EVENT DETAILS

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

Dr. Paul Bowman is professor of cultural studies at Cardiff University, UK, and a renowned scholar of critical theory, film, cultural studies, and popular culture. Professor Bowman's talk examines the history and discursive legacy of Carl Douglas's 1974 international pop hit song, "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting," and its entanglement with the popularization of martial arts in media and popular culture.  In doing so, the song enters into debates about
orientalism, ethnic stereotyping, and cultural appropriation, away from moralism to questions of interest, desire, investment in, and involvement or encounters with ‘other cultures’.

Professor Bowman is the author of numerous books, including Culture and the Media (2012), Mythologies of Martial Arts (2016), Deconstructing Martial Arts (2019) and two scholarly books on the work and legacy of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee (2010 and 2013).  Professor Bowman has also edited or co-edited several anthologies, among them The Truth of Zizek (2007) and Ranciere and Film (2013).  In the past ten years, Professor Bowman has been the leading figure in the emergent, transnational field of martial arts studies, establishing the Martial Arts Studies Research Network , founding co-editor of the journal Martial Arts Studies, and serving as editor of the Martial Arts Studies book series.

Co-sponsors: UCI Critical Theory; the Departments of Film & Media Studies, Asian
American Studies, Comparative Literature, and English; and the Ph.D.
Program in Visual Studies.