Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
Forty-five years after film legend Bruce Lee’s sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee’s life. An authoritative biography, Bruce Lee: A Life features dozens of rarely seen photographs of Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between Eastern and Western … Read more
Chinese martial arts or Kung Fu as it’s known today, was developed by soldiers and ancient warriors as way of self defense. Over the centuries, Kung Fu was eventually adopted by the Buddhist monks of Shaolin and the Taoist priests of Wudang. It was in these temples that Kung Fu was recognized not only as … Read more
Kalaripayat is a Dravidian martial art from Kerala in south India. Possibly one of the oldest fighting systems in existence, it is practiced in Kerala and contiguous parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as well as northeastern Sri Lanka and among the Malayalee community of Malaysia. Internationally-known CVN Kalari, from Trivandram, Kerala State, led by … Read more
Chinese kung fu is perhaps the single Chinese cultural tradition that is most widely recognized the world over. What was once an obscure fighting art practiced in secrecy by monks, rebels and warriors in ancient China is now part of the global pop culture as is evident by international block buster movies like Crouching Tiger … Read more