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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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Reflections on the Long Pole: History, Technique and Embodiment
Chu shing Tin demonstrating the pole form. Source: http://www.wingchun.edu.au A New Pole I had been meaning to get a new “long pole” (or Luk Dim Boon Kwan) for a while. As the name implies,...
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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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Through a Lens Darkly (41): Three Views of a Young Boxer
Vintage postcard showing a “Young Boxer” with sword. Early 20th century. Source: Authors personal collection. Meeting the Boxer I recently had the good fortune to meet one of my favorite...
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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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2016 Christmas Shopping List: Martial Arts Equipment and Long Reads to Get...
Bernard the Kung Fu Elf, training for a spot on the elite North Pole Alpine Search and Rescue team. (Source: late 1940s Swedish Postcard, Authors personal collection.) Its That Time of Year Again!...
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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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Interview with the No Wax Needed Podcast
I recently had a chance to sit down with Itamar Zadoff who runs the “No Wax Needed” podcast. Itamar is one of the up and coming martial arts studies scholars who I had the pleasure to meet at our...
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Reality Fighting and the End of Civilization
Dog Brothers, 2010 Euro Gathering. Source: youtube. The Debate Neil Gong’s article, “How to Fight Without Rules: On Civilized Violence in “De-Civilized” Spaces,” (Social Problems, 2015, 0, pp....
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Chinese Martial Arts in the News: December 12th, 2016: The International Edition
Sifu Yiannos Christoforou with his dummy. Source: http://www.news.cn Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we...
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