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, this column also considers how the Asian hand combat systems are portrayed in the mainstream media.
While we try to summarize the major stories over the last month, there is always a chance that we may have missed something. If you are aware of an important news event relating to the TCMA, drop a link in the comments section below. If you know of a developing story that should be covered in the future feel free to send me an email.
Its been way too long since our last update so there is a lot to be covered in today’s post. Let’s get to the news!
“Last year, Indian yoga made Unesco’s list. In 2011, South Korea’s taekkyeon became the first martial art so honoured.
So why does Chinese taiji not win similar international recognition?
That is the question on Mr Yan Shuangjun’s mind as the annual deadline approaches for nominations to Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, established by the United Nations agency to celebrate and protect the world’s cultural diversity.”
As we have seen in recent blog posts and news updates, questions of “intangible cultural heritage” have become a major focal point for the public discussion (if not the actual practice) of the Chinese martial arts. Our first article is a fascinating case study in the lobbying efforts (so far unsuccessful) to earn this status for Taijiquan. It also includes some background discussions of the sorts of headwinds (mostly competition from within China) that Taijiquan faces.
How have taijiquan’s advocates responded to recent setbacks? By pointing to taijiquan’s “soft power” potential on the global stage and warning ominously that without immediate government action it might be “stolen” by the Japanese or Koreans. Then they take some parting shots at Shaolin for good measure. Honestly, you cannot make this stuff up.
Li Junfeng, the teacher of Jet Li and co-author of a recent book on Baguaquan. Source: Straits Times.
The Straits Times has had some decent martial arts coverage this last month including one piece that attempted to do a lot of things. First, it introduced Li Junfeng (best known as Jet Li’s coach) and discussed his background. Next it plugs a new English language book on Bagua that he co-authored with a student. Then it rather abruptly cuts to an interview with Li. All in all, an informative read and worth taking a look at.
Wang Guan, a Chinese fighter who recently signed with the UFC.
Readers more interested in the modern combat sports will want to check out the following article in the Asian Times. It profiles the RUFF champion Wang Guan, who is now the second Chinese fighter to sign with the UFC. After discussing Wang’s prospects the article goes on to profile the UFC’s strategy and challenges when it comes to cracking the Chinese media market, a victory that has so far eluded them. We have heard this basic story quite a few times in the last year, but it looks like the UFC has some mainland events scheduled for this summer.
Do you suffer from back pain? If so Consumer Reports has a few suggestions. Specifically, they think you should take up Taijiquan. They spell out why in a longer than expected article which you can find here. None of this is terribly surprising as a number of studies in the last year have found that Taijiquan can be effective in the management of different types of chronic pain.
With my background I am more interested in the social aspects of Taijiquan practice than its medical applications. As such I was intrigued to run across the same story in both the Salt Lake Tribune and SF Gate. It profiles a current program being run in Salt Lake that uses free Taijiquan classes to help homeless individuals develop a sense of life stability. Salt Lake has a large homeless population and these classes are currently being hosted in the basement of the downtown library (which is a great building.) We hear a lot of about Taijiquan being used to treat physical problems in the West, but much less about its application to other social issues. If I were still living in Salt Lake I would be heading to library to check this program out tomorrow.
For our next story we head to the Shaolin Temple and another visit to the “you could not make this stuff if you tried” file. It seems that a new structure has been built that is modestly titled the “Shaolin Flying Monks Temple.” Designed by an architect from Latvia the new “temple” is basically a huge vertical wind tunnel in the middle of an outdoor amphitheater. The force generated by the turbines allow various martial monks to float and fight while flying through the air. And supposedly all of this has been designed with the “beauty of the local environment” in mind. You can see some nice architectural photography of the structure here.
No news update would be complete without a feat of Kung Fu prowess. For this we can turn to The Daily Mail which profiles a student of “Iron Palm” skills. There is some video footage of his demonstration. None of that is particularly new, but I thought it was interesting that the article went to lengths to emphasize the degree to which he showed no emotion, and apparently felt no pain, while engaging in breaking, rather than recounting in graphic detail all of the stuff that got smashed.
Do you remember all of the discussion during the run-up to Ip Man 3 that this would be Donnie Yen’s last Kung Fu Film? He was done, retiring, and committing himself to more dramatic roles. Yeah, not so much.
A couple of months ago it was announced that Donnie Yen was set to reprise his role as Ip Man. Recently a teaser poster was released and fans were informed by Yen himself that filming is set to begin next year. It looks like this project is now set to become a reality. No one has any clue what the story will be about, but (as usual) the fans are demanding that Bruce Lee make more than a cursory appearance. I guess we will see what the Lee estate thinks about that idea.
A still from the trailer for AMC’s Into the Badlands presented at the 2015 Comicon.
Have you been following Into the Badlands? I will admit that I gave up after the first couple of episodes. But it looks like the show is now back for season 2, and a lot of the advertising once again focuses on Daniel Wu’s notable martial arts chops. This discussion includes dropping pop culture references to everything from “Ip Man” to “36 Chambers” along the way. The show continues to try and stake a claim as being the definitive small screen treatment of the Chinese martial arts. Maybe I will check out a couple of episodes and see how the show has evolved. Also see here.
The Observer recently ran an article titled “The Highs and Lows of ‘Iron Fist,’ Marvel’s Great Kung-Fu Failure.” In this case, the title says it all. The political controversies that surround the project notwithstanding, this critic knows Iron Fist’s true weakness. In a landscape already saturated with superheroes, he was saddled with a boring story.
Next we have a couple of papers that have recently been released. The first is the draft of a public talk to be delivered by Paul Bowman at a Philosophy Festival in Europe. It is titled “Trust in me: Mindfulness and Madness in Martial Arts Philosophy,” and is accessible to a fairly broad audience.
Next, Alex Channon, Ally Quinney, Anastasiya Khomutova and Christopher R. Mathews have released a draft of their forthcoming article “Sexualisation of the Fighter’s Body: Some Reflections on Women’s Mixed Martial Arts.” Anyone interested in gender issues in martial arts studies will want to check out this paper which can be read for free at academia.edu.
As far as primary sources go, Paul Brennan has just released a new translation of The Taiji Art by Song Shuming [1908]. This is fairly early as modern Taijiquan manuals go, and this piece has gotten a fair amount of discussion. Check it out.
A lot has happened on the Kung Fu Tea Facebook group over the last month. We have discussed recent posts at the Zhongguo Wuxue blog, studied the Legend of the Zhanmadao and watched some great vintage savate films (thanks to Rodney Bennett). Joining the Facebook group is also a great way of keeping up with everything that is happening here at Kung Fu Tea.
It is a pattern that we know well. After a debate about the utility of the traditional martial arts (and what that suggests about the state of the Chinese body politic), things got ugly. The conversation descended into public taunts amplified by the media. Students of Taijiquan, the most popular traditional style practiced in China, felt that they had to defend the honor of their system from a group of upstart fighters who seemed to have no regard for the nation’s culture. Champions were chosen and a fight was arranged in front of a national audience. But it was over all too quickly. The master of Taijiquan was left bloodied and battered in front of a stunned audience.
The media immediately went to work. What did this embarrassing defeat suggest about the decline of Taijiquan and the traditional Chinese martial arts more generally? Are its supposed masters frauds? Do the “internal arts” have any future in an increasingly modern world of global competition and fast paced information flows.
As the baseline level of knowledge that informs public debates on Chinese martial arts history had increased, discussions of the first and second National Martial Arts Examinations, staged by the KMT and the Central Guoshu Association, have become more common in the West. These two events have long enjoyed legendary status in China. They have been eulogized in popular publications, films and scholarly papers. They are remembered as the proving grounds from which a generation of martial arts masters emerged.
Lost within the fog of hagiography are some of the serious challenges that plagued these gatherings, including low levels of turnout by China’s diverse martial arts community. Like the Jingwu Association before it, the Central Guoshu Association (even with official government backing) had troubling expanding its influence into the countryside. Nor were period audiences all that impressed with the performances mounted by some of China’s traditional martial artists. Taijiquan faced a public scandal in 1928 when it became clear that its advertised promises failed to deliver results in actual fights. The noted author and martial arts advocate Xiang Kairan devoted much of his 1929 publication “My Experience of Practicing Taiji Boxing” to discussing the various problems that had been exposed through the system’s poor showing in the previous National Martial Arts Examination.
