Wushu is an exhibition and full-contact sport that is derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. Developed in China after 1949, Wushu has gained international popularity and is practiced by many ages and levels throughout the globe.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take photographs at a collegiate wushu event at a local university. It was my first time being able to sit down and observe that activity, and it turned out to be a lot of fun to shoot.
Met up with a few people from Team Liquid as well, so all-in-all good fun. The following are my photos from the event.
Also, shoutouts to my friend shirokaisen for inadvertently introducing an uncounted number of wushu stream viewers on Justin.tv to the wonder that is ESPORTS and Tobi Wan casting Dota 2 for a good hour or so. You are a true hero of ESPORTS.
To me, wushu is just a generic term to designate Chinese martial arts. The full contact sport that was derived is Sanda (developed by the Chinese military with the help of the Russians)
This blog reminds me how much I miss training. Paradoxically, it has never been so hard to find a good wushu club since I moved to China.
That does seem a bit paradoxical. The full contact part of the line came from a cursory glance at Wikipedia. There wasn't any full contact stuff going on at this event.
it was a fun event, both to shoot and to be at - i would recommend anyone else who has the opportunity to go. Collegiates are held every year somewhere inside the united states, columbia/berkeley/other schools came out to compete.
this is my heritage with which i feel so much disconnect. thoughts on gif 1: i always thought it was pretty crazy awesome the variety of forms and unique weapon demonstrations that are part of Chinese martial arts.
On April 25 2013 03:43 GHOSTCLAW wrote: it was a fun event, both to shoot and to be at - i would recommend anyone else who has the opportunity to go. Collegiates are held every year somewhere inside the united states, columbia/berkeley/other schools came out to compete.
Collegiate wushu teams and clubs generally only do Taolu (forms), and do not do Sanda (contact sparring). If any club does do Taolu, I do not know of them.
I can attest that probably half the people watching the wushu stream on justin.tv already knew about esports before the great betrayal by our cameraman, who decided to start watching Dota 2 on the computer that was set up to broadcast our main events (but thanks for manning the camera).
UC Berkeley hosts a large wushu competition every year, called CMAT (Chinese Martial Arts Tournament). The Collegiate Wushu Tournament rotates among schools on a yearly basis. I'm not as familiar with events on the east coast, as its rather difficult for us in California to get out there.
On April 25 2013 11:43 General Nuke Em wrote: I can attest that probably half the people watching the wushu stream on justin.tv already knew about esports before the great betrayal by our cameraman, who decided to start watching Dota 2 on the computer that was set up to broadcast our main events (but thanks for manning the camera).
So here's what actually happened:
we were using GHOSTCLAW's laptop to stream the opening ceremony, and I manned the camera. Then, as we were settting up the actual streams, the plan was to use a desktop to stream the main event and GHOSTCLAW's laptop was just put off to the side. Knowing RaidCall EMS 1 was going on, I decided to peek onto the stream and watch for a bit. Unfortunately, the stream wasn't working on the desktop so we had to use the laptop anyway. I swapped it in, and never actually closed the stream - not realizing OBS was set up to accept line-in sound - and walked off to go do other things, thinking everything was good to go.
Wushu is pretty cool. I've followed it a bit over the years, and watch it often on youtube/the internet
Fun fact: Famous actor Jet Li has won the Chinese National Wushu Championships multiple times back when he was a child/teen. Even when competing against adults.