Introduction Welcome to week four 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 →
Introduction I have been reviewing every issue of China Reconstructs as part of my ongoing research on how successive governments attempted to use martial arts (and traditional culture more generally) to generate soft power and shape the image of China within... Continue Reading →
What does it mean to be political? I suspect that very few people in North America experience their weekly trips to the training hall, dojo or public park as inherently political. There are clearly some exceptions to this. As... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to the second week of History of East Asian Martial Arts (HIST 2960). This is a course taught by Prof. T. J. Hinrichs here at Cornell University that I am auditing in my capacity as a Visiting... Continue Reading →
An Eternal Passion As a martial artists that I work with likes to tell his students, "Hitting someone with a stick is not difficult. Noting getting hit with a stick is...a lot of fun." The history of Western single-stick practice... Continue Reading →
“If it is necessary to debunk the Bodhidharma myth since it is historically false, we must also be wary of the modern materialist impulse to tear aside the veil of myth to uncover the real martial arts beneath. The... Continue Reading →
Why is the Katana more popular than the Jian A good friend recently sent me a link for a YouTube video asking why Chinese swords are not as well known in Western popular culture as their Japanese counterparts. ... Continue Reading →
Introduction 2020 is now a few days old, and that means that it’s time to reveal our top picks for the news stories, people and trends that shaped the popular discussion of the Chinese martial arts in the last... Continue Reading →
D. S. Farrer. 2019. “Brazilian jiu-jitsu is therapy: Shifting subjectivities on Guam.” ETNOGRAFIA E RICERCA QUALITATIVA (ERQ). No. 3. 407-428. Introduction Donn F. Draeger’s made no secret of his love for the real “battlefield” martial arts, both... Continue Reading →
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