Chinese Martial arts

Crann na Beatha

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Niall Keane

"Wushu" is a loaded term. I know it means "martial art", but I find for most it refers to "performance art" - modern routines etc.?
I dont think such can be compared to many martial arts, perhaps capoera?
Even in the mainland these days wushu refers to either "routines/ forms / ta Lu" or sometimes to "Sanshou" (though Sanshou is a competition format rather than a style, though like western MMA there exist Sanshou gyms focused solely on the sport.)
The "traditional" styles are usually refered to as "gung fu" though as you probably know this just means "time and effort" and can refer to such in areas not related to martial arts.

I personally practice Wudang (practical) tai Chi Chuan, as passed down through Cheng Tin Hung (tai chi bodyguard) based in HK and Dan Docherty (tai chi gladiator) both of whom have won many Chinese full contact events and produced many successful students to do like wise.

I can't comment on the Entirety of Japanese or Korean mas only on my experience with opponents who used / trained in those systems.
The "Shen fa" (body methods) and use of leverage in particular seemed different.
On leverage, I found them to try to take a linear direct approach "fall into their void (sacrifice) in order to effect a throw, this would be very different toy own systems idea of lifting first, throwing the opponent into his void (basically where he has no supporting structure) but in the direction of my substantial in order to not follow him there but to be able to use the recovery to bounce back remaining on the feet and of course "raising something up to smash it down with increased force" as the classics dictate. This approach requires greater awareness pf balance and means twists are always in throws. Which makes "break falls" for example taboo. Over the past decade on 3 occasions students of mine who had previously studied systems with "breakfall" tactics have broken their arms due to attempting such instead of "riding throws" when twisting dynamics were involved" 2 of them were high ranking black belts in other systems!
Though what does a coloured belt mean anyway?
Nei Jin / Gung is the one thing I can feel as a major difference, those who have it, are soft yet unbendable, have complete stealth in their recovery and application, and can take endless punishment unphased. I fought a guy from
"Nam Yang" with these skills, and another guy who studied a Vietnamese system from France and one other lad from Argentina, but don't know what he practiced exactly. Like don't get me wrong, I have fought some amazingly skilled fighters who are just simply fast and powerful, and it works! But there is something different/ special and (Xuan Xuan) when you have the "fortune" to fight someone with those skills. It's like you're playing chess and suddenly your opponent can change any piece into a queen. Having said that I can count on one hand, maybe two the number of people inthe kung fu world with such skills, the same amount who've actually done the required practice.
There's no smoke without fire they say, well the problem with gung fu especially the internal systems is one may have to spend a lifetime walking the whole earth to find it, it's Daoist and individual, and so not codified like Japanese systems, no belt gradings and uniform syllabus, so standards and knowledge vary immensely.
You can be lucky, or waste your time, some believe it's karmic! 😄

da mo

I study Choy Li Fut and Yang-style tai chi, both traditional styles (rather than the 'performance' wushu, as Niall points out)
Both these styles started in the first half of the 19th century, although their roots go back many centuries.

As for the Japanese styles, I believe there is a strong root in Fujian White Crane style. I suspect that Korean MA can also be traced back to its Chinese roots or at the very least 'influences'. I imagine there to be plenty of information on this on the web, for as far as it can be historically verified.

In what way exactly would you like to see different styles compared to one another? As in effectiveness, techniques used, popularity??