Yet I suspect that few readers clicked on this post hoping to find a discussion of Xiang Kairan’s observations on the Republic period martial arts. Another challenge match has been making waves that are being noticed well beyond the boundaries of the Chinese martial arts community. The South China Morning Post (and many other news outlets) has recently run multiple articles on the recent fight between Chinese MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong and Taiji master Wei Lei. If you have not yet seen video of the fight just follow the link. Trust me, it will not take long.
These sorts of asymmetric match-ups between traditional Chinese martial artists and athletes from the modern combat sports are not particularly rare. A quick search on Youtube will pull up several examples. The same may be true for traditional combat arts of other nations as well. I am not sure as I have never invested the time to do a comprehensive comparative search. But these sorts of fights seem to be a well-established part of the modern dialogue surrounding the Chinese martial arts.
In fact, when this film first came out I debated as to whether I should post it to the Facebook group. Was this real news? It is not just that we have heard this story before, it’s the latest incarnation of an all-time classic.
At some point I need to do some serious thinking about the efforts to retrospectively draft Bruce Lee in the UFC.
While watching this fight I found it hard not to think about the efforts of pioneering Chinese martial artists in the United State like Leo Fong who spent much of the 1960s-1970s looking for innovative ways to cross train in Boxing, Judo and Jeet Kune Do. As long as we are in the Bay Area, we should also recall James Yimm Lee’s call for scientific physical training and realistic combat drills in his long simmering feud with the traditionalist T. Y. Wong. And all of that was just a prelude to Bruce Lee’s outspoken attacks on the entire traditional martial arts scene. One could probably put together a similar list of innovators (and rivalries) in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia as well.
There are differences as well as similarities in all three of these time periods. In 1928 the “pure fighters” challenging Taiji’s dominance were students of more combatively inclined external Kung Fu schools. In the 1960s Bruce Lee and others were cross training in systems like boxing, judo, fencing or the Filipino martial arts. In the current era Muay Thai, BJJ and American style MMA camps have moved to the fore. And the explosion of social media has certainly changed the texture and feel of this conversation.
Still, one cannot shake the feeling that we have been here before. An advocate for “realistic” and “modern” approaches to training issues a challenge, “traditionalists” of all stripes line up, and it’s the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships all over again. This is a drama that, in one form or another, has been playing out for the better part of a century. And that is ok, because it turns out that it’s a story we love. I have had more readers contact me to ask if I was planning on talking about the recent Xu Xiaodong/Wei Lei fight than any other news story that I can remember.
I am not sure that there is much that is new or noteworthy to say about the fight itself. Clearly Wei was terribly unprepared for the fight. It didn’t look like he had ever done any serious sparring. And to be totally honest, he went down fast enough that I couldn’t even get a decent read on how talented Xu is in absolute, rather than relative, terms.
Yet the more I thought about the event, the more I decided that the most interesting aspect of this fight was not actually the two combatants, but rather the audience that they sought to appeal to. After all, we only heard about this event because many people around the globe decided to talk about it first, which then inspired some major media outlets to start writing stories. And I use the term “story” intentionally, as I expect that many people were fascinated by this event because it seemed to speak to issues that were bigger than the details of Wei’s training regime.
Professor Carlo Rotella, a noted historian of Boxing, recently delivered a guest lecture at Cornell titled “My Punches Have Meaning – Making sense of boxing.” I think that some of his insights might be worth considering in the current context. He noted that individuals who are engaged in the professional combat sports very much want to believe that there is a meaningful logic behind the most important events in their athletic careers. And yet the more closely they are matched in skill and ability (things that yield a competitive and entertaining fight from the audiences point of view) the less likely this seems to be true. Any fight will have a winner or a loser. But the more closely matched the two fighters are, the more influence random occurrences seem to have on the outcome of a given match. For that reason, when evaluating the career of a given athlete, members of the Boxing Hall of Fame are careful to look at an entire series of fights over a long stretch of time, and not just a single victory or loss, when trying to decide between two possible athletes for induction.
Both the athletes and the audiences, however, cannot stand the thought that at its core the sort of violence that we see in the ring is both devoid of moral meaning and more random than we would care to admit. We respond to this void by attempting to impose social meaning onto what is about to happen, or to retrospectively draw meaning out of unexpected events. Rotella noted that you see these attempts everywhere, from the musical selections as fighters walk to the ring (or cage), to the way that sports journalists attempt to connect certain match-ups to larger trends in the sport, or even sociological shifts in society.
All of which bring us back to the reoccurring battle between traditionalists and modernists (however the two camps are being defined in a given decade) within the Chinese martial arts. The rich history of sports writing suggests that humans have no problem finding meaning in the punches of even the most evenly matched competitors. Yet when the styles of combat, training methods or ideologies of the fights are very different this exercise becomes even more socially useful. Indeed, it is the very asymmetry of the match-up, the expectation of a blow-out, that might generate interest among the audience.
There is no reason to expect that the average fight between randomly selected Taijiquan instructors and professional MMA athletes would be particularly interesting. While individual Taiji students may be interested in fighting, their art is clearly designed for a number of goals, ranging from self-defense to preserving elements of Chinese culture and working towards physical and emotional health. MMA is only designed to do a single thing, and that is win in the octagon. And if there is one lesson that modernity has taught, it is that highly specialized skills will almost always beat generalist approaches to the same problems. That is true in the workplace (ergo the explosion of new professions in the last century) and it also seems to be true in sporting competition.
This will not come as a surprise. On an intuitive level, it is something that we all seem to recognize. We accept that to be a jack of all trades is to be a master of none. And that probably means getting choked out by a grappling master at some point in your personal training. Yet that reality does not seem to be the determining factor in how most people approach the martial arts. At best, it is one half of an ongoing dialectic.
Alternatively, other arts might choose to address the more fundamental problems that occurred when individuals became unmoored from their traditional communities or sources of identity. If your village in southern China has been knocked down to make way for a new “third tier city” composed of mostly empty apartment buildings and shopping malls, maybe a traditional practice like Taijiquan can offer a new and more flexible vision of what it means to be part of an authentic Chinese community in an era when the very notion of community is eroding.
When discussing the ways that various religious communities have adapted in the face of globalization Peter Beyer termed these two strategies the “First and Second Integrative Responses.” Some religious communities respond to social dislocation by focusing on a very specific set of concrete issues (the problem of social justice in poor Latin American countries), where as others turn to more far reaching philosophical and social discourses in an attempt to reestablish dislocated identities (the rise of fundamentalism in all of the world’s major religions).
The dual trends that we see within the Chinese martial arts are not surprising. Across a wide range of social issues there is a similar pattern in which debates have broken out between those looking for empirically verifiable results in narrowly defined, but socially relevant, areas and others who have turned to a more generalized discourse that promises a single set of principles that can reframe and restore meaning to many areas of human endeavor.
Nor can we expect an end to this debate any time soon. Individuals (in both China and the West) end up in the opposing wings of this dialectic because they feel different insecurities, or they select different strategies to understand and mediate the challenges of a rapidly changing society. Learning to live together in harmony also seems unlikely. The articulation of one world view, or set of values, seems to undercut the legitimacy of the other strategy. Either China needs “scientific truth” to prosper, or it needs to “remember who it really is.” But in practice it is difficult to select “both” for the same reasons that it is challenging to be both an MMA champion and Qigong master. Some goals cut against each other on such a fundamental level that compromise becomes difficult.
When Xu and Wei square off against each other, we just cannot tear our eyes away. Anyone who is familiar with the last 50 years of Chinese martial arts history could probably guess how that fight was going to end. Yet it is that weight of history that gives each subsequent bout meaning. We watch expecting the “specialist” to marshal the forces of modern scientific training and win, while hoping that the “generalist” will give us some reason to believe that a shift in cultural values might provide an effective way to deal with the challenges of the modern world. The fact that we have all made similar (sometimes contradictory) choices in many areas of our own lives means that we all have some skin in this game. We are compelled to watch fight after fight because we also believe that those punches have meaning.
