“To teach these people Kung Fu is like putting a sub-machinegun in their hands…”

Today, many of us take the availability of martial arts instruction for granted.

It may come as a surprise to some, then, that during the 1970s, some in the West called for banning Kung Fu completely. The following appeared in the Evening Independent on June 11, 1974:

The next year, the following article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times. Not to be outdone by the Americans, it seems that some British citizens were advocating the banning of the TV series “Kung Fu” for inciting violence:

This is a reminder of just how far the public view of martial arts has changed over the last 40 years…