Wushu was introduced by the Chinese communist government as a way to teach kung fu

Led by Jet Li and Donnie Yen, wushu hit the big screen during the 1990s Hong Kong martial arts film revival

Wushu comes up a lot in the context of martial arts films, but what does it mean? A literal translation is “military arts”. Today, though, wushu is generally taken to mean the sport version of martial arts that was established in mainland China after the communists took power in 1949.