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The Christmas Chronicles (2018) Movie Summary and Film Synopsis
5 years of Bajirao Mastani: Of Rukmini, Krishna, Radha
Film and action summary
Kate and Teddy are a brother and sister whose father died recently. His widow, Claire, has trouble keeping order in the house and the two children have trouble not killing each other. Kate still believes in Santa Claus, making Teddy laugh at her. While recording a video of Santa's kidnapping, she and her brother accidentally break Santa's sled, causing him to lose his magic hat and a bag full of presents. Now Santa Claus, Kate and Teddy have to sort everything out before the time runs out, so Santa delivers the presents and the Christmas spirit is never there again.
Movie Christmas Chronicles Summary
Below you will find an overview of the spoilers.
Claire Pierce (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) is a mother of two widows in Lowell, Massachusetts. After the untimely death of her firefighter Doug (Oliver Hudson), she struggles to keep her family together. Their son Teddy (Judas Lewis) becomes a juvenile delinquent and seeks refuge in the wrong circles. Worse, he has lost his Christmas spirit, which his younger sister Kate (Darby Camp) has in abundance. Kate's made it her mission to keep the Christmas spirit alive in her house. Despite her brother's teasing, she continues to make video messages for Santa Claus (Kurt Russell).
On Christmas Eve, Claire is called to work and leaves Teddy at home. She gives him the responsibility to take care of Kate and finish the Christmas decorations. To pass the time, Kate looks at old Christmas videos from the past and notices that a hand comes out of the fireplace and places a gift under the tree after her parents have left the room. She thinks it's Santa Claus on the video and blackmails her brother to help her prove it's him. With two traps the house is closed with a cable and a hidden camera is installed to catch the man in red.
Later that night, Kate wakes up her sons to see Santa Claus in the living room. Unfortunately he escapes to the roof before she can make a good video recording. She wakes Teddy up and the two kids follow him outside. You will discover Santa's sleigh and reindeer hovering above the street while Santa delivers presents to other houses nearby. Kate gets up and jumps into Santa's sleigh, and Teddy reluctantly follows him. Santa gets back in the sled and starts driving, not knowing that the children are sitting in the back seat. Kate patted Santa on the back when the sled arrived in Chicago, Illinois. Santa gets scared and loses control of his sled. Santa's gift bag flies out the back and Santa loses his hat. The sled collapses, causing the reindeer to spread and the sled to break.
Santa Claus showed up and made sure the kids were okay. Santa Claus explains to the children that he has to come back to deliver the presents, otherwise the Christmas spirit disappears. Santa tries to fly, but he finds that his hat is missing, which prevents him from moving quickly or navigating in confined spaces. The children offer to help Santa Claus after he threatens to put them on the naughty list forever. They stop at a nearby restaurant to ask the customers for help. The bartender kicks them out after some customers get angry. They stole the car from the bartender, who stole it from someone else.
Santa Claus is stalking his reindeer, but the police shows up and goes after Santa Claus and Teddy in a stolen car. Kate befriends reindeer and rides them in pursuit of her brother and Santa Claus. Santa Claus is in a car accident and is arrested by agents Dave Poveda (Martin Roach) and Mikey Jameson (Lamorne Morris). Teddy jumps on the reindeer and flies away with Kate while the police watches the reindeer fly away. Children use the beacon to find Santa's gift bag. Kate climbs into the bag to find help and teleports herself to the North Pole, where she meets Santa's elves. The elves are willing to help him.
Meanwhile Teddy was attacked by a gang who brought him and the bag back to their hiding place. When each gang member reaches into the bag, they each take out a piece of coal. The gang leader throws the bag through the chimney, and Teddy jumps out, for fear of his sister. The gang takes the bag and threatens to kill Teddy. But then the elves come out of the bag and release Teddy. The elves are going to repair Santa's sleigh, while Kate and Teddy try to find a way to get Santa out of jail.
At the same time Santa Claus tries to talk to agent Poveda to get him out of jail. He tells the cop that his wish for Christmas is to reconcile with his ex-wife Lisa, and adds that Lisa feels the same way. Poveda is skeptical about Santa Claus and locks him up in a cell. However, Poveda becomes suspicious when he sees more arrests on Christmas Eve than usual, which Santa Claus attributes to the low Christmas spirit.
In the cell, Santa Claus uses his magic to pick up all the prisoners and show that Santa Claus is back in town, convincing most other agents of his identity, except Poveda. When Lisa Poveda suddenly calls on her cell phone and invites her for the morning coffee, the policeman becomes a believer and lets Santa Claus go, just like the elves who show up to save him. The fairy gives Santa a spare hat, which the man in red uses to slide through the vent to the roof, where the elves, Kate and Teddy are waiting for him with the repaired sled.
Santa's watch warns him that he only has an hour to make the delivery. Santa tells the children he can't come at this hour. Kate comes up with a plan in which she and Teddy help Santa Claus by taking over some of the work, which speeds up Santa's delivery time. Together with the elves, the trio manages to deliver all the presents on time all over the world, saving Christmas and restoring the Christmas spirit. Santa's gonna drop Kate and Teddy off before his mom gets back. Santa gave Teddy his hat as a souvenir, which meant he didn't always need it. He responds to Kate's request to say Ho, Ho, Ho, something he says is an urban myth about her.
The children's mother comes back a few minutes later. When the three of them come in, they find their house fully furnished for Christmas, just like their father. They start opening presents and Teddy finds another present from Santa Claus. Teddy finds a Santa ornament, which tells the boy with regret that he can't get his father back, which Teddy had asked Santa in a secret letter. Instead of the ornament he got, the reflection shows a picture of Teddy's father. Father and son are proud of each other, something they have never been able to do in their lives. Kate got the skateboard she wanted.
Back at the North Pole, Santa Claus cuddles Mrs. Claus (Goldie Hawn) the way he enjoyed Christmas this year. With a wink he looks forward to next year.
Additional information about the film
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From Battle Magic to Self-Actualization: Understanding the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts
Leipzig Illustrierte Zeitung 1900, reproduction in Peking 1900, The Boxer Rebellion by Peter Harrington, p.24. Source: Wikimedia.
Most historical debates (both popular and academic) about the Chinese martial arts pit two opposing visions against one another. Sociologically informed theories tend to see the Chinese martial arts as a manifestation of fundamentally secular historical, economic and military causes. The martial arts were a means by which individuals (usually soldiers, guards, bandits and opera performers) attempted to earn a living while embedded in the larger economy of violence which defined so many aspects of life in late imperial China. This approach has been championed by scholars (usually historians) like Peter Lorge, Brian Kennedy and Stanley Henning.
A number of other voices have challenged this view. They instead point to the importance of internal training in some18th century martial traditions (Marnix Wells), the degree to which 19th century Taiji was a conscious effort to recreate and preserve essential philosophical and cultural values (Douglas Wile), or the importance of monastic violence and popular religion (including opera) in shaping popular beliefs about the martial arts (Meir Shahar and Charles Holcombe). For these authors the hand combat systems must be understood primarily as a cultural complex rather than as a set of purely technical practices.
The debate between these two positions has been fruitful. We now have a much better idea of some of the pathways by which the modern Chinese martial arts evolved than we did even a few years ago. This set of debates gained traction in large part because it had clear implications for modern practitioners of the Chinese martial arts. How should these students understand their practices? Are these disciplines a practical exercise focused on self-defense which might also be understood as a means for building personal discipline and a secular type of self-actualization? Or are they instead a set of embodied spiritual, cultural and philosophical practices?
How do we know when the traditional Chinese martial arts have "succeeded" in their goals? Should we expect to see victory in the ring, or sense of spiritual satisfaction? Many current practitioners have debated these questions, and the foregoing historical literature has been used to support one side or the other.
Still, there are problems with some elements of this discussion. Often our basic concepts are wildly over determined. When we speak of the martial arts, what exactly do we mean? Are we speaking of a technology that is continuously transmitted through time, or do we instead imagine a set of institutions that is confined to a single era in history. Are the martial arts necessarily an "embodied practice," or can we only understand their meaning by looking at the broader social discourse adopted by individuals who (ironically) often have nothing to do with the actual practice of these styles?
How we think about these specific issues colors the conclusions that we come to when describing the nature of the Chinese martial arts. More disturbingly, our basic assumptions often do more theoretical work for us than we care to admit. Our approach can totally obscure certain sorts of variables from view while accentuating our focus on a few seemingly critical factors. In Chinese martial studies as in so many other fields, there is no "data" independent of theory.
