A Second Look at a Rare Photograph It would be an understatement to say that period photographs of Qing-era martial arts activities are rare. For a variety of reasons these themes were less popular with both western... Continue Reading →
Introduction Daniel M. Amos is one of the less appreciated, but more important, voices in the academic study of the southern Chinese martial arts. In 1983 he deposited a doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Los Angeles,... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we review media stories that mention or affect the the traditional fighting arts. In addition to discussing... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Two Types of “Martial Arts Books” For supposedly oral traditions, the Asian martial arts have generated a surprising number of books. Broadly speaking these fall into two separate categories. The first are book “of” martial... Continue Reading →
***A few months ago I had the opportunity to exchange emails with William Acevedo regarding his various research projects. As we discussed the growing interest in martial arts studies around the globe we decided that it would be very... Continue Reading →
Introduction How should we understand China’s traditional martial arts? Minimal observation will reveal that these are multifaceted social institutions whose interactions with popular culture are complex and ever changing. Still, as Douglas Wile has noted, when discussing... Continue Reading →
***This will be the concluding post in our brief series on the role of southern China's maritime environment on the development and spread of the traditional martial arts. Please see the end of this post for a complete list of... Continue Reading →
The Album Recently I had the good fortune to come across a photograph of a Chinese dadao (big knife) that dates to the late 1930s. Images such as these were sometimes collected by Japanese soldiers in occupied... Continue Reading →
Introduction – The Loss of Chu Shong Tin A few weeks ago the Wing Chun community lost one of its leading lights. It is hard to overstate Master Chu Shong Tin’s contributions to the emergence and preservation... Continue Reading →
Kung Fu Tea 
Recent Comments