***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... 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... 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. ... Continue Reading →
A Dance Studio in a Galaxy Far, Far Away “You, put your phone down!” I looked around, unsure about the sudden exclamation from the instructor who had just been summing up the essential concepts of the drills... Continue Reading →
Situating the Martial Culture of Shii-cho All of the Jedi I know speak with an accent. A particularly keen observer might notice them as they walk into the Central Martial Arts Academy, shedding their boots... Continue Reading →
I recently had a chance to sit down with Itamar Zadoff who runs the "No Wax Needed" podcast. Itamar is one of the up and coming martial arts studies scholars who I had the pleasure to meet at our... Continue Reading →
“The lightsaber has become an important touchstone, both within the films and within our culture…They serve as a source of identification and identity. They are the ultimate commodity: a nonexistent object whose replicas sell for hundreds of dollars. This... 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 →
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we review media stories that mention or affect the traditional fighting arts. In addition to discussing... Continue Reading →
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