Introduction Vintage postcards are fascinating because they capture a dual image. On the surface they present a simple picture of a notable location, individual or native custom. Some of these images are historically important and you can occasionally glean a... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Wu Song Beats the Tiger One of the fascinating, yet also frustrating, aspects of Chinese popular culture is the facility with which it generates rich new vocabularies to describe the everyday minutia of life. In some areas, most famously... Continue Reading →
(**This article was originally posted under the title "The Wing Chun Jo Fen" in May of 2014. Co-authorship credit for this post goes to my Sifu, Jon Nielson. This post grew out of a conversation that we had about the... Continue Reading →
Introduction No subject has been more romanticized among students of Guangdong’s martial arts (and Wing Chun practitioners in particular) than the “Red Boat” companies of the Cantonese regional opera tradition. Late 19th and early 20th century martial arts folklore claimed... Continue Reading →
Introduction: Gender and the History of the Chinese Martial Arts Women are a challenging subject in Chinese martial studies. One the one hand traditions about female boxers, nuns, bandits and heroes abound in the folklore of the “Rivers and Lakes.” ... Continue Reading →
I found that I could not analyze ritual symbols without studying them in a time series in relation to other “events,” for symbols are essentially involved in social process. I came to see performance of ritual as distinct phases in... Continue Reading →
Introduction In September of 1850 a Major in the Imperial Army stationed in Guangdong took his own life. Records indicate that he was older and struggling with a chronic illness. Given the state of medicine in the middle of the... Continue Reading →
Introduction Hing Chao has been getting a lot of good press lately. If you keep up with Chinese martial studies and are at all interested in the southern hand combat traditions, you have probably heard his name. He was the... Continue Reading →
I propose to speak on fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold. And overbold I may be accounted,... Continue Reading →
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