Martial Arts in Asia: History, Culture and Politics - Paperback

by Fan Hong (Editor), Gwang Ok (Editor)

The reawakening of Asian martial arts is a distinct example of cultural hybridity in a global setting. This book deals with history of Asian martial arts in the contexts of tradition, religion, philosophy, politics and culture. It attempts to deepen the study of martial arts studies in their transformation from traditional to modern sports. It is also important that this book explores how Asian martial arts, including Shaolin martial arts and Taekwondo, have worked as tools for national advocate of identities among Asians in order to overcome various national hardships and to promote nationalism in the modern eras. The Asian martial arts certainly have been transformed in both nature and content into unique modern sports and they have contributed to establishing cultural homogeneity in Asia. This phenomenon can be applied to the global community.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Author Biography

Fan Hong is Professor in Asian Studies at Bangor University, UK. Her research interest is in the areas of gender studies and cross-cultural studies with special reference to China and Chinese sport.

Gwang Ok is Professor of Physical Education at Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, South Korea. His research interest is social cultural history of sporting culture. He is author of The Transformation of Modern Korean Sport: Imperialism, Nationalism, Globalization. He is a co-author of The Triple Asian Olympics: Asia Rising - the Pursuit of National Identity, International Recognition and Global Esteem.