History as the cure for Ideology Everyone has a personal mental image of the Chinese martial arts. The detail may vary, but there are some undeniably common elements. Grainy photos, complex postures, exotic weapons, strangely vigorous old men. The... Continue Reading →
Introduction I have always wondered about the Song period (960-1279) and its connection to the modern Chinese martial arts (let’s say 1850 to the present). One could be forgiven for placing the genesis of our current systems sometime in... Continue Reading →
***Greetings. I am currently traveling for a duanbing ("short weapon," e.g., Chinese competitive fencing) workshop with Ma Yue Shifu in Michigan. As such I thought it might be appropriate to publish something about the fascinating Ma family and their... Continue Reading →
Introduction Gu Ruzhang is one of the best known martial artists of the Republic of China era. He is remembered today as a pioneer who helped to bring Northern Shaolin to Southern China. Most accounts of his illustrious career start... 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 →
...When I asked why he was not more active teaching himself, he answered in a gravelly voice: In my opinion, the world has changed. I never teach my son and grandson. People ask me to teach, but people’s minds... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News.” This is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we review media stories that mention or affect the traditional fighting arts. In addition to discussing important events,... Continue Reading →
Introduction Prof. Maofu Gong is an Associate Professor of Sports Culture at Chengdu Sport University. He is also a visiting scholar with the Cornell University East Asia Program where he is working on a project titled... Continue Reading →
"The way in which we read the document depends on what we have read before." Evelyn S. Rawski, October 1, 2015, "Crossing from Nation to Region: China in Northeast Asian History." Introduction Recently I had... Continue Reading →
Recent Comments