Paul Bowman and I are happy to announce that the sixth issue of Martial Arts Studies (an imprint of Cardiff University Press) has been published and is now available. This interdisciplinary academic journal is free to read or download by any individual... Continue Reading →
A History of Desire When thinking about the diffusion of the Asian fighting arts to the West, we must distinguish between the history of the martial arts as they were practiced, and their evolution as symbols within... Continue Reading →
Feeling the Heat Here is a fun fact to consider. The modern mechanical air conditioner was invented by Willis Carrier (a Cornell graduate I might add), not in Arizona or Florida, but in western New York state. It... Continue Reading →
Staging a Global Controversy Origin stories are very often political. People everywhere intuitively understand this. If you can pinpoint (or simply construct) the moment of something’s creation you can also attempt to socially frame its subsequent practice in all... Continue Reading →
Of Boy Scouts and Kendo A recent post focused on the role of the global scouting movement in promoting the spread of the Asian martial arts during the first half of the 20th century. In that essay I mentioned... Continue Reading →
The Nation and the Sword Seki Juroji may be one of the most important pioneers of the traditional Asian martial arts who no one has ever heard of. Gainty (2013) notes that Seki was a successful farmer and swordsmanship... Continue Reading →
Happy Birthday Attentive readers may have noticed a few changes here at Kung Fu Tea. This blog launched its first post five years ago, on July 27th 2012. Since that point we have published well over 500... Continue Reading →
Introduction Today’s post is the result of a happy coincidence. As regular readers will be aware, I occasionally collect and share vintage images of the Chinese martial arts. Many of these come from the sorts of ephemera... Continue Reading →
“There is a problem with the study of martial arts similar to that identified by Markus Davidson in the case of “spiritual studies”: many of the scholars involved in the topic are themselves practitioners and their work betrays a... Continue Reading →
Kung Fu Tea 
Recent Comments