"The legacy of masters": memory and creation in Chinese martial arts

• Grant number: 24/03398-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Fernanda Arêas Peixoto
• Grantee: Gabriel Guarino Sant'Anna Lima de Almeida
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07886-8 - Arts and semantics of creation and memory, AP.TEM

Abstract

This project aims to examine Chinese martial arts from the ideas of creation and memory, in dialogue with the Thematic Project Arts and semantics of creation and memory (Process No. 2020/07886-8) in the post-doctoral level. The general objective of this investigation is to think about the conceptions of creation in Chinese martial arts, in attention to the way in which differences and technical variety take place in it, despite the argument made by some scholars that there is no concept of creation in Chinese civilization, as that in their arts processes of repetition, imitation and reiteration of tradition prevailed. Through the encounter between sinology and anthropology, I intend to investigate this general problem - the status of creation and memory in Chinese martial arts - as well as other problems that this art presents: the notions of kinship and expanded family, established in kungfu/taijiquan schools from a Confucian ethics, as well as the relationships between nature, humanity and animality that permeate the imitation and learning of body techniques. The ethnography will focus on the Shàoshèng Centro de Cultura Oriental and its masters, thinking about the circulation and production of the body techniques taught there - a path that leads to the analysis of both the Chinese genealogies of their fighting styles, as well as the composition of the technical inventories that are brought and maintained in the city of São Paulo. Contributing to the agenda of the aforementioned Thematic Project and relying on it to expand the findings, this research seeks to think about a native theory of creation in Chinese martial arts, with focus on the conceptions of masters and apprentices regarding the constitution of martial lineages, families and styles.