李小龙退场 香港功夫文化衰落

HONG KONG — Bruce Lee was 14 years old, and on the losing end of several street fights with local gang members, when he took up kung fu.

香港——在几次与当地黑帮成员街头斗殴、却被打败后，14岁的李小龙开始学习功夫。

It was 1955, and Hong Kong was bustling with schools teaching a range of kung fu styles, including close-combat techniques and a method using a daunting weapon known as the nine-dragon trident.

那是1955年，香港有着各式各样、教授不同风格功夫的学校，有教人近距离打斗技术的，也有教人使用一种名为“九龙鞭”的令人生畏的武器的。

Mr. Lee’s decision paid off. After perfecting moves like his one-inch punch and leaping kick under the tutelage of a grand master, he became an international star, introducing kung fu to the world in films like “Enter the Dragon” in 1973.

李小龙的决定让他受益匪浅。在一名大师的指点下，他把一些动作学到了完美的程度，比如他的截拳和跳跃踢。后来他成了一名国际巨星，在1973年以影片《龙争虎斗》把功夫引进了世界影坛。

Decades later, cue the dragon’s exit.

几十年后，龙该退场的暗示来了。

The kung fu culture that Mr. Lee helped popularize — and that gave the city a gritty, exotic image in the eyes of foreigners — is in decline. Hong Kong’s streets are safer, with fewer murders by the fierce crime organizations known as triads that figured in so many kung fu films. And its real estate is among the world’s most expensive, making it difficult for training studios to afford soaring rents.

在李小龙帮助下流行起来的功夫文化正走向衰落，这种文化曾让香港在外国人眼里有一种坚韧不拔、充满异国情调的形象。香港的街道很安全，谋杀案比许多功夫片中那些所谓“三合会”的犯罪团伙间激烈战斗造成的少得多。香港的房地产价格属于世界上最高的，让武馆很难承担高涨的租金。

Gone are the days when “kung fu was a big part of people’s cultural and leisure life,” said Mak King Sang Ricardo, the author of a history of martial arts in Hong Kong. “After work, people would go to martial arts schools, where they’d cook dinner together and practice kung fu until 11 at night.”

“功夫作为人民文化和休闲生活重要组成部分”的日子已一去不复返，曾写过一本关于香港武术史的书的麦劲生(Mak King Sang Ricardo)说。“以前下班后，人们会去武术学校，在那里一起做晚饭，然后练功，直到晚上11点。”

With a shift in martial arts preferences, the rise of video games — more teenagers play Pokémon Go in parks here than practice a roundhouse kick — and a perception among young people that kung fu just isn’t cool, longtime martial artists worry that kung fu’s future is bleak.

人们对武术的爱好发生转变，电子游戏随之崛起。在香港的公园里玩口袋妖怪的青少年，比练习回旋踢的人数要多得多。年轻人心目中有一种看法，那就是功夫不够酷，这让武术老手们担心功夫的未来将颇为暗淡。

“When I was growing up so many people learned kung fu, but that’s no longer the case,” said Leung Ting, 69, who has been teaching wing chun, a close-combat technique, for 50 years. “Sadly, I think Chinese martial arts are more popular overseas than in their home now.”

“我小的时候，有特别多的人学功夫，但现在已经不是这样了，”69岁的梁挺说，他教授近距离打斗技巧咏春拳已经50年了。“可悲的是，我觉得，中国武术在海外比在国内更受欢迎。”

According to Mr. Leung’s organization, the International WingTsun Association, former apprentices have opened 4,000 branches in more than 65 countries, but only five in Hong Kong.

据梁挺的组织“国际咏春总会”，以前的校友已在逾65个国家开设了4000个培训所，但只有五个在香港。

Few kung fu schools remain in Yau Ma Tei, a district of Kowloon that was once the center for martial arts. Nathan Road — where the young Bruce Lee learned his craft from Ip Man (often spelled Yip Man), the legendary teacher who was the subject of Wong Kar-wai’s 2013 film “The Grandmaster” — is now lined with cosmetic shops and pharmacies that cater to tourists from the mainland.

仍有功夫学校留在油麻地，这是九龙的一个区，曾经是武术中心。在弥敦道，年轻的李小龙曾从叶问（王家卫2013年影片《一代宗师》就是以这位著名师傅为主题人物）那里学艺，现在那里沿街都是投大陆游客所好的化妆品商店和药店。

Though he lives in Yau Ma Tei, Tony Choi, a recent college graduate, has never been tempted to check out the remaining schools. Mr. Choi, 22, said that “kung fu just never came to mind.”