In the following post I would like to take a look at the idea of "self-actualization" in the Chinese martial arts. It seems that these hand combat systems have never been just about fighting. Perhaps that is because the actual reality of community violence is not really all that complex. It tends to be a matter of strength, experience, superior numbers and a basic understanding of how to best use the winds when burning down a rival village. Paramilitary groups around the globe have managed to produce prodigious amounts of pain and suffering without having to rely on the martial arts for instruction. The Chinese martial arts have survived as a set of social institutions to the extent that they have offered their communities other additional services, incentives and ways of creating meaning.
This discussion begins with a review of Esther Berg and Inken Prohl's paper titled "'Become Your Best': On the Construction of Martial Arts as Means of Self-Actualization and Self-Improvement" published in the recent special edition of the JOMEC Journal dedicated to martial arts studies. The essay once again demonstrates the contributions that the literature on comparative religion might make to our emerging field. In this essay I will only have the space to engage with one aspect of their research, but I encourage everyone to take a look at their full article. They put forward a strong argument that deserve careful study and consideration.
The current essay then goes on to examine a neglected historical moment in the transformation of the discourse surrounding the social meaning of the Chinese martial arts. Berg and Prohl looked at three cases that were critical to the formation of the current debate between the secular and religious variants of the "self-improvement" paradigm. In contrast, this essay will instead offer readers a short discussion of a different image of the martial arts which failed to capture the public's imagination. Magical rituals were once a relatively common component of Chinese martial culture. Nor have they totally disappeared from the contemporary scene. Yet after about 1900 they became increasingly invisible in the national and then global discourse surrounding the Chinese martial arts. Yet other esoteric practices, including the search for immortality and "qigong" have remained present and even grown in importance. Why?
A short discussion of this transformation points out two things. First, there are many pathways that our current view of the martial arts could have evolved along. Secondly, it is difficult to treat the evolution of social discourses separately from the historically defined groups that both privilege and consume certain types of views. Our current western understanding of the Chinese martial arts is in many ways of product of attempts to make them fit for the consumption of educated urban individuals (as opposed to illiterate, mostly rural, workers) during the 1920s and 1930s. Class conflict and the evolution of China's middle class have both had a profound effect on our current understanding of the martial arts which we are only now starting to realize.
When we look at the evolution of the martial arts we tend to view our subject through a contemporary or "presentist" lens. While inherited from the past, it shows only the pathway by which it evolved, and not the multiplicity of roads not taken. This obscures the importance of magical ritual in Chinese martial culture, even though such practices can still be seen in traditional temple processions and small martial arts clubs around the world today. Worse, it artificially narrows the range of subjects that could be investigated by students of martial arts studies.
Two students of Shaolin Kung Fu Training. Source: Wikimedia.
Self-Actualization as a Core Concept in the Chinese Martial Arts Discourse
Perhaps no assertion is more often expressed in popular discussions than the belief that the martial arts are about more than "just fighting." Whether this is objectively true or not depends a great deal on who one chooses to talk to and their understanding of hand combat. It is not really all that difficult to find students of Krav Maga, MMA or various schools of southern Kung Fu who will argue with some conviction that in fact the martial arts are about fighting, and as soon as one loses a single minded focus on the reality of violence something important is lost. Of course countless other teachers of Aikido, Judo or various styles of the TCMA would disagree with this position. Often such instructors see the cultivation of the individual (understood in a wide variety of ways) as the central objective, and combat preparedness as at best a secondary goal.
Yet in some very real sense this heterogeneity in the opinion of actual martial artists does not seem to matter. What is important is that the popular discourse surrounding the martial arts, defined in large part by the entertainment industry and journalism, have come to regard the martial arts as an exercise in self-actualization. Unsurprisingly this makes the Asian martial arts attractive to a large number of individuals who share these goals. They arrive at their new schools with a set of expectations that their teachers did not define. In some cases these expectations are largely validated by the philosophy of the style. In other cases I have seen the expectations of teachers and their students clash, sometimes spectacularly so.
In a recent article titled "'Become your Best': On the Construction of Martial Arts as Means of Self-Actualization and Self-Improvement" (JOMEC Journal 5 2014: 19 pages) Esther Berg and Inken Prohl attempt to explain the origins of this near universal belief that self-realization is the ultimate goal of the Chinese martial arts. Esther Berg, a former guest author here at Kung Fu Tea, is currently working on her dissertation in Religious Studies at the Cluster of Excellence for 'Asia and Europe in a Global Context' at Heidelberg University. Inken Prohl is a Professor of Religious Studies at Heidelberg and has written on both Shinto and Buddhism in Japan and the West.
Berg and Prohl begin their argument by noting that we can only understand and discuss the martial arts through the various ways in which they are mediated. Most people encounter the martial arts as a media driven discourse. Other individuals come into contact with them through larger social structures and institutions. For a smaller number of people the practice of martial arts also leads to a variety of types of understanding including "embodied" knowledge. Incidentally, this four part break down of the ways in which individuals might encounter the martial arts is a handy tool for students to keep in mind if they wish to avoid more simplistic or "reductionist" treatments of these systems in their own work.
Their argument then notes that in the current era the embodied practice of the martial arts has become deeply entangled with media representations and discussions of these systems. This should not come as a great surprise. After all, bodily practices are rarely self-interpreting. Individuals turn to complex systems of signs and culturally mediated meaning to learn what these sensations "mean." In the current era media discourses are one of the most important vectors by which these symbols are encountered. Rather than drawing a distinction between "real" practice and "fake" TV or cinema representations, it is important to recognize that the former's embodied sensations are always informed, interpreted, or even juxtaposed with the latter's web of interpretation. How the practice of the martial arts is framed by various media discussions thus becomes an important element of a number of different research questions.
The authors then turn their attention to the German branch of the Chan Buddhist Shaolin Temple. Through a careful examination of the webpage and promotional materials that this organization uses to communicate with potential students, they note the various ways in which the Temple frames the martial arts as an explicitly "Buddhist" activity (even when pursued by agnostic pupils in a basically secular context). They further demonstrate that the temple's approach to the martial arts promotes the common refrain that these systems are primarily focused on self-actualization and self-improvement.
This is quite fortuitous as it is what most potential students already believe, and it is probably what they have been searching for. The Temple's webpage employs a number of generic symbols that have been widely associated with the martial arts as a means of attaining a mastery of the self since the 1970s with the release of TV programs such as "Kung Fu" and movies like "Enter the Dragon."
While these expectations seem to have formed a virtuous cycle, the authors point out, quite correctly, that this current understanding of the Chinese martial arts, and even the Shaolin tradition, was by no means inevitable. In fact, when you consider them as a body technology it is clear that they don't really contain this, or basically any other, discourse. Many meanings have been attached to these practices over the years. None of them are essential to the nature of the practice itself.
The current constellation of meanings that define the "essence" of the martial arts for most students in the modern world evolved through a social historical process. While a complex and multistage journey, their translocative historical analysis focuses on three key moments in the evolution of this understanding.
The first, and most controversial of these, occurred in the final decades of the Ming dynasty. While it is not the case that empty hand boxing was invented at the Shaolin Temple in Henan (a position commonly asserted in the popular literature) Shahar and others have demonstrated that the monks were important early adopters of this broader trend. Due to the fame of Shaolin, their activities were recorded in dozens of texts providing modern students with an invaluable (if geographically narrow) window into the emergence of what would become the modern unarmed boxing styles.
Following Shahar the authors note that the advent of unarmed boxing at this time was something of a paradox. The study of the martial arts had traditionally focused on more practical weapons training, and there was no lack of security concerns at this moment in history. That combat training would increase in popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries was quite understandable. But that the greatest growth would be seen in unarmed boxing (as opposed to archery, or the use of spears and swords) was not.
Shahar sees the sudden enthusiasm for unarmed boxing not as an expression of the era's military situation, but as a result of large scale trends in civilian culture. This era saw the mixing of various traditions, previously considered incompatible, which helped to create a great synthesis and exploration of what was "fundamental" in Chinese society. This new understanding of culture was one of the great achievements of the late Ming dynasty. Of course such a move was not without controversy. It was frequently decried by conservative reformers in the Qing who saw in this new synthesis the roots of a sort of a "cultural confusion" that weakened the country and even contributed to its collapse.
