Pop-osition 4) The Kung Fu cultural revolution ignited transnational resistance against Japanese cultural imperialism.

Kung Fu films were seen as a form of resistance against the increase in popularity in Samurai Films. What the Kung Fu experience was able to provide is perhaps a level of confidence in Chinese people that they didn’t have during World War II, as the country was devastated by the Japanese occupation. When Samurai films increased in popularity worldwide throughout the 1950s and 60s, the Kung Fu revolution was a great foil because it’s something that I feel embodies the notion of “underdog”, something that a lot of Asian communities could relate to.

Multitalented Hong Kong actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and founder of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee, fought against imperialism, advocated for equality in the Hong Kong/American film industry, broke Asian stereotypes,  and brought realism to his films. Similarly, American musician, singer, and songwriter, Jimi Hendrix, fought against colonialism, stereotypes in the music world, and also brought realism to his performances. In this blog I will focus more so on Jimi Hendrix than on Bruce Lee (because I already focused on Bruce Lee in a February 12th posting).

In April of 1969, despite being the last performer at Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix blew the remaining crowd of only 30,000 away.

“It marked the beginning of Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsy’s period, which broke free of the genre of Rock and the style defined by the psychedelic artistic paradigm of the 1960s. Dressed in a Native American  fringed jacket, blue jeans, and moccasins, Hendrix led an unusual  ensemble in which his conventional trio format was expanded  with the addition of a rhythm guitarist and two bongo and conga players.” p. 83

 (Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock of 1969)

(Picture taken from: http://www.dudesnews.com/2013/07/04/fourth-of-july-daily-jam-jimi-hendrix-live-at-woodstock-69-the-star-spangled-banner/)

“What we see here is Hendrix’s attempt to move out of the corporate image framework that was being imposed upon him as the “Jimi Hendrix Experience” format” p. 83. Like Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix contradicted the idea of stereotypes, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism, all the while “creating a sphere of transcendental reflection.” Jimi Hendrix’s arguably most famous tools for doing this was through his clothing, embracing his Cherokee heritage, bringing realism based on shamanism/spiritualism to his music (for example, his performance of “The Star- Spangled Banner”), and inventing new musical styles, which purposefully broke him out of Hollywood’s popular rock and psychedelic genres. Jimi Hendrix’s willpower, strength, and undeniable talent made him one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of mainstream music and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. Likewise, Bruce Lee, is often regarded as one of the most influential martial artists of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century. So how or why did both Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix become pop icons? Because clearly they didn’t let anyone define them, and they both fought for what they believed in.

Just making some connections again. Let’s link the documentary to some music :] To start it off, let’s take a look at a more obvious example.

Wu-Tang Clan

Wudang (Wutang) is a Chinese martial art that holds some similarities to the Shaolin style but incorporates less variety of forms. One form includes the Wudang sword style. The name comes from the Wudang mountains where it was rumored that Shaolin style actually came from, although that is believed to be false. So there is a connection just by looking at the name of the group. Now, let us move on to their first album.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was a popular Shaw Brothers kung fu movie that released in 1978. The movie was slightly following an old tale about San Te, a Shaolin disciple that achieved legendary status. The movie follows San Te as he trains at a Shaolin temple and works his way through the 35 chambers. He then leaves the temple to help the people fight against the Manchu government. San Te finally returned to the temple triumphant and created the final 36th chamber.

The link goes further than a love for a kung film, however. The Wudang martial artists had gained an understanding of the 108 pressure points in the human body and discovered that 36 of them were deadly. The group can be seen as the masters of the 36 chambers and the 36 pressure points can be seen as their list of deadly rhyming techniques. The group carefully selected clips from different kung fu films and sampled them in many of their songs while making metaphors that link martial arts to hip hop and life through their eyes. RZA, the founding member of the group, has gone on to pursue more involvement in martial arts and kung fu films. He scored the movies Ghost Dog and Kill Bill: Vol 1 and eventually starred in his own kung fu movie, The Man with the Iron Fists. He has also scored martial arts films focusing on martial arts from other countries, such as Tony Jaa’s The Protetor, which is a film about a Thai martial artist. RZA has even created the soundtrack for an anime series, Afro Samurai, which features Samuel L. Jackson voicing the main character. Here is a link to RZA being interviewed about his involvement with kung fu. He talks about the parallels between emceein and kung fu fights, how he first got introduced to kung fu, and also about his movie scores.

