Canton Kung Fu: The Culture of Guangdong Martial Arts

Guo Ye

SAGE Open, 2019, vol. 9, issue 3, 2158244019861459

Abstract: During the 20th century, a version of Kung Fu from the Guangdong region in Southern China became more widely known abroad as a result of Chinese migration to the West, as well as its exposure through popular culture, including the films of Bruce Lee. This article analyses the culture of Guangdong martial arts in the context of this growing exposure. A variety of martial arts sects and associated cultural expressions in other fields give a picture of the traditional martial arts culture in Guangdong. Underpinning these physical manifestations, Guangdong martial arts have derived their ideologies from traditional Chinese philosophy. The dynamic social system supporting Guangdong martial arts provided a platform ensuring that these cultural symbols and values could be created and maintained and exported over several centuries.

Keywords: Chinese martial arts; Guangdong; culture; Kung Fu (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019861459 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:3:p:2158244019861459

DOI: 10.1177/2158244019861459

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().