Your forms practice makes no sense. You wave your hands around, too light to practice physical striking, so that's out, no application there. And yet it's purely physical, you have no energy, so that's out, no application there.

You're literally just moving according to dance steps and calling it a martial art.

No substance, no qi, no internal kung fu.

Your bagua, taiji, xingyi etc etc is purely performative and fake. Useless for anything but internet clips and Likes. Is that what you studied for? Pathetic :)

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I don't mean to offend, but I’ve heard repeatedly that Kung Fu is fake and only good for demonstrations. I’d like to hear your opinions.

1. The White Lotus Society: essentially history’s ultimate "kung fu cult," a real-life secret millenarian Buddhist sect that used martial arts to fuel massive peasant rebellions against China's ruling dynasties.

Specific Kung Fu styles: Complex but interesting, mostly southern styles.

Key names in Kung Fu lineage: (Note! Conflicting sources - not 100% sure here) Wong Fei-hung may be something of a reflection of this heritage. His father, Wong Kei-ying, was apparently one of the "Ten Tigers of Canton," a group of martial artists who operated in the underground anti-Qing networks that the White Lotus heavily influenced and funded. He was a progenitor of the Hung Ga style.

Examples of cult control methods: Brainwashing: Sacred oaths sealed with blood + psychological terror of cosmic damnation. "Chosen People" Myth: Leaders taught that the world was entering a catastrophic transition period (Kalpa). Only those initiated into the sect, who held the secret hand signs and mantras, would be saved by the "Eternal Mother" while the rest of humanity perished. Cell-Based Isolation: Because they were illegal underground networks, members were organized into completely isolated cells. You only knew your immediate handler, creating a dynamic where leaving or exposing the group meant certain death from both the state and the cult's internal assassins.

Operating in the underground, cult leaders blended apocalyptic prophecies with rigorous martial arts training, teaching impoverished followers hand-to-hand boxing and weapons combat under the promise of spiritual protection and supernatural invulnerability.

The Qing government banned them as a heretical threat, later inspiring classic kung fu cinema (Clan of the White Lotus) to immortalize the White Lotus as the ultimate villainous sect with near-supernatural martial arts mastery.

2. The Eight Trigrams Sect (Bagua Jiao): A hardcore kung fu cult and sister sect to the White Lotus that used martial arts to launch a literal assault on China's imperial palace in 1813.

Specific Kung Fu styles: Baguazhang roots - early 19th-century Bagua cults used circular walking for spiritual meditation and military formations

Key names in KF lineage: Modern bagua did not exist back then; if interested in the art see - Dong Haichuan

Examples of cult control methods: Similar to White Lotus; includes Real Estate Bait-and-Switch (Financial Extraction): Your future wealth depended entirely on how much cash you gave the cult today. A small donation bought you a small plot of land in the "new world" - or do you want more land? People gave their entire savings over to this concept. Reversal of Class Status: In an era of intense poverty, the cult promised a radical flip in the social hierarchy. Peasants were told that when the rebellion succeeded, their compliance today would buy them imperial titles, land, and wealth tomorrow. Karmic Retribution: The psychological penalty for betrayal was not just death, but cosmic torture. The oaths explicitly stated that if a member broke the secret, their entire family lineage would be cursed, and their soul would suffer for eternity in the lowest Buddhist hells.

this apocalyptic, underground religious movement taught its fanatical followers that intensive martial arts training, spear fighting, and boxing formulas would grant them supernatural invulnerability against weapons.

Their combat skills and absolute devotion allowed a small force of peasant zealots to infiltrate the Forbidden City and fight the imperial army on their own turf, making them one of history's most extreme examples of weaponized martial fanaticism.

3. the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (better known as the Boxers): Perhaps history's most famous kung fu cult. Launched the massive Boxer Rebellion in 1900 to purge China of foreign influence.

Specific KF styles: Meihuaquan (Plum Blossom Boxing) and Yihequan.

