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Abstract: : Toronto's Hong Luck Kung Fu Club has promulgated mar tial arts, lion dance and percussion music since 1961. Drawing on my fieldwork there, this paper argues that these practices structure-and are structured by-a combative approach to rhythm. Students begin with martial arts and train without music, but percussion accompanies public demonstrations, creating an unfamiliar situation that I position as a distinct phase of the transmission process. Mar tial arts performances are both fuelled by musical energy and challenged by the requirement of remaining asynchronous to it. Lion dancers, however, treat drum patterns like signals coordinating manoeuvres on the performance battlefield.
Résumé: Le club de kung fu Hong Luck de Toronto met de l'avant, depuis 1961, les arts martiaux, la danse du lion et la musique ? base de percussions. ? partir du travail de terrain que j'y ai effectu?, j'avance dans cet article que ces pratiques structurent-et sont structur?es par-une approche combattive du rythme. Les ?tudiants commencent par les arts martiaux et s'entra?nent sans musique, mais les percussions qui accompagnent les d?monstrations publiques cr?ent une situation in?dite que je situe comme une phase distincte du processus de transmission. Les performances d'arts martiaux sont aliment?es par l'?nergie de la musique en m?me temps qu'elles sont contrari?es par l'exigence de rester asynchrones ? celle-ci. Par contre, ceux qui effectuent la danse du lion se servent des sch?mas rythmiques comme de signaux pour coordonner leurs man?uvres sur ce champ de bataille qu'est la repr?sentation.
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In the fall of 2008, I walked through the door of Toronto, Canada's Hong Luck Kung Fu Club (...) and expressed my desire to study the gong and drum music (...) used to accompany lion dance (...) and martial arts (...).1 The teacher running the small beginner class that night accepted my agenda with little more than a raised eyebrow, but then informed me that I would have to start by training in the basics of Chinese kung fu, just like everyone else. This simple exchange marked the beginning of my fieldwork at Hong Luck. It also provided my first insight into a transmission process where kung fu training is both the physical foundation and core context for a group of interrelated disciplines. These...