Show, Don’t Tell and Try Me if You Dare! The Body’s Authoritative Force in Traditional Chinese Martial Arts Organizations

What role do body practices play in the communicative accomplishment of authority in traditional Chinese martial arts organizations (TCMAOs)? This article develops the concept of differential authority, building on Fei Xiaotong’s theory of chaxugeju (differential mode of association), to extend communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) research on authority. Differential authority highlights how instructors demonstrate affiliation with authoritative figures through embodied instruction—especially master demo and testing touch—thereby establishing legitimacy as lineage vectors. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a TCMAO in Zhengzhou, China, this study shows how authority is performed, transmitted, and recognized through corporeal, relational practices. Findings reveal the co-constitutive relationship between individual and organizational authority, and the role of embodied instruction in knowledge transfer and continuity. This research situates authority within a culturally specific framework and expands CCO theorizing beyond Western, credential-based models. It opens new directions for examining body-based authority across sociocultural contexts, especially amid globalization and digital mediation.