Comment by hzhou321 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hzhou321 | Hacker News Reader

Certainly, there are illusions around traditional martial arts , which is highlighted by this Taichi guy's agreement to such fight in the first place. However, the Chinese reaction is not simply a shock reaction (as the title "rattle" implies), but a deep-rooted cultural reaction. Chinese culture is about longterm wellness, which, in a superficial way, is about face/elegance. It is much more important in Chinese culture to gain respect or to save face, which is of long term value (often beyond one's lifetime). Winning a fight by keep pounding a guy on a ground with no obvious defense is the opposite of elegance (elegance is equivalent to civilization in the culture), therefore, Chinese people would feel definitely not right and the reaction is simply to emphasize their value system: winning with no elegance is not winning at all. In fact, it is worse than losing, highlighted in the following events.

In another word, if the Taichi guy beat the MMA guy by in the end hitting the defenseless repeatedly, the Chinese reaction will probably be the same. While the MMA style does emphasize compounding the weakness, it is probably one of the reasons that it is never popular in China.

So would Mr. Xu have received the same negative public feedback if he had avoided the ground and pound, and won without perceived brutality?

I'm having difficulty seeing how this fight could have happened without either some form of KO/TKO, which I assume would have generated the same outrage, or degenerating into a farcical slapfest, which would have lost Xu face anyway.

Am I wrong? Or would Xu have killed a sacred cow no matter how he won? Because let's face it, it was clearly Xu's fight to lose. Xu should just come to America then, we have different sacred cows here.

> So would Mr. Xu have received the same negative public feedback if he had avoided the ground and pound, and won without perceived brutality?

I think Mr. Xu would not receive negative public feedback if he simply stops at knocking Mr. Wei down or simply choke hold (not deadly). After all, the fight was organized and started in a fair mood. I think before the result, most audiences are simply curious. And the ground pounding is quickly stopped and people rush to take care of Wei, which supports my belief on what is the real show stopper.

KO would be acceptable if it is perceived to be necessary, that is, if there were signs that Xu could lose without the quick KO.

By sacred cows, do you refer to cultural value system? If yes, then that is my point. If not, what will be the equivalent sacred cow in America?

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