The Chinese Wushu Association, the primary governing body for Chinese-style martial arts in that nation, has released a statement declaring martial arts practitioners should refrain from calling themselves “masters” or the head of a style. The organization also seemed to indicate that practitioners should not participate in staged public fights.
The decrees apparently come in response to a series of public humiliations alleged traditional Chinese martial arts masters have suffered in challenge matches against mixed martial artist Xu Xiaodong and other modern trained combat sports fighters. Xu ignited a firestorm of controversy when video of his 2017 demolition of “thunder style” tai chi exponent Wei Lei in an MMA fight went viral on Youtube.
