***I am off visiting family over the holiday weekend, so we are headed back to the archives. Since our (American) readers have just celebrated Thanksgiving, I though it would be appropriate to revisit an essay that asks what we... Continue Reading →
The Loss of Heroes The Chinese martial arts community has lost two giants. The death of Raymond Chow (who was instrumental in jumpstarting Bruce Lee’s martial arts films) and Louis Cha (who wrote under the name Jin Yong)... Continue Reading →
A Different Take on an Old Debate If you study the traditional Chinese martial arts and have spent any time on the internet, you will have heard some variant of these debates before. Do I need to... Continue Reading →
We all love clickbait. Sure, we say we hate those gimmicky titles that populate our YouTube play lists. And none of us would willfully admit to clicking on “108 Facts about Rick and Morty” or, “20 Things that You Didn’t... Continue Reading →
Matthew Polly. 2018. Bruce Lee: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. 656 pages. $35 USD. Introduction Matthew Polly is perhaps the best known and most popular author writing on the martial arts today. His first two books... Continue Reading →
Winning and Losing In the movies martial artists win their battles. Early losses, inserted into a script for the purposes of “character development,” are redeemed in a climatic final scene. Those of us who train, however, know that... Continue Reading →
Telling a Tale Brief biographical sketches of Chinese martial artists are some of my favorite posts to write. I am not sure why, but I find the challenge of reconstructing a very different type of life, or... Continue Reading →
***In honor of the recent celebration of Mother's Day. Enjoy!*** Introduction This post is the third entry in our series examining the lives of female Chinese martial artists. While it is the case that the vast majority of... Continue Reading →
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 important years of the Republic than Zhang Zhijiang (1882-1966). His name peppers the... Continue Reading →
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