The Black Kungfu Experience Film

Quite a few people of African American heritage became attracted to kung fu during the 1960s and 1970s (Partially during the African American Civil Rights Movement). Why was this? According to the film it was because the martial arts provided a way for African Americans to experience self-awareness, equality, and a new-found sense of pride.

Ron Van Clief, who is an American martial artist, has faced an enormous amount of racism throughout his lifetime.

 (Center of Photograph: Ron Van Clief)

As punishment for refusing to sit in the back of the military bus he was thrown in jail. But the discrimination didn’t stop there. Right after being released, white men with pitchforks (and other various weapons) were waiting for him outside the door. They nearly beat him to death, breaking his jaw and severely injuring his eye in the process. Then they hung him from a rope to die and bashed his face in with a shovel. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the hospital. His determination was again tested, during the Vietnam War, where he was sent on multiple no return missions, simply because of the color of his skin…As you can see with Ron’s story; anyone in his shoes would want an outlet or safe space to experience self-awareness, equality, and a new-found sense of pride. Clearly, martial arts was the perfect outlet. Another great thing about the martial arts was that if an African American man was good enough at it, he could then gain respect in Hong Kong. One of the men in the film appreciates Hong Kong so much that he travels there once a year, mainly to be further trained in kung fu.

(Photo taken from: http://www.boitenoire.com/media/catalog/

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Dark Obsessions,Dark Thoughts and Murder Most Foul

We read it the newspapers. We hear it on the news. We see it in the bookstores. There are countless programmes on countless networks. Those all about serial killers,murder,dark obsessions and other things that go bump in the night. We tend to forget despite all the media attention that is normally focused on the US that there are places in the world that have similar obsessions. We not the only ones with this obsessions as I have learned thus far.  It seems to me compared to Asian television,books and other media outlets we are no where near how bad it could be every time a new,dark,evil person appears on the scene either.

Out of all the places in Asia I have researched about in this quest for Murder Most Foul Japan seems to be leading the charge in the amount of media that is published about the latest crimes and victims. It comes in the form of comics,interviews,TV shows and perhaps most disturbing of all is a cannibal with a food column in Tokyo. Just what I have always is food tips from someone that had romantic notions with the entree that happened to be their date for the night. Disturbing to say the least. Everywhere you go there is something to capture the imagination about this subject,Japan is no exception to this rule.

While the subject that I have chosen has evolved and it has devolved as well in the fact that it is too easy to stay focused only on the crimes and not the pop culture aspect which is easy to overlook given the subject matter. Where does one go from here then? To delve further into the pop culture pheom that is murder in general and to discover why it is so popular if not often discussed in the polite society that is Asia. Why the Asia people contiune have their own slight obsessions with murder most foul.

Murder Most Foul-The Jars Murderer of Hong Kong

When we think of Hong Kong the first thing that pops  into our minds is not usually someone offing someone in particular gruesome  manner. More to the point Hong Kong brings to mind the beautiful waters of Victoria Harbour,the fireworks of New Year’s Eve,exotic travel of the Far East and more often than  not a James Bond movie or two. Murder,serial murder in particular,is rare in the tiny city island that is Hong Kong and in fact in the history of the area that has been only two known serial killers recorded. Which for the people that live there is probably a good thing,however, like Japan comics,television shows,lectures,magazine articles to name a few have published on a near cult status albeit some of them in the underground.

We have our setting in the exotic locale of Hong Kong a former British colony. So let’s meet our freak of the week,Hong Kong style. In this corner introducing Lam Kor-wan the infamous “Jars Murderer” of Hong Kong.

