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Kung Fu Tea

Martial Arts History, Wing Chun and Chinese Martial Studies.

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Women and the Martial Arts

THE POLITICS OF AN OLYMPIC MEDAL

Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran, left, is injured while competing against Tareg Hamedi of Saudi Arabia. Introduction We are very pleased to host the following essay on Karate's appearance in the Tokyo Olympics by Prof. Stephen Chan. This is an important... Continue Reading →

Imagining the Chinese Martial Arts without Bruce Lee: Sophia Delza, an American Taiji Quan Pioneer.

Introduction: Different Visions of the Chinese Martial Arts Assume that we find ourselves in a very specific, recognizable alternate universe.  It is almost exactly like ours, but in this world Bruce Lee never came to America.  Maybe he got along... Continue Reading →

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 →

Ip Man and the Prostitute: Female Sexuality as a Weapon in Traditional Chinese Martial Culture

  Introduction: Masculinity as a Core Value in the Traditional Southern Martial Arts. One of the few facts that everyone seems to “know” about Wing Chun is that the art was created by a female.  Whether this is actually true... Continue Reading →

Lessons from the South – Martial Arts of Vietnam, Part II

  ***What follows in the second installment in our short guest series considering the history and development of the Vietnamese martial arts.  Enjoy****   Lessons from the South By Trần Khải Hoài   In the previous section, we looked at... Continue Reading →

Views from the South – Martial Arts of Vietnam, Part I

Giáng long thôi sơn (“Descending dragon presses the mountain”)—Vietnamese martial artists training amidst Cham ruins in Bình Định of southcentral Vietnam. Source:  ZingNews.   ***Greetings!  What follows is the first installment in a short series discussing the martial arts and martial culture of Vietnam.Trần Khải... Continue Reading →

Lives of Chinese Martial Artists: Qiu Jin—the Last Sword-Maiden, Part I.

  ***Greetings!  This was my first entry in the long running "Lives of Chinese Martial Artists" series. Rather than just profiling the most famous martial artists I attempted to look at the actual life experiences of a wide range of... Continue Reading →

Did Ip Man Invent the Story of Yim Wing Chun?

***Here is one of the first substantive posts that I ever wrote on Wing Chun for the blog back in 2012, about three years before my book (with Jon Nielson) came out. Wing Chun mythology is always a hot topic.... Continue Reading →

The Maiden of Yue and the Magnificent Chu

LK Chen's Magnificent Chu Jian. Source: LKChenswords.com   Rediscovering a Lost Sword Culture A single puzzle piece is useless on its own. Sometimes it takes one mystery to illuminate another.  Such is the case with the following text and sword.  Historians... Continue Reading →

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