Random old school questions

[shukocarl1441996347]

1) What is the metal bar that is sometimes seen in old bashers such as Hapkido & One Armed Boxer. Both Mao Ying & Wang Yu carry it around and use it as a weapon.

2) Is there any significance in the colour of sashes in films? Obviously in "Western" schools the colours denote ranks but in the films?

3) Very often the students all have the same (blue or black etc) uniform (Tang suit or T-shirt/pants) but the seniors don't...is it like "Plain Clothes" police? Lol  ;-)

4) Why the cotton ties around the ankles of uniform pants?

5) Why resort to a weapon against empty hands sometimes - and this is a "hero" AGAINST a villain? As we say in the UK...it's just not Cricket!  :-)

[ShawAngela]

From what I understood when I watched Hapkido, the metal bar carried by Mao Ying is the symbol of the school, and if I remember well, some rules were carved on it, and that's why she strongly used against one of the guys in the Japanese school to punish him because he was an ancient student of Hapkido school, and may be even a Korean traitor, such as was Wei Ping Ao in Bruce Lee and Ho Chung Tao' s movies.

I don' t remember about Wang Yu because it's been a long while since I watched One armed Boxer.

[J.J. Hayden]

1) @ShawAngela is correct about the metal bar being a symbol of the school, some old schools have them, but I don't believe they're meant as a weapon, it was used that way for symbolic reasons.

2) I don't think kung fu etc. had coloured belts, that's a more modern thing western thing as you say. But more wealthy martial artists would were more extravagent belt to show off.

3) similar to 2, most smartial artists weren't wealthy and would just were the most common and plain clothes.

4)I'm not sure of the fuctionality of having them like this, but it was the common practice in China.

5) This is a funny one and is a good example of a culture clash. Similar how it's OK for say 3 heroes to gang up on one villain, which in the west is seen as cowardly. A bit like with culture clash in WW2 where the west saw it as the ultimate cowardice to kill men who surrender, but in Japanese culture it was the ultimate act of cowardice to surrender. But I'm from UK too and  as you say, a weapon against hands is just not cricket, like a kick in the balls, it's just not on!