Introduction: The Symbolic Language of Weapons Victor Turner, the cultural anthropologist, famously argued that all symbols are "multivocal," meaning a single symbol can take on a multiplicity of meanings. Humans have a way of looking at complexes of symbols, perhaps... Continue Reading →
***I was surprised to run across this post in the blog's archives for 2012 as I generally think of Star Wars and lightsabers as a research interest that developed years later. But apparently these were ideas that had been circulating... Continue Reading →
***Alex Gillis was the very first special guest ever interviewed on Kung Fu Tea. His book, A Killing Art, remains one of the most readable and engaging histories of an Asian martial art ever written. Be sure to check it... Continue Reading →
As a researcher who focuses on the martial arts in modern China and North America, I do not claim any special expertise in the rich fighting traditions of South East Asia. Still, one of the gratifying aspects of... 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 I am happy to announce that a special guest has agreed to drop by Kung Fu Tea for a visit. Andrea Molle is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and a Research Associate at the Institute for the Study... Continue Reading →
Introduction I would like to begin this week here at Kung Fu Tea by revisiting an essay that I first posted about a year ago. Last week I wrote a short piece considering the sources of the social distrust that... Continue Reading →
Introduction Conflict seems to inspire trophy hunting. In the west this often takes the form of fading photographs of someone’s grandfather holding a vintage Luger. A large number of katanas also made their way back to the United States... Continue Reading →
Douglas Wile. “Asian Martial Arts in the Asian Studies Curriculum.” JOMEC Journal 5 (2014): 60 pages. Can universities preserve the traditional Asian martial arts? At the outset one must start by admitting that this is an audacious... Continue Reading →
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