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Kung Fu Tea

Martial Arts History, Wing Chun and Chinese Martial Studies.

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feminism

THE POLITICS OF AN OLYMPIC MEDAL

Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran, left, is injured while competing against Tareg Hamedi of Saudi Arabia. Introduction We are very pleased to host the following essay on Karate's appearance in the Tokyo Olympics by Prof. Stephen Chan. This is an important... Continue Reading →

Yim Wing Chun and Gender: the Stories of Ip Man and Yuen Woo Ping in a Comparative Perspective

Why Talk About Gender in the Chinese Martial Arts? In my years of teaching I have noticed that any discussion of “gender” will usually elicit great interest from a certain percentage of my students, while you can literally watch the... Continue Reading →

Lives of Chinese Martial Artists: Qiu Jin—the Last Sword-Maiden, Part I.

  ***Greetings!  This was my first entry in the long running "Lives of Chinese Martial Artists" series. Rather than just profiling the most famous martial artists I attempted to look at the actual life experiences of a wide range of... Continue Reading →

Research Note: Organizing the Women’s Section of the Jingwu Association, 1920.

An Unexpected Find It is basically a truism to say that the Western public didn’t know very much about the Chinese martial arts in the 1920s.  More interesting is the question of why.  Given the global popularity of Judo and... Continue Reading →

Research Notes: Jingwu and the Female Martial Artists of 1920

    Introduction     I am interested in the frequent, seemingly unconscious, way in which the word “traditional” is appended to the name “martial arts” in modern speech and writing.  One does not simply study “Japanese wrestling” or “Chinese... Continue Reading →

Remembering Yim Wing Chun, the Boxer Rebellion and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

      What at first appears new is often something remembered.  The human mind has trouble categorizing and finding meaning in anything that is truly unique or alien.  Good storytellers know that originality is not always a virtue.  The... Continue Reading →

Making Captain America: Martial Arts and the Next Generation

Captain America Thwarted   I spotted a flash of red, white and blue as I looked up from the electronic display mounted on the top of the treadmill.  It was telling me a depressing story of miles left to go. ... Continue Reading →

Yim Wing Chun and Gender: the Stories of Ip Man and Yuen Woo Ping in a Comparative Perspective.

Why Talk About Gender in the Chinese Martial Arts? In my years of teaching I have noticed that any discussion of “gender” will usually elicit great interest from a certain percentage of my students, while you can literally watch the... Continue Reading →

Lives of Chinese Martial Artists: Qiu Jin—the Last Sword-Maiden, Part II.

  This post provides the conclusion to our biographical sketch of Qiu Jin, an important southern Chinese revolutionary, poet, writer, martial artist and terrorist.  I think the best way to read these posts is to print them out and read... Continue Reading →

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