Just Saying | Everybody loves kung fu fighting with China these days, it seems
- Yonden Lhatoo is intrigued by the martial arts motif that keeps surfacing at every political battlefront for China, whether it involves Hong Kong, India or America
Has anyone noticed the recurring martial arts theme when it comes to China versus the world these days?
First we have the whole fallout over “kung flu”, a racial slur against Chinese people – and Asians by extension – that US President Donald Trump has legitimised as America vents its frustrations over becoming the Covid-19 basket case of the world.
While the coronavirus crisis has seen a surge in hate crimes against Asian-Americans, Trump and his cohorts have no qualms about race-baiting to blame China for the scourge of our times. And this particular schoolyard taunt resonates with humour at a primal level of pathological xenophobia.
On another battlefront, you may be seeing some real kung fu fighting at China’s disputed Himalayan border with India. Following the deadly mass brawl between Chinese and Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley last month, Beijing has incorporated a squad of mixed martial arts fighters into the ranks of its border militia, according to state media.
The interestingly named Plateau Resistance Tibetan Mastiffs, based in Lhasa, are tasked with training Chinese border-patrol troops and special forces in hand-to-hand combat.
Not to be outdone, India’s military has sent its Ghatak or “killer” commandos, who also specialise in martial arts, to the border region, according to subcontinental media reports. Never mind the derogatory jokes about Indian yoga versus Chinese kung fu – India has a rich history of martial arts, too, and legend has it that the great 5th century Buddhist monk Bodhidharma taught hand-to-hand combat techniques at the Shaolin Monastery.
