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Qinggong
Qinggong is a training technique for jumping off vertical surfaces from the Chinese martial art Baguazhang. The practitioner runs up a plank supported against a wall. The gradient of the plank is increased gradually over time as the training progresses. Etymology Puns play a significant role in creating Chinese terminology. While the characters used for this skill are 輕功 \ 轻功 (Trad.\ Simp.), where the meaning of the first character is ''light n weight easy; soft; gentle'', and the second means ''achievement; effort; skill; good result'', since the training involves incrementally changing the slope or incline of a plank of wood used as a platform, there's a suggested pun with substituting 傾 \ 倾 (Trad.\ Simp.) for the first character, where its meaning is ''to overturn; to collapse; to lean; to incline''. Note that both 輕 \ 轻 and 傾 \ 倾 are pronounced identically, with the same tone. Popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parkour
Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing artistic-gymnastic maneuvers. With roots in military obstacle course training and martial arts, parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, gymnastics, and quadrupedal movement—whatever is suitable for a given situation. Parkour is an activity that can be practiced alone or with others, and is usually carried out in urban spaces, though it can be done anywhere. It involves seeing one's environment in a new way, and envisioning the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features. Although practitioners of Parkour often perform flips and other acrobatic movements, these are not considered a part of Parkour proper. The practice of similar movements had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wire Fu
Wire fu is an element or style of Hong Kong action cinema used in fight scenes. It is a combination of two terms: "wire work" and "kung fu". Wire fu is used to describe a subgenre of kung fu movies where the stuntmen's or actor's skill is augmented with the use of wires and pulleys, as well as other stage techniques, usually to perform fight-scene stunts and give the illusion of super-human ability (or qinggong). It is exemplified by the work of Tsui Hark, Yuen Woo-ping, and Jet Li. Hollywood has subsequently adapted the style for the American film industry. Almost all modern wuxia movies fall in this category. Not all martial arts films use wire work. In practice The basic concept is not very complex and originates in the mechanical effects of stagecraft. Planning and persistence are important, as it often requires many takes to perfect the stunt. Typically, a harness is hidden under the actor's costume, and a cable and pulley system is attached to the harness. When live sets ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Martial Arts
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" of martial arts. Examples of such traits include ''Shaolin kung fu, Shaolinquan'' () physical exercises involving Five Animals, All Other Animals () mimicry or training methods inspired by Chinese philosophies, Old Chinese philosophies, religions and legends. Styles that focus on qi manipulation are called ''Internal martial arts, internal'' (; ), while others that concentrate on improving muscle and cardiovascular fitness are called ''Styles of Chinese martial arts#External styles, external'' (; ). Geographical association, as in ''northern'' (; ) and ''southern'' (; ), is another popular classification method. Terminology ''Kung fu'' and ''wu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sammo Hung
Sammo Hung Kam-bo ( zh, t=洪金寶, j=Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and Film director, director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreography, fight choreographer for other actors such as Jackie Chan. Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the vampire-like jiangshi fiction, jiangshi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew. Both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were often addressed as "Dai Goh”, meaning Big Brother, until the filming of ''Project A (film), Project A'', which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was giv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurum Press
The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countries and in 40 languages through a variety of traditional and non-traditional channels. Quarto employs c.330 people in eight offices in London, Brighton, New York City, Boston, Seattle, Southern California and Hong Kong. In July 2020, its publication ''This Book Is Anti-Racist'' by Tiffany Jewell reached the Number 1 position on The New York Times bestseller list. The group was established by co-founders Laurence Orbach and Robert Morley and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1986. Laurence Orbach was chairman and CEO until November 2012, when he was replaced as chairman by Tim Chadwick and Marcus Leaver as CEO. Chuk Kin Lau, the principal shareholder, became Group CEO in July 2018. In February 2020, the Italian publisher, Giunti t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hong Kong Action Cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards. The first Hong Kong action films favoured the ''wuxia'' style, emphasizing mysticism and swordplay, but this trend was politically suppressed in the 1930s and replaced by kung fu films that depicted more down-to-earth unarmed martial arts, often featuring folk heroes such as Wong Fei Hung. Post-war cultural upheavals led to a second wave of wuxia films with highly acrobatic violence, followed by the emerg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stunt Work
