Quotable DM

[Drunk Monk]

Chinese Martial Arts in the News: May 22, 2020 – Epidemic, Closure and The Loss of Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine

 


[/url] 
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese Martial Arts
Calculating the cost of a catastrophe is never easy.  In the case of the TCMA these losses can be seen in the slow attrition of the schools, institutions and infrastructure that support our community.  [url=http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71782]Perhaps the greatest of these institutional losses has been the closure of [i]Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine[/i].  The entire magazine industry has been in decline for decades, but in this case the current epidemic was the final straw.  Gene Ching, the magazine’s former publisher (and before that editor), has been an important friends to the growing field of Martial Arts Studies and I have had the pleasure to work with him on several small projects over the years.  This must have been a devastating blow for him and the entire production team.  At the same time, [i]Kung Fu Tai Chi[/i] served as an important unifying voice in an area so diverse and riven with factionalism that simply keeping up with current developments is a real challenge.
Newsstand martial arts magazine had a profound impact on me as I grew up in a small, relatively isolated, town.  They created an image of martial practice that was almost intoxicating to my young and impressionable mind.  The loss of KFTC Magazine feels like losing another slice of my younger self.  All created things must end, and it has been a good 28 year run.