Gavin, in respect of physical confrontations, every scholar I have ever known has been a committed disciple of Indiana Jones.
On the other hand, face off a practitioner of any of the forms of silat against a practitioner of Kuntao --- even an 80 odd year old female one with arthritis --- now, that could be quite enlightening.
There was a very solid reason why the Dutch employed Chinese as their overseers and body guards.
The keris : weapon debate occurred in the era of the old British empire. British sailors seemed to have a rather casual attitude towards the peoples of SE Asia and their ability as brawlers. People like Gardner, Hill, Woolley, Keith & etc became a little heated in some of their discussions.
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