Is Traditional Wushu Ugly? (In Comparison to Modern Wushu)

I have a friend being a coach for Taichi Boxing who used to says that traditional wushu is not as beautiful as modern wushu. I knew what he meant . There are no high jumping and gyrating kicks. There are no elegant postures to make you feel like Jet Li in the Wong Fei Hong movies. Only primitive forms performed by elder folks. That was his point of view.


For me, I would prefer to look at a wider perspective. In order to appreciate the beauty of traditional wushu, one needs to approach it, learn it, practice it and to understand what is the purpose and function of the form. When comes to this, I always remember what Vitruvius, an ancient Roman architect said. He said an effective building must fulfill 3 aspects namely: Utility, Firmness & Beauty.

Utility is the purpose or function of the form that we put it into practice.

Firmness is the system that serve and support the function of the form. For example, one wushu form must be correctly performed with coordination between handwork and legwork in the right timing. So strength can be exerted to the maximum.

And lastly, Beauty or the aesthetic part that would spontaneously manifest itself when the form is correctly performed.

So, for traditional wushu, in order to appreciate its beauty, you must practice it right and feel each of its movement. In other words, you must experience the process in accomplishing the form.

While modern wushu happens to be on the contrary. The aspect of beauty/aesthetic always come first and the rest be put behind. I think this is the major reason that differentiates modern wushu from traditional ones. For modern wushu , the form that you perform can be without utility/function. As long as it is beautifully performed to gain as many points as possible from competition judges. We can’t blame it because that is the format of modern wushu competition. And every participant must comply to such requirements. Any way let this be seen as another stage or era of wushu development – it is its nature to evolve with time.

So, here we should emulate what the karate-do peoples been doing. They not only promote the modern form of karate throughout the world but at the same time have been very earnest in their effort to preserve the traditional form of karate-do as well.