SHOU BO: A HYBRID OF SAN DA AND SHUAI CHIA
Mar 15, 2022
4 minutes
BY ANTONIO GRACEFFO, PH.D.
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Later, I asked a professor about shou bo, and he said, “It’s like san da, but you’re wearing a jacket.”
Shou bo literally means “hand fight.” The definition, combined with the two descriptions, evoked images of the hockey brawls I knew so well. Further investigation revealed that in shou bo, you’re not allowed to pull the jacket over the guy’s head and hit him with your knee, but it still sounded like a great martial art.
Yuan graduated from the Wushu Institute in 1963. For the past few years, he’s lived in France, where he founded the French Shou Bo Association as a way to popularize shuai chiao abroad. In shuai chiao, wrestlers wear a heavy jacket with a belt.
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