martial arts

Armed and unarmed fighting sports or skills, mainly of East Asian origin. Unarmed martial arts emphasize striking with the feet and hands or grappling. Influenced substantially by Taoism and Buddhism. Kung fu, judo, karate, kendo and archery influenced American popular culture, including the “Star Wars” films and “The Hunger Games.” Derivatives of the unarmed forms of combat can be seen in parkour, the French sport of scaling urban settings seen in the films “District B13″ and the “Mission Impossible” series. Caution, like other Asian iconography, martial-arts imagery can be abused in contexts such as editorial cartoons. See Asia, use and abuse of images from; Buddhism; stereotypes; Taoism.