Author Paul Bowman recasts our understanding of the history of martial arts, showing how Western media representations in the 1970s not only popularized the concept but actively created 'martial arts' as a recognizable idea and cultural phenomenon.

Paul Bowman is Professor of Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. He is the author of many works of film, media and cultural studies, on popular culture, postcolonialism, cultural theory, and martial arts. He is founder and director of the Martial Arts Studies Research Network.

• Acknowledgements


• Preface


• Chapter 1: Introduction--The Invention of Martial Arts: Popular Culture between Asia and America


• Chapter 2: Modernity, Media and Martial Arts, or: From Beginning at the Origin to the Origin of the Beginning


• Chapter 3: Martial Arts into Media Culture


• Chapter 4: Everybody Was Kung Ku Citing: Inventing Popular Martial Arts Aesthetics


• Chapter 5: From Linear History to Discursive Constellation


• Chapter 6: The Meaning of Martial Arts


• Chapter 7: I Want My TKD: Martial Arts in Music Videos


• Chapter 8: Martial Ads


• Chapter 9: The Invention of Tradition in Martial Arts


• Chapter 10: Inventing Martial Subjects: Toxic Masculinity, MMA and Media Representations


• Conclusion: After the Invention


• References


• Index