Looking East and South: Philosophical Reflections on Taijiquan and Capoeira

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Half of the article is without any references. Who is this guy David? He occupies so much space, but is not referenced. Is he an authority? 

The other half of the article seems  to be about the authors bragging about their martial arts training. This is supposed to be an academic article, but it reads like an article for a popular martial arts magazine. 

The article needs major revisions.

Please see the attached file for specific problems.

If taiji and capoeira represent martial arts is a matter of definition and opinion. They are even to a lesser degree combat sports, such as boxing and MMA, since they are not sparring activities, which the combat sports usually applies.

Line 27: The term Kung Fu is not used in China for martial arts but has broader meanings, except maybe in Cantonese. Kung Fu is a term popular in the West but not in China.

Line 4: ‘song’ and ‘ting’. Where are the Chinese characters?

Does this represent pinyin Romanization?

End of Introduction, lines 55 to 76: The definition of ‘martial arts’ is very weak and it should come earlier in the introduction as a separate paragraph. The outline of the study, which is before the definition, should be at the very end of the introduction.

The authors use throughout the study ‘I’ and ‘we,’ which arguably does not (or used to be not) belong into an academic study. Half of the study seems to be about the authors and how they brag about their martial arts training.

Line 148: The term Taijiquan is very weak explained. Later on, the authors explain that there are many forms of taiji, but not in a sufficient way. Where are the Chinese characters? The translation is very weak too. The authors should use only the pinyin Romanization and ignore all the arbitrary Romanization.

Who is David? He occupies have of the article. However, there are neither references to place and time, nor other details throughout the article.

Lines 198 to 221: The only single reference is David.

Line 225: Why can’t the authors name the ‘influencer’?

Lines 223 to 248: No references, except David and the author.

Line 277: Who is the ‘key informant’? Any name? Place? Reference?

Lines 284 to 292: No references.

Lines 298 to 302: No references.

Lines 305 to 325: This reads like a popular article and not like an academic paper. Actually most of the article has this problem.

Line 350: I didn’t see any Appendix.

Lines 450 to 496: No clear references and very non-academic language.

Lines 513 to 543: Is this all about David? If he is such an authority why don’t you introduce him?

Lines 545 to 575: No references, except David.

Lines 390 to 392: No reference.

Line 424: ‘Field notes’. When? Where? No details.

Line 428: For example, ‘…in specific pockets..’. Often use of non-academic language throughout the article. Line 688: ‘… very funny’.

Line 440: Where is the reference?

Lines 702 and following: ‘Author B was at a big event…’ What has this anecdote to do with the article?

Lines 773 to 78: No reference.

Lines 786 to 791: No reference.

Lines 881 to 826: No reference.

Line 828: ‘Papineau argues..’. Where again?

Line 863: ‘Taijiquan and Capoeira might be regarded as decolonial pedagogies..’. I can see this maybe with Capoeira, but certainly not with taiji. The authors did not explain this sufficiently, certainly not with taiji.

Lines 873 and 874: ‘Daoism…to challenge the dominance of Western sport’. Did the authors really explain or back up this claim?

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The article is grammatically good but uses mostly non-academic expressions and vocabulary. 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your helpful feedback on our article, which has enabled us to strengthen the manuscript. We have followed your comments closely, and you can see the additional text highlighted in yellow. This includes:

• An explanation of ethnography as our research method and the essential writing style (in first person) common in this qualitative research design;
• References to key texts in ethnography, ethnographies of martial arts and our own work using this design;
• Corrections on typos and alterations of the presentation to be more consistent;
• The Chinese characters for song and ting.
• Adjustments to sentences for better clarity;
• Limitations noted in the conclusions (pertaining to the decolonial analysis).

The article now stands just over 13,000 words, so we trust that you deem this ready for acceptation. As the other three reviewers accepted the article with minor recommendations, we have de-anonymised the paper.

Many thanks for your assistance.

Kind regards,

The authors.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a really excellent paper and I enjoyed reading it.

Review of “Looking East and South: Philosophical Reflections on Taijiquan and Capoeira”

1. What is the main question addressed by the research?

The main question addressed by the research is the contrasting philosophies informing two non-western martial arts (Taijiquan and Capoeira), as opposed to western martial arts and combat sports.

2. Do you consider the topic original or relevant in the field? Does it
address a specific gap in the field?

Yes – the topic is original and relevant. There has been very little comparative work done on western and non-western sports. Most researchers assume a western perspective. I would guess that few people reading the journal would know much about Taijiquan or Capoeira, and an article devoted to them would be very welcome.

3. What does it add to the subject area compared with other published
material?

It is a valuable critique of Papineau (2017) and expands our knowledge of two non-western martial arts.

4. What specific improvements should the authors consider regarding the
methodology? What further controls should be considered?

I thought that the methodology was appropriate to the subject matter,

5. Are the conclusions consistent with the evidence and arguments presented
and do they address the main question posed?

Yes

6. Are the references appropriate?

Yes

7. Please include any additional comments on the tables and figures.

None

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Many thanks for kindly submitting this praising feedback. We have been motivated by your words, and we have now made some modifications to the paper as requested by one of the peer reviewers. Hopefully you like what we wish to be the final version of the article.

Kind regards,

The authors.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I enjoyed this article!

I might recommend looking at Striking Beauty A Philosophical Look at the Asian Martial Arts by Barry Allen for future publications.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Many thanks for your expert feedback. We have considered the idea of adding Allen's work into the article, so we have woven in the reference within a key sentence at the beginning of the paper. In future work on the aesthetics and philosophy of Capoeira, Taijiquan and other martial arts, we will use this text in greater detail.

Kind regards,

The authors.

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a clearly articulated response to a well-formulated philosophical stance within the sociology of support. I would like to see the thesis more clearly articulated in the intro: how exactly do the philosophies of taijiquan and capoeira help us move beyond Papineau's Euro-centric philosophy of sport? I would like to know more about the documentary The Wisdom of Trauma. As it seems relevant, at least a bit more info would be useful. I also appreciated that it was carefully written with attention to defining terms. It would be helpful to say that pseudonyms are being used where David's name is given for the first time, rather than upon its second appearance. There are also typos throughout that need to be checked (including a misnumbering of the references).  Please double check the portuguese lyric for a manteiga derramou. I believe it should be "Vou dizer..." not "via dizer." I also recommend consistency in capitalizing or not capitalizing capoeira and candomble. And maybe--if space allows--take the idea of martial arts as responses to colonialsim (per Lorge and Alter) a bit further, esp to link them to capoeira and taijiquan.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thanks very much for your expert feedback, which we have followed closely. You will notice that the revised document includes additions and changes in yellow, which include corrections of typos and errors, the Portuguese language lyrics, a consistent presentation of upper case terms, more information on the Wisdom of Trauma documentary (and its meaning to the practitioners) and some final thoughts on the decolonial aspects of the arts leading to future directions. The article now stands over 13,000 due to comments from Reviewer 1, so we could not expand on the analyses of Alter and Lorge. Hopefully this does not pose a problem for the acceptation of our article.

Kind regards,

The authors. 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors improved the article according to my suggestions. The article is a bit weak, but I support publications.