I love that it is the fans who are inside the ring, and the combatants who stand outside of it in this picture.
Introduction
Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Its great to be back at the blog. I am happy to report that the conference in Utah went very well and I had a chance to talk with a number of political scientists about the work that we are doing in Martial Arts Studies and the contribution that we can make to other areas of the social sciences. I now have about two months to prepare for my next trip, but right now its time to get caught up on current events.
As regular readers know, 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, this column also considers how the Asian hand combat systems are portrayed in the mainstream media.
While we try to summarize the major stories over the last month, there is always a chance that we may have missed something. If you are aware of an important news event relating to the TCMA, drop a link in the comments section below. If you know of a developing story that should be covered in the future feel free to send me an email.
Its been way too long since our last update so there is a lot to be covered in today’s post. Let’s get to the news!
It was the pummeling seen around the world. Unless you have been living under a rock you will already know how the fight between MMA trainer Xu Xiaodong and “thunder-style” taiji master Wei Lei ended, about 10 seconds after it began. Yet, as is so often the case, the event itself proved to be just the starting point of a debate on the reality, nature and viability of the traditional Chinese martial arts that has raged for weeks. The fact that I was contacted by a number of reporters asking me about the match in the last week suggests that the conversation is far from over.
As I mentioned in a brief post outlining my initial thoughts on the event, the fight itself does not seem all that unique or interesting. Youtube is full of videos of traditional stylists getting overwhelmed by more “modern fighters.” This is one of the stock tropes of Chinese martial arts culture going back to the days of Bruce Lee and others. What seems to be unique about this case is the public attention that the fight has inspired, both in China and around the world. Suddenly everyone has an opinion on the traditional Chinese martial arts.
For instance, no less an outlet than the NY Times ran an article titled “MMA Fighter’s Pummeling of Tai Chi Master Rattles China” discussing both the fight and its aftermath. It notes that the state run Chinese Martial Arts Association posted a statement on its website saying that the fight “violates the morals of martial arts” and the Chinese boxing association followed suit. These official denunciations seem to indicate the government’s position on the controversy.
In the wake of this event a number of similar videos have started to appear on-line, such as this match between another Chinese stylist and a Taekwondo student. Given the importance of the traditional martial arts to China’s national image, and the fact that places like Chen Village and the Shaolin Temple are important sources of revenue for local governments and industries, its not a huge surprise that the Chinese government might want to put its thumb on the scales of this debate. But one also wonders to what degree they will decide that they must crack down on these unsanctioned fights precisely because, from a law-enforcement standpoint, you don’t want a wave of street fights that could spin out of control.
The Chinese press is also reporting that other figures in the fledgling Chinese MMA scene have started to publicly criticize Xu. Apparently a segment of the population has taken his attack on fraud in the martial arts as an attack on traditional Chinese culture itself. Other competitors have denounced him for both disrespecting the traditional martial arts and, through his actions, provoking a widespread backlash that could damage the reputation of MMA at a time when it is still still attempting to find its footing in China’s crowded martial arts marketplace.
The legend continues to this day. Today, in Chinese war dramas, you often see Chinese soldiers charging towards Japanese invaders with their broadswords raised, killing enemies with ease.
But is the Chinese dadao really effective against Japanese jukendo?
The fact that this unrelated story could so easily be equated to the recent MMA vs. Taijiquan fight illustrates the degree to which the public has come to see the event not as a contest between two equally Chinese, but differently trained, martial artists. Rather it has become a forum on Chinese versus foreign martial culture, and the anxieties that these debates have exacerbated within Chinese social history.
This is just a small sampling of the many articles that have come out on this fight. And the fact that multiple journalists are still working on it leads me to suspect that the conversation is far from over. I am starting to wonder whether we have witnessed a critical moment in the history of the modern Chinese martial arts, similar to the 1954 “Battle in Macau,” which pitted Wu Gongyi against Chen Kefu, or Bruce Lee’s now mythic fight with Wong Jack Man.
The social significance of these fights was immense. In many respects it far outstripped the technical virtues of the contests. As in the current case, those fights became famous because they were seen as critical discussions that transcended narrow questions of school or training regime. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that questions of style and practice became closely aligned with larger social questions that remained fundamentally contested. It is well worth noting that most of these people discussing the Xu/Wei encounter at this point have never trained in MMA or stepped foot in a Taijiquan class. Indeed, the martial arts are a fascinating subject of study precisely because of their ability to throw light on these broader social anxieties and conflicts.
African students at the Shaolin temple. Source: Council on Foreign Relations.
Kung Fu Diplomacy
There were also a couple of news stories in the last month that focused directly on China’s efforts to use the traditional martial arts to establish their global brand. The first of these, titled “Traditional medicine, martial arts – two giants of Chinese culture” is unique in focusing on South America (even though the article starts off with a discussion of China’s efforts to build a global trade empire that runs through central Asia). While we hear a lot about wushu in Africa, cultural diplomacy efforts in South America, while important, get less discussion.
Peru has embraced Chinese culture ever more as the two countries have developed their economic, trade and social ties in the last decade. Chinese traditions such as martial arts and acupuncture are popular with Peruvians and act as windows to a distant culture.
Master Juan Vasquez, 63, has traveled to China over 20 times, with each trip furthering his study of Tai Chi.
Vasquez has been training in diverse martial arts since he was 17 but Tai Chi has been his favorite, because he thinks it has “more complete and deeper” cultural and philosophical connotations than other kinds of martial arts.
For the more academically inclined, be sure to check out “China’s Big Bet on Soft Power” on the Council of Foreign Relations blog (full disclosure, I was an associate member of the CFR while finishing my doctorate at Columbia.) This article doesn’t go into the details of the use the martial arts as a tool of soft power (though it mentions the efforts). Anyone interested in that subject can read about it here on Kung Fu Tea. But it does provide a great overview of China’s soft power strategy, and some initial conclusions as to why these efforts do not always succeed (despite the popularity of Chinese culture on the global market.)
China is believed to spend billions of dollars to boost its international image, but it has yet to see a marked return on its investment in soft power…..
What are the limitations of China’s soft power?
China’s soaring economy has elevated the country as a model to be emulated, but there are multiple strains that threaten to undermine its image. Environmental pollution and degradation, food safety issues, overcapacity of state-owned enterprises, and Xi’s exhaustive anticorruption campaign are likely to dissuade others from following China’s example.
Moreover, experts say, China’s soft power campaign is limited by the dissonance between the image that China aspires to project and the country’s actions. Rising nationalism, assertiveness vis-à-vis territorial disputes, crackdowns on nongovernmental organizations, censorship of domestic and international media, limits to the entry of foreign ideals, and political repression constrain China’s soft power. “If China’s narratives don’t address the country’s shortcomings, it becomes very hard to sell the idea of China as a purveyor of attractive values,” says CFR Senior Fellow Elizabeth C. Economy. Chinese culture and ideas have the potential to appeal worldwide, but only when there is “honesty in the depiction,” Economy adds.
No where is the success of soft power more evident than in the accelerating flow of students headed to China to study various elements of the country’s traditional culture. CCTV (a public television network) often highlights these stories and publicizes them through their various English language media outlets, creating a multiplier effect. This month they released a photo essay looking at two Norwegian twins who are currently studying taijiquan on Wudang Mountain.
“The Norwegian twins are among a growing number of foreigners from various counties who have dedicated themselves to the mastery of Tai Chi on Wudang Mountain.
The twins say there is a growing interest in learning Tai Chi in Norway, but say there are very few instructors in the country. They hope they’ll be able to pass on the skills they’ve learned on Wudang to others in their home country.”
There were a couple of big Wing Chun stories in the last month. I suspect that these would have attracted a lot more attention if not for the viral fight footage which seems to be sucking up all of the oxygen at the moment. These first of ran in the Straits Times. Its a profile and interview with Dennis Lee, who is the current Chairman of the Hong Kong VTAA titled “Spreading Wing Chun culture.” Anyone interested in the current state of Wing Chun will want to check this out. Here is a quick excerpt:
Mr Lee, who is married with no children, says his goal is to promote wing chun culture, which goes beyond the martial art’s technicalities.
