I am not a martial arts fan or follower. I have nothing against it, it's just not an interest. I have certainly enjoyed old Kung-Fu movies when I've watched them, though not enough I suppose to collect them or seek out more to watch. I'm okay with martial arts as a sport, although to be honest on the rare occasion I watch them I much prefer watching the civil and rules-based formats like those used in the Olympics for instance compared to "octagon" pay-TV fighting where people just beat each other bloody. I even take a kind of cynical view of the latter, and I especially find it amusing that so much time is spent talking about fighters' individual "styles" when it is so blatantly obvious that once a fight actually begins it's all just plain wailing on each other however possible, throwing whatever punches, kicks, and etc one can get in as soon as the chance appears. But at the same time - you know, whatever. It takes a lot of physical conditioning to be able to give OR take a protracted beating like that, and people spend years learning how to do it because that's their dream, and it's a consensual thing so hey bro/sis, you do you. As a non-sport; i.e., for self-defense, martial arts certainly have their merits I suppose; between us I think money might be better spent on a stungun or a can of mace, or one of those classes where they just teach you to gouge a dude's eyes and/or nads with your car keys and then run, but in the end what do I know?
All that said, this video is a mini-documentary of sorts about the loopier side of martial arts, the kung-foolery where you get the "masters" who basically do magic tricks and claim they can teach you how to knock people over without touching them. I've seen a couple of the clips that are included in this video before and have laughed at them, but I suppose I always just put it aside as "people are dumb and will fall for anything" and never took the time to look into the meta of these kinds of things - WHY "chop hooey" exists, where it came from and how it began. The last third of the video is about a guy I hadn't heard of named Xu Xiaodong, and the story of what has happened to him since he started trying to push back against the phony-baloney stuff made me both sad and angry. Anyways, the video is half an hour long but I really think it's well worth your time.