Kung Fu Tea MARTIAL ARTS HISTORY, WING CHUN AND CHINESE MARTIAL STUDIES. C HINESE MARTIAL STUDIES , GUEST POSTS , MARTIAL STUDIES Doing Research (1): Fieldwork Methods in Martial Arts Studies by D. S. Farrer POSTED BY BENJUDKINS ⋅ DECEMBER 17, 2015 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT FILED UNDER ANTHROPOLOGY , CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS , ETHNOGRAPHY , FIELD WORK , GUEST POST , HONG KONG WUSHU FESTIVAL , KUNG FU , MARTIAL ARTS IN THE CLASSROOM , MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES , RESEARCH METHODS Chin Woo crouching tiger quarterstaff stance, Singapore, 2007 Introduction It is my distinct pleasure to introduce the first entry in a new series of guest posts titled “Doing Research.” Compared to other fields of scholarly inquiry, Martial Arts Studies has a distinctly democratic flavor. This stems from a number of sources. Mostly obviously, the martial arts are widely practiced in both the East and West in the current era. Many individuals were introduced to these systems while students at a college or university and are interested in seeing a more intellectually rigorous (or even academic) treatment of this phenomenon. And certain practitioners want to go beyond reading studies produced by other writers and undertake research based on their own time in the training hall. The emphasis on ethnographic description, oral and local history, as well as the methodological focus on community based collaborative research within Martial Arts Studies (itself a radically interdisciplinary area), makes participation in such efforts both relatively accessible and highly valuable. There is also another class of reader who might find themselves embarking on their first ethnographic research project. With the growing popularity of this field of study we are increasingly seeing classes in Martial Arts Studies offered at the undergraduate and graduate level. Some of these courses include a “research component” in which students are encouraged to go out and join a class or school in the local martial arts community and then to reflect on their experience. What ever their source, a new generation of novice researchers is likely looking at the challenges that lay ahead and asking themselves, what comes next? To help smooth these first forays into the world of ethnography, a number of researchers (most of whom have taught these sorts of classes in the past or have conducted field research) have agreed to contribute to a series of short posts on this topic.