I guess you need to know and understand what it is you are looking at.

Firstly it is simply a series of freestyle push hands drills. No one is pretending that what he is doing is what he would do (or anyone should do) if attacked by the proverbial mugger with a broken glass bottle. They are push hands exercises.

Secondly, and more fundamentally - don’t look at what the student is doing; look at why it is happening. In every single example (in the first clip) the cause of the student being repelled or falling is because the following things are all happening simultaneously:
(a) Master Huang, in making contact, is both “sung” (relaxed) and his structure and balance are both correct and uncompromised;
(b) Each time Master Huang issues energy (fa jing), he has already bridged and felt the student’s movement and caught the student in mid step or movement;
(c) He issues energy at the moment when the student’s structure is compromised and at the weakest point in balance.

The demonstration is demonstrating nothing more than an observance of structure and timing. Watch both Master Huang's and each student's feet at the moment of issueing.

Are his students going full out to kill him for the crowd’s (and later internet forum lurkers’) amusement? No, they know that he is demonstrating the benefits of correct posture and timing. In that sense they are being “compliant” in that they are not trying to sucker punch him or rugby tackle him and G&P him to prove that they know that there are other aspects to martial arts than those aspects that he is currently demonstrating.

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"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter." - Sir Winston Churchill