***I am current on the road for the annual Martial Arts Studies conference at Cardiff University in the UK. As soon as I return home I will be posting a full report of the event and sharing the text and slides from my keynote (titled “Show, Don’t Tell: Making Martial Arts Studies Matter.”) In … Continue reading
***I am current on the road for the annual Martial Arts Studies conference at Cardiff University in the UK. As soon as I return home I will be posting a full report of the event and sharing the text and slides from my keynote (titled “Show, Don’t Tell: Making Martial Arts Studies Matter.”) In … Continue reading
***As I mentioned earlier this week, I am currently preparing for the upcoming Martial Arts Studies conference in Cardiff. As such I have decided to revisit one of the earlier major essays that I wrote for this blog (all the way back in 2013). Kung Fu Tea was just starting to grow at that … Continue reading
David S. Nisan and Liu Kangyi. 2016. The General Tian Wubeizhi: the Bubishi in Chinese Martial Arts History. Taipei: Lionbook Martial Arts Company. 136 pages of text, plus 128 pages of facsimile reprint. $47.95 USD. Introduction Given life’s many obligations, it is all too easy let one’s personal study lapse. Balancing the … Continue reading
“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi The Bane of my Existence I have spent a lot of time thinking about Vince Lombardi’s famous maxim on the value of practice. I will readily admit to hating this quote. It is exactly the sort of tough, yet … Continue reading
Who was China’s “Number One Sword?” Few individuals come to be known as both a warlord and a “sword saint.” Even by the standards of China’s tumultuous 1920s, the carving out of two such notable public personas was an impressive achievement. Yet General Li Jinglin managed to leave his stamp on both … Continue reading
Introduction Occasionally life takes a turn and one’s personal martial arts training gets moved to the back burner. The last couple of weeks have been like that as my wife and I have been engulfed in a seemingly unending move. It certainly could have been worse as on paper it was a … Continue reading
Martial Arts Exhibitions, Old and New Earlier today I saw a Facebook notice reminding me that I am about to miss an event with the lightsaber combat group that I am currently doing an ethnography with. They have been asked to give an exhibition by a local charity. The entire thing … Continue reading
Romanticizing the Chinese Martial Arts Vintage postcards or other ephemera may be interesting to students of martial arts studies for a variety of reasons. When assessing this material, we are often drawn to photographic images that might reveal lost details of how things “were really done.” I have come across a few … Continue reading
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Its great to be back at the blog. I am happy to report that the conference in Utah went very well and I had a chance to talk with a number of political scientists about the work that we are doing in Martial Arts Studies … Continue reading
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