masters: the banquet

i've been told that martial arts masters used to have closed-door invitation-only banquets to share stories, catch up on news, commune with fellow experts, and demonstrate their kung fu. apparently, this was quite common--not every day or week, but regularly enough that participants could get to feel a sense of community and camaraderie that they were preserving a part of their culture.

i've found a set of videos showing one of these banquets. it's quite insightful, not just in terms of the kung fu, but in the nature of the banquet and how practitioners were associating with each other. it's from a YouTube user named DPGDPG, who has quite an extensive collection of videos of old masters. take a look:

• part 1 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5XMIQrvinM
• part 2 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFle3ms8TbM
• part 3 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imOPzsc95LA

this video appears to be from the 1960s (check out the pencil-thin neckties and mod suits!). there are a number of very interesting things about these videos:

• everyone's doing the demonstrations in regular business clothes. apparently, they just finished eating and proceeded to take off their jackets and do kung fu. it makes sense, considering that kung fu is something a person should be able to use as a practical form of self-defense, and hence in a normal everyday setting. but it's not something that is associated with kung fu, which has such a strong perception of practitioners dressed in traditional Chinese silk clothes and robes and rigid sifu-student rules.
• it seems to be a very collegial environment. the tone of the setting and demonstrations appears to be very cordial, with masters from markedly different styles associating together in what looks to be a very supportive and friendly environment. this is at odds with many common perceptions of kung fu practitioners at odds with each other and kung fu schools seeing each other as rivals. there is no such air of competition in this video. if anything, it seems to be people being friends and having a very good (albeit serious) time. the banquet is about people sharing a common, unifying bond between them.
• these people are very, very, very good.
  

i should point out that the video contains 2 people associated with the kung fu school i'm in. the 1st person is a very young Sifu Su, a noted expert in Praying Mantis kung fu. in the video he is performing a very rare form of Praying Mantis--and judging from his moves, i suspect one that not very many people are capable of doing (seriously, just how many people can put their knees and ankles through the maneuvers he's doing?). another person is a much younger Grandmaster Liu Yun Chiao, who is sitting in the back against a wall, wearing his very characteristic trademark sunglasses and very typically smoking a cigarette. Sifu Su is a friend and colleague of my instructor, Sifu Tsou, and Grandmaster Liu Yun Chiao was the instructor of both of them when they were at the Wutan Hall in Taiwan.