| More often in America, students train in a guy's school. But there are private instructors all over the place who teach individuals or just a few students out of their home, garage, sometimes a student lives with them, sometimes the teacher lives with a student. This also takes place in China and is mostly about the same thing: economics. It costs less to cohabitate & train.
As far as black belts/senior students being encouraged to learn other styles, this may have happened in pre-communist China but maybe not so much. Ego and politics got in the way back then, too. If one thinks back to the Boxer Rebellion, many CMA organizations were relying upon mystical powers to increase their martial ability and you can bet they wanted to keep their stuff secret, even from other societies, which meant senior students likely were forbidden to go and train elsewhere. Of course, that whole thing didn't end too well...
__________________ "Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san
"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes... | 