虽然刚从大学毕业的蔡少洲(Tony Choi)住在油麻地，但他从来没想去那里的武术学校看看。22岁的蔡先生说：“脑子里从来没想过功夫。”

He added, “Kung fu is more for retired uncles and grandpas.”

他补充说，“功夫更多是退休的大伯和大爷们练的。”

When they do train in martial arts, younger people here tend to pick Thai boxing and judo.

这里的年轻人如果学习武术的话，更倾向于选择泰式拳击和柔道。

Valerie Ng, a 20-year-old college student, says she prefers Thai boxing because it is “attractive and charming” and does not take as long to master. She noted that kung fu masters often do not have defined muscles and that some of them look, well, a little chubby.

20岁的大学生瓦莱丽•吴(Valerie Ng)说，她更喜欢泰拳，因为它“有吸引力，也很迷人”，而且不需要很长时间就能打好。她指出，功夫师傅往往没有线条明显的肌肉，其中一些看起来，怎么说呢，有点胖。

“You can see how fierce Thai boxing is from watching professional matches,” she said. “But I rarely see such competition for kung fu, which makes me wonder whether those kung fu masters really are good at fighting or they just claim to be,” she said.

“从观看专业比赛就能看出泰拳有多么激烈，”她说。“但我很少看到这样的功夫比赛，这让我怀疑那些功夫高手们是真擅长格斗，还是他们只是自称有本事，”她说。

So Tak Chung, 59, remembers how different things were. When he was a boy, he and his friends would run home from school as fast as they could to watch kung fu shows on television.

59岁的苏德忠记得以前多么不一样。他小的时候，他和朋友们会在下学后尽快跑回家，以便看电视上播放的功夫节目。

“Kung fu always gave me a sense of justice and pride in being Chinese,” Mr. So said while stretching his legs for a Sunday night lesson at Kowloon Park. “It feels like if you knew kung fu, you could beat the bad guys and help the needy.”

“练功夫总让我有一种正义感，还有作为传统中国人的骄傲，”一个周日的晚上，正在九龙公园里上课的苏德忠一边做腿部拉伸一边说道。“就好像如果你会功夫，你就可以伸张正义，为民除害。”

Mr. So’s master, Mak Che Kong, 64, is less hopeful about the future. He ran one of the last studios in Kowloon, but soaring rents caused it to shut down, along with other family businesses that were once a fixture of Hong Kong street life, like Dit Da, or bone-setting, shops that use traditional Chinese medicine to treat sprains and fractures.

对于未来，苏德忠的师父、64岁的麦志刚相对没那么乐观。之前他在九龙有一家武馆，是香港最后剩下的几间武馆之一，但后来因为租金不断飙升，不得不关掉。随之消逝的还有其他的家族生意，比如用中医治疗扭伤和骨折的跌打医馆。它们曾是香港街头的一景。

Mr. Mak, who is not related to the author of the martial arts history, has fewer than 20 students now, down from twice that number several years ago. Most students are over the age of 40.

麦志刚——与前面谈到的武术史学家麦劲生没有亲属关系——几年前还有近40名学徒，现在只剩不到20个，而且年龄大多在40岁以上。

He holds classes all over the city because “students will not come if they need to travel much.” On Tuesdays, he teaches at a pier in the city’s Central District; on Wednesdays, near a government marriage registry in Sha Tin in the New Territories; and on Sundays, at a public park in Kowloon.

他要跑到香港各处上课，因为“如果你让他们跑来跑去，他们就不会来了”。周二他在香港中环一个码头上教学；周三在新界沙田区一个婚姻登记处附近；周日则在九龙一座公园里。

Describing himself as “old school,” Mr. Mak fiercely defended kung fu traditions. “Chinese kung fu is not about fighting; it is about patience and hard work,” he said.

自称“老古董”的麦志刚竭力捍卫功夫传统。“中国功夫不在于打，在于耐力跟勤力，”他说。

When he learned kung fu in the late 1960s, masters were father figures and apprentices had deep respect for kung fu. Students were willing to spend months or years perfecting just their horse-riding stance, a rest position often used for practicing punches and strengthening the legs and back.

他是在上世纪60年代学的武术，当时师父就如同父亲一般，学徒也对武术有深深的敬意。学徒单单为了掌握马步就能练数月乃至数年。那是武术中的一种中立位，常用来练习出拳动作，或加强腿部和背部的力量。

“Today, if you ask a student to practice horse-riding stance for one lesson, he will not come again,” Mr. Mak said. “They are used to living a comfortable life.”

