Why more Karate dojos than Kung fu schools?

Why are there more karate dojos than kung fu schools? You can find a karate school one every street but there are no kung fu schools? In my city there is only one kung fu school, yet there are over 8 karate dojos.





Okinawans and Japanese have no problem teaching their martial arts to outsiders but what about the Chinese?





On a another note, there are way more Chinese restaurants than Japanese restaurants in any give city.|||Pretty easy question to answer really.





1. Karate was spread early through the US by Servicemen coming back from Japan and Korean(where many of them learned Karate and Tae Kwon Do respectively).





2. There are many more Japanese immigrants than there are Chinese, one of which being a lack of totalitarian regime. Many Japanese came over because they were paid much more to teach Karate or Judo in the States then in Japan.





In fact many American business men figured this out from the beginning and wholesale imported top talent from Japan to teach, especially during the height of Karate and Judo here in the States.





3. Most immigrants from China were brought over for very cheap manual labor in the early days, of those very few were high ranking Kung Fu teachers (as most Kung Fu Masters were held in high regard, they did not neat to go to the US ). There also existed a rift because of this between US and Chinese people. Family Martial Arts generally were not taught to anyone outside of family, much less westerners.





4. Most solid, real Kung Fu was killed off by a variety of factors, one being Japanese occupation of parts of China, another being constant wars within China, another being the communist regime that took over and essentially assured that only certain things that were in China's best interest survived. As a result you have far fewer... FAAAR Fewer true Kung Fu masters, than you have masters of Japanese Martial Arts. That fact alone makes it easier to prolifirate. Add the authoritarian regime of China and there aren't a lot of Chinese masters making their way stateside unless they can ESCAPE.





Basically it is a variety of factors, but the simplest is that it was and is easier for Japanese masters to teach US students, and that there are way more Japanese masters then there are Chinese masters due to a more lenient form of government.|||I assume you live in the States. The answer is quite simple, The name ' Karate ' had much more appeal to people for some reason when it kicked off many years ago in the states, people were at awe of the uniforms, belt systems, the general style of Karate and of course the many american Karate movies which influenced its popularity.

We can see such examples today, notice the movie ' The Karate Kid' remake , is actually Kung Fu in the movie but because of popularity and appeal, directors choose the ' Karate' as the name.



The popularity of Karate goes way back, it just seems to have more appeal with people over in the States and with many in other countries.. There are some good Kung Fu schools in the states, but they are just overwhelmed and outnumbered by Karate Dojos.



Karate is just more popular in the States, therefore more Dojos .

Also the Japanese marketed their styles like crazy when they arrived in the states and saw how popular Karate had become. They milked its popularity.



It is also worth mentioning that Chinese were not ( and many still not ) as open to teaching people who were not from China, a lot of Kung Fu masters to this day are a bit greedy with their styles.

But of course not all are like this.



I hope this helps|||1. American WWII veterans brought back Okinawan karate and Japanese Karate to the States.



2. On college campuses Japanese taught their karate.



3. Japanese marketing skills pushed karate through the states.





Even today in Boston's Chinatown, the Chinese do not advertise their better Tai Chi or Kung fu schools. You have to be pretty stealthy to find the Wing Chun school in Boston's Chinatown because it is not advertised and they don't like outsiders attending. But Karate schools have never been that shy about their locations. There is a good Hung Gar kung fu kwoon above the Corner Pub in Boston's Chinatown, but the three or four other kwoons in Chinatown remain hidden.|||I was going to say basically the same thing that Judomofo said. He gave such a great answer that I can't improve on it. What he said is true.








...|||a kung fu school is a karate dojo ( kara meaning empty ,te meaning hand ) kung fu is just a specific type of karate.


there are more chinese restraunts becuse chinese food is more popular














P.S. does everyone in your city know karate? lol why do they have 8 dojos.|||You have put way too much thought into this.|||I guess the Chinese like cooking more than martial arts!

Seriously. Real Kung Fu is a lot harder and does not yield the quick results like Karate does. Karate as it is taught in the US generates much of it's power through strength and it is fairly easy to apply techniques with strength. Kung Fu generates power through speed and agility. This is much harder because your body has to grow into it and that takes time. Kung Fu also has some internal aspects which is harder to learn. It takes several years of just conditioning training in flexibility, agility and strength to make the forms look like Kung Fu.



Edit: While I agree that the historical factors play a role in the spread of Karate vs Kung Fu the question still remains why more people like Karate over Kung Fu. China is open for people who want to study martial arts there. It is cheap and the training is really good but China is struggeling to attract students from the US and a lot of Chinese Masters are jumping on the band wagon watering down the training because a lot of Westerners simply can not train as hard. We are just not conditioned to take such training. The lifestyle in China is very different and a lot of people are manual laborers from a very young age since China still lacks modern machinery to a large extend. I wonder how long someone's hand will last husking corn and then pulling the cernels off the cobs by hand. The students at my school do it every year. The corn gets dried and stored for winter. Their hands are already conditioned through the hard work. How many people could dig up a garden with a shovel and plant food all summer long because if you don't you don't eat. Their bodies are already conditioned. Westerners have to go to the gym and lift weights to get there. Martial arts in China is based on their lifestyle and their physical abilities.