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Love Fighting Hate Violence: An Anti-Violence Program for Martial Arts and...
The LFHV logo, designed by StudioName. ***I am excited to introduce the following guest post by Alex Channon and Christopher Matthews. Readers may recall that in my 2017 MAS Conference Keynote I...
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Bruce Lee, Ip Man and The Anxiety of Influence
Ip Man and his best known student, Bruce Lee. The Master Said: “I transmit, I do not create. I trust and love the ancients…” -Confucius, The Analects 7.1 I’m not in this world to live up to your...
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Remembering Peng Hanping (彭韩萍): Images of a Teacher
***We remember the martial arts through many mediums. Countless videos can be found on YouTube. Novels, opera and film have sanctified the heroes of the past. Books have archived the wisdom of...
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New Books, Conference and Visiting Professorship: A Martial Arts Studies Update
It’s been a while! [Paul Bowman and I were recently chatting about important developments in the Martial Arts Studies community and we decided that it would be good to share some of this information...
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Pushing and Pulling: Scouts and the Spread of the Asian Martial Arts
Scouts in the UK demonstrating their jiujitsu throws. Source: Vintage Glass Magic Lantern Slide. Structure and Agency Contrary to popular opinion, nature does not love parsimony. This frequently...
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Through a Lens Darkly (51): Early Kendo in California
Boy Scouts practice Kendo in California, 1928. Source: Vintage Press Photo. Author’s Personal Collection. Of Boy Scouts and Kendo A recent post focused on the role of the global scouting movement in...
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Framing Bruce Lee and Leopard Skins in the Chinese Martial Arts
We take the “concrete and palpable” presence of a thing to attest to the reality of that which we have made it to signify; our fantasies find confirmation in the materiality of things that are...
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Research Notes: No Girls Allowed
Men fighting men to determine worth (i.e., masculinity) excludes women as completely as the female experience of childbirth excludes men….The female boxer violates this stereotype and cannot be...
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Sophia Delza vs. The Black Belt Ethos: Post-Materialism in the Chinese...
We never seem to have pictures of Chuck Norris on this blog. Today is the day that we correct that oversight! T’ai Chi Ch’uan is not a by-product, as it were, of any other art-dance form; it is not...
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Chinese Martial Arts in the News: April 9th, 2018: Taijiquan, MMA and the...
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Lots has been happening in the Chinese martial arts community, so its time to see what people have been saying. For new readers, this is...
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Regional Histories, Localization and the Chinese Martial Arts
A Jeet Kune Do class in Harlem. Source: vice.com, Photo by Adam Krause Regulating Kung Fu in Canton The brave new world of electronic databases and digital humanities is certainly opening many doors...
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Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (21): Zhang Zhijiang, Father of the Guoshu...
General Zhang Zhijiang. Source: The Library of Congress. Introduction Its hard to think of a single individual who had a greater impact on the development of the Chinese martial arts during the all...
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Everybody is a Theorist (Especially on YouTube)
The Shaolin Temple, home to countless theories on the origins of the Chinese martial arts. Source: Wikimedia. Something Old, Something New Everyone has a favorite TV show, film genre or martial...
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Bartitsu in the American Context
Introduction It is hard to think of a recent martial arts studies title that has been more successful in capturing the general public’s attention than Wendy Rouse’s (2017) Her Own Hero:The...
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Telling the Story of China’s Martial Arts: Julius Eigner, Foreign Journalists...
“Chinese Reoccupy Great Wall Area.” 1933. Still taken from Vintage Newsreel. Introduction I first became aware of an article titled “The Ancient Art of Chinese Boxing” by Julius Eigner through a...
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Chinese Martial Arts in the News: April 30th 2018: Karate, Choy Li Fut and...
Wudang Jian. Source: Shanghai Daily Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Lots has been happening in the Chinese martial arts community, so its time to see what people have been...
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May the 4th Be With You: Rhythm in the Chinese Martial Arts and Lightsaber...
***It is May the 4th, everyone’s favorite Star Wars themed, merchandise based, holiday! As regular readers know I occasionally write about the Lightsaber Combat Community. Here is an essay touching...
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Through a Lens Darkly (52): Taijiquan in Communist China and the United...
A press photo of a Taijiquan practitioner in China, 1972. AP photo by Faas. Source: Author’s collection. The First of Five Photos by Horst Faas to accompany story on the practice of Tai Chi Chuan. An...
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Influence at Home and Abroad: Martial Arts at China’s Central Army Officer...
Screen shot from “China Trains a New Army.” Late 1930s, the Harmon Foundation. Filmed by Thomas Kwang. The Center and the Periphery What is this “a case of?” That is the basic empirical question...
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Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (11): Mok Kwai Lan – The Mistress of Hung Gar.
Mok Kwai Lan demonstrating the flying plummet, one of Wong Fei Hung’s signature skills. Source. Real Kung Fu Vol. 1 Num. 7 ***In honor of the recent celebration of Mother’s Day. Enjoy!***...
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