Introduction Anyone who has done much reading on the history of the traditional Chinese martial arts will be very familiar with the idea of “lineage politics.” Even the average practitioner, on either side of the Pacific, usually has more than... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Informants and the Problem of Reliability The study of the traditional martial arts has tended to rely rather heavily on interviews with “participant informants.” Cultivating relationships with informants and learning about their worldview consumes much of a... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Technology, Disruption and Education The current renaissance in the academic study of the martial could not have come at a better time. In fact, it is probably a powerful confluence of forces, both theoretical, political and technological that are... Continue Reading →
Qigong Fever. by David Palmer. Columbia University Press, 2007. ****I would like to thank to all of the individuals who participated in the 2013 Kung Fu Tea Web Symposium on Chinese Martial Studies. A special thanks is also in order... Continue Reading →
Kung Fu and Religion: The Emergence of the Modern Debate. For most of the 20th century western academics paid little attention to the Chinese martial arts. Popular culture did not elicit much interest from scholars who were more engaged with... Continue Reading →
A Guest Appearance for Kung Fu Tea I recently had an opportunity to sit down and talk with Craig Kiessling and Dave Jones. These two gentlemen are the hosts of the "Hiyaa Martial Arts Podcast." They graciously invited me to... Continue Reading →
This is the second half of our two part discussion of Adam D. Frank’s ethnographic study of identity and the traditional Chinese martial arts. The first part of this review can be found here. The “Book Club” is a semi-regular... Continue Reading →
Introduction This is the second part of our series on Sugong: The Life of a Shaolin Grandmaster (2012) by Nick Hurst. If you have not already done so, be sure to check out the review here. Nick is a great... Continue Reading →
A lot of schools have that in their motto: mental, physical and spiritual. But when you get into the school, you just fight and do forms. When do we get to that part I see at the Shaolin Temple... Continue Reading →
Kung Fu Tea 
Recent Comments