In a brand new match making waves in China, a Chinese gym owner Xu Xiaodong (徐曉冬) convincingly beat an obscure martial artist who claimed to be a fourth generation descendant of Yip Man, who is Bruce Lee's master.

The match took place on Sunday, March 18, 2018, which was a new challenge match supposedly meant to test the effectiveness of traditional martial arts against modern mixed martial arts (MMA).

The three-minute bout ended with the overenthusiastic referee declaring it a draw despite a clear winner emerging.

You can watch the full fight here:

What went down

The alleged "Wing Chun" practitioner, identified as Ding Hao (丁浩), launched a flurry of rapid Wing-Chun-like punches at Xu, who shrugged them off.

Xu quickly hurled Ding to the ground. The referee separated the two fighters, as ground fighting has been disallowed this time round.

In the previous 12-second bout in April 2017, Xu took his opponent apart from standing position to a ground-and-pound in no time, and subsequently gloated about the victory and declaring Chinese martial arts as fake.

Easily overwhelmed

For the rest of this new bout, Xu easily punched and tossed Ding to the ground, a total of six times.

Each time the referee leapt in dramatic fashion to protect the traditional Chinese martial artist.

By the end of the fight, Ding was dazed, bloodied and confused.

The referee bizarrely declared the lopsided affair a "draw".

International reactions to this bout were not surprising: Besides acknowledging the Wing Chun practitioner as not standing a chance against a well-rounded MMA pugilist, people are praising the clash as highly entertaining given that the weaker opponent did not back down easily.

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Previous bout

In the first April 2017 fight, Xu had taken on an equally obscure "Tai Chi master", who is a massage therapist by day.

His swift victory quickly triggered a nationwide backlash by the Chinese, who felt that Xu and his Western-style of fighting and braggadocio was disrespecting traditional Chinese culture.

Xu had also made blanket claims that all traditional Chinese martial arts are fake.

Countless Chinese martial artists quickly issued challenges to fight him.

A cash prize was even thrown in to reward whoever can beat Xu.

Faced censorship

Xu's victory at that time touched a raw nerve and his Weibo account experienced censorship and videos of the first fight could not be viewed inside China.

Xu spoke about his experience in a Vice interview, where the topic of the backlash he experienced and informal sanctions he faced turned into touchy subjects discussed.

He had gone into hiding for a while away from the limelight.

Chinese martial arts made wholesome

Violence as a form of sport or entertainment is still frowned upon by the authorities in China, as such challenges are not viewed as wholesome activities and have a tinge of subversion.

However, there are signs that China might be opening up with MMA contests making their way into the Chinese cities and Chinese fighters going abroad to further their professional fighting careers.

The dearth of prominent fighters these days go back a long way though.

Many traditional martial arts have been lost since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power in 1949.

A systematic eradication of Chinese traditional culture took place then, culminating in a paroxysm of violence, both real and symbolic.

The Cultural Revolution accelerated the process where a large number of martial artists were imprisoned or even executed.

The CCP then introduced modernised wushu (武術) and simplified tai chi.

The spiritual and martial aspects of the arts were removed, to be replaced by gymnastic skills that resemble Olympic gymnastic floor routines or acrobat performances.

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