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 →
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 →
I recently had a chance to explore and organize a large database of vintage newspaper articles. This material was gathered as part of my on-going “Kung Fu Diplomacy” project. Yet every so often I ran across news items... Continue Reading →
Introduction One of my on-going projects is a co-authored study of Wing Chun’s history (and social meaning) within the German martial arts community. I will admit that in the crush of competing papers and presentations this topic, while... Continue Reading →
Introduction The following research note is part of our ongoing series discussing the career and contribution of Ma Liang (187?-1947). As I mentioned in the first essay, Ma can legitimately be considered a pioneering figure in the modernization... Continue Reading →
Introduction Greetings! I am traveling for a conference and workshop where I will attempt to convince a group of political scientists that they should pay attention to Martial Arts Studies. (If you would like to see... 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 →
An all too Common Conversation Last week my Sifu and I were discussing the public conversation that surrounds Wing Chun. “So this guy was trying to tell me that we have no head movement... Continue Reading →
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