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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
“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 — … Continue reading
***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) … Continue reading
“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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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