***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 →
***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 →
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 →
The Emergence of the Dao “The Chinese martial arts that we practice today tend to be a recent phenomenon.” This is something that I have said on this blog many times, but what does it actually mean? Our earliest extent... Continue Reading →
Introduction Like so many others, I currently find it difficult to focus on the task at hand. Unlike most other people, the “happy place” I keep retreating to is the martial arts history of China’s Republic period (1912-1949). That... Continue Reading →
Fitness and Agency Rose clippers are a key symbol within Judkins family folklore. When I was about ten my mother bought my father, who does not garden, a set of rose clippers. These have lived, unused, in a... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Gender and the History of the Chinese Martial Arts Women are a challenging subject in Chinese martial studies. One the one hand traditions about female boxers, nuns, bandits and heroes abound in the folklore of the “Rivers and Lakes.” ... Continue Reading →
Introduction Its been months (and multiple conference trips) since our last news update, which means that there is no better time to get caught up on recent events! For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea ... Continue Reading →
An Unexpected Find It is basically a truism to say that the Western public didn’t know very much about the Chinese martial arts in the 1920s. More interesting is the question of why. Given the global popularity of Judo and... Continue Reading →
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