An inheritance most treasured

Kungfu master Guo Zhenya. Wang Jing

"Family heirlooms, or what people call intangible cultural heritages must be handled with genuine respect," explains Guo, who also completed a ceremony before learning from his father.

Both of Guo's sons, Guo Hao, 36, and Guo Yong, 34, have also gone through such kowtow ceremonies. His grandson Guo Zhongjia has also begun learning the basics of xingyi quan from his elder son.

"When he grows up and takes learning kungfu seriously, he will still have to go through such a sacred ceremony," says Guo. "Only those who are trust-worthy will get the chance to inherit and then pass on the treasures to future generations."

To date, Guo has trained about 300 students, including some from Japan and South Korea. "Compared to other kungfu masters, this is a very humble number," admits Guo. "(The) quality of the students is far more important than quantity."

Youngsters today have all kinds of opportunity to learn about martial arts through some 15,000 wushu (kungfu) clubs and schools across the country. Many eager kungfu students can find teachers at parks, who offer lessons at a low price, or even free-of-charge, says Beijing news editor Wu Jianlu, who also manages www.wushu2008.cn, which is one of the hottest websites for Chinese kungfu aficionados.

While an abundance of books, video materials and kungfu websites are also aplenty these days, Guo's old-school teaching methods are still the best way to learn the art form, says Wu.

"Guo's seemingly outdated way of teaching traditional Chinese marital arts makes one rethink how [we should] pass on the cherished cultural heritage effectively," says Wu.

Guo agrees and says modern technological advancements play, at best, a helping role in mastering kungfu.

"Indirect learning may enrich your knowledge about Chinese kungfu, but it may also confuse you as you can not really digest the overwhelming and in many cases conflicting information," says Guo. "In a nutshell, Chinese kungfu is a human art; it must be transmitted from hand to hand (and) from heart to heart."