Keep For Future Reference: The R.W. Smith Collection

[lkfmdc]

I know a lot of people were first exposed to stuff via Smith, he was a "pioneer" etc etc and you aren't supposed to speak ill of the dead....

But, assuming you have footage of people who are very important figures, where there is almost no footage of them, do you keep them secret, let them rot and keep anyone from ever seeing them? What purpose does that actually serve???

Smith was a spiteful *******... he was kicked out of Chang Dung Seng's school and spent his entire career bad mouthing Shuai Jiao, even things he patently knew were not true.

The whole "martial arts isn't about violence" crap is not only HIS OPINION, it is not in any way supported by history, fact or even his experience. He was hanging around with active and former military men, gangsters and fighters.... he was a hippie at heart which is fine, but don't confuse your personal preferances for fact

[sanjuro_ronin]

I know a lot of people were first exposed to stuff via Smith, he was a "pioneer" etc etc and you aren't supposed to speak ill of the dead....

But, assuming you have footage of people who are very important figures, where there is almost no footage of them, do you keep them secret, let them rot and keep anyone from ever seeing them? What purpose does that actually serve???

Smith was a spiteful *******... he was kicked out of Chang Dung Seng's school and spent his entire career bad mouthing Shuai Jiao, even things he patently knew were not true.

The whole "martial arts isn't about violence" crap is not only HIS OPINION, it is not in any way supported by history, fact or even his experience. He was hanging around with active and former military men, gangsters and fighters.... he was a hippie at heart which is fine, but don't confuse your personal preferances for fact

Yes, I recall him writing that Shuai Jiao was very inferior to Judo.

[Jimbo]

Here is some film of Zhang Junfeng (in Wage-Giles spelling: Chang Chun-feng), one of Hung I-hsiang's main teachers whom R.W. Smith mentioned in his books. He is teaching Xingyi. This film was reportedly shot in 1957 at Zhongshan Park in Taipei. I don't know if Smith shot it or not, as I thought he was in Taiwan from 1959-62.