Learning Kung Fu in China — Myriad Misadventures

So I’m going to try something new. I’ve been in China for more than 4 years now. I love martial arts and everyone knows about Chinese kung fu. I’ve tried studying some stuff a couple of times but for various reasons it never stuck. But now I’m going to try documenting it.

A little bit of background for anyone who’s new here. I’m Seth and I run Myriad Misadventures. It started out as a travel blog and has morphed into a sort of travel and martial arts blog. I’m an American expat in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen which is across the border from Hong Kong. Obviously I like both traveling and martial arts.

I started learning tang soo do, a Korean martial art, when I was a kid in the 90s after stumbling upon an episode of Mighy Morphin’ Power Rangers. Too many episode of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and Dragon Ball Z later I was pretty deep in martial arts. But as with most things life got in the way. Mandatory sports in high school cut pretty deep into training. Then I went to college. Then Spain. And then China. I wasn’t practicing much then, although when I found myself back home I tried to make up for lost time.

China seemed like the perfect time to get back into it but it didn’t really pan out like I’d hoped. I expected China to be full of martial arts but because life isn’t a movie it obviously wasn’t. Furthermore Shenzhen seems to lack the martial arts culture that you might be able to find in other places like Foshan or Hong Kong. I found a handful of places and tried out a couple but didn’t keep up with it. Life kept getting in the way.

Now I’m going to try documenting my kung fu training in China. Partly this is to show people what martial arts training in China looks like. And partly it’s to help me prioritize martial arts. The plan will be to film a little bit of my training during class, then go over what I learned in class and talk about it a little. What I think about it, how it compares to other stuff I’ve studied, things like that. I’m going to start with feet kune do, or JKD, which is the martial art that Bruce Lee created. If it does well I’ll see if I can do some for other martial arts too, like tai chi, wushu, or wing chun. I’ll also try to add some more during vacations when I might have more time.

What does everyone think? Good idea? Bad idea? What martial arts do you want to see me study? Leave me a comment down below!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you on my next trip. Don't forget to click the links below and follow to stay up to date on what I'm doing and where I am and to see all the pictures and videos from my trips.