Choy Li Fut’s place in southern Chinese martial culture. Let me ask you a question. What was the largest and most socially important martial art in Guangdong during the late 19th and early 20th century? What was the first... Continue Reading →
Sun Lutang and the Field of Chinese Martial Studies This post is the third and final installment of our three part review of the life and contributions of Sun Lutang. Sun was a master of Xingyi, Bagua and Taiji boxing... Continue Reading →
LK Chen's Magnificent Chu Jian. Source: LKChenswords.com Rediscovering a Lost Sword Culture A single puzzle piece is useless on its own. Sometimes it takes one mystery to illuminate another. Such is the case with the following text and sword. Historians... Continue Reading →
A Thought Experiment I suspect that anyone with even a passing interest in Chinese martial arts history has already compiled a mental list of the past masters and personalities that they would most like to visit on the off... Continue Reading →
I was recently invited to contribute an article to a forthcoming volume on the history and development of Wing Chun. The catch was that it had to be less than five thousand words. I have literally written hundreds of... Continue Reading →
The Chinese martial studies community suffered a great loss with the recent passing of Brian Kennedy (1958-2019) at the age of 61. Any such event is a tragedy, and this was all the more unexpected as Brian was active... Continue Reading →
Of Boy Scouts and Kendo A recent post focused on the role of the global scouting movement in promoting the spread of the Asian martial arts during the first half of the 20th century. In that essay I mentioned... Continue Reading →
Kai Filipiak. 2012. “'Saving Lives'—Lu Kun’s Manual on City Defense.” Journal of Chinese Military History. 139-188. Introduction Winter is a great time to catch up on one’s reading. And if you run a blog that means... Continue Reading →
Introduction Given that this post will be released on Columbus Day, I thought that it might be fun to think about some "new world" martial arts history. Lau Bun was both a colorful and critical figure in the early... Continue Reading →
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