Establishing a Chinese Kung Fu Club in Australia
Strategic Issues Report
Executive summary
Chinese Kung Fu School, as a based organization for spreading the traditional Chinese culture and improving the public health, has been established for a long time. Recently a Chinese Kung Fu club is planned to open in Australia in order to expand overseas market. However, the investment may cause a number of potential problems which result in cross-culture issues. The report will explore the problems and make recommendations on how to successfully establish the Kung Fu club in Australia.
Issues involve various national cultural differences between China and Australia, which include the attitude to Kung Fu, the rules of Kung Fu and the length of the course. Recommendations are made with respect to each of these categories. * Both theory and practice courses should be combined. * A library bar should be established for members. * The brochure should be published which includes the rules of Kung Fu. * Some activities should be held to create active atmosphere. * Mandarin language lessons need to be opened. * Difference length of courses may be suit for degree of members. * Audio-visual materials should be sold to ensure the persistent practice.

Background to the project
Kung Fu, as a kind of Chinese martial arts, is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. With the development of history, Kung Fu has become a large system which contains various schools in China. A majority of schools are classified by geographical locations, such as the southern fist in south China and Shaolin Kung Fu School in north China. These Kung Fu schools are usually located in peaceful places surrounded by the majestic and deeply spiritual mountain range. With the rapid international dissemination, the influence of Chinese martial arts has extended to the movies and television that target a much wider audience in other countries. In order to expand the overseas market, the developers are working for establishing a Chinese Kung Fu training club. However, a number of issues may be appeared during the process.
This report will give a comprehensive description of Kung Fu training schools in China, and then explore the obstacles through comparison between Chinese and Australia situation. Finally, some recommendations will be given to solve the problems.
Kung Fu club in China
The activities of Chinese Kung Fu Schools can be described in term of the public’s attitude to Kung Fu, the rules that students should be followed, and the suitable length of the course.
The attitude to Kung Fu
Chinese Kung Fu, regarded as a traditional sport and representative of Chinese ancient culture, has developed over centuries. In the ancient world, Kung Fu in China was initially used for self-defense, hunting activities and military training（Van de Ven，2000）.Through the long-term practical application, hundreds of different styles have been created over the past two thousand years. During the modern time, Kung Fu has already developed as a kind of traditional sports, which plays an important role in daily life. For example, it is common that some citizens in China practice Tai Ji in the park as the morning exercise. Furthermore, this traditional sport, treated as a recreational activity, carries new social responsibilities. The higher mission for Kung Fu is not only for people to improve the health, but also to find out the true meaning of Kung Fu culture.
The rules of Kung Fu
With the development of Chinese Kung Fu, each style of Kung Fu has its own creator and master. In Kung Fu culture, respecting the master is a part of the students’ training, which is always a traditional virtue of Chinese people. The rules of etiquette help to build character, offer structure to the students, and provide depth and meaning for the more advanced students. Even though in modern Kung Fu schools, the traditional rules are still being followed and etiquette is given to students by Kung Fu ancestors.
Because of the rules, students should remain observation and alert but silent during the class even though the knowledge has been learnt quite well. By this concept, it means that the master is the center of the educational process, which results in a rigid and circumscribed teaching way. On the other hand, because the master is not equal to the students and Jennifer Wu (2006) agree that questioning is regarded as “disruptive and disrespectful” in Chinese culture, the students have less chance to interact with the master, which leads to a negative atmosphere during the class.
As a result that Kung Fu comes from China; the language used for communication between the master and the students is Chinese. Although Kung Fu now is popular in western countries, it is always a better choice to use Chinese as the teaching language.
The length of the course
Compared with other exercises, such as weight lifting and running, Kung Fu is a complex and long-term process that people will master slowly. The aim of practicing Kung Fu is to regard it as a way of life; there is no short-cut but the long-term persistence. Owing to this, Chinese Kung Fu schools always prefer to open long-term course. Taking Maling Shaolin Kung Fu School as an example, it takes at least a year to get familiar with all the customs, ideas and skills of the Shaolin Kung Fu, and further time is needed to enhance the skill levels and apply them in a real right. The students are trained for eight hours a day from Monday to Friday in the Shaolin temple in China. Apparently, this is a kind of traditional training approach and focus on mastering the real Kung Fu philosophy and skills. Despite Kung Fu has become an enjoyable traditional exercise for the public on leisure time, the example would reflect the fact that Kung Fu learning is an endless process and benefits can only be seen with long-term adherence.