A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat or an act requiring a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually on television, theaters, or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer generated imagery special effects, these effects were limited to the use of models, false perspective and other in-camera effects, unless the creator could find someone willing to jump from car to car or hang from the edge of a skyscraper: the stunt performer or stunt double. Types of stunt effects Practical effects One of the most-frequently used practical stunts is stage combat. Although contact is normally avoided, many elements of stage combat, such as sword fighting, martial arts, and acrobatics required contact between performers in order to facilitate the creation of a particular effect, such as noise or physical interaction. Stunt performances are highly choreographed and may be rigorously rehearsed for hours, days and sometimes weeks before a perform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for his slapstick acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself. Chan has been acting since the 1960s, performing in more than 150 films. He is one of the most popular action film stars of all time. Chan is one of the most recognisable and influential film personalities in the world, with a widespread global following in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. He has received fame stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, films, and video games. He is an operatically trained vocalist and is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of music albums and sung many of the theme songs for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peking Opera School
Professional schools for Chinese opera, known as ''keban'' (), existed in China from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to the 20th century. Formerly attached to performing troupes, many ''keban'' became independent boarding schools by the late 19th century. Today, a few degree-granting, western-style educational institutions specialize in Chinese opera, like the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing and the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts in Taipei. Education In learning Peking opera, attending students developed skills in martial arts, acrobatics and tumbling, music and dance and performed these skills for audiences. The schools produced a generation of stunt performers, action choreographers, actors and film directors including some of the most famous stars of Hong Kong action cinema. Public interest in Peking Opera waned in the late 1960s and during the Cultural Revolution most of the schools were closed. Historically, pupils had been handpicked at a y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Little Fortunes
The China Drama Academy () was a Peking opera school in Kowloon, Hong Kong, famous for being the childhood home of such famous actors as Jackie Chan (Yuen Lo), Sammo Hung (Yuen Lung), Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu and Corey Yuen (Yuen Kwai). It was run from a small theatre in the Lai Chi Kok amusement park by Master Yu Jim Yuen, a northern (北拳) kung fu practitioner and a very stern teacher. Children were usually enrolled for a period of 10 years, whilst Yu taught them the acrobatic and acting skills that would later introduce many of them into the world of Chinese theatre and movies. Whilst attending the Peking opera school under the tutelage of Yu Jim Yuen, the students all adopted their sifu's given name "Yuen" as their family name. Life in the school Practice at the Peking Opera School was very strict. The students signed into contracts that would allow the instructors to punish them up until death. Training would take place up to 18 hours a day and included stretching, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baguazhang
Baguazhang or Pakua chang () is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being T'ai chi and Xing Yi Quan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia quan). ''Bāguà zhǎng'' literally means "eight trigram palm", referring to the bagua "trigrams" of the ''I Ching'' (''Yijing''), one of the canons of Taoism.Lie, Zhang. “Classical Baguazhang Volume V: Yin Style Baguazhang.” Trans. Joseph Crandall. Pinole, California: Smiling Tiger Martial Arts 1995. History The creation of Baguazhang as a formalized martial art, is attributed to Dong Haichuan (), who is said to have learned from Taoist and Buddhist masters in the mountains of rural China during the early 19th century. Many Chinese authorities do not accept the Buddhist origin, instead maintaining that those teachers were purely Taoist in origin, the evidence lying in Baguazhang's frequent reference to core concepts central to Taoism, such as Yin and Yang theory, I Ching ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Times Company, which is owned by the Blethen family, holds 50.5% of the paper. McClatchy company owns 49.5% of the paper. ''The Seattle Times'' had a longstanding rivalry with the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' newspaper until the latter ceased publication in 2009. Copies are sold at $2 daily in King & adjacent counties (except Island, Thurston & other WA counties, $2.5) or $3 Sundays/Thanksgiving Day (except Island, Thurston & other WA counties, $4). Prices are higher outside Washington state. History ''The Seattle Times'' originated as the ''Seattle Press-Times'', a four-page newspaper founded in 1891 with a daily circulation of 3,500, which Maine teacher and attorney Alden J. Blethen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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