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Martial Arts History, Wing Chun and Chinese Martial Studies.

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Yim Wing Chun and Gender: the Stories of Ip Man and Yuen Woo Ping in a Comparative Perspective

Why Talk About Gender in the Chinese Martial Arts? In my years of teaching I have noticed that any discussion of “gender” will usually elicit great interest from a certain percentage of my students, while you can literally watch the... Continue Reading →

The Book Club: The Shaolin Monastery by Meir Shahar, Chapters 5-Conclusion: Unarmed Combat in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

  Introduction This is the third and final installment of our in-depth review of Meir Shahar’s groundbreaking work, the Shaolin Temple.  Today we will be looking at the evolution of unarmed boxing in late Ming and Qing era China.  I... Continue Reading →

The Book Club: The Shaolin Monastery by Meir Shahar, Chapters 3-4: Monastic Violence in the Ming Dynasty.

Introduction Welcome back to the second installment of the Book Club.  In this series of posts we will be taking a more detailed look at some of the most important works in the field of Chinese martial studies.  Our first... Continue Reading →

The Book Club: The Shaolin Monastery by Meir Shahar: Introduction and Chapters 1-2.

***Ah the book club!  I had almost forgotten about these posts.  They were a common feature of Kung Fu Tea's early days as I tried to give several of the "classics" a very close reading.  Maybe it is something that... Continue Reading →

Roaring Dragons and Vanishing Rhinos: The Longsword Sword in Ancient China

The rhinoceros-hide armor was of seven folds or links, one over another; the wild-buffalo's-hide armor was of six folds or links; and the armor, made of two hides together was of five folds or links. The rhinoceros-hide armor would endure... Continue Reading →

Why Religion Needs to Play a Greater Role in Chinese Martial Studies than it does in the Chinese Martial Arts.

  ***Greetings! Here is one of my earlier attempts to talk about the topic of theory within martial arts studies (from back in 2012, when there was a lot less of it).  It is one area where my thinking has... Continue Reading →

“Wing Chun: A Documentary” directed by Jon Braeley

  ***Greeting readers, and thank you for your continued patience.  Today we are going to revisit a review of a Wing Chun documentary that I wrote back in the Fall of 2012. This turned out to be one of two... Continue Reading →

The White Arc and Military Jian of the Han Dynasty

  An Invaluable Inventory In 1993 local residents in Yinwan (Donghai county, Jiangsu Province) made a remarkable discovery. They uncovered a group of relatively well-preserved flooded tombs dating back to the Han dynasty. Only two of these tombs have been... Continue Reading →

From the Archives: A Really Short Reading List on Chinese Martial Studies

Introduction Ok, here is a fun post that I originally wrote in 2012 that really needs to be updated.  So many new articles and books have come out in the last eight years (including ones written by myself) that I... Continue Reading →

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