Body, Perception and Cultural Learning: An Ethnographic Study on Martial Arts

• Main Authors: Lin, Ting-Hao, 林廷豪
• Other Authors: Chien, Mei-Ling
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ss36u9

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 人文社會學系族群與文化碩士班 === 106 === Written in the form of ethnography of Taiwanese martial arts, this thesis discusses the sensory experience (身體感) and perceptual process of practitioners in a society of martial arts in Taoyuan. Compared with the past studies and discussions on cultures of martial arts, this thesis is based on anthropological approaches, theories and the studies of sensory experience, combining participant observation, culture learning experience, the learning experience of disciples (師兄姐), in-depth interviews and my personal learning experience to explore the experience of contemporary martial arts practitioners. This thesis discovered that, via the medium of a body, a practitioner meticulously experiences the concept and sensory knowledge of the martial arts, demonstrates and internalizes the complex values and viewpoints. Despite learning under the same master, different practitioners still experience distinctively owing to personal backgrounds and understandings, shaping the diverse presentations of martial arts. The sensory experience sculpted by the learning of martial arts also affects the practitioner’s families, work and other interpersonal and social relations. Chapter one discusses the research interest, explores the related literature to point out the basis of theories and the shortage of the research, and describes the subjects and the field. Chapter two mainly starts off from my experience, looking into the reasons and processes of becoming a practitioner of martial arts and the most basic and yet most important concept of “relaxation.” Chapter three digs into the sensory knowledge of martial arts: describing the practitioners’ delicate command of their body. Via the method of “playing,” practitioners make various experimental attempts and the sensory experience gives them feedbacks and possibilities of attempts. Chapter four discusses the philosophy of roundness (圓) and how martial arts incorporates the concept of roundness and practices it in different ways. Apart from the practitioners’ application of roundness to martial arts, they also constantly adapt themselves to the sensory experience of “martial arts according to the changes of their surroundings. Continuing the observation of the previous three chapters, chapter five focuses on the “mind” (心) of martial arts to discuss the importance of mind and the interrelationship between a mind and a body during the process of practicing martial arts. Chapter six discusses how practitioners transform themselves and how they bring this transformation back to their daily lives to adapt themselves or to change the environments around them. This chapter also presents that martial arts are constantly adaptable cultures which give modern people more possibility to adapt themselves to the society. In the final chapter, I tried to discuss and analyze the ethnographic materials, the related studies and the anthropological theories in the past. I would like to explore how this sort of material can present the culture of martial arts in different aspects to contribute to the academic society. Keywords: the sensory experience, culture learning, cultures of martial arts, ethnography of Taiwanese martial arts