“We hope that by teaching people wing chun, they can learn about the culture behind it too, so the passion will not be so easily extinguished, ” adds the Hong Konger, who spoke to The Straits Times last month when he was visiting the Singapore branch of his school, the Dennis Lee Ving Tsun Martial Arts Association.
“One day in the 1950s, as Sam Lau Kung-shing was getting a haircut at a barber shop in Mong Kok, a bald man wearing a traditional Chinese Tang suit and kung fu shoes showed up. Lau was told the man was Yip Man, the grandmaster of the Chinese martial art wing chun.”
The article offers a thumbnail biography of Ip Man and a number of accounts of the Wing Chun community in the 1950s-1960s. As such, its definitely worth checking out.
Speaking of the Wing Chun community, the VTAA will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this October! Festivities will include both a forms and sticky-hands competition, a gala dinner and a trip to Foshan (October 7th-10th). For More information click here: PDF.vtaa.50th.
No collection of Chinese martial arts stories would be complete without a nod to the ongoing legacy of Bruce Lee. Fans will be happy to hear that there is a new “authorized” biopic in the works. This film will apparently focus on Lee’s life in Hong Kong in the 1950s. As such we might get some on-screen glimpses into the period’s Wing Chun community.
“The latest biopic, Little Dragon, will have Shannon’s seal of approval, since her company Bruce Lee Entertainment along with Convergence Entertainment will produce it….According to reports, Little Dragon will be set in 1950s Hong Kong, where Bruce Lee grew up. The story will reportedly focus on the socio-political events as well as people that contributed to the transformation of Lee into the world’s most famous kung fu star.
Finally….Japan is facing a Ninja shortage. That is a group of words that one does not often see in the same sentence. A confluence of factors, including increased visibility in popular culture and the upcoming Olympic Games are putting the spotlight on everyone’s favorite black clad spies and assassins. Unfortunately, actually being a Ninja hasn’t been a viable career path for a while, so the numbers are lacking.
“As tourism to Japan has grown, there has been an increasing demand to see the iconic warriors perform “ninja shows” to crowds – but martial arts squads are struggling to find candidates who are up to scratch.
Takatsugu Aoki, the manager of a martial arts squad in the city of Nayoga in the south of the country, told the Asahi newspaper: “With the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan on the increase, the value of ninja as tourism content has increased.”
Luckily aspiring ninjas have some new study material. The Japan Times recently ran an article reporting on Edo period textbooks that reveal the tricks of the espionage trade.
Of course such works are difficult to interpret without the help of specialists in the reconstruction of martial culture. And given the nature of the work, one would probably need an interdisciplinary team to really grasp the world of the ninja….
In a first of its kind endeavour, Mie University has decided to set up the world’s first research centre devoted to ninja. Ninjas, who have for decades ruled the imagination of people around the world, were black clad assassins known for secrecy and stealth. While mostly confined to history books and fiction, the ninjas have been enjoying renewed interest in the wake of the 2020 Olympic games slated to happen in Tokyo. Mie University is situated in a region which is considered the home of the ninja masters. The university said that the Ninja Research Centre would be set up in July.
Yuji Yamada, a professor of Japanese history at the Mie University, said that the University plans to compile a database of ninja and encourage cooperation between scholars from different disciplines who study ninja. He said that the researchers at the centre would study ancient documents and collaborate with science researchers to develop ways to implement ninja wisdom to modern society.
It looks like its going to be a busy summer for students of Martial Arts Studies. The Martial Arts Studies Research Network just wrapped up a fascinating conference in Bath that focused on the Japanese arts. And there will be a number of additional meetings this summer and autumn as well. We will cover these as they happen, but I would like to remind readers that I am always looking for conference or event reports to share with the readers of Kung Fu Tea.
Michael J. Ryan, who just released an ethnography on stick and machete fighting in Venezuela, recently posted one of his articles to academia.edu which is now free to download. If you have been wondering whether to check out his book (see the photo above) this might be a good place to start.
This article looks at the way that bodily attributes are cultivated and disciplined in the process of being recognized as a member of a restricted social group. This study took place in northwestern Venezuela, and looks at the role of stick, machete, and knife fighting as it has been refined and transmitted by a group of men. Following a description of the different contexts where these local armed combative methods (known collectively as ‘‘Garrote de Lara’’) developed, this article suggests that stepping and seeing are not merely physical attributes, but ‘‘body techniques,’’ or technical and efficient ways of looking at, moving through and belonging to a world. Where contingent historical and ecological factors shape a community’s traditional habitual responses toward acts of interpersonal violence.
Also, anyone interested in the development of Martial Arts Studies may want to check out Paul Bowman’s working draft, the “Triviality of Martial Arts Studies.” I found myself dealing with many of the issues while attempting to explain our project to individuals involved in more traditional, and disciplinary bounded, areas of the social sciences.
Given the recent conference in Bath, the following new book caught my attention. It appears to be historically rather than theoretically oriented, but that just means that it might be a rich source of data for future studies.
The Ōshū Kendo Renmei documents kendo’s beginnings and establishment in the UK, its spread into Europe, and the formation of the Ōshū Kendo Renmei, forerunner to the European Kendo Federation. It explores the link with the UK’s judo clubs, namely the Budokwai and the Anglo Japanese Jujutsu and Martial Arts Association (later known as the Anglo Japanese Judo Club), that were instrumental in kendo’s introduction in the UK.
With extensive commentary by Roald Knutsen, one of the UK’s kendo pioneers, it also profiles the efforts of others such as Horie Etsuko, R.A. Lidstone, Ōsaki Shintarō and Okimitsu Fujii.
Outside of the UK, The Ōshū Kendo Renmei examines the contributions of such people as Hungarian Count Robert von Sandor, Jacques Dupont, Alain Floquet and Shiga Tadakatsu as they sought to establish kendo in Europe and aim for the foundation of a European governing body. The efforts of the All Japan Kendo Federation and prominent Japanese instructors in promoting kendo in the UK and Europe are also documented.
Capoeira. Photo by Turismo Bahia. Source: Wikimedia.
The already vibrant literature on Brazilian Capoeira appears to be exploding at the moment. In addition to the new ethnographies just released by Lauren Miller Griffith and Sara Delamont (both of which were fascinating), we can look forward to a new study by Sergio González Varela.
Considering the concept of power in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian ritual art form, Varela describes ethnographically the importance that capoeira leaders (mestres) have in the social configuration of a style called Angola in Bahia, Brazil. He analyzes how individual power is essential for an understanding of the modern history of capoeira, and for the themes of embodiment, play, cosmology, and ritual action. The book also emphasizes the great significance that creativity and aesthetic expression have for capoeira’s practice and performance.
Sergio González Varela is Professor of Anthropology at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He is currently working on a book about the anthropologist Paul Stoller.
A lot has happened on the Kung Fu Tea Facebook group over the last month. We have talked about the “YMCA Consensus” in the Republic era martial arts, double sword and tradition vs. modernity. Joining the Facebook group is also a great way of keeping up with everything that is happening here at Kung Fu Tea.
Sam Lau with what might win the award for the most used dummy still in active service. Source: SCMP.
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, this column also considers how the Asian hand combat systems are portrayed in the mainstream media.
While we try to summarize the major stories over the last month, there is always a chance that we may have missed something. If you are aware of an important news event relating to the TCMA, drop a link in the comments section below. If you know of a developing story that should be covered in the future feel free to send me an email.
Its been way too long since our last update so there is a lot to be covered in today’s post. Let’s get to the news!
“Sunday Express business journalist and kung fu aficionado Geoff Ho was stabbed in the throat when he intervened as the pair attacked a bouncer at a pub in Borough Market, in what he thought was a fight – but turned out to be a terrorist attack later claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
Ho wrote on Facebook: “Don’t know whether it was stupid or noble to jump in and break up the fight outside the Southwark Tavern, but two a***s trying to do over the lone bouncer on the door isn’t happening on my watch.”
As you can see from the photos, Geoff ended up being stabbed in the throat but was still able to walk away from the scene of the attack.
