“Fighting Styles” or “Martial Brands”? An economic approach to understanding...
***Today's post continues our discussion of economic markets and modernity in the Chinese martial arts. This essay, first posted in May of 2013, was one of my first attempts at hashing out these...
View ArticleThe Wing Chun Jo Fen: Norms and the Creation of a Southern Chinese Martial...
***I am happy to report that I am making good progress on my current writing project. But it is still an ongoing task, and one that consumed much of my weekend. As such our post for this Monday...
View ArticleLives of Chinese Martial Artists (6): Ng Chung So – Looking Beyond the “Three...
Note: this article originally appeared as a guest post at "Wing Chun Geeks." Ng Chung So: Looking Beyond the “Three Heroes of Wing Chun” The origins of Wing Chun are shrouded in mystery. We seem to...
View ArticleBruce Lee, Globalization and the Case of Wing Chun: Why do Some Chinese...
Introduction: Wing Chun and the Haters You do not have to be involved with the Chinese martial arts for very long to discover that Wing Chun has the potential to be a highly polarizing topic of...
View ArticleAn Updated and Revised Social History of the Hudiedao (Butterfly Swords)
In January of 2013 I posted an essay titled "A Social and Visual History of the Hudiedao (Butterfly Sword) in the Southern Chinese Martial Arts." As a student of Wing Chun I have always been...
View ArticleYim Wing Chun and Gender: the Stories of Ip Man and Yuen Woo Ping in a...
Why Talk About Gender in the Chinese Martial Arts? In my years of teaching I have noticed that any discussion of “gender” will usually elicit great interest from a certain percentage of my students,...
View ArticleIp Man and the Prostitute: Female Sexuality as a Weapon in Traditional...
Introduction: Masculinity as a Core Value in the Traditional Southern Martial Arts. One of the few facts that everyone seems to “know” about Wing Chun is that the art was created by a female....
View ArticleA Brief History of Nostalgia and the Future of the Martial Arts
That Special Time of Year It must be that time of year again. December is the season in which Disney unleashes a new Star Wars movie on an eager public, complete with a weaponized marketing...
View ArticleForgetting about the Gun: Firearms and the Development of the Southern...
***Its my birthday! To celebrate we are taking a second look at an early photograph with one of my favorite pictures of a Japanese samurai. And essay that comes with it is decent as well. Enjoy!***...
View ArticleIp Man and the Roots of Wing Chun’s “Multiple Attacker” Principle, Part 2
Introduction and Review This is the second part of an extended article on Ip Man's career in law enforcement, and the subsequent emphasis on "ambush" and "multiple attacker" scenarios that later...
View ArticleIp Man and the Roots of Wing Chun’s “Multiple Attacker” Principle, Part 1
Law Enforcement and the Martial Arts in Republican China The intersection between law enforcement and the development of the modern Chinese martial arts is a fascinating topic that deserves a lot more...
View ArticleHow Yoda Helped to Invent Kung Fu: Star Wars and the Martial Arts in the...
***I was surprised to run across this post in the blog's archives for 2012 as I generally think of Star Wars and lightsabers as a research interest that developed years later. But apparently these...
View ArticleLives of Chinese Martial Artists (3): Chan Wah Shun and the Creation of Wing...
Chan Wah Shun and his Place in the Modern Wing Chun Community One of the biggest problems in researching the history of the martial arts is the martial artists themselves. They love their styles (or...
View ArticleTraditional Chinese Medicine and Qigong in the Wing Chun Community
Martial Arts and Globalization in late 19th and early 20th century China. In my previous post I proposed a framework for using globalization and the liberalization of China’s economy in the 1980s and...
View Article“Wing Chun: A Documentary” directed by Jon Braeley
***Greeting readers, and thank you for your continued patience. Today we are going to revisit a review of a Wing Chun documentary that I wrote back in the Fall of 2012. This turned out to be one of...
View ArticleAttack of the Wooden Dummies!
***This was one of the more popular posts I wrote during the first year of KFT (2012). I still love talking about, and training with, wooden dummies. What better training companion can you have in the...
View ArticleDid Ip Man Invent the Story of Yim Wing Chun?
***Here is one of the first substantive posts that I ever wrote on Wing Chun for the blog back in 2012, about three years before my book (with Jon Nielson) came out. Wing Chun mythology is always a hot...
View ArticleEarliest Published Photograph and References to Wing Chun
The Problem with Being “First” I am distrustful of attempts to locate the “first” instance of anything popular or famous. Generally speaking, these quests misunderstand the way that the social world...
View ArticleLives of Chinese Martial Artists (24): Wen Shengcai, Wing Chun’s Assassin
On Legends and their Grains Not all legends contain a grain a truth. Such an assertion is wishful thinking and sells short the remarkable faculty that is the human imagination. Still, grains manifest...
View ArticleHistory of East Asian Martial Arts: Week 10 – Modernization of Chinese...
Introduction Welcome to week ten of “History of East Asian Martial Arts.” This series follows the readings being used in Prof. TJ Hinrichs’ undergraduate course of the same name at Cornell...
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