Issues
Due to the different culture between Asian and western, opening a Kung Fu club in Australia may cause a series of problems. These issues will be analyzed in the following aspects.
The attitude to Kung Fu
Compared with a long history of Chinese article arts, Kung Fu came to flourish in western countries only a few years ago. Because of this, people from western societies could have no enough time to learn about the real meaning of Kung Fu, which results in misunderstanding. A majority of foreigners know about Kung Fu from the stunning film works like the Fists of Fury, Way of the Dragon and Shaolin Temple. However, as Woodward (2009) point out, some traditional martial artists are portrayed as aggressive and violent in Hollywood movies which lead some people to argue that hard style Kung Fu promotes an aggressive behavior. In addition, according to Hofstede (2005), Australia has a higher uncertainty avoidance orientation than China. He indicates that it is harder for Australian to accept new products or service during a short-term. As a result of the above factors, it seems that establishing a popular Kung Fu club in Australia is difficult to realize.
The rules of Kung Fu
An art is best learnt in its culture. One remarkable difference between the culture of the east and the west is the respect shown to a master. Often it is because of the western students’ ignorance of eastern ways rather than their wilful discourtesy that their eastern masters of Kung Fu regard as disrespect. For example, in some western societies, it may be considered personal and desirable to call your senior or even your boss by his or her first name, but in Kung Fu culture it is considerably extremely rude.
Hofstede (2005) notes Australia is considered a relatively low power-distance culture. It is likely that students can expect closer relationship with their masters. According to Jennifer Wu (2006), compared with “the open and individualistic oriented atmosphere in classroom” in western countries, in Kung Fu culture, the master is viewed as a model, an authority; students are result-focused and learn by listening and reflection. As the above, the traditional Chinese teaching method is not suit for Australian. During the Kung Fu training class, some measures should be taken to improve the communication between the master and the students in order to create a welcome atmosphere.
Kung Fu, as a kind of special skills, needs the master to pass the knowledge onto the students directly. The masters of Kung Fu usually come from China and it is not sure that every student can understand Chinese. Thus, the problem of the language barriers between the master and the students should be solved; otherwise the communication will not continue that would decrease the efficient acquirement of the knowledge.
The length of the course
There is no short cut in Kung Fu training as physical health benefits such as aerobic capacity and bone density and psychosocial benefits such as self-confidence and obedience require long-term adherence and persistence (Tsang TW, 2008). However, as Hofstede (2005) point out that Australia has a short-term orientation, which means people from Australia prefer to focus on present or past rather than plan for the future. People, who have this behavior to take part in Kung Fu training club, do not have long-term plan to insist on praising Kung Fu. This cross-cultural issue may be a deterrent for designing the length of the Kung Fu courses.
Recommendations
In order to solve these issues, a variety of recommendations are made below to make sure that establishing the Kung Fu club in Australia will be successful.
The attitude to Kung Fu
The courses should pay attention to combine theory with practice. Some theoretical courses should be opened, focusing on the ethos of the ancient arts, which would be a proper way to eliminate negative effects from misunderstanding of the Chinese marital culture. On the other hand, it would be appropriate to establish a library bar, opening to the members, which is a beneficial approach to experience the spirit of Chinese martial arts.
The rules of Kung Fu
Principles and rules should be as many as possible detailed in the brochure, which is a better way to show how to respect the master correctly. Furthermore, family-like atmosphere should be created in the Kung Fu club. For example, some interactive games and birthday party should be held to minimize the high power distance between the master and the members. Moreover, Mandarin language lessons could be considered to overcome the communication barriers.
The length of the course
It is recommended that the length of the course training program would depend on members’ fitness and ability which should be divided into the long-term course and the short-term course. In addition, audio-visual materials should be produced to ensure that a long-term practice would be persisted in the members’ leisure time.
References
Hofstede, G. (2005). Cultures and Organizations: software of the Mind (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jennifer Wu, Dunn. (2006). Academic Adjustment of Chinese Graduate Students in United States: Institutions of higher education. The United State: ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
Maling Shaolin Kung Fu Academy. (2010). Training plan: Schedule. Retrieved from http://shaolin-kungfu.com/training/training-plan
Tsang TW, Kohn M, Chow CM, Singh MF. (2008). Health benefits of Kung Fu: a systematic review. J Sports Sic 26: 1249-1267.
Van de Ven, Hans J. (2000). Warfare in Chinese History. Brill Academic Publishers.
Woodward, TW. (2009). A review of the effects of martial arts practice on health. WMJ 108: 40-43.