considering the resources the foreign student will need. How many foreigners actually learn like this? How many foreigners can (because they have the necessary resources) learn like this? Certainly many foreigners would be thrilled to have the opportunity to learn in this way, but how many of those are prepared to actually put on the time to acquire the necessary culture background, and in doing so creating a net of cultural resources? It is not an easy task but it is one necessary if one truly wishes to understand the basic levels of Xingyiquan.

As in any other discipline, the quality of your learning makes all the difference. A Harvard graduate might not necessarily be brighter than a student from a less qualified university might, but chances are he will be better prepared to understand his field of study. In addition, he will probably be able to look at something and see much more than the other student. To wish for a better education does not make a person automatically able to get that education. To be able to get to Harvard a student needs first to acquire basic knowledge on several disciplines – that will be his cultural background. Likewise, knowledge in other disciplines is essential for a true understanding of Xingyiquan. Without this knowledge and the understanding of how it relates to the art one will always have just a collection of movements and a few theory points. The problem is that because foreigners do not have the necessary resources to fully learn the art they might never be able to recognize its full extent or how deep it goes. The reader should be able to recognize that at this point I am not talking anymore about the most basic levels of the art, but about its higher levels. In these levels, a much broader cultural background is necessary and at this point, the difficulty of having this background presents itself not only for foreigners but also for Chinese. As we can see the study of Xingyiquan as a form of art is demanding in many areas, especially for a foreigner. I do not agree that foreigners cannot understand Xingyiquan but I understand where this statement is coming from. The current opinion that most Chinese have about this matter can change, but only through a great effort by the ones that have the knowledge and the ones looking to learn it. I hope that in the future I can play a small part in this process.