Nothing lasts forever and VMP will cease publishing JAMA, while continuing to publish books and articles. .
Below is a guest post by the publisher Michal DeMarco.
Guest
Post
by Michael DeMarco, M.A.
Via Media Publishing
Twenty-five years ago, there were few martial art
publications available to be read by anyone interesting in seriously learning
about combatives. What was available usually oozed of hype and misinformation.
Many of the early writings were not reliable for obtaining facts about Asian
martial traditions, their theory or practice. Because of this sad state, in
1991, I decided to start Via Media Publishing and founded the quarterly Journal
of Asian Martial Arts.
The initial goal was to setup a periodical that met academic
standards. Articles had to provide references to ensure included “facts” were
not pulled out of the air. As we all know through recent new media coverage of contemporary
politics, there is great confusion over what is fact and fiction. In reality,
it is not a mystery: either a statement is a fact, or it isn’t. A theory, a guess, or a
probability are not facts. Anyone serious writer should clearly state what they
know with certainty, and what remains
unsure. This holds true across the board—in our case, writings on Asian martial
arts.
The major difficulty in starting the journal was finding
authors who understood the different between scholarly verses popular writing;
the former seeing knowledge while the later is primarily produced for
entertainment. The writing style needs to fit the purpose, so there are a variety
of writing styles. Some write to make book sales or increase school enrollment.
Cloaking a sales piece in an academic format does not work as truth is
compromised by the intent.
The Journal of Asian Martial Arts was published for over
twenty years. Besides providing well-research articles on a variety of topics
by scholar-practitioners, the journal presented a new way to approach the study
and practice of martial arts. Other publications and writers took note, and
their quality of content improved. Today, much has been published on the
martial arts and a good share is of very high quality.
Here is an interesting fact! — Popular writings about
martial arts sell more than scholarly writings. The mass market is drawn toward
entertainment. (“Are you not entertained?” asked the Gladiator).
The decision
to cease publishing the Journal of Asian Martial Arts was made largely because
there was not enough support. In order to keep the material available for
serious practitioners and researchers, we have been publishing anthologies
under specific topics falling under the main categories of China, Japan,
Korean, S.E. Asian, and Other areas. At the same time, we have published a few
new books, the newest being Laoshi’s Legacy: Emergence
from Shadow by Jan Kauskas. This is a fictional work based on solid experience,
focusing on the taijiquan of Zheng Manqing (Cheng Man-ch’ing), and is an
enjoyable read that provides great insights into teaching and learning any
martial art.
Because much of the journal material is now included in the
anthologies, we will soon close our journal website that offers all the
individual articles at low-cost. If anyone wants to purchase an article or two,
now is the time to buy! It has been a joy to produce the journal and books over the years. We hope the readings have benefited many in their research and practice, and will continue to inspire physical and mental training, as well as research regarding the martial arts. The journal’s logo is an abstract of a balanced pen and sword tip, illustrating a need for nurturing the martial and the cultured in the practitioner.
Above all, we hope others will step up to further recognition of the need for including maturity and responsibility in martial art practice. Many have lost the Way of the Japanese “do” and the Chinese “dao”. There is great value in participating in whatever way you can, as does the CookDingsKitchen blog.
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