Gene: Martial Arts Today Documentary

[RAF]

Gene:

While I was in Beijing during the last 3 weeks, I watched a 20 part series called Martial Arts Today on CCTV 9. It was excellent and 2 parts dealt with the Shaolin Temple and a Shaolin Monk. It was an honest assessment of the arts taught there previously and how they have improved the Temple and its art.

The documentary took 2 years to make and surveys Chinese martial arts from all the regions (baji/pigua from Hebei, Shuai Jiao from Badaling etc. etc.).

We called CCTV 9 while in Beijing and ask if these were available in vcd. Their answer was no.

If you have any connections I would suggest that you have them release the documentary for the public sale and have Kungfu/Wushu become a distributor of the product. I managed to see 14 of the 20 and CCTV 9 isn't available on most cable systems in the United States.

Regards.

[shaolinboxer]

I would purchase a copy.

[sean_stonehart]

RAF... had the same thing happen a couple of years ago when I was part of a demo in Xian that was on CCTV 4. Flat out "nope". I did get to see it before I left China, but it would've been cool to have.

[RAF]

Sean:

Something similar happened when we went to Jinan. The local TV station did a half hour documentary on my teacher (Tony Yang) and broadcast it on TV. However, through some family connections (his father is originally from Jinan and much of the family is still there) we managed to get a pressed VCD copy. We were lucky.

The CCTV 9 documentary also had an interesting segement on the martial arts that the Chinese Army trains in along with the crack unit terrorist squad.

Its just a shame that its not available.

[GeneChing]

CCTV is challenging to work with. It is one of the most powerful organizations in China. We had to really struggle to get copies of the documentary they did on us last year.

I'd love to be able to carry those vids, but it would be really really hard for us to acquire them. First we'd have to see them to make sure it was worth our trouble. Then we'd have to go through channels and channels, making sure we we're talking to the right guy. It's not uncommon to get sold the rights to something by someone who doesn't own the rights. China isn't really good on property rights.

Was that shaolin segment on a monk named Dejian?

[RAF]

Gene:

Not sure of his name but that sounds familiar. The monk is about 40 and lives most of the time outside of the Temple in a Village up the mountain. He is also an expert in herbs. During the film, some Americans came to visit him to learn from him. His comments were rather negative about their ability to learn but they had sold themselves, according to the commentator, as having shaolin schools with over 100 students (in the US).

The monk is originally from the Northeast region as he, in the documentary, made a trip back to his hometown to visit his dying 90+ year old father.

I am sorry to hear about the red tape regarding CCTV. I really think you would like the documentary. They pointed out that Da Mo's influence on the shaolin martial arts was by and large mythology and that the arts were probably regional.

Well, if you have CCTV 9 and they repeat it, definitely should be taped.

Chinese and property rights are a whole other story but they are making progress.