50 Years After Bruce Lee: Asian Martial Arts On-Screen and Off
Call for Papers for our 8th Annual Conference! 50 Years After Bruce Lee: Asian Martial Arts On-Screen and Off 19-21 July 2023, University of Sheffield (UK) On the 50th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s...
View ArticleSometimes a Cigar is Just a Lightsaber: Fetishism and Material Culture in...
“The lightsaber has become an important touchstone, both within the films and within our culture…They serve as a source of identification and identity. They are the ultimate commodity: a nonexistent...
View ArticleSugong: Nick Hurst Explores South East Asia’s Shaolin Kung Fu Tradition.
Nick Hust. Sugong: The Life of a Shaolin Grandmaster. Sports Books. 2012. pp. 291. Introduction: Summer Reading for Chinese Martial Artists It is that time of year again. It is the season when...
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 ArticleThrough a Lens Darkly (6): China Rediscovers the Shaolin Temple, Igniting a...
Accepting the“traditional” Chinese martial arts as a product of the modern world. If I were to conduct a pole and ask the average student of the Chinese martial arts when the “Golden Age” of Kung Fu...
View ArticleTraditional Chinese Medicine and the Martial Arts: Another Approach to...
***Greetings. Globalization has been a persistent theme here at Kung Fu Tea. It is a topic that occupied much of my thinking as a professor of political economy, and it continues to be a shaping force...
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 ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: September 21, 2020: Mulan Struggles, Return...
Introduction It has been over a months since our last news update. For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we review media stories that mention the traditional...
View ArticleTop Five Changes in Martial Arts: 2020 Edition
Introduction I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and came across a “Top Five” list…of other “Top Five” lists. It was a wonderfully meta idea and it made me realize how long it had been...
View ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: August 19, 2019: Kung Fu and Summer Fun
Introduction There is so much heavy stuff going on in the world today. Sadly, it doesn't look like things will be letting up soon, and they may even get worse as we head into the fall semester. So...
View ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: Feb 16, 2020 – Kung Fu in a time of...
It has been way too long since our last news update so now is the perfect time to get caught up on recent events! For new readers, this is a semi-regular feature here at Kung Fu Tea in which we...
View ArticleThe Top Five Stories that Defined a Decade in the Chinese Martial Arts
Introduction 2020 is now a few days old, and that means that it’s time to reveal our top picks for the news stories, people and trends that shaped the popular discussion of the Chinese martial arts...
View ArticleStar Wars: An American Martial Arts Film Franchise?
***Like many of you I am spending the evening watching the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise (and therefore not blogging). So it seems only fitting to dip into the archives and take...
View ArticleFailed Transformations: Peloton, Master Ken and Traditional Martial Arts
Fitness and Agency Rose clippers are a key symbol within Judkins family folklore. When I was about ten my mother bought my father, who does not garden, a set of rose clippers. These have lived,...
View Article2019 Christmas Shopping List: Martial Arts Equipment and Long Reads to get...
Its That Time of Year Again! Welcome to Kung Fu Tea’s eighth annual holiday shopping list! These are some of my favorite posts to pull together. They also serve as a reminder to make time for...
View ArticleSometimes a Cigar is Just a Lightsaber: Fetishism and Material Culture in...
“The lightsaber has become an important touchstone, both within the films and within our culture…They serve as a source of identification and identity. They are the ultimate commodity: a nonexistent...
View ArticleChinese Martial Arts in the News: August 19, 2019: Hong Kong, Bruce Lee and...
Introduction Its been a long hot month with lots of Chinese martial arts news. That means that now (before the start of the new semester) is the perfect time to get caught up on recent events! For...
View ArticleBook Review: Deconstructing Martial Arts
Paul Bowman. 2019. Deconstructing the Martial Arts. Cardiff: Cardiff University Press. 165 pages. Free to Download. Introduction Summer is typically the time when scholars get caught up on their...
View ArticleHistory and Myth in Lightsaber Combat
Introduction In the coming months I expect that readers will be seeing a few new blog posts discussing my ongoing work with the Lightsaber Combat community. I have a chapter and conference paper...
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