Regardless, in the martial realm this "Ming Syncretism" allowed military monks at a Buddhist institution to experiment with Daoist gymnastic and medical practices in ways that would have previously been difficult. These new technologies could be used to embody and express their own Buddhist views of a transcendent truth. While much of the literature from this period was swept away in the dynastic transition, the basic idea that hand combat training could be used as a vehicle for spiritual cultivation, and ultimately transcendence, seems to have survived. This belief would blossom and find various forms of expression at both the plebian and more elite levels in the 18th and later 19th centuries.
If one idea pervades all three of Berg and Prohl's cases it seems to be the thought that martial training could lead one to achieve a certain state of transcendence. There is not much evidence of this (in the admittedly very thin) historical literature prior to the Ming dynasty. Yet from the era of Ming syncretism onward it becomes an important (if still somewhat heterodox) idea that emerges time and again in China's martial history. The new question becomes what is to be transcended and for what reason?
One of my former teachers liked to claim that "religion" was basically a 16th century word for nationalism. Indeed, many individuals have found a sort of self-sacrifice and transcendence in the birth of nations that was once reserved for the realm of religious and spiritual attainment. Perhaps it is not a surprise then that the authors locate the next major milestone in the evolution of the "self-actualization paradigm" in the struggles to "strengthen the nation" and then to define a "modern Chinese identity" that dominated the final decade of the 19th century and much of the Republic period.
Traditional Chinese organization split the social world along the axis of wu (military) and wen (civil). While civil values led, military attributes were seen as necessary for efficient implementation and the creation of order. Thus it is no surprise that at the same time that the newly minted Chinese nation began to debate the basic political and social institutions that would take it into the future, a detailed examination of its "physical culture" was also put on the national agenda. Without the physical strength and spiritual discipline necessary to build a strong people, no set of civil institutions, no matter how well conceived, could succeed. Clearly this process was shaped by China's encounter with the imperialistic west and the resulting cultural shock that this created. Yet what is often missed is that the basic impulse behind the search for a new form of physical culture to bolster "self-strengthening" was fundamentally Chinese. This probably explains why the ensuing debate managed to capture the national spotlight to the degree that it did.
It was not at all clear that the TCMA would survive the purge and reevaluation of the nation's physical culture. The humiliations of the Boxer Uprising were still too fresh in popular memory, and none of the major European powers, who were looked to as models, had anything that resembled traditional hand combat training. Of course the Japanese did, and their national program for the promotion of Budo helped to demonstrate that the martial arts could be part of the modern state building process.
This mission was taken up by a number of reformers in the early republic period, the most successful of which was the Jingwu Association. More than any other group they argued that the TCMA could be separated from their feudal past. Inspired by the "New Culture" movement they argued that the superstitions and magical practices that had defined them could be stripped away leaving a core of pure physical movement that was at the same time totally unique to China, yet still compatible with a rational and scientific view. In fact, this was necessary to create a system of physical education that could strengthen both the body and mind of the people, allow them to stand up to foreign aggression or to tackle the challenges of modernization. By disciplining Chinese bodies the martial arts could literally save the nation.
Notice that once again a larger purpose beyond "mere fighting" is being envisioned for the martial arts. China may have been a poor country but no one imagined that martial arts students were going to fight the Japanese with their bare hands. Rather, in the vision of modern reformers the martial arts were reimagined as a vehicle for a sort of secular transcendence put at the service of the nation and state.
This move into a more secular and modern realm set the stage for the third period that Berg and Prohl decided to examine. Yet now the geographic locus of their investigation shifts. Rather than a discussion of purely Chinese history, their focus becomes "translocative." In the final stage of this process Bruce Lee helped to bring together the previous traditions of "self-improvement" with two powerful new forces. The first of these was the rapidly evolving world of western popular culture. Bowman has observed that Lee, grasping the counter-cultural moment, detached the secularized ideal of transcendence from service to the state and instead promised that it (like so much else that was popularized during that period) could become a vehicle for the transformation of the individual or "self." The media discourse around the martial arts that had been slowly growing throughout the 1960s latched onto this message spreading it far and wide after the release of "Kung Fu" the television series, and shortly thereafter Lee's final film, "Enter the Dragon." Nor is this new understanding confined to western media markets. Indeed, after the end of the Cultural Revolution the martial arts were revived in the PRC. As always, they were understood as many things by many people. Yet Lee's assertion that hand combat training could be a vehicle for self-expression came to influence a new generation of Chinese practitioners.
An architectural detail showing a scene from the popular story Journey to the West. Esherick noted that both Monkey and Pigsy, characters from this story well known to local peasants through popular opera and story telling traditions, were popular subjects of Spirit Possession. Daniel Amos has noted that the same figures are still invoked by socially marginal Spirit Boxers in Hong Kong Today. Source: Wikimedia.
Dogs that Don't Bark: Magical Martial Practices as the Path not Taken, or even Seen
Sherlock Holmes once observed that dogs who stay unexpectedly silent in the course of a crime reveal just as much (and perhaps a good deal more) about the perpetrator as those that send out a loud warning. The same can be said for social scientific research. Sometimes it is necessary to consider instances of peace if we wish to understand the causes of war, or to consider elements of the popular discourse that have disappeared over the years as well as those that have remained.
Berg and Prohl have done the field a great service by illuminating the pathway by which one of the central defining characteristics of the discourse surrounding modern Chinese martial arts came into being. While they readily acknowledge that there were any number of historical cases that could have been examined, they chose three. One that represented the pre-modern past, the next located on the cusp of the emergence of a modern nation state, and a third situated just at the birth of the popularization of "post-modern" values in the 1970s and 1980s.
Perhaps the most important movement in their story was the first, in the Ming dynasty. From the moment that the martial arts were imagined as a vehicle for transcendence their course seemed set. After all, what sort of transcendence is available in the pre-modern period except for the spiritual? Likewise in the modern era what sort of communities can anyone submerge themselves into quite effectively as "the nation"? Finally, as the institutions of the modern era come under attack in the early stages of globalization we see a new type of transcendence focusing on a very contemporary understanding of "the self" (one that likely would have been alien to any Ming era martial monk).
This presents us with something of a paradox. The authors began by asserting that the emphasis on self-actualization in the martial arts was not intrinsic or essential. Instead it was historically contingent and a result of a path dependent process. Yet looking at the progression that they have mapped out, it is hard to escape the impression that their vision of the martial arts closely mirrors the stages of modernization theory. If this is the case then the current state of the martial arts would seem to be pretty much predestined after all. And that would in turn suggest that perhaps the movement towards transcendence in the martial arts is intrinsic. The ways in which a practitioner understands this might evolve in each period in response to the teleological forces of history, but it does not appear that there is any way off this path.
Is there any room in our understanding of the martial arts for other sorts of agencies? Could individuals or groups have made decisions that would have led to a substantially different outcome? Or is the current discourse surrounding the martial arts simply a reflection of the (inevitable) modernization process?
A Chinese woodblock print showing the recapture of Tainjin during the Boxer Uprising. Source: Wikimedia.
Battle Magic and the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts
The final decade of the 19th century saw multiple waves of anti-Christian violence sweep across China. For the most part these targeted foreign converts and their property, yet they varied in severity and duration. Some of the most serious violence was seen in Shandong province starting in the mid 1890s. Eventually these outbreaks would set the stage for the Boxer Uprising, a truly catastrophic event that would substantially shape the pathway by which China would enter modernity.
The Yihi Boxers (or Boxers United in Righteousness) did not simply arise from the parched earth of northern China. Joseph Esherick has noted that a number of geographic, social and international factors all coincided to allow this event to expand far beyond the other anti-Christian outbursts that were seen from Guangzhou to Beijing during this period. In fact, explaining the Boxer Uprising has been a major project for both Marxist and Liberal historians.
These scholars conducted extensive documentary and field research, often interviewing the children and surviving family members of individuals who were involved in the actual uprising. As a result we have at our disposal an intriguing body of observations documenting the various martial arts communities of Shandong province and their diverse reactions to one of the most important outbreaks of community violence in modern Chinese history.
I have always been surprised that these works are not discussed more frequently in the martial arts studies literature. I suspect that part of the problem stems from the fact that the martial arts societies of Northern China during the late 19th century do not always conform to our expectations of what a "proper" hand combat tradition should look like. Historians have developed good tools to deal with groups that are clearly sectarian, such as the various "Trigrams" and White Lotus societies that appear in local records. Alternatively there are a number of fairly orthodox boxing styles practiced in the region (both Greater Hong (Red) Boxing and Plum Blossom were locally popular) that still exist in a substantially similar form today. These groups tend to resemble any other northern village martial arts association.