“Jozev” Kiu Ching-fu training in Hong Kong. Source: SCMP
If the terror attack in London gave us our biggest story, then surely the following is the most substantive. The South China Morning Post Magazine ran a long multi-section piece that profiled six different martial arts masters in Hong Kong. Each of the individuals was asked to think about the meaning of “Kung Fu” in their practice and lives. And each had come to the martial arts from a different perspective. Rather than a single statement on the meaning of the Chinese martial arts, what emerges is a complex conversation about all of the many things that these systems have been and still are in the lives of their students. It is certainly a “must read” article for anyone interested in questions of sociology, history or the southern Chinese martial arts.
“Englishman falls in love with Chinese martial arts.” That is the title of a short article that ran in the columns of the Shanghai Daily. It profiled Daniel Nichols, who came to China for business, stayed for (mantis) Kung Fu and has now changed careers and upended his life to live in Chen Village. Stories like this seem to have become a distinct genre in the last few years, and they frequently grace the pages of the English language editions of Chinese newspapers and tabloids.
A student from a martial art school performs in front of the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, Henan Province on October 13, 2013. Photo: IC. Source: Global Times
Shaolin Temple has announced that it will host the “Eastern Olympics” Martial Arts Contest. Their press release has been widely circulated and news of the event is appearing in all sorts of places. Yet oddly enough, it doesn’t appear that the events will include much in the way of actual martial arts performance. It will instead focus on things like brick breaking and push-up contests. One suspects that “The Shaolin Fitness Challenge” may have been a better name, but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Yup, the viral fight pitting Taijiquan against MMA is still making news. Most of the references that I ran across in the last few weeks were using the encounter as a metaphor of other, non-martial arts related, events. Still, the clash has proved to have staying power in the popular imagination and seems to have taken on symbolic dimensions. Which, as the following article in the Economist points out, is probably why the government decided to squash the controversy.
“Ye Yincong of Lingnan University in Hong Kong wrote that the reaction demonstrated a common tendency in China to view the world in terms of a struggle between Chinese tradition and Western influence…
The authorities appear eager to put an end to the debate. China’s president Xi Jinping is a fan of traditional Chinese culture, and says he wants to use it to promote the country’s “soft power” abroad. The recent criticism of kung fu may have triggered too much questioning of it for his taste. On May 7th Mr Xu’s Weibo account was deleted, as was some of the online reporting and commentary about his fight with Mr Wei. Mr Xu told the BBC that he would keep quiet from now on, and study traditional Chinese martial arts.”
The Legend of Snow Wolf: Legacy Edition – an English-language martial arts epic – was launched on May 31 at the Book Expo held at the Javits Convention Center in New York.
Written by Chinese-American writer F. Lit Yu, the work was first published in 2012 and 2013 in two volumes. As one reviewer described it, “The Legend of Snow Wolf is to martial arts what Harry Potter is to sorcery.”
Yu’s volume sounds fantastic. Still, his most interesting observation on the genre was probably this:
“I love the world of martial arts,” he said. “It is balanced in terms of men and women, rich and poor, officials and common people. If your kung fu is good, you climb higher. It is another world, one we don’t have now.”
Cha’s books have gained him millions of fans. Zou Zhengyu, general manager of Tencent Comics & Animation, said Cha’s novels, written from 1955 to 1972, are known to the post-1990 generation in adaptations of movies, TV dramas and games.
“But the original books have probably been read by a small number,” Zou said at a recent promotional event in Beijing. “We hope the comic series will attract more youngsters to read the novels.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
While not directly related to the Chinese martial arts, I thought that Kung Fu Tea’s readers would probably be interested in the following article as well. Titled “Martial Arts for Women,” it discusses the discovery and translation of a 100 year old jujitsu manual written by a woman and expressly dedicated to the topic of female self defense. This book also appears to touch on a lot of interesting social content, including a trend towards increased violence against women in Japan at the time, and the creation of a Women’s Self-Defense League in response.
On June 8, 2017, I’m appearing in a new original series, MAN AT ARMS: ART OF WAR, on the EL REY Network. The first season runs eight episodes and I serve as a weapons expert in five of them. The show is a television version of a very popular web show, MAN AT ARMS: REFORGED, available through DEFY Media’s AWE me YouTube channel. The web show centers on weapons builds by Baltimore Knife & Sword, the leading makers of stage combat and custom weaponry in America. Most of the weapons featured in the webisodes are from fiction – movies, comics, TV shows and videogames – weapons like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’s Green Destiny, Elecktra’s Sai, and the Sword of Altair from Assassin’s Creed. EL REY Network’s MAN AT ARMS: ART OF WAR expands on the web series with hour-long episodes featuring builds of historic weapons from different cultures.
The series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco for unknown reasons. He becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs (a Chinese organized crime family). The show takes place during the Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century.
Its hard to predict how projects like this will turn out, but the show’s premise has potential. I have always been interested in history of the Chinatowns in NYC and San Francisco, but not a lot of historical work has been done on either community. Maybe this show will help to inspire more of an interest in local history? That is almost always a good thing for students of martial arts studies.
Donnie Yen takes the stage as a blind, Force sensitive, warrior (though probably not a Jedi) in Rogue One.
Donnie Yen attended a panel at the MCM Comic Con and addressed a number of fascinating topics. You can read a partial transcript of the discussion here. Topics of conversation included his mother and childhood in Boston, Ip Man, and the various ways that he tried to push the development of his character in the Star Wars film, Rogue One. All of which was great. But the big thing that I learned was that Sammo Hung has created a school in an attempt to save and advance the making of martial arts films.
Martial Arts Studies. Get caught up now and look for the new issue in just a couple of week!
Martial Arts Studies
As always, there is a lot happening the Martial Arts Studies community. The countdown is on for our third annual Martial Arts Studies conference which will be convening in just over a month at Cardiff University. If you have not yet registered now is the time! There will be a great line-up of speakers this year including (among others) Sixt Wetzler, Meaghan Morris and Peter Lorge, the author of Chinese Martial Arts: from Antiquity to the Twenty-first Century (Cambridge UP). There will also be some new events at this year’s conference, and I look forward to seeing everyone soon.
Capoeira, according to the Discover Brazil tourism campaign.
Forthcoming Books
The Literature on Brazilian Capoeira is hot. In addition to new ethnographies just released by Lauren Miller Griffith and Sara Delamont (both of which were fascinating), we can look forward to a study by Sergio González Varela (now available for pre-order).
Considering the concept of power in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian ritual art form, Varela describes ethnographically the importance that capoeira leaders (mestres) have in the social configuration of a style called Angola in Bahia, Brazil. He analyzes how individual power is essential for an understanding of the modern history of capoeira, and for the themes of embodiment, play, cosmology, and ritual action. The book also emphasizes the great significance that creativity and aesthetic expression have for capoeira’s practice and performance.
Sergio González Varela is Professor of Anthropology at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He is currently working on a book about the anthropologist Paul Stoller.
At the core of Martial Arts Cinema and Hong Kong Modernity: Aesthetics, Representation, Circulation is a fascinating paradox: the martial arts film, long regarded as a vehicle of Chinese cultural nationalism, can also be understood as a mass cultural expression of Hong Kong’s modern urban-industrial society. This important and popular genre, Man-Fung Yip argues, articulates the experiential qualities, the competing social subjectivities and gender discourses, as well as the heightened circulation of capital, people, goods, information, and technologies in Hong Kong of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to providing a novel conceptual framework for the study of Hong Kong martial arts cinema and shedding light on the nexus between social change and cultural/aesthetic form, this book offers perceptive analyses of individual films, including not only the canonical works of King Hu, Chang Cheh, and Bruce Lee, but also many lesser-known ones by Lau Kar-leung and Chor Yuen, among others, that have not been adequately discussed before. Thoroughly researched and lucidly written, Yip’s stimulating study will ignite debates in new directions for both scholars and fans of Chinese-language martial arts cinema.
This first article was published back in 2015, but Daniel has just uploaded a copy of it to his Academia.edu account, making it more widely available to both scholars and martial artists. I heard him present on some of this research before and its well worth checking out. The basic problems that he discusses will also be of interest to Chinese martial artists involved in the reconstruction of historical sources.