*music and RZA interview contain some adult language, yo

RZA’s Edge

Click here to view the embedded video.

Their are also some links to Supreme Mathematics, Supreme Alphabet, and the belief of the five percent. I won’t try to explain all of that but there is some interesting number work that can be done with the Wu-Tang Clan. In Supreme Mathematics, the number 9 is understood to “bring into existence”. So the Wu-Tang Clan has 9 members, and each member had a heart. Each heart has 4 chambers and what is 9×4….. 36. What about the 108 pressure points? 1+0+8=9. And just for fun, if you add 9 to 36 you get 45 and 4+5=9. This is all speculation but I have a feeling that this wasn’t just a coincidence.

Rap Genius: Top 10 Martial Arts Songs in Hip Hop

Here is a great list of some hip hop songs that have martial arts influences on rapgenius.com. It also draws from the connections between hip hop and both the martial arts and philosophy aspects of gung fu. I find these connections important because they connect other forms of popular culture to the already vast connections between African Americans and kung fu films. The documentary The Black Kungfu Experience
explored many of those connections and it turned me onto a path of finding more. New artists are still making references to kung fu and martial arts, partially because they are interested in the same things or follow those beliefs, but also to acknowledge and honor the importance of the strong connections between kung fu and African American culture. For instance, the group Pro Era has made many references to martial arts, including a song titled “Like Water”. This comes from this famous Bruce Lee quote.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Making connections during Friday’s brainstorming session was a bit overwhelming. As a way of gaining new insight to M.T. Kato’s book, we listed our brainstorm items on the board. The possible connections between each category (who, what, when, where) presented many different directions for my writing to go. Needing to narrow things down a bit I focused my effort on Ch3.

Who: Warner Brothers
What: Hollywood
When: Jan 1967
Where: Unconscious

 The one category missing from the brainstorm session was Why. For this post I am defining “why” as control. Kato presents a convincing case that people in Hollywood are attempting to control your consciousness (where) through imagery and associated ideas/concepts of those images. Arguably Hollywood (what) represent the masters of imagery, and by extension a specialized form of propaganda. Kato quotes Sidney Kent, the general manager of Paramount Publix regarding his observations on “the spread of Hollywoodism:”

“Motion pictures are silent propaganda, even though not made with that thought in mind at all… Imagine the effect on people… who constantly see flashed on the screen American Modes of living, American modes of dressing, and American modes of travel… American automobiles are making terrific inroads on foreign makes of cars (because) the greatest agency for selling American automobiles abroad is the American motion picture” (p74).

Kato further asserts that this kind of influence is not exclusive to film. Warner Brothers (who), one of the premier movie companies, also includes a recording label. Founded in 1958, Warner Bros Records Inc. is also one of the premiere record labels. Kato notes that corporate America’s reach and influence into the counterculture (psychedelics and hippies) of the 1960s began with Warner Brothers Jan 1967 (when) release of the first Grateful Dead album;

 “Driven to underground rock by financial desperation, the company would do far more then figure out how to deal with the music… Warner Bros. Records would successfully absorb and package the seemingly antithetical counterculture– and do it well enough to convert the music into the financial engine for what would become America’s largest media conglomerate” (p82).”

Warner Brothers success with the Grateful Dead and subsequently with the other acts they signed enabled the company and corporate America to “ride on the ‘big wave’ of counterculture” (p82). As with Hollywoodism, control of the aesthetic realm and the unconscious by the global commodity production was (and remains?) in full swing…