However, there was a third type of group that turned out to be central to the outbreak of the Boxer Uprising. In some ways they defy easy categorization. These institutions combined orthodox martial arts training (including a background in both boxing and hard qigong) with more esoteric elements. In some cases this included spells and talisman that were supposed to make a student immune to the effects of weapons. In other traditions techniques were taught that would allow the student to be "possessed" by popular local gods (some of whom came out of opera performances) and to fight with their strength, ferocity and natural ability. Esherick maintains that it was the combination of these two different strains of esoteric battle magic that (with a number of more mundane factors) allowed for the creation the Boxers United in Righteousness.
There were other outbreaks of violence in the area that alerted the authorities to the impending crisis. One of the first of these was an uprising by a local Big Sword Society in 1896. This group of martial artists was backed by number of wealthy landlords who sought to protect their crops and investments from the banditry that was quickly consuming the countryside. As a result they formed local martial arts societies and sponsored a number of their tenants for membership as well. Given the ratio of wealthy landlords to indebted peasants in the region, one suspects that the vast majority of the membership of these societies fell into the latter category while its officers and organizers were found among the former.
Given the basic structure (elite led) and social function (bandit control) of the Big Sword Societies, one might assume that they were essentially local militias. This was not the case. The landlords that ran most of the branches of the Big Sword Society, while economically well off, were not generally of gentry rank. While the gentry ran the militias, the peasants had their mutual protection societies.
This lack of gentry involvement allowed, or even encouraged, the Big Sword Societies to employ a set of heterodox magical rites that were thought to confer invulnerability. These spells, originally taught by a wandering Daoist priest who had taken up residence in the area some years earlier, were taken very seriously by the local population and were the source of the group's social influence. An investigation of this movement by the Daotai of Xuzhou paints a fairly detailed picture of exactly how the organization's "Armor of the Golden Bell" technique functioned:
"When they study their techniques, the poor need not make an offering, but those who can, offer 6,000 Beijing cash as a gift. In the middle of the night, they kneel and receive instruction. They light lamps and burn incense, draw fresh water from a well and make offerings of it. They write vulgar charms (fu-lu) on white cloth. The words of the charms are vulgar and improper. There are such phrases as "Patriarch, Duke of Zhou; Immortals of the Peach Blossom; Golden Bell, iron armor protect my body."
Those who spread the art can neither read nor write. They have others write for them. They also teach spells (zhou). While chanting spells they burn charms, mixing [the ashes] in water and instructing [the initiate] to kneel and drink. Then [the teacher] breathes in from above the lantern, and blows out over [the initiate's] entire body. Then he beats him with a brick and staff. It is said that after much chanting for a long time, even firearms cannot harm one.
It is much like breathing exercises (yun-qi). Where the "breath" (qi) moves, even a fierce chop cannot penetrate. But if one loses concentration, then the blade will enter. The simple people do not understand, and think it is a magical technique."
Report of the Daotai of Xuzhou quoted in Esherick p. 105
There are a number of interesting things to note in this account. While the rites described are certainly heterodox they betray no sign of White Lotus theology. Thus the origin of the Big Sword Societies does not lay in the world of the sectarians, but probably the types of generic popular religion that the local people were already familiar with. Esherick concludes that "In its essence, the Big Sword Society was an association of martial artists, whose technique was aided by a rudimentary set of charms and spells which helped to provide the confidence and concentration so necessary for their gong-fu to succeed." (p. 107)
More interesting to me is the fact that even though the local population probably had a very good understanding of what the group was up to, the local gentry and officials did not. In addition to reporting on the activities of this group, the daotai is forced to translate and explain them in an effort to make them intelligible to his much more elite audience. It is interesting to note that he does not doubt the basic efficacy of the group's techniques. Rather he simply assumes that all right thinking people know that magical spells are bogus. In his view the locals are actually harnessing the power of internal Qi or "breath" training, of the sort seen in immortality exercises, yet they are too ignorant to understand the actual source of their power.
From a modern standpoint it is odd to see the dismissal of magical ritual as bunk only to turn around and endorse qigong as a means of making one invulnerable to swords, spears and bullets. Both positions would seem to be equally distant from the standards of "modern rationalism" that the Jingwu Association and later reformers worked so hard to impose on the Chinese martial arts. Esherick makes clear is that while not all traditional fighting styles practiced these sorts of techniques, they were fairly common in late 19th century northern China.
Yet as the report reveals, they were not equally common in all sorts of social circles. The practitioners of the Armor of the Golden Bell may have varied in income level, but they were all fundamentally peasants. Few if any of these individuals had much formal education. Further, they were all inhabitants of the countryside. Their world, with its Daoist inspired battle magic was far removed from the more educated and urban environment that late 19th century military officers and regional officials occupied. They too understood the concept of battle magic, but for them the practice was based in a more sophisticated model of internal alchemy. In fact, Marnix Wells and Douglas Wile have already discussed at length how these ideas seem to have grown in popularity in elite circles from the late 18th century onward.
If one were guided by a modernization based theory of the Chinese martial arts it might be assumed that magical spells and chants were abandoned shortly after the Boxer Uprising, and that Daoist related breathing exercises went shortly thereafter. This provided the space for the more modern emphasis on self-improvement and self-actualization (usually understood in secular terms) that dominates the martial arts today.
Yet the actual picture is more difficult to interpret. Certainly there are martial arts groups that conform to and promote this basic understanding of their history. And I think that Berg and Prohl's model explains the vast majority of what is seen in the west (which is their major focus).
Yet in both Taiwan and current mainland China the "modernists" did not win the day. Internal training and Qigong-esque practices remained quite popular with martial artists who fled to Taiwan in 1949. And after a short period of attempting to enforce a more modern and secular view of the martial arts, even Wushu authorities in the avowedly secular PRC have embraced the Daoist and supposedly "internal" origins of many leading styles including Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua. Often this meant consciously deciding to dismiss or ignore the research of Tang Hao and other recent historians so that a more culturally congruent (yet totally ahistorical) view of the origins of these arts could be embraced. While the Western martial arts discourse has come to favor a secularized self-improvement message, more in tune with New Age thought than anything actually Buddhist, in China neo-Daoism seems to have been the victor.
Clearly the TCMA are struggling in their homeland. Fewer students are taking up these styles, and the survival of some schools is in question. Yet to the extent that these hand combat systems are valued it is often because they are seen as important repositories of intangible elements of Chinese culture. All of this is also a result of the effort to reform the martial arts in the 1920s and 1930s. It was not simply enough to make them "scientific." One also had to change their social image.
Traditionally the martial arts had been strongly associated with the rural agrarian world. Indeed, most of the people who practiced them in the 19th century were from the countryside. Yet if they were to survive in the coming age they needed to be re-imagined so that they would be socially acceptable to educated, middle class, urban individuals. Nor were all of these individual radical reformers. Those who were could certainly follow the Jingwu Association. Yet in the 1930s the Central Guoshu Institute reoriented the reform movement in an important way that is not always obvious to outside observers.
While still seeking to purify the martial arts they did so from the perspective of the "National Essence" rather than the "New Culture" movement. They were looking not just for a physical technology, but for other historical, social and cultural elements that could preserve China's unique identity in the face of the existential threat posed by Communism on the one hand and the Japanese on the other. Of course not any values would do. Those that were promoted tended to be the more sophisticated and elite elements of the imperial past. These often focused on the stories of the illustrious origins of these fighting systems and their compatibility with sophisticated models of Daoist medicine. While the National Essence movement was friendlier to traditional elite culture, it also had no place for popular talismanic and battle magic.
"Monkey Boxers" performing in a public market in Shanghai circa 1930. Source: Taiping Institute.
Conclusion: One Pathway or Many in the Chinese Martial Arts
It is critical to remember that there were limits to the power of groups like the Jingwu and Central Guoshu organization. While important the majority of China's martial artists never actually had much to do with either association. As such they did not really have the influence necessary to impose changes on the ground, except perhaps through their example and the introduction of different business models. Yet as wealthy groups with strong backing from society and the government they were able to shape the discourse about the martial arts that arose in period books, newspapers and periodicals. Indeed, these are the very sources that most modern historians are forced to rely on when investigating the evolution of the Republic period martial arts.
