The Invention of Martial Arts: Popular Culture Between Asia and America (2024)

An Introduction to The Historical Sociology of Japanese Martial Arts

Martial Arts Studies, 2018

MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES EDITORS THE INVENTION OF MARTIAL ARTS

Xilam is a modern Mexican martial art that is inspired by pre-Hispanic warrior cultures of ancient Mesoamerica, namely the Aztecs (Mexica), Maya and Zapotec cultures. It provides a noteworthy case study of a Latin American fighting system that has been recently invented, but aspires to rescue, rediscover and relive the warrior philosophies that existed before the Spanish Conquest and subsequent movements beginning in 1521. Using the thought-provoking work of anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, México Profundo, I aim to analyse the Xilam Martial Arts Association through the way that they represent themselves in their three main media outlets: The official webpage, the Facebook group and the YouTube channel. I argue that their portrayal of the art as a form of Mesoamerican culture and wisdom for current and future generations of Mexicans is contrasted to contemporary Mexico, a Western (Occidental) project that is far removed from the foundations of this diverse country. Overall, the data suggests that certain elements of Mesoamerican civilisation may be transmitted to young Mexicans through a mind-body discipline, which in turn acts as a form of physical (re)education. Overall, xilam is both an invented tradition (in a technical sense) and a reinvented tradition (in a cultural sense) that provides lessons on the timeless issues of transformation, transmission and transcendence. Keywords: Mexico Profundo; Mesoamerica; pre-Hispanic; martial arts cultures; warrior philosophies.

Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge: Asian Traditions in a Transnational World

2011

A wide-ranging scholarly consideration of the martial arts. This landmark work provides a wide-ranging scholarly consideration of the traditional Asian martial arts. Most of the contributors to the volume are practitioners of the martial arts, and all are keenly aware that these traditions now exist in a transnational context. The book’s cutting-edge research includes ethnography and approaches from film, literature, performance, and theater studies. Three central aspects emerge from this book: martial arts as embodied fantasy, as a culturally embedded form of self-cultivation, and as a continuous process of identity formation. Contributors explore several popular and highbrow cultural considerations, including the career of Bruce Lee, Chinese wuxia films, and Don DeLillo’s novel Running Dog. Ethnographies explored describe how the social body trains in martial arts and how martial arts are constructed in transnational training. Ultimately, this academic study of martial arts offers a focal point for new understandings of cultural and social beliefs and of practice and agency. “…a significant and very innovative piece of work that is a must read for everyone interested in martial arts studies. Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge shows that traditional martial arts cannot be studied as static entities; the social, cultural and historical context needs to be taken into consideration … this book provides insights for further work in several directions … offers food for deep thought and adds substantially to our understanding of traditional Asian martial arts.” — idrottsforum.org “The book successfully demonstrates that martial arts and other traditional art forms are not static entities. Instead they respond to changing environments by a process of constant reinvention.” — Thomas A. Green, coeditor of Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation “Taken together, these essays give a new picture of Asian martial arts as a transnational phenomenon, ranging from Singapore’s preservation of Chinese traditions to British adaptation of Indian martial arts for the stage and African usage of Okinawan traditions. Since martial arts are one of the most famous traditions to have originated in Asia, it is useful to see exactly how they are viewed or practiced around the world, from a scholarly perspective.” — Margaret B. Wan, author of Green Peony and the Rise of the Chinese Martial Arts Novel

Myths, Legends, Archetypes and Stereotypes in Martial Arts By Augustus John Roe

Creating Wing Chun: Towards a Social History of the Southern Chinese Martial Arts

This paper begins with an examination of two historic accounts of “challenge fights” within the traditional Chinese martial arts. While these documents are concerned with many of the same basic themes, they paint very different pictures of the hand combat community during the Late Imperial and Republican periods. They are also representative of the types of puzzles that scholars are faced with when attempting to investigate the development and social setting of these fighting systems. Given such difficulties, why should scholars care about the social history of the Chinese martial arts? Likewise, what can such studies offer practitioners of the Asian martial arts today? This keynote addresses each of these questions with reference to my recent volume, co-authored with Jon Nielson, The Creation of Wing Chun: A Social History of the Southern Chinese Martial Arts (SUNY Press, 2015).

The Globalization of Martial Arts

The Marginal Movement of Martial Arts: From the Kung Fu Craze to Master Ken

This is a working paper, presented at a Research Group Meeting at Waseda University, Tokyo, in March 2016, as part of the research project ‘East Asian Martial Arts as Global Culture: Transmission, Representation, and Transformation in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom’ (「グローバル文化としての東アジア武術――日・米・英における伝授、表象、変容」）

Striking beauty: a philosophical look at the Asian martial arts

Choice Reviews Online, 2015

Perception, understanding and adaptation of Asian martial arts in the West: a sociological analysis

Archives of Budo, 2005

Martial Arts in Postcolonial Times: Local Theories for Local Contexts

Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, 2019

Background. Up to now, the social organisation and practise of the world's fighting systems has been understood through established and popular trends in sociological theory developed primarily in Western Europe and North America. Problem and aim. As an alternative, researchers can turn to theories local to the culture in question, in order to understand its people on their own terms, as these theories are written largely for and by them in their own language. Method. The authors employed local theory in their analysis of two martial arts associations that focus on the cultivation of national warrior identities. Based on long-standing case studies on Japanese Budo institutions in Poland and Xilam in its native Mexico, they demonstrate how local social theories can assist the understanding of belonging, embodiment, identity and nationalism in postcolonial times. Results. A local warrior identity was identified in both Polish Budo and Mexican Xilam martial arts organisations. The local social theories enabled the authors to examine these identities in terms of postcolonial identity formation in relation to the nations in question. Conclusions. Martial arts researchers should employ local theories as well as the more popular canon from social scientific disciplines. Local theories enable detailed appreciation of the history, culture and politics of the country where a martial art has been developed or is being practised and transmitted.