I never knew that “half-breed” was actually a derogatory term for anyone who is of mixed races. I am from the generation where a person is a person regardless of their ethnic origins. Furthermore, from the studys of Darwins, there are all kinds of benefits from being “mixed”. While I may be a “pure” Chinese from look and heritage perspective, how my mind works is certainly “mixed”.
If we stick to the discussion of pure DNA, biologists warned against professional dog breeding – especially selective “in-breeding” to produce pure breds for bigger financial returns. While the offspring may look “right”, they have tons of health issues. You can read more about the problems of selective breeding here.
A century ago, most internal stylist learn all 3 of the major styles – Taichi, Hsing-I, baqua. If one learns only the exterior looks and forms of each of the styles (vs the essence), you will not gain the true benefit of the enhanced vocabruary. Just like if cement, sand and water are kept separate, you are so close and yet so far away from the final product – “concrete”. Bruce Lee certainly wasn’t the first one that learned from multiple styles, in fact, traditional styles like Choy Lee Fat actually came from 3 distinct styles – Choy Gar, Lee Gar and Fut Gar. However, he is the only one that really advocates the idea of keeping JKD open-ended.
We are blessed to be in Canada, a country that respects your heritage and yet encourages everyone the freedom to choose and experiment. MartialGym embraces more than one style of Chinese fighting arts (e.g. liuhebafa and more), men’s rhythmic gymnastics (Japanese), the scientific principles (western) and the Canadian Sports for Life model.
Exercise
Looking back at 2014, did the martial arts class facilitate any changes in you? physical or mental or both.