This discourse was absorbed by elites in other places as well, including Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Hong Kong film industry, which in reality was always somewhat separate from the more traditional martial arts community, adopted many of these elements of discourse, as did martial arts novelists. Much of the current discourse on the martial arts that we see in the west today is a continuation of ideas and debates first laid down in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
Yet practice is a stubborn thing. While martial magic has disappeared from our discussions of the nature of Chinese hand combat, it never vanished from its actual practice. The same sorts of spirit possession rituals practiced by the Yihi Boxers at the turn of the century reemerged in Fujian Province in revolts during the 1930s. In fact, Amos has reported extensively on the same possession techniques being employed by marginal martial artists in Hong Kong in the current era. Likewise the ethnographic work of Boretz has demonstrated that magical and ascetic practices in local temple military troops is an important mechanism by which masculinity can be expressed and reproduced for marginalized young males who are cut off from other more respectable forms of social performance.
While present in the current era such topics receive little attention in the literature on martial studies. This is a shame. It is fascinating to note how broad the embodied experience of the martial arts can be compared to the relatively more disciplined discourse that has arisen around them. It is not simply the case that the traditional martial arts could have come to modernity through many different pathways. In fact they did. We are currently living in a world with multiple competing Chinese martial cultures.
It may be fruitful to consider whether these other visions of China's martial culture would also have produced an emphasis on self-actualization had they become the socially dominant paradigm. This question is not easily answered. Some of the ritual and magical practices outlined by Boretz do seem to follow the same basic logic of "self-production." Yet other practices, such as the possession by stereotyped opera deities are more problematic. That may lead to an individual being able to borrow or tap into a certain type of social prestige, yet this clearly has little to do with modern notions self-improvement and self-realization. The great fear of traditional practitioners is that a student's true personality may become lost or damaged through repeated bouts of spirit possession.
Ultimately this uncertainty is a good thing. It suggests that Berg and Prohl were correct in their initial assessment that the Chinese martial arts are not inherently a vehicle for self-actualization, and that our current emphasis on these ideas is a result of path dependent developments rather the inevitable process of modernization. Had the Manchu princes in Tianjin been able to hold off the second Japanese assault in 1900, or had the Boxers succeeded in their assault on the Foreign Legation in Beijing early in the siege, our current discourse about the essential nature of the Chinese martial arts might be very different. That is an exciting think to contemplate.
If you enjoyed this you might also want to read: Leung Kai's Ghost Story: Remembering a Modern Choy Li Fut Master.
Chinese Martial Studies, Martial Arts and Religion, Martial Studies, Reviews
Armor of the Golden Bell, Battle Magic, Big Sword Society, Boxer Uprising, Chinese Martial Arts, Esther Berg, evolution of the martial arts, Inken Prohl, Kung Fu, Martial Arts Magic, Self-actualization, Self-Improvement, Spirit Possession, theory, Wushu
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In need of a laugh? Check out our top comedy events and festivals in Belfast with the leading UK and Ireland comedians.
After the success of his sold out 2017/18 UK tour, comedian, choirboy and host of Soccer AM, Lloyd Griffith is back on the road with his hilarious new stand-up show.


OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Wells College men's swimming team posted a 95-65 loss to the Lakers of Oswego State University on Saturday. Wells falls to 0-1 in head-to-head meets on the year while Oswego State improves to 1-2 on the season.
Sophomore Lucas Donnenwirth (Frankfort, N.Y.) earned nine points for the Express after completing the 100 Yard Freestyle with a time of 1:09.76. Junior Christopher Flood (Hector, N.Y.) earned four points for his team after turning in a time of 1:15.37 in the same event. Senior Alex Lamphear (Springfield, N.H.) went on to earn an additional nine points for the Express in the 100 Yard Backstroke, posting a time of 1:07.12 in the 100 Yard Backstroke.
The Express return to action Saturday, Nov. 8 as they host Utica at the Wells College Aquatic Center at 1 p.m.
January 12, 2015 CANCELED: Men's and Women's Swimming vs. Alfred St.
November 8, 2014 Men's Swimming Competes Against Utica, Alfred St.


The FDA has scheduled a 2-day hearing in June for the purpose of re-evaluating the safety of the drug Avandia. The Girards Law Firm has been involved in litigation over the drug due to a 43 percent increase in heart attacks when compared to other diabetes drugs.The FDA knew of the dangers since at least 2002. For help with heart attacks related to Avandia cointact the firm at 214-346-9529.
Post a Comment to "FDA hearing on drug Avandia Scheduled. Read FDA Notice Here."


To simplify the language in this offering circular, "Cannon" means Cannon Hygiene Franchising (USA) Inc., the franchisor. "You" means the individual, corporation or partnership who buys the franchise. If the franchise will operate through a corporation or partnership, "you" also includes the franchisee's owners or partners. Cannon's agent for service of process in the states whose franchise laws require Cannon to name a state agency as agent for service is shown on Exhibit 4.
Cannon is a Delaware corporation incorporated in January, 1999, which does business under the names "Cannon Hygiene" and "Cannon". Cannon's principal business address is 1600 Shore Road, Suite A, Naperville, Illinois 60563 and its telephone number is (630) 753-9625.
Cannon franchises businesses selling personal hygiene disposal services through the installation, reinstallation and routine servicing of disposal units for the safe, hygienic and discreet disposal of sanitary napkins, tampons, babies' diapers and incontinence waste (the "Cannon Hygiene Businesses" or the "Businesses"). Cannon has no predecessors.
Cannon is a subsidiary of Cannon Hygiene (USA), Inc. ("Cannon USA"), a Delaware corporation incorporated in March, 1993, with its principal business address at Middlegate, White Lund Estate, Morecambe, Lancashire, LA3 3BJ, United Kingdom, telephone number 011 -44-1524-60894. Cannon USA is a holding company which does not directly engage in business activities.
Cannon is an affiliate of Cannon Hygiene International Limited ("Cannon International"), a company incorporated in the United Kingdom in 1994, with its principal business address at Middlegate, White Lund Estate, Morecambe, Lancashire, LA3 3BJ, United Kingdom. Cannon International is a subsidiary of Cannon Hygiene Limited ("Cannon Limited"), a company incorporated in the United Kingdom in 1976, with its principal business address at Middlegate, White Lund Estate, Morecambe, Lancashire, LA3 3BJ, United Kingdom. Cannon Limited is a subsidiary of O.C.S. Group Limited, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom in 1977, with its principal business address at 79 Limpsfield Road, Sanderstead, Surrey CR2 9LB, United Kingdom.
Cannon's affiliate Cannon Limited, which owns the Cannon System and the proprietary marks and other intellectual property used in the Cannon Hygiene System, and Cannon Hygiene (USA).(which has an exclusive license from Cannon Limited to use and sublicense the Cannon Hygiene proprietary marks, other intellectual property and System in the United States), have licensed Cannon to use the System, marks and other intellectual property and to sublicense them to franchisees in a cross-license agreement dated as of April 1, 1999. The principal address of Cannon Hygiene (USA) Inc. is Middlegate, White Lund Estate, Morecambe, Lancashire, LA3 3BJ, United Kingdom, and its telephone number is 011-44-1524-60894.
Cannon Limited has operated a business of this type since 1955, and has sold franchises for a business of this type since 1984. Cannon Limited conducts more than 400,000 services monthly within the United Kingdom at approximately 110,000 customer locations from 25 company-owned Cannon Hygiene service centers. Cannon Limited also operates company-owned Cannon Hygiene centers in Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Finland, Switzerland and Norway, and has granted franchises for Cannon Hygiene Businesses in the following countries at the date of this Offering Circular: Andorra, Australia, Cyprus, Denmark, El Salvador, Guadeloupe, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Portugal, Peru, Spain, Sweden, St Lucia and Turkey. Cannon Limited expects to grant franchises in Brazil, Isle Reunion, Mexico and Turkey in the next year.
Road, Suite A, Naperville, Illinois 60563, and its telephone number is (630) 753-9625. Another affiliate of Cannon, Cannon Hygiene/AWI of Virginia LLC ("Cannon Hygiene Virginia LLC"), a joint venture company partially owned by Cannon USA, has operated a business similar to the type being franchised in Norfolk, Virginia, since 1997. The principal business address of Cannon Hygiene Virginia LLC is 508E Indian River Road, Norfolk, Virginia 23523, and its telephone number is (757) 543-7261.
Neither Cannon, Cannon USA or Cannon's other affiliates have offered franchises for any other type of business.
