Ma Yue Interview part 2In the first part of this interview,Master Ma Yue told us of his familystyle of Tongbeiquan, his training as achild and how he is trying to promotetaijiquan.In this, the concluding part of hisinterview, he describes what it is liketo be a professional martial artist inChina, how you become recognised,and what it means...A ProfessionalMartial ArtistQM: Whatwas the first thing you had to do when you started training?MY: My training started with Tongbei foundation and also a Wushufoundation because when I was six or seven, the Chinese governmentwas promoting modern wushu. If you did not have knowledge ofwushu, you would not be able to survive in the wushu world, andtoday it is still the same. You have to have knowledge of wushu aswell as your own family style. So I trained both together as this wasthe only way to survive at a professional level.Qi Magazine 34
QM: How hard did your father make you train, was he very tough onyou?MY: Oh yes, that was the traditional way. We all know that when youare young you want to play, and you have friends you want to go outwith. Also when you are young you don’t understand what it is andknow whether you want it. Now I understand why my father washard on me. At that time I didn’t, I just thought,”Why can’t I go outand play, why do I have to stay in and train? But afterwards, when Iachieved something, I felt very thankful for what my father haddone, for giving me dignity and helping me to achieve something.When I first picked up a gold medal in a championship, I realised thateverything was worthwhile.QM: So did you only study with your father and grandfather?MY: No, I studied with them from the age of six up to around sixteen.At sixteen I decided to go to a sports university. At that time therewere eight major sports universities in China. I was prepared to gothrough all the entrance examination, including Chinese, mathematicsand wushu. I passed all that.At that time I was in Xian and around one hundred people took theexaminations who were professional wushu people already, becauseyou had to be professional first. After the examinations we weregiven a final average mark from all the subjects. I think I was numbertwo with an average of ninety-seven. Somebody else had ninety-eightout of one hundred. This guy was twenty-six and I was seventeen. Ithought he was going to choose the bestuniversity because the numberone had the choice of where to go. He chose Peking Sports Universitywhich out of the eight universities was the number one. I thought Iwould be left with second choice. At the same time because I had justfinished high school, I had to go to the countryside because of Mao.You know everyone had to go and my year was the last that had to goto the countryside.I went to the countryside disappointed that I had missed the firstchoice. I had been there nearly one year. At Chinese New Year Icame back from the countryside to my home and there was a bigenvelope waiting for me and it said“Peking Sports University”! Ithought this had to be a joke, howcould I get into this university? Butit was true and it included the firstmonth’s money to go to Beijingbecause I was in Xian. I was so happyand it changed my life.Everything happened in my year. Iwas the last who had to go to thecountryside and I was in the first topass all the examinations to go to areal university. Before that, if youwere in Mao’s Communist party andthey liked you, then they couldchoose to send you to study wushu,even if you had no background inwushu and you didn’t have to passany examinations. If the party likedyou the party could send you to any university you wanted. So I wasin the first generation after the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to1976, to go to university on their own merits. Yes, I was very lucky.The situation was even harder than before 1966. Now everybodywanted to go to a real university because for ten years nobody had achance.Now I felt I had a future, because Peking Sports University was likeCambridge or Oxford University over here. Everybody knows inChina that if you come out of Peking Sports University you are thebest.I don’t know if you know in the West how they judge a professionalmartial artist in China. There are three ways, the first way is by beinga professional wushu player for your home town, or city, and youhave been in the top six ofthe National WushuChampionships at least threetimes. The second way is bybeing born into a popularmartial arts family, then youare a real blood inheritor andpeople will believe that youhave been training with yourfather or your grandfatheror whoever. Then you willbe recognised as aprofessional martial artist.The third way is by recievinga certificate, or diploma, toshow that you have aMaster’s Degree in ChineseWushu. Then you will berecognised. Those are thethree ways and you only needone of them. Mostprofessionals have one,maybe two, of them. I have all three, I have a diploma from PekingSports University, I twice won at the National Championships (1979and 1983 for Fanze and Piqua) and I was born into a popular familystyle.QM: When you were training wushu, did they relate the exercisesback to their traditional roots?MY: No, when you train wushu you just train wushu and it falls inbetweengymnastics and Chinese Opera. The martial arts side is verylimited because you have to think about the competition all thetime. You have to think if the judges will like it. You cannot think“I’ll do it my way I don’t care! I’ll do my family style.” If you dothis, you will lose. So you have to follow the rules and what thejudges like. Each year there are new rules, so you go throughthem with your coach and then prepare. That is the wushu way oftraining.Now I do not like modern wushu because after a few years I thinkit is so boring! Everybody does the same form, the same way ofjumping, kicking, punching and even the forms are the same.Can you imagine thirty teams coming for a championships andwatching twenty people do the same movements, then the nexttwenty people doing the same thing all the time for two to fourhours. Can you imagine watching one hundred people doing theYang Twenty-four step one after another?That is how wushu competitions are, but when you get to thefree style then things get interesting because you can make upyour own form. When you come to this subject, you get a lot ofpeople watching them.QM: Did you study any <strong>Qigong</strong>?MY: Yes, when I was at university for four years we studied all subjectsrelating to many different styles. That is why if you study wushu ata sport university you are unique. If you are only a professional wushuplayer, like Jet Li, then you are not unique. All their professionalcareer is concentrated on the wushu championships. When you comeout of a sport university you are like a Chinese martial arts doctor,Qi Magazine 35
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