Inheritance
A key element of Chinese Kouji is the manner in which it is passed on to successive generations. This may take the form of either family inheritance, or a combination of family and master-disciple inheritance. Perhaps partially as a result of its involvement in Chinese military code talking, Kouji disciples have been limited to citizens of the Chinese state. In fact, in 1956 Zhou En Lai refused an offer by the Soviet government to exchange their two best acrobat training programs for one Kouji training program. Although the two countries were on good terms at the time, Zhou stated that Kouji was a special cultural heritage that belonged to the Chinese, and should thus be protected.
Read more about this topic: Kouji
Famous quotes containing the word inheritance:
“Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 14:28,29.
“Late in the afternoon we passed a man on the shore fishing with a long birch pole.... The characteristics and pursuits of various ages and races of men are always existing in epitome in every neighborhood. The pleasures of my earliest youth have become the inheritance of other men. This man is still a fisher, and belongs to an era in which I myself have lived.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I call it our collective inheritance of isolation. We inherit isolation in the bones of our lives. It is passed on to us as sure as the shape of our noses and the length of our legs. When we are young, we are taught to keep to ourselves for reasons we may not yet understand. As we grow up we become the “men who never cry” and the “women who never complain.” We become another generation of people expected not to bother others with our problems.”
—Paula C. Lowe (20th century)