“今天如果你叫学生练一节课蹲马步，他明天就不会来了，”麦志刚说。“他们吃不了苦的。”

In English, kung fu is often used as an umbrella term for all Chinese martial arts. But in Chinese, it refers to any discipline or skill that is achieved through hard work.

在英文里，功夫经常被用作所有中国武术的统称。但是在中文里，它可以指代通过艰苦努力所掌握的任何学科或技术。

Kung fu traces its history to ancient China, with hundreds of fighting styles developing over the centuries. But it soared in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century, as revolution swept the nation.

功夫的历史可以追溯到中国古代，在数百年间发展出成百上千的武术流派。不过在20世纪初，随着革命席卷全国，它一度极为流行。

After the fall of the Qing dynasty a century ago, the Chinese Nationalist party, or the Kuomintang, used martial arts to promote national pride, setting up competitions and sending an exhibition team to the Olympics. But the government also tried to suppress wuxia, a martial arts genre of literature and film, as superstitious and potentially subversive.

一个世纪前清朝覆灭后，中国国民党利用武术激发民族自豪感，举办武术比赛，还送武术队参加奥林匹克运动会。但政府竭力压制武侠小说和电影的发展，因为其中包含迷信内容，而且具有潜在的颠覆性。

When the Nationalists fell in 1949, the new Communist government in Beijing sought to control martial arts from the Chinese mainland. The Shaolin Temple, said to be the home of Asian martial arts in central China, was ransacked during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 and its Buddhist monks jailed.

1949年国民党倒台之后，在北京的共产党新政府试图控制武术在中国大陆的发展。位于中国中部的少林寺据说是亚洲武术的发源地。在1966-1976年的文化大革命期间，这座寺庙遭到洗劫，庙里的和尚被关进了监狱。

Throughout those decades, martial artists from mainland China sought refuge in what was then the British colony of Hong Kong.

在那几十年里，大陆的武术家纷纷逃往当时还是英国殖民地的香港避难。

By the 1970s, kung fu fever had spread around the world. In addition to Bruce Lee’s films, the television series “Kung Fu,” starring David Carradine, became one of the most popular programs in the United States.

至70年代，功夫热传遍世界。除了李小龙的电影，大卫•卡拉丁(David Carradine)主演的电视剧《功夫》(Kung Fu)也成为在美国最受欢迎的节目之一。

Though Hong Kong’s kung fu films do not draw the attention they once did, the genre has influenced a generation of directors, including Quentin Tarantino and Ang Lee, and the actor Jackie Chan and others have kept it alive as comedy.

尽管香港功夫电影不再像过去那样受关注，但这个电影类型影响了包括昆汀•塔伦蒂诺(Quentin Tarantino)、李安在内的一代导演，也影响了成龙等将它作为喜剧延续下来的电影人。

In a twist, kung fu has enjoyed a renaissance in mainland China, where the government has standardized it and promoted it in secondary schools as a sport known as wushu to foster national pride.

意外的是，功夫反倒在中国大陆得到复兴。在那里，政府将之标准化，以一个叫做“武术”的体育项目在初中进行推广，由此培养民族自豪感。

As the martial arts center of gravity shifts to the mainland, some in Hong Kong have expressed hope that the government might support a revival here, too. Others are trying to carry on the tradition themselves.

随着武术发展的重心转向大陆，一些香港人表示，希望香港政府也能在这里支持武术复兴。还有一些人则在尽力自己延续这一传统。

Li Zhuangxin, a trim 17-year-old, has been studying the wing chun technique for more than four years. He was inspired by his grandfather, a devotee of the fighting style hung ga who gave Mr. Li his first kung fu lesson at age 8.

17岁少年李壮鑫身材瘦小，学习咏春拳已经有四年多。他是受爱好洪拳的祖父的启发，后者在他8岁的时候给了他武术启蒙。

He hopes to open his own kung fu school one day — maybe on the mainland, where interest is higher and rents are cheaper — and has already set up a small wing chun club, with eight members, at his high school.

李壮鑫希望有一天自己能开一个武馆。或许会选择开在大陆，因为那里学武术的兴趣更浓厚，租金也更便宜。他已经在自己所在的高中创立了一个咏春俱乐部。规模不大，有八名成员。

Few of his classmates had ever heard of wing chun before. Mr. Li, undaunted, says he wants to impart “the concentration and determination of kung fu” to his friends, who he laments are “only interested in playing with their cellphones.”

他的同学几乎没人听说过咏春。李壮鑫没有为此泄气，他说他想让朋友们感受“功夫的专注跟坚持”，感叹朋友们“只对玩手机感兴趣”。