The Crimes: Lam  was a taxi driver in the city which gave him ample chances to find his victims that would remain unnoticed as missing until much later simply because they got into a taxi. A normal event in any city to be sure unless you happened to have gotten into the wrong cab and for 4 women that is exactly what happened.  Lam would pick up the women in the usual locations,get them to the family home,sexually assault them,strangle them with electrical wire , and placed the female organs in Tupperware containers in the fridge,hence the moniker of the “Jar Murderer”. And if that doesn’t do for you friends and neighbours there is more. There is always more. He is was a very keen photographer and you guessed it;he took hundreds of photos and video of his crimes up to and including necrophilia. While cannibalism has the decided squick factor it is however slightly more acceptable than necrophilia,by a long shot. Add videos into the mix that he filmed of his last victim;eye bleach,stat!

The more interesting aspect the case is the fact that he shared housing with a family member who completely unaware of what was going up until the time of his arrest. You have got to wonder how in the hell said person did not noticed the containers in the fridge filled something other than leftovers from dinner. Not to mention the blood and most assuredly the smell. Try to wrap your head around that for a minute or several. Your family member is completely clueless to the unhinged mind in the kitchen.  Leftovers anyone? Didn’t think so.

The Arrest: Surprisingly Lam decided that he would go to the local Kodak shop in Hong Kong and for reasons know only to him he decided that this would be just a dandy place to develop his “art”. The store manager thought things were a little hinky,called the local cops who in turn showed up when he did to pick up his photos. Lam tried to play it off as someone else’s work with no such luck. The cops excuted a search warrant finding whole lot of grisly things including some Tupperware containers. He was convicted of 4 counts of murder most foul, sentenced to die and later had the sentence commuted to life in prison where he remains today. And this would have been the last that we heard of him except for a few factors in which he achieved cult status.

Lam is one of two known serial killers ever to grace the island that is known as Hong Kong remarkable considering how many call Hong Kong home. The first of what become several movies of varying degrees of good would elevate his status to the dark inner recesses of our minds of freakiness. The first of which is a low budget flick called Dr. Lamb that was shot on location,loosely based on the crimes and the pursuit of the evil dude. It came out in 1992 a full 10 years post-conviction while never having a full release anywhere in the world except Hong Kong it became one those films no one ever admits to seeing,but, we know you have.

A couple of years later and seemingly the folks can’t get enough of the bad stuff another in film loosely based his crimes pops up again called the The Underground Banker in which he is released from prison,becomes a monk and reforms his evil ways. What makes this one a stand out of the films that he is featured in, is that he returns to a life crime only after his family is brutally murdered. I just bet you can guess how they murdered too. Again, with limited release it was one of those films that was very popular in Hong Kong because of the subject and subject matter. The buying public at the movies has interesting if a bit strange taste in what they consider good or is it perhaps the ye olde train wreck again?

Finally, 28 years later another film is made and this time it is a documentary based on the actual case evidence,people that were involved, case inspectors;the whole smear. It brought Lam to the forefront of the media again because unlike prior movies it was based solely on the facts of the case. The pubic again ate it up despite a nearly 30 year gap since the last movie that anything to do with him however remotely.

My take on why this particular person has  cult status in the small place that is Hong Kong is while there are the Tongs, Yakuza etal there is had not been up until his arrest a serial killer of any kind ever recorded in the annuals of crime. He was the first. If you going to be first at least do it right which he did complete with some things are again decidedly icky with film to just add to it. Perhaps it is ,also, the well known aspect of the Chinese culture having a great deal of respect for life,family and culture that makes the people wonder where in the world that they went wrong that they could not see Lam slowly,but, surely going off the deep end with no help in sight. Perhaps it is a more mundane reason of that pesky thing again that is the train wreck of the human condition where we must look at the darkness. We must see the wreck. We become consumed by the violence of the murders to the point that movies are made. Because as we well know movies aren’t going to made unless someone is going to watch them.  Furthermore, a recurring theme that crops up is exactly that,movies. For the most part in a part of the world that is not known for crimes of this nature there certainly tends to be a lot of movies be made about the crimes. Why is that?

Because we are watching the train wreck hoping against hope that we are not going to be it.

