American conceptualization of Asian martial arts: An interpretive analysis of the narrative of Taekwondo participants

The purpose of this study is to investigate American conceptualizations of Asian martial arts practice. The study collected American martial arts literature that were known as influential to the American martial arts community and analyzed them to grasp how American literature conceptualizes Asian martial arts practice in American society. On the other hand, the study collected narratives of American martial arts practitioners to investigate how ordinary American participants interpret martial arts practice in the contexts of their own social lives. The informants were selected from the population of over 35 year old adult male and female taekwondo black belts. Through the open-ended interview, narratives were collected from 18 informants (male: 9, female: 9).;American martial arts literature conceptualized Asian martial arts as a spiritual discipline and rejected the practically oriented perspective of martial arts including the competitive and sport-oriented modern version of martial arts. American martial arts literature emphasized the value of the traditional Asian cultures of martial arts practice and viewed some Asian world views and philosophies as a significant part of the arts. American literature accepted Japanese perspectives of martial arts as the main referential framework and neglected to discuss other cultures of martial arts, particularly the Chinese and Korean resources.;American middle-aged martial arts practitioners viewed martial arts training as self-defense, physical exercise, and a medium for self-improvement. They valued martial arts training as offering meaningful experiences that help them enhance self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-discipline. Adult female practitioners interpreted martial arts training to propose challenging experiences that help them reflect on their social self and personal potentials and reconceptualize themselves as more confident and self-centered beings. Adult participants defined their physical condition for the training but at the same time, reframed the training for their age and gender. They attempted to find meanings for their own purposes and conditions of life from the martial arts training.;Whereas American martial arts literature conceptualized martial arts as a spiritual, philosophical, and educational discipline, ordinary American practitioners defined their training in practical, physical, and personally meaningful ways. The spiritual version of martial arts framed by literature was not accepted by the ordinary practitioners. American practitioners' narratives did not reveal a significant influence from the languages of American martial arts literature.