u/Super-System-4950

Hi everyone. I am a passionate enthusiast of Bajiquan. Since there are no instructors where I live, I am planning to travel abroad to study it. My goal is to find a school that teaches both Bajiquan and Piguaquan (and it would be even better if they offer Xingyiquan as well). Currently, I am leaning toward studying at Wutan, as their curriculum seems to be the most convenient for me.

However, I have an important question regarding martial arts culture and etiquette:

Is studying under multiple Bajiquan lineages considered a taboo, or perhaps an unwritten rule to avoid?

My long-term plan is to build a solid foundation at Wutan, then travel to Mengcun to learn Wu-style Bajiquan, and potentially study other lineages later on if possible. In relation to my question above, in my country (neither China nor Taiwan), switching between different lineages or branches of the same traditional martial art is sometimes viewed as strictly taboo. Traditional Chinese Kung Fu here shares a similar mindset. For instance, there is a kung fu master here who teaching Chan Family Choy Li Fut dislikes the Hung Sing and Buk Sing branches, claiming his own lineage is the only authentic one (I guess they are having a conflict).

This leaves me wondering: Is this strictness just a personal attitude of certain masters and lineages, or is it a common mindset across traditional martial arts (in this case is Bajiquan) as a whole?

Hi Indian, I'm from another Asian country and I have a few questions for you.

I've seen several posts about nationalism and the excessive glorification of the military on this sub, or perhaps other Indian subs, I can't quite recall. I've noticed a very similar situation in my own country, but I want to ask specifically about people who defend the government and the military unconditionally, even when they gain nothing from it (or are even the ones benefiting the least). It’s like a sheep constantly defending and wishing the best for the wolf, even though everyone knows the sheep gets no benefit, and, well, a wolf is still a wolf. How common is it in India to find people like this?

Unfortunately, this is quite common where I live, where the majority of people fear the government and the military, yet maintain a sense of blind loyalty with the mindset of worship. I’ve discussed this with Westerners, but they didn't seem to care much and suggested I might be "exaggerating" or being too negative. I understand that these issues vary in degree and nature of society/politic from country to country, but at least on Reddit, this seems to be the only place where I’ve seen people discuss this, and it feels the most relatable to my country, especially the ultra nationalist label critical people as "anti-national"

* Sorry I don't know which hashtag I should use, so I choose this one randomly