Yourfranchised Cannon Hygiene Business will install and service disposal units for the safe, hygienic and discreet disposal of sanitary napkins, tampons, babies' diapers and incontinence waste at your customer's locations. The disposal units used in the Cannon Hygiene System (the "Units") are proprietary to Cannon. You will fill and refill the Units with a proprietary fluid (the "Cannon GRASafe Fluid") at your center before installing and reinstalling them at customer locations. The chemical formula of the Cannon GRASafe Fluid is proprietary to Cannon's designated manufacturer and is a trade secret known only to the manufacturer, Cannon and its affiliates. The manufacturer imparted the formula to Cannon and its affiliates under obligations of secrecy and confidence.
The market for your services consists of all businesses and institutions with female employees, customers or visitors, and may also include businesses which require disposal of babies' diapers and/or incontinence waste.
You will compete with other personal hygiene disposal service providers. In addition, at many locations which could retain the services of a personal hygiene disposal provider, cleaners employed by the location or a cleaning service empty untreated waste receptacles.
The U.S. Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Act ("OSHA") and the regulations promulgated under OSHA require your customers to make adequate provisions for the disposal of personal hygiene waste. Cannon is unaware of any other regulations specific to the industry in which the franchised business will operate. The laws, rules and regulations which apply to businesses in general will affect you. Consult your lawyer about them.
Mr. Haworth has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of Cannon since its incorporation in January, 1999. Mr. Haworth has also served as Chairman of Cannon Limited since April, 1995 and as Managing Director of Cannon Limited since October, 1983. Mr. Haworth has served as Chairman and Managing Director of Cannon International since its incorporation in 1994. In addition, Mr. Haworth has served as a Director of O.C.S. Group Limited with responsibility for the Group's hygiene division since April, 1988. Mr. Haworth served as Sales Director of Cannon Limited between July, 1967 and October, 1983. Mr. Haworth has been employed by Cannon Limited in various capacities since 1964.
Mr. Harber has served as Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary of Cannon since its incorporation. Mr. Harber has also served as a Director of Cannon Limited since April, 1991 and as a Director of Cannon International since October, 1996.
Mr. Plevey has served as an Account Manager of Cannon since its incorporation. Mr. Plevey has also served as an International Accounts Manager of Cannon International since April, 1997, and has served as a Franchise Consultant for Cannon Limited since October, 1994. Mr. Plevey has been employed by Cannon Limited in various capacities since 1988.
Mr. Haworth has served as an Account Manager of Cannon since its incorporation. Mr. Haworth has also served as an International Accounts Manager of Cannon International since April, 1997, and has served as a Franchise Consultant for Cannon Limited since April, 1994. Mr. Haworth has been employed by Cannon Limited in various capacities since 1990.
Cannon uses no franchise brokers.
Other than the three actions described below, there is no litigation that must be disclosed in this offering circular.
In Re Cannon Hvaiene/AWI of Virginia LLC. Cannon Hygiene. Ltd.. Cannon Hygiene International and Cannon Hygiene USA. Inc.. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, Docket No. FIFRA 3-2000-0002. On December 16, 1999, Cannon Limited, Cannon International, Cannon USA and Cannon Hygiene Virginia LLC (referred together as the "Cannon affiliates" in this paragraph) executed a Consent Agreement and Final Order in an Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") administrative action. The EPA alleged that the Cannon affiliates violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act ("FIFRA") by distributing and selling their HiQ product as a pesticide without registering HiQ with the EPA and by producing HiQ at their Virginia facility without registering the facility with the EPA. Without admitting or denying the factual allegations and conclusions of law in the Consent Agreement and Final Order, the Cannon affiliates certified that they were in compliance with the relevant provisions of FIFRA and the regulations promulgated under that Act (the "FIFRA regulations") at the time they executed the Consent Agreement and Final Order, and agreed to pay a civil penalty of $13,750 in full satisfaction of all claims for civil penalties for alleged violations under the relevant provisions of FIFRA and the FIFRA regulations. The Final Order became effective on December 30, 1999.
Cannon Hygiene Limited v. Caretech L.L.C.. Dubai Civil Court, United Arab Emirates, Case No. 205/97, filed March 4,1997. Cannon Hygiene, Cannon's affiliate, brought this suit against Caretech, its Dubai franchisee following termination of the franchise agreement for non-payment of franchise fees. Cannon Hygiene requested that the court confirm its ownership of the Cannon units used by Caretech. Caretech then petitioned for appeal to the Cassation Court of Dubai on the issue of the ownership of the units. On May 24,1998, the Cassation Court of Dubai confirmed Cannon Hygiene's ownership of the units.
favor of Cannon Limited on September 29, 1994. The defendants moved for leave to appeal the judgment to the Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, Cape of Good Hope, but the court denied their motion on October 22,1994. The defendants then petitioned for an appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, Cape of Good Hope. Their petition to appeal was dismissed by the Chief Justice on February 16,1995.
All franchisees pay an Initial Franchise Fee of $5,000.
You must pay the Initial Franchise Fee in full on the date you sign the Franchise Agreement. Cannon uses the proceeds from Initial Franchise Fees to defray a portion of its expenses in connection with the sale and establishment of franchises, such as: (1) costs related to developing and improving Cannon's services; (2) expenses of preparing and registering this Offering Circular; (3) legal fees; (4) accounting fees; (5) costs of obtaining and screening franchisees; and, (6) general administrative expenses.
Cannon will not refund any of the Initial Franchise Fee except under the following circumstances: If you are unable to obtain all government approvals, consents and licenses you need to lawfully open and operate the Cannon Hygiene Business by the scheduled opening date, you and Cannon each have the right to terminate the Franchise Agreement on notice to the other. If either of you does so, Cannon will return to you 75% of the Initial Franchise Fee and of any Unit Fees you paid Cannon (or 50% if Cannon has furnished its Initial Training Program to you), and you must bear all costs of shipping any Units you received from Cannon to the location within the United States Cannon designates.
Cannon will supply you with waste disposal Units for use in your Business, but Cannon will remain the owner of the Units. Before your Business opens, you must order at least 100 Units from Cannon (you must order the total number of Units shown on Exhibit A to your Franchise Agreement by the end of the first year following your scheduled opening date - see Item 6). As Item 6 describes in full, you will pay Cannon a monthly Unit Fee. Whenever you order Units, you must pay Cannon an advance payment equal to the Unit Fees for the Units you order for six months (the "Advance Payment"). You must also pay Cannon all shipping charges and any customs duties from the place where the Units are manufactured to your delivery destination. You must also purchase an opening inventory of Cannon GRASafe Fluid from Cannon International before your Business opens (see Item 6). The approximate cost for the initial 100 Units and the opening inventory of Cannon GRASafe Fluid is $3,000, plus shipping.
Cannon provides you with the first two uniforms and your first set of signs free of charge. If you wish to purchase other uniforms and/or signs from Cannon, you may do so, or you may purchase uniforms and signs from any supplier which Cannon approves and which meets its specifications (see Item 8). Cannon's current price for uniforms is $70 per uniform, and its current price for a set of signs is $300.
You pay Cannon no other fees or payments for services or goods before your Business opens.
The applicable rate for each type of Unit will increase annually on April 1 by the percentage of increase in the Consumer Price Index ("CPI") during the preceding twelve months. You must send an Advance Payment to Cannon with each order for Units. The Advance Payment is equal to the Unit Fees for the requested Units for six months. See Note 1.
Currently $87.00 per 200 sachets, plus shipping costs from U.S. location which Cannon designates (currently Naperville, Illinois) and all applicable taxes. See Note 2.
Within 30 days after products clear customs at U.S. See Note 2.
You must buy the Cannon GRASafe Fluid from Cannon. See Note 2 and Item 8.
Cannon's current price: $70 per uniform.
When you order uniforms from Cannon.
Cannon provides you with the first two sets of uniforms free of charge. If you wish to purchase other uniforms from Cannon, you may do so.
Cannon's current price: $300 for a set of signs.
When you order signs from Cannon.
Cannon provides you with your first set of signs free of charge. If you wish to purchase other signs from Cannon, you may do so.
Travel and transportation expenses only. See remarks.
No charge for Initial training for your personnel. Your Business Manager and all Business Managers appointed later must pass the Initial Training Program. You pay all travel and transportation expenses, but Cannon will pay for the meals, lodging and other living expenses of your trainees.
