rster, 2001). "Even non-martial arts actors have been required to train in martial arts in order to develop and refine their body movements" (par. 3), not the least of which is qi-gong, or breath training, considered to be essential in strengthening the body, mind and spirit (Holcombe, 1993).
At the turn of the last century, emphasis went from theater to cinema and the advent of the martial arts film industry in Shanghai (Kei, et. al., 2001; Garcia, 2001). Although Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan also have film industries, they have been so greatly eclipsed by Hong Kong's as to be almost non-existent -- especially in the martial arts arena -- and so have had little or no impact on American cinema or its values (Kei, 2001).
Stories for the early films were largely based on pulp novels or drew liberally from "traditional tales and legends of superhuman swordsman and magical feats" (Garcia, 2001, par. 1). These films depended less on authentic martial arts and more on the supernatural (Kei, et. al., 2001). Production of these films slowed down in the 1930's due to the increase in censorship and the focus on social issues in China, however after the 1949 revolution, the Chinese commercial-film industry moved to Hong Kong to resume making martial arts films (Garcia, 2001).
Wong Fei Hong, a famous doctor and martial artist who lived during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican China, is one folk hero that has been immortalized by the martial arts film industry. In 1949, the first Wong Fei Hung movie was produced, shunning the fantasy of the earlier films in favor of authentic martial arts forms, and so began the martial film genre so prevalent today (Kei, et. al., 2001). Wong was portrayed as a "supreme exponent of the Hong boxing style, the personification of Confucian virtue, and a pillar of Chinese tradition in changing times" (italics mine)(Garcia, 2001, par. 4). In fact, "between 1949 and 1959, at least 62 Wong...