Further reading for your freak of the week:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lam_Kor-wan

http://www.miditech.tv/content.aspx?page=The+Jars+Murderer

http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kwok-wai-lam.htm

 

The Black Kung Fu Experience

black-kungfu-experience._SL1500_Of the two films we watched today, this was the one that left the strongest impression on me. Due in part because my reading of the book, “From Kung Fu To Hip Hop” by M.T. Kato, and partly due to the fact I could better relate to the stories of those interviewed in the film. Each person told a story of struggle while growing up– their main struggle being with racism in the 1950s-1960s. Each person came to embrace Kung Fu in their way, through their own path. But the uniting factor was Kung Fu gave them a sense of belonging, purpose, and control over their lives.

One of the men interviewed talked about Kung Fu movies giving the inner-city kids someone to relate to– a role model of sorts. About the same time James Brown was singing about being black and proud (1968), and it being a sign of the positive change to come. This point of the movie weaves into Kato’s writing about Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix.

In chapter three, Kato describes how Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix subverted the paradigm of transnational capital from within the factory of global commodities– meaning that they subverted the bland flavor of conformity that is packaged and sold to people. He writes that their primary field of engagement was the aesthetic realm & the unconscious. Bruce Lee defied the homogenized idea of what American film heroes were supposed to be. Likewise Jimi Hendrix’s expression in music subverted those corporate imposed ideas of what music should sound and look like. The possibility of liberation is actualized in symbolic form. (Kato p72). Both had the same affect as James Brown singing about being black & proud in 1968; it subverted the conformity of its day, and gave people a new way of thinking– liberating people from the paradigm that was imposed upon them either consciously or unconsciously.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Deaf Ninja

Here is a short clip by Austin Andrews called Deaf Ninja. He is a hearing individual who has been deeply involved in Deaf culture for many years. Some of our class has a background in American Sign Language (ASL), so get with them to figure out the stuff that doesn’t immediately make sense to you. I will say that the gestures Andrews makes about a box & ear pieces refers to an old device some deaf /hard of hearing people would wear to help them hear (before cochlear implants were widely used). It’s a fun video even if you don’t know the first thing about ASL. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a followup video to Deaf Ninja:

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– Film review “The Black Kungfu Experience”

Through the movie“The Black Kungfu Experience,” I was impressed because I didn’t know that some black people are interested in Kung Fu and that they not only have interests, but also excellent skills. At the same time, I learned one of the reasons why they started to have interests in Kung Fu was caused by their negative experiences of discrimination. I suggested this because they tried to have something fun in their life. They found Kung Fu and they were drawn into it. A reason this might be because Kung Fu was from a different culture, so they found common ground between kung Fu and themselves. There might be some connection between them.

african kungfuI especially like Oso Tayari Casel. He mixed Kung Fu and African culture, creating a new culture in America. I think his thought of Kung Fu is more creative than that just only Kung Fu being Americanized. Through the discussion about “Pop-ositions” on Tuesday, I found popular culture was caused by globalization. By Oso Tayari Casel, African culture and Asian culture were brought to America, and then they became a new culture in America.

I assumed that new culture gave better understanding around the world because they put two different things together and they became familiar around all around.

Shaolin Ulysses / The Black KungFu Experience

MV5BMTU5ODM1OTg3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTA0MDA2MDE@._V1_SY317_CR5,0,214,317_Lately in class, we have examined the idea of resistance and how it can be applied in various different circumstances. When it comes to the Shaolin that live here in the United States, I think the act of spreading the Shaolin teachings across the world is a form of resistance – meaning looking past cultural differences and saying that white, latino, black or whatever can learn this stuff and embrace it. Through this, Shaolin has, in my mind, served as a strong form of resistance against racism and oppression. We learn this from the films Bruce Lee has made and how the Kung Fu experience is a form of rebellion against the Japanese samurai film. A good example is the line in Fists of Fury that Bruce Lee utters about how they are not the ¨sick dogs of east Asia” was enough to get Chinese audiences cheering in their seats I feel that it is this spirit of resistance that made African Americans, especially through the 1960s and 70s, want to learn the art themselves. Having dealt with so much horrible discrimination, I can see how seeing KungFu films back then could be so influential to the African Americans because a lot of these films were really about the down-trodden rising up against oppressing forces (in Bruce Lee’s case, the Japanese).

