This is the opening ceremony of the 8th Zhengzhou International Shaolin Wushu Festival, one of the biggest Shaolin Kung Fu tournaments in China, where local and international Kung Fu players compete.The next one ––the ninth–– is taking place on the 20th of October.

If you’re in China, book your tickets now. They say the ceremony begins in the Shaolin Temple with a glorious demonstration by 60,000 Shaolin Kung Fu warriors, and the festival itself takes place in Zhengzhou, two hours away. 

My Shifu’s Shifu (31st Generation Shaolin Warrior Monk Shi De Cheng) in a film about Shaolin meditation, Qi Gong (the form I mentioned earlier Ba Duan Jin), the mother of Shaolin forms Xiao Hong Quan, which is the first form we learn here, and basic exercises in actual combat.

My Shifu just told me that Shifu Shi De Cheng is coming back to Dengfeng next month for a few months, and I’m very excited about meeting him (may be I’ll do a proper video interview and publish it here). The Shaolin Kung Fu master is credited with popularizing the Shaolin style in the U.S. and Europe, and he’s one of the Temple’s official ambassadors. 

Here’s another cell phone video from Shi De Cheng’s school in China, a staff form training (His school was merged with Xiaolong when the Shifu relocated to Europe two years ago).

If this movie doesn’t make you fall —head over heels— in love with Shaolin Kung Fu, then I don’t know what will.

Seeing some of the moves leaves me in awe of the martial art, and especially of the traditional form they keep repeating: Qi Xing Quan. It does hurt (my mind-body) to see the forms done so beautifully (I know how much effort is put into the practice). We do some of those badass, cool taolu moves as part of form training, albeit (in my case) with much less power, speed and flair of course. So yeah, the acrobatics at once amaze me and are painful to watch (my spine and knees ache by conditioning).

I once tried to do that jump, where you lie back and try to jerk your body up from the ground in one push, and I only ended up convulsing repeatedly on the floor until I gave up, and resigned to trying “another day.”

And no, the Shaolin Temple doesn’t look half as glorious as it does in this picture. Grace, power and machismo aside, some of those monks probably smell of sweat in real life as well (it’s the intensity of the training and the scarcity of warm water). And many modern monks are now dreaming of becoming rich, leaving China altogether and moving to Europe or the States. But surprisingly, even that won’t turn you off, not completely.

It’s a really bare and hard life here for some, and with internet waves and 3G phones invading every part of China, even the cradle of Zen is whimpering in fear as tradition is fading and a greed for shiny, expensive things and a different quality of life is building up among its ranks.

Alas, the kind of dreamy romance that enlightenment seekers yearn for is probably only there in blockbuster movies.

This is one of my favorite Kung Fu forms, Xiao Luo Han Quan! The slideshow is from my Shifu’s blog.

shaolinshifu:

These are patterns from a Shaolin Kung Fu form called “Xiao Luo Han Quan.” The series of pictures, of Shifu Yong Hui and another teacher, show how these patterns can be used in combat or in an actual fight.

Shaolin Kung Fu forms are known for their dance-like flowing, perpetual movements (especially in the Northern school, of the Shaolin Temple of Henan Province, where “smooth flow” is emphasized). It’s hard for some to imagine how these forms can be used in real fights.

However, with practice and enough force, and under the guidance of a skilled master, the same form patterns can be used in self-defense, to inflict injury or to defeat an opponent in combat.

It must be noted that Shaolin Kung Fu is a defensive technique, and Shaolin-trained students, warrior monks and experts must never begin with offense and should try to avoid fighting. However, if fighting is necessary, they should be able to hold their own and overcome their opponent.