***I am current on the road for the annual Martial Arts Studies conference at Cardiff University in the UK. As soon as I return home I will be posting a full report of the event and sharing the text and slides from my keynote (titled “Show, Don’t Tell: Making Martial Arts Studies Matter.”) In…
Category: Southern China
Li Pei Xian and the Evolution of Modern Chinese “Martial Arts”
***Greetings! I am currently preparing for the upcoming Martial Arts Studies conference in Cardiff. As such we will be taking a deep dive into the archives for today’s post. This essay and biographical sketch was first published four years ago in our “Lives of Chinese Martial Artists” series. While not well known in the…
The Bubishi Gets its Due: Returning the ‘Bible of Karate’ to its Chinese Roots
David S. Nisan and Liu Kangyi. 2016. The General Tian Wubeizhi: the Bubishi in Chinese Martial Arts History. Taipei: Lionbook Martial Arts Company. 136 pages of text, plus 128 pages of facsimile reprint. $47.95 USD. Introduction Given life’s many obligations, it is all too easy let one’s personal study lapse. Balancing the…
Chinese Martial Arts in the News: April 24, 2017: Southern Kung Fu, Taijiquan Heritage and Boxing for Survival
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…
The Wing Chun Jo Fen: Norms and the Creation of a Southern Chinese Martial Arts Community.
***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”…
Chi Sao, Ip Man and the Problem of “Dispersed Training” in Wing Chun
***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…
Why is Ip Man a Role Model?
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…
Villains, Guns and Humor: Giving Texture to the Early 19th Century Chinese Martial Arts
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…
Through a Lens Darkly (43): Chinese Amazons and the “Weapons of the Forefathers”
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. …
Recovering Alfred Lister: The Noble Art of Self-Defense in China (Part II)
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…
An Updated and Revised Social History of the Hudiedao (Butterfly Swords)
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…
Recovering Alfred Lister: A Forgotten Observer of the Southern Chinese Martial Arts (Part I)
***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…