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Shaolin Ulysses & The Black Kung Fu Experience

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I was watching Shaolin Ulysses, I found that the movie was more motivating in a journey sense. What I mean by that, is that it was more than describing how the martial arts changed their lives, but how to keep the art alive so it can continue to do so. Many more Shaolin Temples are being opened around America to keep the art alive and it has been a growing art form.

As for the Black Kung Fu Experience, I found myself more interested in this documentary. I the one thing that got me interested in it more was the different styles of martial arts being talked about. I did martial arts for 10 years, specifically Tae Kwon Do and I did jiu-jitsu for 2 years. So I very interested to see each persons individual view of their martial arts experience. One story stood out to me the most, and it was Ron Van Cliefs. He talked, in specific detail, about how he was attacked by white people. I know that the other instructors lived around the same time period and had experienced racism itself, but his stuck out to me the most. I felt like I could relate to it. I grew up in a very violent town where self defense is a very important skill to have. Now that I am older, things are still the same and I still find myself very cautious when walking around.

Also, I enjoyed how each instructor would go to the roots of their Kung Fu studies and pay respect to those who would specialize or have taught it for many years. Donald Hamby went to Hong Kong to visit the writer of the book he was trying to translate’s studio. I guess I also enjoyed the second movie more too because of how it made them famous, but to them, it was not what they wanted. They were all still so humble and it was nice to see and it reminded me of my old instructor and the days when I would train.

I feel like both movies presented these ideals of preservation. Dennis Brown had introduced himself to this “U.S. Capitol Classics” where martial artists would compete. Some may believe that people do it for the fame, or for the glory, but in retrospect, the art is being preserved and passed on. Shaolin Monks, though are in different areas do their best to set up Shaolin temples to preserve the monk Kung Fu fighting styles. In addition to preservation, I believe both films portrayed the idea that martial arts is not just for self-defense, but to be the ultimate self. In all martial arts styles, there is control and strength. Discipline is taught, along with focus and serenity. There are 5 power animals that can relate to martial arts and all animals represent these different techniques of self control and awareness. With all the skills learned in martial arts, a sense of knowing one’s self and surroundings is eventually learned. Overall, I enjoyed these films and the ideas that they portrayed as far as martial arts coming to America.

 

Black Kungfu Experience

This documentary was a great one to me because I always remember growing and seeing so many kungfu movies with Bruce Lee and I had no idea about the other masters of the art of Martial Arts. The actors turn kungfu masters from learning their techniques and applying it to others so that the tradition and style doesn’t die and thought that was very cool. The Afro Asian connections that the guys learned and talked about in this documentary was so surprising because how one of the guys saying that the black guy was mainly the bad guy in the films and I’m like that sounds right those days, but then after that they have a super hero. A leading role for an African American in a Martial Arts movie and that was great to me. I want to see the Black Dragon now that I know this. I like that these guys were so truthful about their lives and some of these things I wasn’t aware of at all. I was in China some years ago and wasn’t looked at differently. I felt as I was one of the people. I was always judged differently while growing up because I was two races, but attending a predominantly one race. I was the odd one in the group because of my skin and in China was the complete opposite and I was like wow and that one of these guys felt the same way in Hong Kong as did I. I really appreciate that all of them were encouraging and supportive to reach their goals and really enjoyed that I got to experience the Black Kungfu Experience. Great documentary and hope that all of them are still teaching. Keep up the good work.

Gung Fu

Through the preservation of Shaolin Martial Arts, people across the globe have been able to witness this traditional Chinese martial art and way of life. It has made an especially large impact on America and it’s people. From popular movies and fantasy to training and living as a martial artist or monk, Gung Fu has played a large role in the lives of Americans since the first exposure to Kung Fu films.

 

 

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