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A Puzzle, a Big Announcement and an Introduction to Kung Fu Diplomacy
A late Qing military official and his personal guards. Norther China. Source: Vintage Russian Postcard, Personal Collection. Wushu Comes to America Today’s post has two goals. The more...
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How (not) to categorise martial arts: A discussion and example from gender...
Taijiquan practitioners by M. Louis. Source: Wikimedia. ***Over the last couple of years a discussion has emerged within the literature on how scholars should define and classify the martial arts,...
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Chinese Martial Arts in the News: September 19th, 2016: Expats in Shanghai,...
Xing Xi practices at the Zen Kung Fu Center in Beijing. Source: Reuters. Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which...
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Theory and the Growth of Knowledge – Or Why You Probably Can’t Learn Kung Fu...
Becoming Ip Man, in all the Wrong Ways On a Saturday morning in 2011 I found myself running an “open session” for my Sifu’s Wing Chun school. The weekday classes were always structured affairs in...
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Research Notes: Han Xing Qiao Opens the “Internal Arts” to the West, 1934
Jiang’an Temple in Shanghai, late 19th century. Note that by 1934 the area around this structure was substantially more developed. Source: http://www.virtualshanghai.net Introduction On...
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Culture, Experience and Understanding – Or, Who Can Master “Authentic” Aikido?
Photo by Marcello Sidoti. Source: Wikimedia. Can a westerner truly master Akido (or Taijiquan, Wing Chun, etc…..)? I once again find myself noting that I should not be writing this post. The...
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What Can a Martial Body Do For Society? – Or, Theory Before Definition in...
Wrestlers in Tainjin, 1930. Source: http://fightland.vice.com/blog/shuai-jiao-chinas-indigenous-wrestling-style Greetings from Germany! I am current attending the 5th Annual Meeting of the German...
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Taolu: Credibility and Decipherablility in the Practice of Chinese Martial...
Taijiquan being demonstrated at the famous Wudang Temple, spiritual home of the Daoist arts. Source: Wikimedia. Greetings from an Airport Somewhere in Europe! I am currently in transit, returning from...
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Lost Embodied Knowledge: Experimenting with Historical European Martial Arts...
Illustration from Meyer’s Longsword. Greetings! If all has gone according to plan, I am now back in the United States and recovering after my recent trip to Germany. As such, I would like to...
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A Tale of Two Challenge Fights – Or, Writing Better Martial Arts History
Introduction I recently had the good fortune to attend the 2016 Martial Arts Studies conference held at the German Sports University of Cologne, sponsored by the German Society of Sport Science’s...
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Conference Report: Martial Arts and Society – On the Societal Relevance of...
Introduction One of the most exciting, and simultaneously frustrating, aspects of the academic study of the martial arts is their international nature. Self-defense systems, combat sports or...
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Chinese Martial Arts in the News: October 24th, 2016: Moving Identities and...
Students from Africa graduating from a three month training program at the Shaolin Temple, Henan. Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at...
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Chinese Martial Arts, Opera and Globalization: Kung Fu as a “Blurred Genre”
Conventional Wisdom and its Discontents Conventional wisdom holds that Bruce Lee represents the earliest opening of the mysteries of the Chinese martial arts in the West. While others may have...
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Spirituality in the Traditional Martial Arts – Between History and Theory
Military Accomplishments of Japan, glass slide 2. Photo by Tamamura. Source: Author’s Personal Collection. “There is a problem with the study of martial arts similar to that identified by Markus...
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(Insanity and) the Arts of Martial Minds
The Design Wing of the Corning Museum of Glass. ***Today we have a fascinating guest post by Paul Bowman. It has been reblogged from Martial Arts Studies. This essay outlines a new research...
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Chinese Martial Arts in the News: November 14th, 2016: Friends, Nostalgia and...
Bey Logan. Source: SCMP Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we review media stories that mention or affect the...
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Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Lightsaber: Fetishism and Material Culture in...
The JQ Pilgrim with black grips. Source: jqsabers.com “The lightsaber has become an important touchstone, both within the films and within our culture…They serve as a source of identification and...
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Research Notes: Foshan’s Kung Fu in 1919.
Jingwu (Chinwoo) Association Hall in Foshan. First, the Important Stuff Is it possible to approach history without theory? I think not. It is the existence of some sort of preexisting story or...
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The Immigrant Experience: Asian Martial Arts in the United States and Canada,...
A Community Cantonese Opera Performance in San Francisco, circa 1900. ***Happy Thanksgiving! This is a day when we commemorate the initial act of European immigration to North America. From that...
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Why do you draw the line? More on Definition in Martial Arts Studies
A Daoist Priest in Modern Beijing. Source: Wikimedia. ***Paul Bowman recently wrote an essay dealing with attempts to both define the martial arts and to think about the development of martial arts...
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