Thank you for your interest in submitting your work to KungFuMagazine.com. Much of the magazines' contents are freelance-written. If you are looking for print publication, Kung Fu Tai Chi ceased publication in May 2020.

Topics:

Topics should be of interest to advanced Chinese Martial Arts practitioner as well as the rank beginner of any style. We welcome articles on martial arts training, techniques, history, weapons, philosophy, well-known martial artists, and notable individual experiences. We are not accepting any fiction, poetry, personality profiles, comics, cartoons, puzzles or articles for or about children at this time. Film and book reviews and interviews are assigned to designated freelance contributors or staff. Unassigned reviews are not accepted.

Queries:

If you have not written your article already, please query your topic first. This way you won’t submit an article on a topic which may not be right for the magazine, has already been covered or is already queued for future publication from another author.

Simultaneous Submissions:

Simultaneous article submissions are not accepted. You may submit simultaneous queries.

Focus:

Rather than generalizing about a topic in a superficial way, narrow your subject, find an interesting angle, and write an in-depth, information-packed piece. For example, instead of trying to fit your style's entire history into an article, you might write about how one aspect of your martial art. Rather than writing about all the dozens of various kicks in your style, it is better to concentrate on the details of one or two specific kicks. General topics such as "What is martial arts?" are too broad. Narrow your topic to a more specific focus, such as "10 Methods for Training a Hook Punch".

Point of View:

Most articles should be written in the third person. The second person form is sometimes appropriate for instructional articles. Use the first person only if the focus of the whole article is an incident from your life. Unless the interview is with a major celebrity, avoid the Q&A format, particularly for print submissions.

Attribution:

If quotes or information are attributable to other sources, cite them within the story; do not use footnotes or end notes. Do not add "thank you to..." at the end of the article; if another person was an integral part of writing or researching the story, you may share the byline either as "by Jane Smith and John Jones", or "by Jane Smith with John Jones" or acknowledge them in the About the Author section.

Author Information:

Please provide brief information about yourself for "About the Author" section at the end of the article. This may include your martial arts style and rank, education, profession, city of residence, school, and teacher. Contact information is permissible. This is subject to editing. If no material is provided, it may be determined by our editors without your consultation.

Foreign Words and Phrases:

Please italicize all foreign words and phrases throughout the text that are not well established in the vernacular except for proper names and places. On the first occurrence of a Chinese word outside the common vernacular, place a concise definition in parenthesis following and provide the Chinese characters. YOU MUST PROVIDE CHINESE CHARACTERS. Our format always places the Chinese characters last, ie. jian (sword 劍) or sword (jian 劍). All Mandarin words should use modern pinyin Romanization. Other dialects such as Cantonese, Hakka, etc., can be preserved in their original spelling along with the Chinese characters. Stay consistent with whichever dialect you choose for the entire article. General terms like major cites (Beijing, Shanghai), major styles (Shaolin, Tai Chi) and major concepts (Kung Fu, qi) do not require Chinese characters.

Capitalize proper names of systems, but not the martial art itself, such as Fut Gar, Bak Mei Pai, White Crane Kung Fu. Capitalize names of organizations, ie: United States Kung Fu Association. Do not capitalize the names of weapons such as gun, dao, qiang, jian, etc.  

These rules may be disregarded for organizations and names that have previously established spellings in English, such as in “Jun Fan Gung Fu,” but do not change the spelling within the text of the article, such as “Gung Fu,” instead of “Kung Fu.”

Photo and Image Quality:

Web articles need only five photos. Photos must be in sharp focus, well-lit, and composed so that the main subject is not too small or cut off. Shoot against a neutral, contrasting background such as wall for techniques shoot. Do not shoot subjects against a background of trees, mirrors, equipment, signs, etc. All photos must be done with a matte finish, no glossiness. Digital photos must be submitted at full size with a minimum of 300 dpi for print. Send the photos separately. Do not embed them within a text document.

News and Promotional Articles:

News, Press Releases and Promotional Articles are not contracted or compensated. They are subject to editing. Letters are appreciated but no longer published.

Captions:

Please provide a separate caption for each photo or illustration, including a separate caption for each photo in a sequence. Label each caption by the file name of the image. Clearly identify people present in the shots, and clearly mark the photo order and which captions go with which photos. Photo credit should be included for each photo as well, either "courtesy of ..." or "photo by...” Include the captions within the text of the article submission, not as separate documents.

Physical Guidelines:

Web articles should be between 1100 to 1800 words. Insert subheads where appropriate. Avoid using the subheads “Introduction” and “Conclusion” within your article. That may be fine for technical or scientific writing, but is inappropriate for a popular publication. Also, avoid using bullet points to highlight key ideas. Endless bullet points are tedious to read.

Technical Guidelines:

All text submissions must be sent in a format that is readable by Microsoft Word for PC. All photo submissions must be sent in a format that is readable by Adobe Photoshop for PC. When submitting photos by email, separate the photos into separate emails, compress them appropriately, or use a file transfer site.

Video submissions:

Short video submissions to accompany articles for either print or web publication are welcome.  We reserve the right to add a front and/or end bumper, as well as a watermark to attribute it as one of our publications.  These are published on our YouTube channel. [https://www.youtube.com/user/KungfuMagazinedotcom]

Submit all materials to:

Gene Ching, Publisher gene@kungfumagazine.com 

Kung Fu Tai Chi, 40748 Encyclopedia Circle, Fremont, CA 94538 USA

Last updated May 2020