Contesting Kung Fu’s Soft Power: What Modern Chinese History Can Teach Us...
Introduction On May 24th I was asked to deliver the closing keynote address for the 2019 Martial Arts Studies meetings at Chapman University. A special note of thanks must be extended to both Andrea...
View ArticleRevisiting Marginality in the Martial Arts
There are a number of popular topics within Martial Arts Studies which suggest the deeply interdisciplinary nature of our project. Sociologists, following in the footsteps of Wacquant’s “Carnal...
View ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: July 8, 2019: Summer Fun, and Bruce Lee...
Introduction It is so hot outside that it is almost impossible to think about training, which means that there is no better time to get caught up on news - particularly if some of these stories give...
View ArticleThe Problem of Presentism in the Chinese “Martial Arts”
***Greetings. I am currently hard at work on a few different research projects. One of these involves quite a bit of thinking (and reading) about the process of "standard setting" in an...
View ArticleSalvage as Method in Martial Arts Studies
***What follows is the text of my keynote address delivered at the 2019 Exploring Imperial China Workshop held on June 5-6 at Tel Aviv University. I would like to thank both the Department of East...
View ArticleThrough a Lens Darkly (14): Archery Practice in Late Imperial China
***Kung Fu Tea is having a birthday! The blog has now been up and running for seven years. Its hard to believe how much it, and the Martial Arts Studies community, has grown in that time. As such...
View ArticleNew Issue of Martial Arts Studies: Bruce Lee’s Martial Legacies
We are thrilled to announce the release of the Summer 2019 issue of Martial Arts Studies (Number 8). This special issue has been guest edited by Kyle Barrowman and Paul Bowman. It collects in a...
View ArticleAn Overview of Ma Shi Tong Bei Training
***Greetings. I am currently traveling for a duanbing ("short weapon," e.g., Chinese competitive fencing) workshop with Ma Yue Shifu in Michigan. As such I thought it might be appropriate to...
View ArticleThree Thoughts on Hong Kong, Social Dislocation and the Fog of War
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” Niels Bohr (among others). With Trepidation I would like to outline three quick points about the current situation in Hong Kong,...
View ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: August 19, 2019: Hong Kong, Bruce Lee and...
Introduction Its been a long hot month with lots of Chinese martial arts news. That means that now (before the start of the new semester) is the perfect time to get caught up on recent events! For...
View ArticleRules of Appropriateness, in Martial Arts and Politics
Fragmentation and Unification Recently I had a chance to catch up with one of my old Kung Fu training brothers. We had a great time training at the same Wing Chun studio. That was years ago. Then I...
View ArticleDoing Research (11): Apprenticeship as Method in Martial Arts Studies
Welcome to the eleventh entry in our ongling series of posts titled “Doing Research.” If you missed the first essay by D. S. Farrer (which provides a global overview of the subject), the second by...
View ArticleThrough a Lens Darkly (61): The Shifting Social and Economic Value of...
One of the most notable trends over the last decade has been the rapid appreciation of prices for antique Chinese weapons. There is more variability in markets for antique objects than one might...
View ArticleBrian Kennedy and the Development of Chinese Martial Studies
The Chinese martial studies community suffered a great loss with the recent passing of Brian Kennedy (1958-2019) at the age of 61. Any such event is a tragedy, and this was all the more unexpected...
View ArticleWho “Owns” Kung Fu? Intangible Cultural Heritage, Globalization and the...
***In the last week I have found myself delving ever deeper into the literature on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) designations and the traditional martial arts. When seeking to understand the...
View ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: September 23, 2019: Zhang Weili, Global...
Introduction It's the end of summer, autumn is in the air, and now is the perfect time to get caught up on recent events! For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which...
View ArticleThe History and Global Transmission of Wing Chun (In Less than Five Thousand...
I was recently invited to contribute an article to a forthcoming volume on the history and development of Wing Chun. The catch was that it had to be less than five thousand words. I have literally...
View ArticleKung Fu Documentaries and Their Discontents
Given that many of the readers of Kung Fu Tea come to this blog to read about the history or development of traditional fighting systems, I am willing to bet that each and every one of us has...
View ArticleMartial Arts as Politics: The Act of Seeing
Look at Me! I took a break from the kicking drill just as an insistent, irritated, voice rang out. “Coach, look at me! Look at me! LOOK AT ME! Hey Coach. COACH! Look at me!” Of course it......
View ArticleLives of Chinese Martial Artists (4): Sun Lutang and the Invention of the...
I am currently working on a paper that has me thinking about Sun Lutang again. To my mind he has always been one of the quintessential pioneers of the modern Chinese martial arts. So here is Part One...
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