Spreading the Gospel of Kung Fu: Print Media and the Popularization of Wing Chun
pt. 5
Conclusion
This concludes the first part of our discussion on early Wing Chun publications. We have seen that Wing Chun was starting to make regularappearances in the specialty press by the late 1960s. Bruce Lee’s fame among practicing martial artists helped to promote the style within the traditional combat market.
Still, all of this was happening within the larger context of a community in flux. As Judo lost ground to Karate in the 1960s a critical space was opened for experimentation and exploration within the western martial arts community. It seems that both Bruce Lee in America and Clausnitzer and Wong in the UK sensed this opening and moved to take advantage of it. Lee helped to increase recognition of the style within the broader martial arts community, while Clausnitzer and Wong argued that Wing Chun was the Chinese martial art best adapted to the modern western world.
It is impossible to really understand either of these publications (or their authors) in isolation. Both are the product of a global community in which certain types of cultural trade are accelerating. Clausnitzer and Wong focus on the transnational spread of a very specific form of physical culture to enlarge their personal community. Black Belt seems to be more interested in promoting a diffuse identification with Chinese martial culture to increase demand for a new line of instructional publications. The commercialization of Wing Chun through print media in the late 1960s is critical to its subsequent spread throughout the martial arts community.
In a sense this is no different than what was happening to the other Chinese styles (such as Taiji Quan) at the same point in time. A market demand must be cultivated among potential students (i.e., consumers) before any sort of real cultural engagement can happen. That necessitates the building of a “martial brand.” The expansion of print publications were critical to this process prior to the 1973 explosion of interest in the Chinese martial arts. Nor did all of these publications target the same audience or have the same goals.
-BENJUDKINS
*Photo:
Bruce Lee’s first appearance (of many) on the cover of Black Belt Magazine. October, 1967. Source: Google Books.
