***Paul Bowman recently wrote an essay dealing with attempts to both define the martial arts and to think about the development of martial arts studies as a distinct field. Given the importance of the points that he raises, and... 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 →
Greetings from Germany! I am current attending the 5th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Sport Science's Martial Arts Commission at the Sports University of Cologne. I will soon be delivering my keynote address (titled "Creating Wing... Continue Reading →
Introduction On February 21, 1934, the North China Herald (the most popular English language newspaper published in China at the time) ran a remarkable article and interview titled the “Chinese Art of Boxing.” The piece... Continue Reading →
Becoming Ip Man, in all the Wrong Ways On a Saturday morning in 2011 I found myself running an “open session” for my Sifu’s Wing Chun school. The weekday classes were always structured affairs in which learners worked... Continue Reading →
Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (18): Xiang Kairan – Imagining the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts
“When the Nanjing Martial Arts Institute was opened, I was in Hankou [in eastern Hubei], where I noticed in a newspaper that they were dividing their curriculum into two schools – Wudang and Shaolin – and appointing specialists for... Continue Reading →
***We are currently in the final push to prepare and release the second issue of the interdisciplinary journal Martial Arts Studies. This will be a themed issue examining different aspects of the "invention of the martial arts" in a... Continue Reading →
Introduction In a recent post discussing the portrayal of the Asian martial arts in early 20th century Western newsreels, I called for a “media archeology” of the early imagery surrounding these fighting systems. The following post... Continue Reading →
Introduction: The Architects of Kung Fu Diplomacy I recently had the opportunity to examine a very interesting series of magazine articles, produced in 1920, discussing the efforts of the (in)famous General Ma Liang to promote the... Continue Reading →
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