Seeking Identity through the Martial Arts: The Case of Mexicanidad By George Jennings Jennings, G. (2017). Out of the labyrinth: The new Mexican martial arts riding the wave of Mexicanidad. Paper presented at the 3rd Martial Arts Studies International Conference, Cardiff University, UK, 12 July 2017. Acknowledgements I would like to…
Tag: nationalism
Research Notes: Jingwu and the Female Martial Artists of 1920
Introduction I am interested in the frequent, seemingly unconscious, way in which the word “traditional” is appended to the name “martial arts” in modern speech and writing. One does not simply study “Japanese wrestling” or “Chinese physical culture.” From about the 1970s onward everyone became a student of the “traditional martial…
Through a Lens Darkly (44): Martial Arts in Pre-War Japanese Schools
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 (postcards, advertisements, old newspaper clippings, newsreels) that contain interesting data on the social place of…
Who “Owns” Kung Fu? Intangible Cultural Heritage, Globalization and the Decentering of the Asian Martial Arts
“Inoue said the Japanese style of judo traditionally focused more on quantity rather than quality, trying to instill a tough mentality. But in Europe, which Inoue describes as “the mainstream of judo today,” judoka train more efficiently. “A balance between efficiency and inefficiency and a balance between scientific things and unscientific things —…
From the Archives: Global Capitalism, the Traditional Martial Arts and China’s New Regionalism
***For today’s post we are headed back to the archives. I am becoming more interested in the ways that the traditional martial arts have been promoted by the Chinese government as a means of generating “soft power” within the realm of public diplomacy and “national branding.” Even more interesting is the leading (and sometimes competing)…
The Book Club: Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan (Chapter 3): Capture the Flag – Spectacle and Rhetoric in the Japanese Martial Arts.
“I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the “natives,” and…
The Book Club: Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan: Introduction – Chapter 2
Denis Gainty. 2013. Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan. New York: Routledge. Introduction In this post I have the distinct pleasure of discussing Prof. Gainty’s work on the relationship between the martial arts, embodied identity, agency and nationalism in Japan during the Meiji period. This is an exciting project for…
Yim Wing Chun and the “Primitive Passions” of Southern Kung Fu
Introduction We all know the story (and those who do not may want to quickly review the most popular version of it here). With the destruction of the Shaolin Temple at the hands of a fearful imperial military and a corrupt bureaucracy, China’s martial arts heritage (skills that had come to…
Through a Lens Darkly (28): Three Visions of the Kukri
The Kukri in Three Symbolic Registers As regular readers will know, I have a keen interest in both the history of bladed weapons and vintage postcards. The kukri, a type of fighting knife from Nepal made famous by Gurkha troops serving with both the Indian and British armies, has…
Hsu-Ming Teo Reconsiders Ip Man, Popular History and the Kung Fu Biopic
Hsu-Ming Teo. 2011. “Popular History and the Chinese Martial Arts Biopic.” History Australia. Vol. 8 No. 1: 42-66. Introduction Technology is a double edged sword. Electronic databases and fancy search tools promise a near omniscient grasp of what other writers have been up to. Yet these same tools can also…
Tai Hsuan-chih Remembers “The Red Spears, 1916-1949”
Introduction This is the second entry in our ongoing study of the Red Spear movement in northern China during the first half of the twentieth century. For a brief overview of the origins of this movement and its relevance to discussions of martial arts history please see here. In the previous post…
War Junks, Pirates and the Commercialization of Chinese Martial Culture
***This will be the concluding post in our brief series on the role of southern China’s maritime environment on the development and spread of the traditional martial arts. Please see the end of this post for a complete list of links. A special note of thanks goes to Dr. Hans Konrad Van…