Abstract – Historical European martial arts (HEMA) have to be considered an important part of our common European cultural heritage. Studies within this field of research have the potential to enlighten the puzzle posed by past societies, for example in the field of history, history of science and technology, or fields related to material culture.
The military aspects of history are still to be considered among the most popular themes of modern times, generating huge public interest. In the last few decades, serious HEMA study groups have started appearing all over the world – focusing on re-creating a lost martial art. The terminology “Historical European Martial Arts” therefore also refers to modern-day practices of ancient martial arts. Many of these groups focus on a “hands-on” approach, thus bringing practical experience and observation to enlighten their interpretation of the source material. However, most of the time, they do not establish inquiries based on scientific research, nor do they follow methodologies that allow for a critical analysis of the findings or observations.
This paper will therefore propose and discuss, ideas on how to bridge the gap between enthusiasts and scholars; since their embodied knowledge, acquired by practice, is of tremendous value for scientific inquiries and scientific experimentation. It will also address HEMA practices in the context of modern day acceptance of experimental (or experiential) processes and their value for research purposes and restoration of an historical praxis. The goal is therefore to sketch relevant methodological and theoretical elements, suitable for a multidisciplinary approach, to HEMA, where the “H” for “historical” matters.
Paul Bowman has also been kind enough to upload a forthcoming chapter titled “Embodiment as Embodiment of.” His reflections on ’embodiment’, in academia and the martial arts, suggests much that needs to be consider before our conference in July!
A lot has happened on the Kung Fu Tea Facebook group over the last month. We have talked about martial arts themed anime, Japanese editions of Chinese Ming era fight books, and the fate of the Southern Chinese martial arts. Joining the Facebook group is also a great way of keeping up with everything that is happening here at Kung Fu Tea.
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, this column also considers how the Asian hand combat systems are portrayed in the mainstream media.
While we try to summarize the major stories over the last month, there is always a chance that we may have missed something. If you are aware of an important news event relating to the TCMA, drop a link in the comments section below. If you know of a developing story that should be covered in the future feel free to send me an email.
Its been way too long since our last update so there is a lot to be covered in today’s post. Let’s get to the news!
The discussion of the Mixed Martial Arts in China has dominated headlines for the last few months, and much of this coverage has been mixed. The last few weeks were no exception.
Controversy again erupted among micro-bloggers after viral videos emerged showing children and young teens competing in pretty serious MMA matches. Headlines in a large number of both Chinese and Western news outlets reported that the police were investigating an underground MMA fight club that was exploiting orphans. The truth of the situation turned out to be more complicated.
In fact, the MMA training was being conducted at a martial arts based residential school in Chengdu that both adopted orphans and took in the children of predominantly poor families. Such practices are common in other martial arts high schools throughout China, including those in Chen Village and the more famous ones near the Shaolin Temple. And many articles reported that students preferred life at the school (which included regular meals) to what they had left behind in their home villages. Still, this is not the first time that concerns over child exploitation and injury have dogged China’s martial arts vocational schools, and many members of the public thought that the nature of MMA training made it uniquely unsuited to children of this age, even in comparison to Sanda and other Chinese arts.
A very different sort of contest recently happened at the Shaolin Temple in Henan province. This Kung Fu tournament dispensed with the more familiar types of kickboxing and forms display in favor of exotic, and solitary, events. It featured four different types of contests focusing on iconic skills. These included breaking tiles, the manipulation of “stone locks” (a type of traditional strength training device), knife throwing and two finger push ups. You can read about the event here, in a slightly more detailed article at the SCMP. The truly curious can also watch the YouTube live stream of the final day of competition, complete with English language color commentators. While not great TV, students of martial arts studies may find the ways in which the event itself was discussed to be interesting.
One of the more interesting news articles from the last month was titled “Wushu Summer Games”. The piece provided a fairly detailed discussion of a month long summer exchange program run by Shanghai University. Unlike other exchange programs which we have discussed here at KFT, this one was aimed explicitly at western University students who were interested in learning more about modern Wushu, as well as studying other aspects of Chinese society and culture. The program is sponsored by Shanghai’s government and would seem to be another example of the cooperation between educational and state institutions in the promotion of China’s “Kung Fu Diplomacy” strategy. In fact, I suspect that this might make a great field work site and future case study for any undergrads who are currently interested in doing martial arts studies research in China.
Speaking of “Kung Fu Diplomacy”, it turns out that the Chinese martial arts are popular in Burundi. At least that is what this article asserts. While we hear a lot about efforts to promote Wushu in Africa, this article was particularly interesting as it once again focused on the close collaboration between government agents (in this case diplomatic staff) and University personal in promoting this aspect of China’s public diplomacy strategy.
The Vision Times is offering “A Brief History of the Chinese Martial Arts.” Its a popular and more romantic account, but a good example of the sort of discourse that surrounds these fighting systems.
There is a new Bruce Lee bio-pic coming to a theater near you. And that means that you may have questions about Wong Jack Man. Here are six facts that the Movie Pilot thinks you need to know. To which I will add my own: No, he wasn’t actually a Shaolin monk! If you are actually interested in learning more about Lee, Wong and why they came to blows, I would highly recommend Charlie Russo’s bookStriking Distance, which I reviewed here.
But maybe you are interested in checking out the theatrical styling’s of Shaolin’s various performance teams? If so, this review has you covered. Some of the language it uses around the question of ‘authenticity’ is particularly interesting. One wonders what makes theatrical performers more legitimate than their counterparts in film?
“While one may be used to the awe-inspiring character of kung fu master Wong Fei Hung, thanks to the countless movies and productions featuring Jet Li, Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan, this performance offers a rare chance to witness actual heroes who have spent most of their lives learning one of the oldest institutionalised Chinese martial arts.”
Consumer Reports (among other outlets) is reporting a new study on the ability of Taijiquan practice to prevent falls among senior citizens. Not only was practice linked to better balance and fewer falls, those incidents that did occur resulted in fewer serious injuries. This study went a step further than most previous research efforts and also concluded that Taijiquan training was more effective than other types of commonly employed exercise and physical therapy.
The martial arts studies community has been quite busy over the last month. To begin with, the much anticipated summer issue of the MAS journal is now out. You can download your copy here (and be sure to check out Douglas Wile’s article on recent document finds related to the Taijiquan history debates).
Second, I can report that the 3rd Annual Martial Arts Studies Conference, held at Cardiff University, was a great success and a lot of fun. You can see some initial conference reports here and here. Further, I have it on good authority that more are more expected in the coming weeks. Be sure to keep an eye out for papers and slides starting to show up at Academia.edu and similar sites. It has only been a couple of weeks and I can hardly wait for next year!
At the turn of the twentieth century, women famously organized to demand greater social and political freedoms like gaining the right to vote. However, few realize that the Progressive Era also witnessed the birth of the women’s self-defense movement.
It is nearly impossible in today’s day and age to imagine a world without the concept of women’s self defense. Some women were inspired to take up boxing and jiu-jitsu for very personal reasons that ranged from protecting themselves from attacks by strangers on the street to rejecting gendered notions about feminine weakness and empowering themselves as their own protectors. Women’s training in self defense was both a reflection of and a response to the broader cultural issues of the time, including the women’s rights movement and the campaign for the vote.
Perhaps more importantly, the discussion surrounding women’s self-defense revealed powerful myths about the source of violence against women and opened up conversations about the less visible violence that many women faced in their own homes. Through self-defense training, women debunked patriarchal myths about inherent feminine weakness, creating a new image of women as powerful and self-reliant.
Whether or not women consciously pursued self-defense for these reasons, their actions embodied feminist politics. Although their individual motivations may have varied, their collective action echoed through the twentieth century, demanding emancipation from the constrictions that prevented women from exercising their full rights as citizens and human beings. This book is a fascinating and comprehensive introduction to one of the most important women’s issues of all time.
This book will provoke good debate and offer distinct responses and solutions.
Wendy L. Rouse teaches United States History and social science teacher preparation at San Jose State University. Her research interests include childhood, family, and gender history during the Progressive Era.
A lot has happened on the Kung Fu Tea Facebook group over the last month. We have talked about “Japanese pirates”, seen lots of rare film footage of vintage martial arts demonstrations, and discussed when a martial arts meme is “empowering.” Joining the Facebook group is also a great way of keeping up with everything that is happening here at Kung Fu Tea.