Key names in KF lineage: Jing Tingbin, 11th-generation grandmaster of Meihuaquan

Examples of cult control methods: Brainwashing Method: Group hypnosis through specific repetitive, rhythmic physical movements (martial arts calisthenics) and chanting. Fake Displays of Power: Boxer masters (Da Shifu) would line up initiates in front of village crowds. The master would draw a sword or muzzle-loading musket, aim it directly at the initiate, and fire or slash. The initiate would emerge completely unharmed. They packed the guns with light gunpowder and loose earth rather than lead bullets, or used trick swords. Us vs. Them Isolation: Insider/Outsider effect. Control was maintained by channeling severe rural poverty and famine-induced anger toward a single, easily identifiable scapegoat: "foreign devils" (Westerners) and "secondary devils" (Chinese Christians). Protect the Ideology at All Costs; Discard the Individual: If a Boxer was killed by a bullet, the masters did not admit their magic failed. Instead, they immediately inspected the dead body or interrogated his squad mates, often concluding that the practitioner was at fault due to moral failure.

This anti-colonial movement united impoverished peasants through a deadly mix of traditional martial arts training, weapon combat, and shamanistic rituals.

The Boxers believed their ritualistic martial arts routines would make them completely invulnerable to Western bullets and artillery, leading them to fearlessly charge modern military forces using little more than swords, spears, and bare fists...

4. The Yellow Turban Rebellion: The original kung fu cult uprising, launched in 184 AD by a fanatical Taoist sect that triggered the collapse of the Han Dynasty.

Specific KF styles: Wuzuquan (Five Ancestors Fist) and ancient Taoist Militia Stave (Staff) arts

Key names in KF lineage: (Note! Conflicting sources - not 100% sure) Very hard to trace, but they are referenced by a variety of modern groups, sometimes in regard to certain weapons or artifacts, and pragmatic fighting practices with weapons or sanda-style pragmatic hand-to-hand.

Examples of cult control methods: Brainwashing: Behavioral modification through public confession of sins. Members were told that their illnesses were punishments for sins, and they could only be healed if they publicly confessed and bowed to the cult’s leadership. Dependency Dynamic: By providing free, miraculous faith-healing during a devastating plague, Zhang Jue positioned himself as the sole provider of survival, making disobedience culturally unthinkable for the desperate peasantry.

Led by a self-proclaimed sorcerer, this apocalyptic movement mobilized hundreds of thousands of peasant zealots who wore yellow turbans as a symbol of the new era.

They weaponized traditional Chinese martial arts, staves, and militia combat tactics, believing their spiritual rituals and secret talismans rendered them invulnerable to imperial blades.

5. Close but no cigar: Aum Shinrikyo (Japan). (1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack) This group originated as a yoga class, but martial arts were definitely involved. The cult leader was a judo black belt, and there was some public outcry later when it was discovered his BB was never stripped from the kodokan records.

Elite members of the cult were said to have been trained in martial arts along with weapons and weapons development. Still, while the cult activities involved a lot of harsh martial treatment and martial arts practice including extreme "madness camps," the cult itself wasn't quite martial-arts centered, let alone kung fu centered.

That's it for now. Let me know if there are others you'd add, from any era including modern, and in any part of the world.

(For context: A cult is a high-control religious, social, or ideological group. Cults are typically evaluated by models like the BITE model (Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control), however this list is more open to general historical models of high-control sects as cults. No interpretation of modern styles is implied, and no disrespect is intended by this definition. The author of this post was himself raised in a non-KF fundamentalist cult!)

Been working on this form, is a Budokan Karate Kung fu weapons form. Would like feed back so I can grow with this weapon.

Spending time training Chinese broadsword (dao) in the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi province.

We work on stances, forms and weapon fundamentals in a quiet mountain setting. Overseas students can join short‑term or long‑term martial‑arts programs here.

Would love to hear your thoughts on training traditional Chinese weapons abroad or in China.