TCMA animals and the African connection?

If there was a Kangaroo style TCMA I would be worried.... other than that it really isn't geographically implausible....

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Rock On!
Cam
"Raise up your mind....."

(cue "kangaroo vs. ...." youtube videos in 4, 3, 2...)

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"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." T. Geisel

hoping not to start a race war

but IMO the guy was sadly misguided by some sort of africa uber alles ting

there are african MA's but to claim TCMA is african is just stoopid

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"....if you're ever attacked by someone armed with a banana, your first thought has got to be to eat that banana. Thus leaving him unarmed and defenseless." - ace

Well, the common theory is that civilization sprang from Africa so mythological roots and even influence in other areas is not a stretch... For all we know all TCMA could have their origins firmly planted in early African civilization and simply migrated and assimilated into Asian culture as it developed....

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Rock On!
Cam
"Raise up your mind....."

yes thats a fair point

but at what point do things become seperate cultural entities in themselves (if ever)

?

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"....if you're ever attacked by someone armed with a banana, your first thought has got to be to eat that banana. Thus leaving him unarmed and defenseless." - ace

Not saying it isn't/wasn't a separate cultural entity, as it definitely is... just saying that it's not implausible that the animal references could have their roots in Africa.

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Rock On!
Cam
"Raise up your mind....."

agreed

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"....if you're ever attacked by someone armed with a banana, your first thought has got to be to eat that banana. Thus leaving him unarmed and defenseless." - ace

“	If there was a Kangaroo style TCMA I would be worried....	”

Don't you know Kangaroos are excellent Boxers ?

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"To alcohol ! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

Thank god you didn't see the next pics of the sequence, the roo then does a headbutt, single leg, mounts him and GnPs the crap out of him ...

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"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." T. Geisel

The Chinese knew very little about Africa and cared even less. Turning to the animal styles as Nik points out, other than some superficial physical things (i.e. tiger "claws", eagle "beaks", crane "wings") the bulk of animal forms sought to catch some more mental or philosophical aspect of animal symbols. Always remember too, the Chinese Zodiac is made up of animals (tiger, dragon, horse, dog, chicken and the rest) so that for Chinese there was always an "astrology meaning" going with each animal. For example horse people are straightforward and direct---which is how you are supposed to perform the horse form in xingyiquan.

Direct copies of animal movement is not very likely for such xingyiquan animal forms as the Tai Bird (mythical), the Dragon (also myth); in the same vein that I doubt anyone ever saw a "drunken 8 immortal" doing a sword form.

Xie Dien (薛顛) in the 1930s wrote this super esoteric book, that was nonetheless widely distributed, talking about how the animal forms and "spirit" was translated into martial arts. The book is famous, although nobody I know has ever claimed to be able to grasp what he was talking about. It is a lot like many new age books in that regard.

Brian the Book Bear