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, this column also considers how the Asian hand combat systems are portrayed in the mainstream media.
While we try to summarize the major stories over the last month, there is always a chance that we may have missed something. If you are aware of an important news event relating to the TCMA, drop a link in the comments section below. If you know of a developing story that should be covered in the future feel free to send me an email.
Our round-up starts with one of the more interesting stories that I have come across in the last few months. A rather extensive article in the Torontoist discusses the (re)creation of a Ming-era school of spear practice by a local martial arts teacher and aficionado, as well as his attempts to spread the system by creating a combat sport based on the knowledge that he reconstructed. Of particular interest to me, as a Wing Chun student, are the training spears that he designed. They sound like exactly the sort of thing that we need for contact pole training as well. But setting that personal interest aside for the moment, his system sounds fascinating, and the next time I am in Toronto I will be making a point of trying to check this out!
While he has taught his own students, Guo wants the sport to spread wider, with players setting up teams and tournaments independently. Participating in the da qiang community requires attending an introductory class with Guo to learn about the equipment and scoring system, but after that players are encouraged to connect to each other, form their own clubs, and organize local tournaments on their own initiative…..
As da qiang players such as Wei form teams, Guo eventually hopes to create an online community, where people can post videos of their fights and be ranked by a rotating shift of judges. Guo hopes he can build sponsorships and have the strongest fighters come to Toronto to compete. This competition, Guo believes, is what will bring out the best development for da qiang—forging better techniques and better players.
Be sure to also check out Guo’s Facebook page (linked in the article) for more information about his project.
“Chinese martial arts, lion dance, are well preserved in Macau,” or so reports the Shanghai Daily. This short article touches on a number of topics including Choy Li Fut and the increasing challenge that real estate development and rising rents places on traditional martial arts organizations throughout China. The report was inspired by a recent tournament held in the city.
THE 2017 Macau Wushu Master Challenge held late last week attracted hundreds of wushu masters from across the world to join in various competitions and display Chinese martial arts and traditional lion dance.
Indeed, behind all those hustle and bustle of shopping malls, casinos, hotels and must-go tourists spots, the martial arts and lion dance are well protected in China’s Macau Special Administrative Region, with many local residents keeping on with their tradition of playing martial arts for physical exercises and learning about self-challenge and team work.
“Most people think nuns just sit and pray, but we do more,” said 19-year-old Jigme Wangchuk Lhamo, one of the Kung Fu trainers, as she rested after an intense two-hour session in Hemis village, 40 km (25 miles) from the northern city of Leh.
“We walk the talk. If we act, people will think if: ‘If nuns can act, why can’t we?'”
“Kung Fu will make them stronger and more confident,” she said, adding that they decided to teach self-defense after hearing of cases of rape and molestation.
“The martial arts biopic “Birth of the Dragon” claims to be inspired by Bruce Lee’s rise to fame in San Francisco, but it seems just as beholden to “Ip Man,” the international hit that turned the real life of a kung fu pioneer into an exaggerated action epic.”
I thought that line suggested the evolution of an interesting discursive circle between the myths that now surround both teacher and student. If you are interested in more Bruce Lee news you might want to check out the following interview with Wilson Ip where he talks about the forthcoming “Ip Man 4” and the importance of their relationship to the film.
An empty parade ground fills the foreground. The camera pans upwards to reveal misty hills and fir trees and a thin black line of people.
Suddenly, a shout goes up and the black line rushes forward, revealing its great depth. Thousands of figures are charging now, roaring in cacophonous unison all the way as an orchestra crescendos them into proximity.
This is the opening sequence to “Dragon Girls,” one of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen, which also happens to be free to watch on YouTube.
So begins this Business Insider review of “Dragon Girls.” Its a nice piece about a great documentary. This film has been out for long enough that many of you will already be aware of it. But if you have not seen it yet, be sure to check it out. Or maybe its time for a second viewing?
A couple of English language Chinese tabloids ran the following short photo essay. It followed a descendant of the famous Huo Yuanjia (of Jingwu fame) who currently teaches his style in physical education classes at the Tianjin University of Commerce.
The Straits Times reported that a martial arts school in Singapore had recently been raided and its owner convicted of running a gaming house. A closer look at the article suggests that rather than some sort of huge gambling operation, he was charging nominal fees for the use of a couple of mahjong tables and applying the money towards the school’s otherwise costly rent. As I read this I wondered whether the story was more a reflection of the martial arts’ long association with the quasi-legal side of Chinese social life, or if it was another indication of the problems of rising rents and property values.
As always, there were a couple of interesting “Kung Fu Diplomacy” stories in the last news cycle. The first was titled “Chilean kung fu master creates “mini China” in Chile.” It is not so much a news item as a fascinating case study in how Kung Fu Diplomacy unfolds at a granular level in the life of a single instructor. The interaction of government and quasi-government actors with educational institutions and private individuals was particularly interesting, as was the implied commentary on Chinese and Chilean society. It even features some great “Wax on-Wax off” moments. Secondly, this local paper in the UK ran a story covering the journey of the one of the area’s martial arts instructors (and a couple of students) to study at the famed Shaolin Temple. Its an interesting juxtaposition of two very different kung fu pilgrimages.
The end of summer is a slow time in the academic world, and I will admit to taking some time off in the last couple of weeks. But now that we are back, it is time to assemble a reading list and think about some of the books coming out this fall!
The surprising roots of the self-defense movement and the history of women’s empowerment.
At the turn of the twentieth century, women famously organized to demand greater social and political freedoms like gaining the right to vote. However, few realize that the Progressive Era also witnessed the birth of the women’s self-defense movement.
It is nearly impossible in today’s day and age to imagine a world without the concept of women’s self defense. Some women were inspired to take up boxing and jiu-jitsu for very personal reasons that ranged from protecting themselves from attacks by strangers on the street to rejecting gendered notions about feminine weakness and empowering themselves as their own protectors. Women’s training in self defense was both a reflection of and a response to the broader cultural issues of the time, including the women’s rights movement and the campaign for the vote.
Perhaps more importantly, the discussion surrounding women’s self-defense revealed powerful myths about the source of violence against women and opened up conversations about the less visible violence that many women faced in their own homes. Through self-defense training, women debunked patriarchal myths about inherent feminine weakness, creating a new image of women as powerful and self-reliant. Whether or not women consciously pursued self-defense for these reasons, their actions embodied feminist politics. Although their individual motivations may have varied, their collective action echoed through the twentieth century, demanding emancipation from the constrictions that prevented women from exercising their full rights as citizens and human beings. This book is a fascinating and comprehensive introduction to one of the most important women’s issues of all time.
This book will provoke good debate and offer distinct responses and solutions.
Considering the concept of power in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian ritual art form, Varela describes ethnographically the importance that capoeira leaders (mestres) have in the social configuration of a style called Angola in Bahia, Brazil. He analyzes how individual power is essential for an understanding of the modern history of capoeira, and for the themes of embodiment, play, cosmology, and ritual action. The book also emphasizes the great significance that creativity and aesthetic expression have for capoeira’s practice and performance.
Sergio González Varela is Professor of Anthropology at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He is currently working on a book about the anthropologist Paul Stoller.
Finally, students and fans of MMA might be interested in Unlocking the Cage by Mark Tullius (Vincere Press, due out on Oct 10, 2017). I am not sure what the ratio of personal narrative to sociological theory will be in this book, but it seems to draw on an extensive body of interviews and fieldwork.
The cage door clangs shut. The lock slides into place. The voice in my head drowns out everything else. What the hell is wrong with me?
Follow the journey of Mark Tullius, former cage fighter and boxer turned author and stay-at-home dad as he puts his love of fighting and his sociology degree from prestigious Brown University to use. What began as a personal exploration to unlock his reasons for continuing to train and pursue a fight career evolved into an in-depth sociological study of why competing in mixed martial arts (MMA) appeals to fighters. Why do these men and women subject themselves to the endless hours of grueling training required for the full-contact sport? In MMA a fighter’s goal is to punch, kick, and choke an opponent into submission, and if there is blood and injury along the way, so be it. What compels these individuals to develop the necessary strength, endurance, discipline, and skill despite the risks involved?
