Who are the serious Chinese martial arts authors of today?

[kal]

For many years, Chinese martial arts suffered from a lack of solid and reutable reading material. Very little primary source material was available in English, and the vast majority of books around in the 70s, 80s and 90s were generally all circulating and repeating the same old rubbish and myths.

Japanese martial arts were the same. After Donn Draeger's pioneering work, there really wasn't much reliable stuff out there on the classical martial arts of Japan. That's changed in the last 5-10 years though, with such excellent and knowledgable writers like Ellis Amdur, Meik and Dianne Skoss, Dave Lowry and Karl Friday. After a long, long gap, they are continuing the legacy of Draeger.

I'm noticing a similar trend now in the CMA world. I have been very impressed with the work of the likes of Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo, Meir Shahar and Jarek Szymanski. We need more like them to start correcting all the crap that's built up about CMA over the past 40 years or so.

Can anyone recommend any other authors like that?

 

[HG1]

Add Robert W. Smith to your list: Chinese Boxing-Masters/Methods & Martial Musings are great reads.

 

[DavidCC]

For many years, Chinese martial arts suffered from a lack of solid and reutable reading material. Very little primary source material was available in English, and the vast majority of books around in the 70s, 80s and 90s were generally all circulating and repeating the same old rubbish and myths.

Japanese martial arts were the same. After Donn Draeger's pioneering work, there really wasn't much reliable stuff out there on the classical martial arts of Japan. That's changed in the last 5-10 years though, with such excellent and knowledgable writers like Ellis Amdur, Meik and Dianne Skoss, Dave Lowry and Karl Friday. After a long, long gap, they are continuing the legacy of Draeger.

I'm noticing a similar trend now in the CMA world. I have been very impressed with the work of the likes of Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo, Meir Shahar and Jarek Szymanski. We need more like them to start correcting all the crap that's built up about CMA over the past 40 years or so.

Can anyone recommend any other authors like that?

Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey

this one looks very interesting
Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature

 

[Flying Crane]

Professor Yang Jwing-Ming has a lot of books on the market covering aspects of Tai Chi, Chin-na, Shaolin, Fukien White Crane, chi-gung, and whatnot. They often are fairly technical, but I think he knows his stuff pretty well. He has practically written a library all by himself.

 

[kal]

Add Robert W. Smith to your list: Chinese Boxing-Masters/Methods & Martial Musings are great reads.

Absolutely.

Robert W Smith is like the CMA equivalent of Donn Draeger -- a pioneer.

But since he broke the ground, there has been a real gap for something like 30 or 40 years.

OK sure, there have been plenty of good technical books written (e.g. Yang Jwing Ming), but personally I find those a total waste of time unless you're a student of that particular style.

Nowadays, I am far more interested in (serious) history and traditions than in the "how to" books. It is in this area where there is still a huge gap. Still far too many people talking about deadly monks ...

EDIT: I just remembered to add Adam Hsu's two books to my list: "Lone Sword Against the Cold Cold Sky" and "The Sword Polisher's Record." Both excellent IMO.

 

[Rabu]

I would suggest the following individuals:

Stanley Henning, Brian Kennedy, Elizabeth Guo.

Each of them are extraordinary in their pursuit of verifiable information regarding Martial arts history in China.

Stan Henning is a frequent submitter of well done and thought out articles for 'The Journal of Asian Martial Arts".

Brian Kennedy posts on this forum and partners with Elizabeth Guo.

Hope you have a chance to read some of their articles.

Best regards,

Rob

 

[xiongnu_lohon]

agree with all of the above, click on "resources" in my signature and you'll see a couple of books I like.

 

[Rabu]

Right,

Forgot to mention Ma Ming Da.

Best regards,

Rob

 

[pstarr]

Okay- I'll blow my own horn here. "The Making Of A Butterfly" is my first title (available on Amazon and in bookstores) and my newest book, "Martial Mechanics" will be released in the Spring of '08...I think you'll like it.

 

[Mei Hua]

A good place to look is here, many of the books here are written by experts in their field

 

[TaiChiTJ]

And at the above site if you look around you will find this title;

http://www.plumpub.com/sales/thoughts/bk_springautumn.htm


I intend to read this someday. If anyone else has already read I'd love to hear your opinion!


:ultracool

 

[Xue Sheng]

I assume you mean living so

Adam Hsu, Phillp Starr, Chen Zhenglei to name a few