Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Its great to be back at my keyboard after spending the last week and half on other projects. I managed to finish the draft of my chapter and am looking forward to posting some new material and guest posts over the next few weeks before … Continue reading
***I am happy to report that I am making good progress on my current writing project. But it is still an ongoing task, and one that consumed much of my weekend. As such our post for this Monday is another essay pulled for the archives. This essay asks what Ip Man’s “rules of conduct” … Continue reading
***Over the next couple of weeks I will be devoting time to some non-blog writing projects. So, from time to time, we will be dipping into the Kung Fu Tea’s (rather extensive) archives. I particularly enjoyed writing this post and its a topic that I still think about. This essay is also a … Continue reading
Donny Yen reprises his role as Ip Man. Is this “Ip Man” your role model? ***Greetings! I am currently on the road for research. As such, we will be delving into the archives for today’s post. This essay (first published in 2014) takes a closer look at Ip Man’s transformative social memory in … Continue reading
Any traveler can attest that detours come in two forms. They all take a little longer, and most offer nothing but delay. Others can lead to fascinating discoveries. These often come in the form of local sandwich shops frequented by hipsters or a scenic overlook. This same principle applies regardless of whether … Continue reading
Wonder Woman with a Dadao In China the realm of social violence, and the martial arts in particular, has been male dominated. That does not mean that women never became a part of such activities. After all, they played an increasingly high profile role in the martial realm from the early 1920s onward. … Continue reading
Introduction This is the second half of our two part series on the life and writings of Alfred Lister. A civil servant in Hong Kong during the second half of the 19th century, Lister provided his readers with some of the most detailed English language discussions of the Chinese martial arts to emerge during the … 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 as a researcher in the field of martial arts studies I have been equally curious … Continue reading
***While never discussed within the Chinese martial studies literature, Alfred Lister may have been the single most important western observer of the Chinese martial arts in the second half of the 19th century. Over a period of four years he produced four different statements (two relatively brief, and two much more detailed) that … Continue reading
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 framework of understanding that we carry around in our heads which tells us that some given source is relevant data in the first place. Nor are … Continue reading
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