Ma Baoguo competes with martial arts enthusiast Wang Qingmin. Photo: Screenshot of video via thepaper.cn

The Chinese Wushu (martial arts) Association proposed in a statement on Thursday that wushu practitioners should not declare themselves as "kung fu masters" or "head" of a certain sect, nor participate in irregular competitions that only seek profit so as to protect the image of Chinese martial arts. 

Some people proclaim themselves as "wushu masters" only to pursue their personal fame through staging fights to get public attention, which will seriously damage the image of Chinese martial arts, read the statement.

The statement came after some self-proclaimed "wushu masters" had been actively participating in fights against modern fighting practitioners, but usually ended up being knocked down in an abnormally short time.

One of the representative "masters" is Ma Baoguo, who brands himself as the head of a tai chi sect, but was found out to have little knowledge of basic attack and defense techniques. 

Ma became well-known after a video was released online on May 17, in which the 68-year-old man was knocked down three times in 30 seconds during a match with an amateur kickboxer.

The scenes soon went viral on the internet. Netizens laughed at the embarrassing KO of Ma and his hollow title of tai chi "master." Some people, including a few martial artists, criticized him saying he had shamed Chinese wushu.

Wu Bin, former deputy president of the Chinese Wushu Association, asserted that Ma knew nothing about wushu, and could not represent Chinese martial arts, after watching his 30-second-KO video. 

In China, there has been an increasing number of so-called "masters" caught boasting about their martial arts skills, who have been later joked about as being more like clowns by Chinese netizens.