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The Worldwide Popularity of Martial Arts

Martial arts with asian origins have gained increasing popularity worldwide over the past half century or more.  The almost universal practice and acceptance of these types of fighting sports can be seen in the 2020 (2021) Olympic Games where Judo, Taekwondo, and Karate were all present. Of course the foundations of this popularity were laid earlier than that. While the practice of weaponless martial arts in Asia goes back thousands of years, with roots in China, Japan, and Korea, for our purposes we will begin at the end of World War II.  

American occupational forces took control of Japan and as part of that the study of military and martial arts was banned, including kendo and judo. But because a Japanese professor, Nobuhide Ohama, explained to General McArthur that karate was a gentleman’s sport, much like boxing with kicking, it was not banned. Military men stationed in Japan, therefore, became aware of karate and some even participated. They brought back the seeds of the martial arts to America.  Alternatively, Korean Taekwondo came to America beginning in the 1950s, after the Korean War, when a small group of “master instructors” came to the west to spread their artform.  

Another path for the martial arts to spread to the world were films. After the war, Hong Kong’s film industry supplied the asian population with action filled martial arts films. Many of these films, however, fed the popular imagination with superhuman feats and mystical overtones. By the mid-1960s these films were being dubbed into other languages and distributed in the United States and around the world. Hollywood and world cinema took notice of the popularity of these films and started developing their own martial arts movies. One of the best American-produced films of this genre is Enter the Dragon (1973), starring a multicultural cast led by Bruce Lee. At the same time, American television saw the need for inclusiveness and developed Kung Fu (1972), a highly successful television series with a “half asian, half white” protagonist trained in a Buddhist monastery to live peacefully – until he needed to kick butt. This opened a floodgate of films about asian trained white people who lived a life of peace – until they needed to kick butt. 

The access to training in the martial arts and its popularization in film led to a surge of martial arts training facilities in the 1990s and 2000s. The question is why such popularity? Does martial arts just fill the need for exercise, inner strength and self-reliance, OR is it a response to insecurity and fear in a time when crime and physical violence always seems to always be rising. Martial arts that are done well are amazing and almost magical, but a martial artist once told me that the best response to a dangerous situation are your feet – for running.  

https://www.topendsports.com/sport/martial-arts/popular.htm
https://www.military.com/history/how-gen-douglas-macarthur-helped-make-karate-global-phenomenon.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_action_cinema
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_the_Dragon

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