Over the course of 3 years, Tullius traveled to 23 states and visited 100 gyms where he interviewed 340 fighters. Although it wasn’t necessary, Tullius trained with the fighters and soon came to realize how valuable that time was, cultivating mental strength by surrounding himself with positive and inspiring individuals. It encouraged him to continue his project when he still had doubts about seeing it to its completion. Finally, Tullius believed that his willingness to get on the mat and demonstrate his trust in the fighters encouraged them to trust him and open up to a stranger about their fears and mistakes, dreams and accomplishments.
MMA is one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and the popularity of MMA training facilities is also on the rise. Unlocking the Cage takes readers into the gyms and into the minds of the fighters. It celebrates the unique qualities of each individual while highlighting themes that appear and reappear. It looks past the stigma of violence and embraces the resilience and strength that are the foundation of the fighting culture.
A lot has happened on the Kung Fu Tea Facebook group over the last month. We have discussed China’s Islamic fighting systems, traditional Turkish archery and answered the question “Why martial arts?” Joining the Facebook group is also a great way of keeping up with everything that is happening here at Kung Fu Tea.
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, this column also considers how the Asian hand combat systems are portrayed in the mainstream media.
While we try to summarize the major stories over the last month, there is always a chance that we may have missed something. If you are aware of an important news event relating to the TCMA, drop a link in the comments section below. If you know of a developing story that should be covered in the future feel free to send me an email.
Its been way too long since our last update so there is a lot to be covered in today’s post. Let’s get to the news!
Our first story this month has been brought to us by the ever industrious International Guoshu Association and will be of special relevance to anyone who studies Hung Gar. The following article from the South China Morning Post discusses a recent project to combine period photographs of the grandmaster Lam Sai-wing (who was quite interested in photography) with modern motion capture studies of his lineage students in an attempt to reconstruct a vision of his original martial practice. Be sure to check this out:
A realistic animation of Lam’s Iron Wire Boxing is one of the highlights in the exhibition Lingnan Hung Kuen Across the Century: Kung Fu Narratives in Hong Kong Cinema and Community, which opens at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre on September 6.
The team – International Guoshu Association (IGA) working with City University of Hong Kong – built a 3D model of Lam with his photos and captured the core motion data by having master Oscar Lam, the fourth generation carrier of the Lam family hung kuen style, demonstrate in a studio. The data was then mapped onto the model. But the story doesn’t end there….
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A child being tearfully forced to withdraw from a martial arts school in Chengdu. The school recently became embroiled in controversy after footage of its students participating in MMA fights went viral. Source: Global Voices.
Global Voices recently published an article titled “The Complicated Morality of a Mixed Martial Arts Fight Club for Impoverished Chinese Boys.” Many readers will remember the controversy that erupted earlier this summer when footage of young children participating in an MMA fight club (complete with cheering gamblers) went viral. It turns out that the children were students, most from impoverished backgrounds, of a local residential martial arts school. The uproar over the unsavory footage (as well as the difficult questions of consent and the participation of minors in combat sports) inspired local officials to begin to pull students out of the school and send them back to their home villages. Still, as this essay from Global Voices notes, the actual ethics of this situation are complex.
We are all familiar with the image of senior citizens gathering in the park for Taijiquan practice. And it seems that every week we get a new study about the health benefits of the practice for older students (increased balance, decreased chronic pain…). But the following news item suggests that we may have to update our mental image of the practice. It notes that Taijiquan is increasingly finding favor with Millennials looking to manage stress.
Xu Xiaodong’s name has been making headlines again over the last week. It seems that the release of some video from a Vice interview has triggered renewed interest in his story. Apparently the interview delves into his motives and desire to expose fraud in the Chinese martial arts. Ironically, it appears to have been done the day before another scheduled fight which ended in a police raid in which Xu was briefly taken into custody. The fact that Xu is still making headlines in September suggests he has a good chance of being named “Chinese martial arts story of the year” come January.
Our next story also discusses the introduction of more “Western” martial arts and combat sports into China. Meet Viking Wong – the jiu-jitsu black belt trying to toughen up the Hong Kong Police Force. Actually, it is still a bit unclear whether the HK police will require Wong’s services, but this fairly detailed article makes for fascinating reading. Any student of Chinese martial arts history will already have a rough idea of the process by which new practices were first introduced to the public sphere, made socially acceptable and then popularized in the first half of the 20th century. Often getting an art taught at a police or military academy was the first step in that process, followed by lobbying to have it included in the school curriculum. Wong’s efforts are interesting in how closely they are adhering to a very old script, despite the “newness” of his actual practice.
Here is a typical quote from his discussion (though its the process of introduction that is the most interesting aspect of this story):
Hong Kong police are still being taught the “pressure points” system to deal with physical conflicts, which focuses on hitting specific parts of the body to cause significant pain.
“Pressure points is super outdated. With jiu-jitsu, you’re in a real-life situation where your opponent is going at you 100 per cent,” said Wong. “The adrenaline rush, the anxiety, it all kicks in.
“When you’re doing that daily, when something does happen, you’ve been there before. There’s no panicking. Nothing will surprise you, it’s just reaction.”
Has China finally found its own Chuck Norris? Those seeking to promote the country’s soft power abroad (as well as the film industry) certainly hope so! For a slightly different take on Wolf Warrior II’s production see this article in Variety. It suggests that the studio’s success in finally producing a “Hollywood quality” action film had a lot to do with the long list of talent that the project hired….directly from Hollywood. That is not a huge surprise on a technical level, but it does seem a bit jarring given the highly nationalist discourse that surrounds this film.
“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has challenged Russian President and judo enthusiast Vladimir Putin to throw down on the mat with Olympic gold medallist Yasuhiro Yamashita in the homeland of the martial art, Japan.
Speaking to Yamashita at an Asia economic forum in Russia’s far east, Abe said he would love to see the judo master draft Putin and Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga—also a judo enthusiast—in some exhibition grappling.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Eric Burkart (left) and Sixt Wetzler engaging in a frank exchange of ideas at the 2016 Martial Arts Studies Conference at the University of Cardiff.
Martial Arts Studies
Ironically the start of a new school year is always a relatively quiet time for Martial Arts Studies. People need a chance to get settled into their new classes before the real action starts. Still, I have it on good authority that there are some important developments on the horizon. In the mean time, here are a few things to consider.
Are you looking for a Martial Arts Studies program that is a little out of the ordinary? If so, Mei University in Japan may have just the masters degree you are looking for, in “Ninja Studies.” The program described in the link appears to be very history heavy, which is probably a reasonable way to the approach the subject. I would love to hear more about this from anyone who ends up having contact with scholars working on the subject at Mei University.
If you are looking for something a bit more contemporary you may want to consider picking up a copy of Unleashing Manhood in a Cage (Christian A. Vaccaro, Melissa L. Swauger, Lexington 2017) or Her Own Hero (Wendy L. Rouse, NYU 2017). Both have both just been released and I am looking forward to reading each of these books in the next couple of months. Hopefully we will be seeing reviews of them in the upcoming issue of the journal Martial Arts Studies.
A lot has happened on the Kung Fu Tea Facebook group over the last month. We have talked about classic texts of Chen style Taijiquan, Plum Blossom Boxing, and whether the martial arts contribute to the creation of just societies. Joining the Facebook group is also a great way of keeping up with everything that is happening here at Kung Fu Tea.
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Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Lots has been happening in the Chinese martial arts community, so its time to see what people have been saying. For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Lots has been happening in the Chinese martial arts community, so its time to see what people have been saying. For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Lots has been happening in the Chinese martial arts community, so its time to see what people have been saying. For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here... Continue Reading →
Introduction Welcome to “Chinese Martial Arts in the News!” Lots has been happening in the Chinese martial arts community, so its time to see what people have been saying. For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here... Continue Reading →
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Matthew Polly. 2018. Bruce Lee: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. 656 pages. $35 USD. Introduction Matthew Polly is perhaps the best known and most popular author writing on the martial arts today. His first two books... Continue Reading →
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