Introduction: The Butterfly Swords and Southern Martial Arts Defend the Nation I recently ran across two photographs that I think students of the southern Chinese martial arts may find very enlightening. They speak to interesting tactical and cultural questions. On... Continue Reading →
History as the cure for Ideology Everyone has a personal mental image of the Chinese martial arts. The detail may vary, but there are some undeniably common elements. Grainy photos, complex postures, exotic weapons, strangely vigorous old men. The... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to week ten of “History of East Asian Martial Arts.” This series follows the readings being used in Prof. TJ Hinrichs’ undergraduate course of the same name at Cornell University. This is a great opportunity for readers... Continue Reading →
There are a number of popular topics within Martial Arts Studies which suggest the deeply interdisciplinary nature of our project. Sociologists, following in the footsteps of Wacquant’s “Carnal Sociology” have invested much effort exploring notions such as habitus and embodiment... Continue Reading →
***My last update hinted at a couple of sources that I will be addressing in my upcoming keynote for this years (quickly approaching) martial arts studies conference. But there is never enough time to get through everything you want... Continue Reading →
The Unexpected Giant Some of the essays at Kung Fu Tea are the result of several days of careful research and thinking. This is not going to be one of those pieces. I started out with a great... Continue Reading →
Guoshu in the Pearl River Delta In a recent post I attempted to move away from the triumphalist rhetoric that accompanies many popular discussions of the Guoshu movement and ask how its institutional limitations (rather than its... Continue Reading →
Transforming Southern Martial Culture How did Taijiquan, now ubiquitous, establish itself in Southern China? What about the other northern Shaolin systems? I would think that the lion’s share of the credit must go to the Jingwu Association... Continue Reading →
Denis Gainty. 2013. Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan. London and New York: Routledge. 208 pages. $55 USD. Reviewed by Benjamin N. Judkins. The passing of Denis Gainty in 2017 robbed the martial arts studies... Continue Reading →
Kung Fu Tea 
Recent Comments