"If you were to believe movies, you can get ANY woman if you're persistent enough."
Anyone believing that, would also have to believe, that ANY woman can get YOU, if she is persistent enough. And most would clearly object to that, but yeah logic consistency is not usually a theme of movie romances or of the target audience.
"Another very damaging myth is that kung fu will save you from muggers"
But if you know kung fu (or any martial arts) on a high level, then yes, it usually will save you from muggers. Because martial arts at its core (unless we are talking only about the sports turnament situation) is about situational awareness ALL the time. Meaning you do not get close enough to a person, that might stab you, in the first place. You are aware of dangers. Of people posing threats. You check the persons and places around you for signs of trouble. So you are in control of the situation - so you can be calm. Even when there is indeed trouble. But if fear and anger are not controlling you, you can control the situation and diffuse it.
(and knowing that you can take someone out in a moment, helps with the confidence, unless it feeds your ego seeking such moments)
Otherwise yes, martial arts masters bleed as anyone else. I think some world champion of kickboxing was killed in a bar fight. And the mystic glorifications of kung fu and co does lives on in the movies, but in reality it mostly vanished by real bullets
This is itself an example of "art imitating art" as per upthread. English speakers use the word "sifu" as part of its own independent cultural tradition. They use it even in contexts where it makes no sense, surrounded by Mandarin references - notably in Kung Fu Panda and less notably here: http://gowdb.com/troops/6582 - because they are sure it's "Chinese".
But if you learned the word by studying Chinese you'd spell it shifu. The English word comes from exposure to southerners who make no distinction between "s" and "sh". But distinguishing those two sounds is not a problem for English speakers.
> This is itself an example of "art imitating art" as per upthread.
In contradiction to your comment, this is an example of my correctly using Sifu's title, exactly as he spells and pronounces it.
> English speakers use the word "sifu" as part of its own independent cultural tradition.
In contradiction to your comment, I am using the word "sifu" as part of a cultural tradition which came to America from Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong. I'm an English speaker; you are wrong.
> They use it even in contexts where it makes no sense, surrounded by Mandarin references - notably in Kung Fu Panda and less notably here: http://gowdb.com/troops/6582 - because they are sure it's "Chinese".
This may be true, but in contradiction to your first sentence (which I may fairly consider the rest of the paragraph to continue), this is not an example of that.
> But if you learned the word by studying Chinese you'd spell it shifu.
In contradiction to your comment, if you learned the word from a Cantonese speaker you would spell it sifu, which is how it's pronounced. Cantonese is one of the languages called "Chinese", so you are wrong here.
> The English word comes from exposure to southerners who make no distinction between "s" and "sh".
The "southerners" you're referring to include the Cantonese, surely. Who pronounce that word /sifu/, not /ʃɚfʊ/, and spell it accordingly. This is precisely like saying gyoza should be spelled gyatze, or gato should be spelled chat. Meaningless!
> But distinguishing those two sounds is not a problem for English speakers.
>> English speakers use the word "sifu" as part of its own independent cultural tradition.
> In contradiction to your comment, I am using the word "sifu" as part of a cultural tradition which came to America from Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong.
This isn't a contradiction; you're agreeing with me.
> The "southerners" you're referring to include the Cantonese, surely. Who pronounce that word /sifu/, not /ʃɚfʊ/, and spell it accordingly.
You might be surprised to learn how the Cantonese spell 师傅.
Anyone believing that, would also have to believe, that ANY woman can get YOU, if she is persistent enough. And most would clearly object to that, but yeah logic consistency is not usually a theme of movie romances or of the target audience.
"Another very damaging myth is that kung fu will save you from muggers"
But if you know kung fu (or any martial arts) on a high level, then yes, it usually will save you from muggers. Because martial arts at its core (unless we are talking only about the sports turnament situation) is about situational awareness ALL the time. Meaning you do not get close enough to a person, that might stab you, in the first place. You are aware of dangers. Of people posing threats. You check the persons and places around you for signs of trouble. So you are in control of the situation - so you can be calm. Even when there is indeed trouble. But if fear and anger are not controlling you, you can control the situation and diffuse it. (and knowing that you can take someone out in a moment, helps with the confidence, unless it feeds your ego seeking such moments)
Otherwise yes, martial arts masters bleed as anyone else. I think some world champion of kickboxing was killed in a bar fight. And the mystic glorifications of kung fu and co does lives on in the movies, but in reality it mostly vanished by real bullets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion