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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

A Year in the Chinese Martial Arts: The Stories and Events that Shaped 2015

  Happy New Year! New Years is a good time to sit back and reflect on recent accomplishments and events.  2015 has been a huge year for the field of martial arts studies.  Things had been picking up for a... Continue Reading →

“The Professor in the Cage”: Can Gottschall Bring Science to the Study of Violence?

    A Surprise at the Bookstore   A remarkable thing happened on the way to the airport. Knowing that I would be spending a disturbingly large amount of my summer on various airplanes, I decided to make the most... Continue Reading →

Stephen Chan Discusses the Life of Chan Wong Wah Yue: Swordswoman, Militia Member and Grandmother

    Introduction   Within the field of International Relations Stephen Chan (OBE) needs no introduction.  He is a Professor of Global Politics in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. He also served... Continue Reading →

Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (15): Fei Ching Po – Professional Gambler and Female Martial Artist in Early 19th Century Guangzhou

  Introduction Stories of skilled female warriors have a long history in China. The legend of the Maiden of Yue illustrates these ancient roots.  Yet it was during the final decades of the Qing dynasty that the female martial artist... Continue Reading →

Producing “Healthy Citizens”: Social Capital, Rancière and Ladies-Only Kickboxing

Question: Why did you choose kickboxing instead of some other sport? “Apparently it is a sport that we Moroccans like…We Moroccans need one or another outlet for our aggressions.” P. 40 Question: Why do you come to this school (far... Continue Reading →

The Invisibility of Kung Fu: Two Accounts of the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts

      Introduction: Race and the Invisibility of the Chinese Martial Arts     There is some debate as to which statesman can rightfully claim the honor of being the “first” American advisor employed by China’s new Republican government.... Continue Reading →

Alex Channon on the “Undoing” of Gender in Mixed-Sex Martial Arts Training

      Introduction: Is the Gendering of Practice Inevitable?     In the early 1990s I became a practitioner of a discipline that requires years of careful study and practice to master. It has its major schools, famous instructors... Continue Reading →

The Boxing Master, the Pirate’s Wife and the Soldier: Three Scenes from Southern China’s Piracy Crisis, 1807-1810

    Introduction: Foreign Language Sources on Southern Chinese Piracy   It is a dictum in the social sciences that data is never self-interpreting. Likewise historians have found that it is often impossible to judge the nature or significance of... Continue Reading →

Liminality, Embodied Identity and the Paradox of the Invisible Female Martial Artists

  Men fighting men to determine worth (i.e., masculinity) excludes women as completely as the female experience of childbirth excludes men….The female boxer violates this stereotype and cannot be taken seriously—she is parody, she is cartoon, she is monstrous. Had... Continue Reading →

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