Everybody Was Kung Fu Citing: The Politics of Popular Martial Arts Aesthetics

Everybody Was Kung Fu Citing:

The Politics of Popular Martial Arts Aesthetics

 

Paul Bowman

Cardiff University, UK

 

 

·      Paper Given at University of California, Irvine

·      22^nd May 2019

·      3:00-4:30pm

·      Room TBC

·      Hosted by UCI Critical Theory, Film and Media Studies, Asian American Studies, Comparative Literature, and English

 

 

Abstract

 

Key among influential texts in the movement of martial arts into popular consciousness is the 1974 international hit disco song, 'Kung Fu Fighting' by Carl Douglas. Curiously, despite the significance and status of this song, remarkably little serious academic attention has ever been given to it – even within books and articles that use its instantly recognisable lyrics as part of their own titles. This paper seeks to redress this historical oversight by undertaking a reading of this song, its lyrics, its aural and visual semiotics, its intertextual relations with other sound-effects and songs, and some controversial instances of its reiteration and redeployment in different cultural contexts. Following the main questions that arise about this song in journalistic contexts, news stories and conversations online, the paper poses the well-worn question, 'is it racist?' In doing so, it enters into debates about orientalism, ethnic stereotyping, and cultural appropriation, but does so in a way that recasts the orientations of these debates, away from moralism and judgmentalism to questions of interest, desire, investment in, and involvement or encounters with 'other cultures'.

 

 

Bio

Paul Bowman is professor of cultural studies at Cardiff University, UK. He is director of the Martial Arts Studies Research Network, founding co-editor of the journal Martial Arts Studies (Cardiff University Press) and editor of the Martial Arts Studies book series (Rowman & Littlefield International). He has written and edited many books and collections in the fields of cultural theory, popular culture, postcolonialism and martial arts studies, most recently Mythologies of Martial Arts (2017), The Martial Arts Studies Reader (2018) and Deconstructing Martial Arts (2019).