With the exception of heavy gi's used in grappling and throwing styles such as judo and jujitsu, people back in the day pretty much trained in the equivalent of a grungy T-shirt and shorts. Even the karate “gi” (lighter than judo gis) is basically an undergarmet that was worn underneath traditional Japanese attire. (Obviously, grappling and throwing arts required special clothing, but that was for function and not “to show respect” or any such nonsense like that.

And it might interest you to know that in wing chun schools in Chicago and Hong Kong, training is STILL done in street clothes. In Hong Kong, businessmen have been known to come in, take off their suit jacket and tie, and then get right into training. In the school where I trained, I customarily wore jeans, a T-shirt and whatever shoes I happened to be wearing that day — usually biker boots. And everyone else dressed similarly. Train in what you'll be probably wearing when you fight.

And you know what? It worked out just fine. Nobody had any less respect for our teacher, and everyone trained just as hard.

Training clothes should be about practicality. Not ceremony. Of course, because Westerners expect to see those fancy uniforms, and because martial arts schools are often about profits, marketing and meeting customer expectations, most commercial schools do use uniforms.

Culturally parents “badmouthing” their children is usually done to not be perceived as being overly proud of themselves and their children. It is a public “face” and not always indicative of their true feelings towards their offspring. Again this is not strictly a Chnese thing: Hello, Mr. Cosby.

I am curious to know if Jaden's character will end up competing in formal wushu matches at the end. That was a key point of the original film. Daniel chose to fight his foes in the ring in a controlled environment which is the right message kids interested in martial arts should be learning.