You can request on-site training and/or assistance at any time. Cannon is not obligated to provide on-site training and/or assistance. You must communicate the request to Cannon in accordance with guidelines. For each day of on-site training or assistance, Cannon can impose a fee.
* Unless otherwise specified, Cannon or its affiliates impose all the fees in this table, you pay them to Cannon or its affiliate, and Cannon (or its affiliate) does not refund them.
If Cannon holds an annual conference, convention or training session, you and your Business Manager must attend if Cannon requires attendance. No training charge, but you pay all travel and transportation expenses. Cannon will pay for the meals, lodging and other living expenses of your trainees.
See Note 3. If you fail to buy required insurance, Cannon may pay premiums and charge you for them. Premiums set by insurance company. Your premiums will depend in part on your claims experience. Cannon expects companies may raise premiums by amount of inflation in insurance industry and any increases in their costs above inflation (due to material shortages, natural disasters, strikes, Acts of God, etc.).
Because Cannon has not yet developed or adopted proprietary software. Cannon has not established prices for future updates or revisions, new or upgraded software or materials.
New or updated software and related materials -when ordered.
If Cannon decides to adopt proprietary software for the Cannon Hygiene System, then you must use Cannon's proprietary computer software. The Initial Franchise Fee will include the software purchase price, but you must pay for any future updates or revisions, and you must buy new or upgraded software and related materials from Cannon if it adopts them system-wide, at the prices Cannon sets. See Item 11.
You must pay Cannon all amounts it advances to third parties for you.
Late charge on any past due amounts owed to Cannon. Cannon will not increase charge beyond formula in column 2 during term of Franchise Aqreement.
Before Cannon signs Renewal Agreement.
Before Cannon approves the transfer.
You indemnify Cannon from certain losses and expenses - see Section 8.12 of the Franchise Aqreement.
Cannon can apply your payments to the oldest obligation due.
effective April 1 of each year, by the percentage of increase in the Consumer Price Index ("CPI") during the preceding twelve months. The rate for a Unit which has already been delivered to you will be the rate in effect on the first day of the calendar month following the calendar month during which the Unit was actually delivered to you. The rate for a Unit expected to be delivered during the following calendar month will be the rate which will be in effect on the first day of that month. The Unit Fee may not be prorated for partial months.
You must send an Advance Payment to Cannon with each order for Units. The Advance Payment must be equal to the Unit Fees for the requested Units for six months. If you do not enclose an Advance Payment with your order for Units, Cannon can refuse to deliver the requested Units, and Cannon will not include the requested Units in your Annual Minimum Unit Requirement (see Item 12). If the order, date of delivery or any portion of the six months following the date of delivery falls after April 1 but before Cannon has informed you of the amount of the increase, then you must remit the additional Advance Payment owed to Cannon promptly after Cannon informs you of the amount of the increase. Cannon will credit the Advance Payment towards the Unit Fees for the Units in question for the last six months of the Use Periods of the Units.
The "Use Period" for a Unit means the period between (1) the date of its "deemed delivery" and (2) the fifth anniversary of its deemed delivery or, if sooner, the date of expiration or termination of the Franchise Agreement. A Unit will be deemed delivered on the first day of the calendar month following the calendar month during which it is actually delivered to you. You must retain all Units which you obtain from Cannon for their Use Period and no longer. On the expiration of the Use Period for each Unit, you must ship the Unit back to Cannon's headquarters. You must pay the costs of shipment to you from a location in the U.S. which Cannon designates (currently Naperville, Illinois).
If you are in default under the Franchise Agreement, Cannon will have no obligation to supply Units to you.
You must purchase the Cannon GRASafe Fluid you will use to fill and refill the Units from Cannon. Cannon can raise its prices at any time on notice to you, but Cannon must maintain the prices in effect on the day your Business commences operations for six months following the commencement of operations of your Business. You will have to pay shipping costs from a location in the U.S. which Cannon designates (currently Naperville, Illinois) and all applicable taxes. Cannon will sell you all Cannon GRASafe Fluid at the same prices as paid by other U.S. franchisees of Cannon who are similarly situated. Cannon does not expect to increase its prices beyond inflation in the applicable industry segment unless its costs increase due to shortages, catastrophes, strikes, Acts of God, or other causes beyond its control.
You must pay for Cannon GRASafe Fluid within 30 days after the products clear customs at their place of importation in the United States. However, Cannon will have the right to demand payment in full for Cannon GRASafe Fluid (including, if Cannon elects to arrange for shipment, estimated shipping charges, VAT and applicable taxes and duties) at the time you place an order and before the Cannon GRASafe Fluid are loaded for shipment.
You must pay for all Cannon GRASafe Fluid in U.S. dollars by (at Cannon's option) check or bankers draft payable to Cannon or by wire transfer or other form of electronic transfer to Cannon's designated bank account in the United Kingdom.
Cannon will have no responsibility to ship Cannon GRASafe Fluid to you. Cannon will sell you Cannon GRASafe Fluid F.O.B. their place of manufacture or other locations that Cannon may designate. Cannon may (but need not) arrange shipment to you for your convenience. Cannon will have no responsibility for the selection or actions of a carrier. You waive any claim against Cannon related to shipment or the selection of a carrier.
Your only remedy and Cannon's only liability for claims concerning delivered Cannon GRASafe Fluid, for delayed delivery or for non-delivery, will be the purchase price of the Cannon GRASafe Fluid (plus any shipping costs you paid) or, if Cannon wishes, the replacement of the Cannon GRASafe Fluid at your destination. Cannon will not be liable for special, incidental, indirect or consequential damages, whether or not from Cannon's negligence.
If you are in default under the Franchise Agreement, Cannon will have no obligation to sell Cannon GRASafe Fluid or non-proprietary products (such as uniforms and signs), equipment or services to you.
You must also purchase other commercially available, non-proprietary products and services for the franchised Business. Cannon may offer to sell you some of these on a non-exclusive basis.
You must at all times maintain adequate inventory of the Units and Cannon GRASafe Fluid, and all other products and supplies to provide Cannon Hygiene services to your customers with reasonable efficiency.
1. Broad form comprehensive general liability coverage, and broad form contractual liability coverage of at least $1,000,000 aggregate. This insurance may not have a deductible or self-insured retention of more than $5,000.
2. Adequate Fire and Extended Coverage Insurance on your Premises and property to replace after an insured loss.
3. If any vehicle is operated in connection with the conduct of the franchised Business, automobile liability coverage, including coverage of owned, non-owned and hired vehicles, with minimum limits of liability in the greater of (a) the amount required by all applicable state and federal laws, or (b) $1,000,000 for each person killed or injured, and, subject to that limit for each person, a total minimum liability of $2,000,000 for any number of persons injured or killed in one accident, and a minimum limit of $300,000 for injury, destruction or loss of use of property of third persons as the result of any one accident.
4. Business Interruption Insurance to cover the rental of the Premises, previous profit margins, maintenance of competent personnel and otherfixed expenses;.
5. Worker's compensation and employer's liability insurance (in statutory amounts), unemployment insurance and state disability insurance (as governing law requires), for your employees.
the premiums or reimburse Cannon for them. Cannon can change the required coverages and amounts.
You must pay all amounts you pay Cannon (or its affiliates) free and clear of, and without deduction or withholding for any Taxes. See Franchise Agreement for definition of the term "Taxes". If you must deduct or withhold any Tax under applicable law on any amounts payable to Cannon (or its affiliates), you must pay Cannon (or the affiliate) whatever additional amount may be necessary so that the net amount Cannon (or its affiliate) receives after the required deduction or withholding (including any required deduction or withholding on the additional amount) equals the amount that Cannon (or its affiliate) would have received if there had been no deduction or withholding.
If Cannon (or its affiliates) obtains any relief from or credit against any Taxes asserted against it in any country because of any Taxes for which there has been a deduction or withholding in another country and for which you made additional payments to Cannon (or its affiliate), then Cannon (or the affiliate) will repay you the part of their net amount of the total credits or reliefs from Taxes as Cannon considers fairly and reasonably attributable to the deduction or withholding.
You must pay Cannon all taxes it pays on account of (a) services or goods it furnishes to you, or (b) the Initial Franchise Fee or Continuing Royalties you pay.
If Cannon becomes a party to a proceeding concerning an agreement between Cannon and you, and Cannon wins, or if Cannon becomes a party to litigation or insolvency proceedings regarding your franchise, then you will be liable for Cannon's reasonable attorneys' fees and court costs.
