of elegant techniques over direct power and toughness occasionally man-
ifests itself, the shift appears complete and permanent. This change has
empowered women as action heroes (also aided by the Hong Kong gang-
sterfilms) and raised East Asian men to nearly an equal level of mascu-
linity with Caucasian or African American men. For the most part this has
been accomplished through the influx of Chinese, rather than Japanese or
Korean, martial arts.
Beyond the direct realm of violence, martial arts has expanded into
the realms of self-cultivation and health promotion. Chinese martial
arts, usually Taiji, has been used in physical rehabilitation and as a gentle
exercise program. The health-promoting effects of Chinese martial arts,
particularly“internal”styles, have yet to be subjected to rigorous testing.
Many practitioners proceed from a faith in the importance of cultivating
qi, even in the existence ofqi, that is difficult to challenge. These practices
shade quickly into qigong, opening up a different set of issues separate
from martial arts. Even absent the medium of qigong, Chinese martial
arts connects with Traditional Chinese Medicine through some practices
that use acupuncture points as targets and because martial artists have a
regular need for medical care. Indeed, one of the greatest living scholars of
martial arts, Ma Mingda, is not only a scholar but also a martial artist and
Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner.
A further only partly explored topic in martial arts is specific to East Asia:
the relationship between martial arts and religion. Meir Shahar’s book on
Shaolin is a beginning point, and several Chinese studies have explored other
aspects of Buddhism and Daoism’s respective connections to the martial
arts, but more certainly needs to be done. Shaolin was not the only Buddhist
institution with connections to martial arts, and Daoist institutions like
those on Mount Wudang have also manifested some distinctive martial
arts traditions. The starting point for any of these topics is to discard the
representations of these connections in Chinesefiction and search for histor-
ical documents.
Martial arts provides a useful perspective on cultures and societies. In
China, martial arts has maintained itself as a distinctive cultural artifact
thatfigures prominently in the society’sfiction. Chinese physical culture in
the form of martial arts is widely known around the world in entertain-
ment as well as in practice. For scholars, the difficulties in researching
martial arts stems not from lack of awareness of the importance of martial
arts in Chinese culture but from the belief that there are few historical
sources to work from. The material exists, and the door is open to research
on a wide variety of subjects through the martial arts.
242 Conclusion