According to a scientific study done by researchers at a Hong Kong university, teaching children how to fight may be the best way to keep them from doing it.
Central to the study, conducted at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), is martial virtue—the moral basis of traditional Chinese martial arts, and which is known by the Chinese name of “wu de.”
Three hundred and fifteen children, including 244 boys and 71 girls, from a variety of schools and economic backgrounds in Hong Kong took part in the study, which was aimed at evaluating “the impact of Chinese martial arts on young children” and exploring Chinese martial arts as “an aggression-reducing intervention,” as described on CityU’s site.
The study’s finding showed that children who received education in martial arts skills and ethics exhibited significant reductions in aggressive or antisocial behavior such as bullying or fighting. They also found it easier to focus.
Skill vs. Ethics
The participants completed surveys to assess their existing aggressiveness, and then divided into four groups that included different combinations of instructional focuses—martial arts skills, martial arts ethics, both, and none. The “none” group served as the control.
Instruction in “martial ethics” included having children watch martial arts-themed films like Fearless, Ip Man 2, and Kung Fu Hustle. Instructors also led discussion and role-play scenarios to simulate interpersonal social conflict to help children learn the ethics depicted by the movie characters. Children learned to recite proverbs like “Those who can’t fight end up fighting, those who can fight don’t strike others.”
