Searching for the Miaodao What exactly do historians mean when they assert that the Chinese martial arts being practiced throughout the world today are, for the most part, a relatively recent creation? Even the veneer of age that systems like... Continue Reading →
The Logic of Violence and its Relationship with the State My academic background and doctorate is in political science where I specialize in a sub-field called “international political economy.” That is where I have focused most of my teaching and... Continue Reading →
Confronting the Boxers It is probably an irony that I have written so little on the Boxer Uprising during my casual and academic discussion of the martial arts. It was a chance encounter with the Boxers some years ago as... Continue Reading →
Choy Li Fut’s place in southern Chinese martial culture. Let me ask you a question. What was the largest and most socially important martial art in Guangdong during the late 19th and early 20th century? What was the first... Continue Reading →
In January of 2013 I posted an essay titled "A Social and Visual History of the Hudiedao (Butterfly Sword) in the Southern Chinese Martial Arts." As a student of Wing Chun I have always been fascinated by these weapons, and... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Xiamen and the Chinese Martial Arts Marketplace I am interested in the martial arts history of Fujian province. Many areas of China can rightly claim an illustrious past when it comes to producing famous boxers, military officers or... Continue Reading →
"Inventing MMA: Martial Arts Between Culture, Media and Sport" By Dr. Kyle Barrowman Introduction: Traditional Thinking In the Preface to his recent monograph The Invention of Martial Arts, Paul Bowman identifies an important link between current trends in martial... Continue Reading →
Introduction It has been too long since our last news update. For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we review media stories that mention the traditional fighting arts. In addition to discussing important... Continue Reading →
Introduction Regionalism has been all the rage in certain academic circles for at least a decade, though no field demonstrates the potential and challenges of this approach more fully than martial arts studies. The central concept of this paradigm... Continue Reading →
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