If Cannon terminates the Franchise Agreement for your default, or if you terminate the Agreement through non-payment (see Item 17, section d.), you must pay Cannon all its expenses from your default or termination, including reasonable attorneys' and experts' fees.
None of the expenses described in this chart is fully refundable. Cannon does not expect the costs of items you purchase from third parties to rise faster than general inflation, but cannot guarantee this, since a third party's costs will go up with inflation in its industry segment and because of material shortages, natural catastrophes, strikes, Acts of God, and other causes beyond their control.
does not finance any fee.
approximately 2,000 square feet in a suitable industrial building for a Premises Location. Your Premises Location is likely to be on the outskirts of a city or town, at a site with easy access to the city ortown. Since real estate values vary dramatically from region to region based on factors such as size, condition and location of the Premises, Cannon cannot accurately estimate your rent, but annual rental costs range from approximately $18,000 to $20,000 or more per month for a Premises Location. To estimate the rental expense for your Premises Location, apply the above square footage requirements to the local real estate rental costs in the area in your Territory where there are suitable buildings.
leasehold improvement for your Premises may be minimal. The cost of construction or leasehold improvements will vary depending on your construction and renovation costs and how many of those costs the landlord will pay (if any).
since you probably already possess a desk, chair, file cabinet, typewriter, telephone and desk-top calculator. The high figure on the table shows the cost of acquiring these items.
industrial washing machine, which you will use to wash the Units. You must purchase washing machines from an approved supplier. The specifications for the washing machine are in the Manual.
will remain the owner of the Units. Before your Business opens, you must order at least 300 Units, and you must order a total of 600 Units by the end of the first year following your scheduled opening date. You must pay Cannon an Advance Payment equal to the Unit Fees for the Units you order for six months. The figure on the chart is for 300 Units (your initial minimum order can be of any type or combination of types of Units). In addition to the estimates shown on the chart, you must pay Cannon all shipping charges. The figure shown also includes the initial supply of Cannon GRASafe Fluid which you must order. Cannon GRASafe Fluid currently costs $87.00 per 200 sachets. In addition, you must pay shipping costs and all applicable taxes.
sets of uniforms. If you wish to purchase other uniforms from Cannon, you may do so. You may instead purchase uniforms from any supplier which Cannon approves and which meets its specifications (see Item 8). Cannon's current price for uniforms is $70 per uniform. The estimate shown is for two uniforms.
months, plus the estimated cost of gas for three months.
other signs from Cannon, you may do so. Cannon currently charges $300 per set of signs.
 Three months' premium for required insurance coverage - see Item 6.
trainees can commute by car to Cannon's training base, and the number of people you wish to receive Initial Training. Cannon pays lodging and food expenses for your trainees.
staff salaries and operating expenses for the first three months of operation. The additional funds required will vary by your area; how much you follow Cannon's methods and procedures; your management skill, experience and business acumen; the relative effectiveness of your staff; local economic conditions; the local market for your products and services; the prevailing wage rate; competition; and the sales level reached during the initial period. You must provide security deposits for utilities and rent (and possibly for other items).
estimates Cannon relies on its affiliates' experience in operating and franchising similar businesses. You should review these figures carefully with a business advisor before making any decision to purchase the franchise.
You must purchase Cannon GRASafe Fluid from Cannon. See Item 6. Cannon does not expect to increase its prices for Cannon GRASafe Fluid beyond inflation in the applicable industry segment unless its costs increase due to shortages, catastrophes, strikes, Acts of God, and other costs beyond its control.
Since Cannon has not yet granted any franchises, it currently receives no income from sales of Cannon GRASafe Fluid to franchisees by it or a designee, but Cannon will receive income from this source in the future.
You do not technically lease the Units from Cannon, but as part of the services Cannon provides to you under the Franchise Agreement, you obtain the Units from Cannon, Cannon retains title to them, and you pay Cannon a monthly Unit Fee for each Unit. Since Cannon has not previously sold franchises, it currently receives no income from franchisees' Unit Fees, but Cannon will receive income from this source in the future.
The Units and the Cannon GRASafe Fluid are the only items for which Cannon is currently the sole approved supplier.
The only items which you must purchase from suppliers approved by Cannon are washing machines, uniforms and signs. Cannon will offer to sell you these items, but you can buy them from any supplier approved by Cannon. If Cannon sells any of these items to franchisees, it will receive income from these sales. Since Cannon has not previously sold franchises, it currently receives no income from these sales to franchisees, but Cannon expects to receive income from this source in the future.
You must submit a written request to Cannon for approval of the supplier.
The supplier must meet Cannon's specifications to Cannon's reasonable satisfaction.
The supplier must demonstrate to Cannon's reasonable satisfaction that it is in good standing in the business community for financial soundness and reliability of its product or service.
Cannon has the right to test, at your expense, the product or service of any supplier you propose, whether or not the supplier is then approved by Cannon. Cannon will give you notice of its approval or disapproval within a reasonable time. If Cannon revokes approval of any supplier, it will give you written notice (in its Manual or otherwise). Cannon does not maintain written criteria for approving suppliers, and thus these criteria are not available to you or your proposed supplier.
Cannon issues and modifies specification through its Manual and will send you a written notices of any new and modified specifications. All items bearing the Cannon Hygiene logo must meet Cannon's specifications.
Cannon does not expect the prices you pay for purchases from third party suppliers to increase beyond inflation in the applicable industry segment unless the supplier's costs increase due to shortages, catastrophes, strikes, Acts of God, and other causes beyond its control.
You must purchase the required insurance - see Item 6.
You must maintain adequate inventory at all times of the Units, Cannon GRASafe Fluid and all other products and supplies to provide Cannon Hygiene services to your customers with reasonable efficiency.
At the date of this Offering Circular, Cannon does not require you to purchase a computer system, but Cannon intends to do so in the future. When Cannon directs, you must purchase and install the computer hardware, software, peripherals and accessories which Cannon specifies (Cannon has not yet developed these specifications). If Cannon decides to adopt proprietary software for the Cannon Hygiene System, then when Cannon directs, you must use Cannon's proprietary computer software and sign Cannon's standard form Software License Agreement (Exhibit G to the Franchise Agreement in this offering circular). See Item 11.
Cannon currently negotiates no purchase arrangements with suppliers for the benefit of franchisees. There are no purchasing or distribution cooperatives. Cannon provides you with no material benefits (such as renewal or granting additional franchises) based on your use of designated or approved sources. Cannon receives no payments from any supplier, nor does Cannon receive any special discount on purchases from any supplier for itself.
Cannon estimates that the required purchases and Unit Fees described above are 8% to 10% of the cost to establish a franchised Cannon Hygiene Business and approximately 15% of operating expenses.
Cannon does not offer direct or indirect financing. Cannon does not guarantee your note, lease or obligation. Cannon and its affiliates have no past practice or future intent of selling, assigning or discounting franchisees' financing arrangements to a third party. Cannon and its affiliates do not receive any direct or indirect payments from any person for the placement of financing.
(2) Approve or disapprove a site for your Premises Location. You select the sites of your Premises Location in your Territory. Cannon approves or disapproves your proposed site. (Franchise Agreement, Section 6.1) If you and Cannon cannot agree on a site for your Premises Location, then Cannon will terminate the Franchise Agreement and refund your Initial Franchise Fee.
Cannon considers the following factors in approving sites: the size of your Territory; the market potential and estimated volume of your Business; the general location and accessibility to customers; the availability of locations and necessary zoning; and, expected overhead.
(4) Lend you a copy of the Confidential Operating Manual (the "Manual") during the Initial Training Program (described below). You must strictly comply with the Manual in operating your Business. Cannon can change the Manual, and you must comply with these changes when you receive them, but they will not materially alter your rights and obligations under the Franchise Agreement.
Cannon conducts the Initial Training Program approximately once a year (or more frequently, if needed) at Naperville, Illinois. Cannon's Initial Training Program currently includes approximately three days of training as described in the table above - one day each for classroom training, field sales training and practical service training. Steven Plevey and Gavin Haworth, Cannon's Account Managers, are in charge of the Initial Training Program. The minimum experience of the instructors that is relevant to the subject taught and Cannon's operations is from 8 to 12 years.
The Initial Franchise fee includes the cost of the Initial Training Program for you and your Business Manager - who must attend the training - and for any other trainees you wish to send. You must pay all transportation costs for yourself and your trainees, but Cannon will pay for meals and lodging during training.