With the growth of ufc, do you think there’s a growing appetite for mma in China ... and a fading appetite for traditional martial arts?

You are not understanding the reality of martial art in China. First, martial art is a government regulated  in some instances owned industry in China.  The only reason the communist party in China reversed its decision banning martial arts after they came into power in 1947 was because of the thousands of tourists from the West who went to visit the Shaolin Temple spending a very large amount of money doing so and even donating to the temple.  This prompted the Chicom to reopen the temple. The abbot of the Shaolin Temple is even derisively refer to by those who know the truth as the CEO Abbot. There is no way the Chinese government is going to allow their cash cow to be done away with especially by what they think as a western invention.

Second, all news outlets in China are owned and controlled by the government. There is no free press in China and that means the Chinese government can dictate and manipulate what they want to be popular and what they want the average Chinese to think is popular. Why did you suppose Google and YouTube are blocked in China?

Last, one Chinese MMA  fighter, Xu Xiaodong, has been on a self-appointed mission to call  out "fake" martial artists, supposively to cleanse martial art in weeding the frauds, but have you noticed he NEVER fights a Shaolin monk? So long as he picks on the martial art schools in competition with the Shaolin, he is left alone. But if he ever threaten the state own Shaolin Temple, you can bet the farm he will "disappear" from the news.

MMA is slowly becoming more popular there. Chinese fighters are getting it done in the UFC (Zhang Weili is the s***), and lots of MMA gyms are being built. It's really easy too with San Shou being a common backbone. A lot of Chinese fighters basically train in San Shou (sometimes with Muay Thai incorporated), Shuai Jiao, and BJJ. That's combo is basically becoming it's own sort of Chinese MMA school niche at this point. 

But it's hard to compare the two so casually. MMA is a combat sport that incorporates various martial arts. It's main purpose is different that of TMAs. Especially in a place like China where they are a deep part of culture over sports or self defense. MMA will always lose to culture argument there. So it will probably never be more popular. But you are right about the increase/decrease. 

Yes it is. It’s been growing for a while but in particular an MMA fighter named Xu Xiaodong who has been fighting Kung Fu masters and beating them has been making an impact. China is sort of where the US was in the 90’s after the first UFC events. Some people are ready to support more modern training, others are still skeptical or even think the MMA fighter is just a bully.