Kung fu schools take a hit (2)

The regimented training required of kung fu students starts with strict adherence to the rules as laid down by the school's master. "Any breach of discipline, let alone talking back to an instructor, is often met with corporal punishment," said Zou who is also the General Secretary of the China Committee, World Boxing Council.

"Kung fu schools provide lower-level education and their operators and teachers are not well trained," complained Zou, who blames a too-rapid expansion of kung fu schools during the 1990s. He says many of the schools were motivated by profit and recruited staff with dubious qualifications.

Many children who are sent away to kung fu schools are troubled. They have dropped out of public schools or have not done well enough to further their education. Their parents enroll them hoping the strict discipline the schools impose on their students will straighten out their children.

Abuse reported

With so many students, so few quality teachers and a traditional ethos that demands extreme physical training, examples of abuse of pupils have been widely reported in the media.

Last December three students were left bruised and bleeding after being beaten in front of their classmates at a well-known school in Henan Province. In 2007, a coach in Dengfeng burned the arms of 42 students with a cigarette. He later told police he branded them so they will always be reminded he was their instructor. In 2006, kung fu students were beaten up by their instructor and one died later in hospital. In 2004, coach Qiao Wenming was sentenced to three years in prison for intentionally injuring his students, reported China News week.

"The government doesn't regulate kung fu very well and some of the schools are in disarray," said Liu Suibin, a kung fu master in Sichuan Province.

Liu said the schools promise parents that their children will receive a well-rounded education that includes learning martial arts and academic study.

"The common practice is that students do kung fu training in the morning and attend classes in the afternoon, but after a half day of exercise most students fall asleep in their class and the teachers don't care," said Liu.

Zou, the kung fu champion, said prior to the boom in kung fu schools a number of them in Fujian Province did a good job combining athletics and academics, but most have now gone bankrupt, as more parents have come to realize the academic failings of the schools.

"China's public education system was not fully developed in the early 1990s, and kung fu schools gave dropouts an alternative education. Now most students prefer to go to public schools to receive compulsory education," said Zhou Weilong, who founded the Huaqiao Wenwu School in Fujian Province that has since gone bankrupt.

Unrealistic dreams of stardom

Many students dream of becoming a kung fu champion and then a star, either in film or on stage and indeed thousands of kung fu students have travelled the world with acrobatic shows and have even performed on Broadway.