Couple weeks ago, I had the chance to travel to Toronto for a few days and as I was preparing my trip, I thought I could squeeze in some training while in the city. I have been aware of the Big Spear (Da Qiang) training for a few years now after attending a competition in […]
One of my favorite topics of research is the history of the Da Dao Dui (Big Knife Teams) whose most famous promoter was Feng Yuxiang. Once in a while new photographs come to light as the ones in this short entry. I originally came across them in the Scherl/Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo website a while back […]
In previous posts we have given a quick introduction to the practice of Chinese martial arts in the military during the republican period and the Sino Japanese War. English literature dealing with martial arts practice in the PLA in recent years is at best scarce. The first articles and books that covered this subject were […]
Security forces training While the books used in our survey already discussed in part I were aimed to civilians a few had either the police or the army as target audience. One of the first comprehensive curriculums created in the early XXth Century was Ma Liang’s Zhonghua Xing Wushu (New Martial Arts of China) published […]
By William A. & Mei C. During the early XXth Century a recurring theme in the different introductions and articles written during this period refers to strengthening the nation through physical culture This thesis is explained by Mao Zedong (1893-1976), who became the leader of the Communist Party, in the article A Study on Physical […]
By William A. & Mei C. The Big Knife (Da Dao) is an iconic weapon that even today regularly appears in popular culture outlets such as TV drama series, movies, books, mail stamps, monuments, toys and even graphic novels available for the general public in China. It serves as a stark reminder of national resistance […]
By William A. General Qi Jiguang (1528 – 1588) was born in a hereditary military family in 1528 at Dengzhou, Shandong province. Qi received education in both the Classics and military skills from a tender age and assumed his father’s rank in 1544. He took the military examinations receiving the Juren degree in 1549, but […]
While I settle down and organize my notes after my two weeks trip to China, I found a short film depicting some of the major events of the Chinese War of Resistance. What is interesting is that the whole project was done using LEGO pieces. Despite the use of a children’s favorite the images shown […]
By William A. Note: Updated on 8/12/2017 When Japan was forced to open its borders to foreigners beginning the Meiji Restoration, it also helped spread Japanese culture overseas in the form of movements like Japonism (from the French Japonisme) or the interest for Japanese objects from around 1872 onwards. This movement influenced European arts and […]
By William A. Note: This illustration appears to depict someone who looks more like Gichin Funakoshi father of Shotokan Karate rather than Chouki; Japanese sources point out this editorial mistake was a point of bitter rivalry between the two men. Western influence in Japan and China was a source of national self-reflection triggering at times […]
Zhongguo Wu Xue 