From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan, Chinese kung fu stars are idols for people around the world. Kung fu is almost synonymous with China. When foreigners come here, many of them see it as a good opportunity to learn Chinese martial arts.

In the capital city of Beijing, many clubs and institutions have been established to satisfy the needs of these kung fu fans. But how do Chinese people see kung fu? How many Chinese are still interested in learning traditional martial arts? Our reporter Yixiu takes you to a few kung fu clubs in Beijing.

Reporter: Through his action movies, Bruce Lee became one of the best-known Chinese names in the world.

The legendary kung fu master and his followers have added a mystique to Chinese martial arts and have cultivated a fan base all over the world.

A club called "I Love Kung Fu" was recently launched in Beijing, attracting many overseas kung fu fans.

"We see China as the kung fu capital of the world, so we come here to learn."

"[It's] good exercise. Maybe [it] increases self-confidence."

Russel Baley is Scottish. He started to study kung fu at school when he was about ten years old. Since then, he has become addicted to it.

Baley is now studying Chinese at Capital Normal University. He says there are many kung fu fans like him at his school.

"When people come to China, they see it as an opportunity to take advantage of traditional Chinese martial arts studying. Well, it's true that to some extent, Chinese teachers are much better than teachers anywhere in the world because it's a small part of culture here, while in England, it's just something that some people do as a hobby. Here, a lot of people spend their whole lives studying."

Wu Wen is the initiator of the "I Love Kung Fu" club.

"I'm not a practitioner of Chinese martial arts. I just want to take martial arts as a starting point to help develop Chinese culture."

The coaches of the club are kung fu masters from martial arts associations and teachers from colleges. They will teach contest, traditional, tai chi, Shaolin, regimen, fight and performance martial arts styles.

In addition to "I Love Kung Fu," there are many other martial arts clubs in Beijing that are open to foreigners as well as Chinese.

Zhang Xiaohang is chief director of the "Chang Zhen Martial Arts" club.

Zhang's family has a glorious history of practicing martial arts. Zhang's great-grandfather was the guard of a late Qing Dynasty empress, and his grandfather and father were guards of key political figures during their time.

"There should be somebody to spread the traditional Chinese martial arts. The job is not easy at all, but I would like to take it as my entire life's career. I want to promote our Zhang family's style of boxing."

The club has about 50 students right now, but most of them are overseas students studying in China.

Lou Bin, deputy director of the club, is worried.

"Speaking of many Chinese cultural traditions, people on the mainland are not familiar with them. You see, most of our students are from Europe, the United States or Taiwan. Few mainlanders would like to learn it. I'm not optimistic at all."

He is afraid that many martial arts which are passed on through families will disappear after one or two generations.

Lou says sports colleges are actually training martial arts students who later give up their majors after graduation.

Li Yuan is one of the few who has stuck to it. A graduate of the Capital Institute of P. E., Li is now a kung fu star in a television series, "The Legend of Bruce Lee," which will begin airing in early 2008.

Li was invited to give a performance for the club.

"Many of my classmates thought there was not much room for the development of martial arts, so they took other jobs, like coaches in gyms. Many foreigners are learning Chinese martial arts, but we Chinese people have given it up. It's really a sad thing."
Not all Chinese are ambivalent about the culture of kung fu. Liu Zequn, a 9-year-old boy who was playing a stick neatly in the corner of the club, has a fierce desire to master the art.

"I want to learn tai chi, Shaolin, and fighting methods. As long as it's martial arts, I will learn it. I will learn them because I want to protect myself. Then I'll protect my family, my mom and dad, and then I will protect my country."

The director of Changzhen Martial Arts says he is glad to see enthusiasm for martial arts from kids like Liu Zequn.

He hopes more Chinese will take up martial arts, even just as a hobby. Then, more people would choose it as a career, and the traditional culture would be kept alive as a livelihood, instead of an exotic skill popular among foreigners.