Shaolin & Olympics

[shrub]

A team from the Shaolin Temple will demonstrate in the closing ceremony of the Olympics on August 29.

[Shaolinlueb]

Originally posted by shrub
A team from the Shaolin Temple will demonstrate in the closing ceremony of the Olympics on August 29.

nice, really? ill have to watch. be the only olympics i watch this year.

[Liokault]

A team from the temple is good, as long as no one starts saying that they are monks and that there has always been a team of such monks at the temple and that the monks want taiwan back etc.

[SaMantis]

If the gymnastics announcers do the commentary, they'll definitely say something like that.

(Psychically funneling events a week into the future):

Al Trautwig: "Now, the monks are wearing orange clothing. They traditionally call this saffron. A saffron is a kind of grape."

Tim Daggett: "Call it what you will, orange or saffron, but man are those guys BALD!! Wow!"

:D

[David Jamieson]

...and that the monks want taiwan back etc

bwahahahahaha...thats pretty good man.

also, southpark sports announcers would rocksors!

[Serpent]

Originally posted by SaMantis
If the gymnastics announcers do the commentary, they'll definitely say something like that.

(Psychically funneling events a week into the future):

Al Trautwig: "Now, the monks are wearing orange clothing. They traditionally call this saffron. A saffron is a kind of grape."

Tim Daggett: "Call it what you will, orange or saffron, but man are those guys BALD!! Wow!"

:D

LOL.

:D

Is this supposed demo confirmed? Where's the official scoop?

[Shaolinlueb]

[southpark announcer] i havent seen a china men run and jump like that since the japanese invaded manchuria in the late 30's[/southpark announcer]

oh man that wasnt toooo bad :o :)

[blooming lotus]

very cool. Can we get a time on that ?

[GeneChing]

Can you tell us where you heard that? I did some web searches and all I could come up with was this (http://www.shaolindrunks.tk/). :eek:

[wall]

GENE,

the Chinese WuShu National Team was recently in Italy for 2 demos ( I saw one of them, fantastic stuff) and then they were travelling to Athens for a demo to the IOC and a, big unconfirmed (officially) rumour, a demo during the closing cerimony, obviously in the segment about the next olympics in Beijing. Now weather they are doing that demo in monk robes I don't know, but they were the current male and female wushu champs from all the various disciplines, definitely no monks there (unless they arrived in Athens separately)...

We'll see sunday night :)

PS, I received my 4 pairs of black feiyues, I should be right for the next 12 months or so :)

[shrub]

Gene,

here is the source:

http://www.taiji.net.cn/Article_Show2.asp?ArticleID=1811

[GeneChing]

schrub: That link didn't work.

wall: Thanks for your input and your order! We've been expecting something 'wushu' at the closing ceremonies when they do the little tribute to the next Olympics.

[shrub]

try this one:
http://www.21wulin.com/files/read.php?ID=744

[SaMantis]

The closing ceremony few forests boy steps on the stilts
Type: Martial arts world tendency
Clicks: 29
Issues the person: Colorful south day
Origin: World military network of forest belts
Double-clicks the mouse to roll


The 8 month on 29th, the 28th session of Olympic Games will fall in Athens the curtain. At the Olympic Games meeting pennant handing-over ceremony, Beijing will have 8 minutes theatrical performance, but will come from the Mt. Songshan Shaolin Temple tower ditch martial arts school 28 young students to carry on the stilts performance.

It is reported, these 8 minutes theatrical performance total direct will be Zhang Yimou, the performance by series and so on traditional music, Chinese martial arts, children Peking opera becomes. 28 stilts team members wear extremely have the national characteristic the clothing, in the hand are selecting 28 scarlet lanterns, is performing the central area to go through the performance.


Better translation out there? Or is it really a stilts performance??

[blooming lotus]

that tranlsates to 1:30 am Liaoning ( NE China ) time monday morning ( beginning of work week ) . I 've heard about Bejing prep activity but have no local word on the performance this ceremony. I'll take your word for it though and set my alarm. If you are wrong though, I'm pm ing you with whinge - mail for 3 weeks!!! :eek: :D :p :)

Ps: funny side note : just had to edit my post because because a few bai jius ( 20 ml shots of white rice wine) later spelling was kind of atrocious. Told colleague "lol.. I think this jiu's effecting my co-oridination by "that much", so these folks wonder how I got qualified to teach le yingyuea!!" Logical sugesstion : move my chair 5 dgrees right and I should end up hitting the key I intended :eek: :D :cool:

lol.....

i'm just going to try that and tell me if it makes a difference ;) :p

[Serpent]

Originally posted by blooming lotus
so these folks wonder how I got qualified to teach le yingyuea!!"
Same thing we've been wondering for ages.

[Liokault]

I kind of think that a team of shaolin "monks" doing a demo would be like a team of cowboys from the Ok-coral theam park doing a demo.

[blooming lotus]

don't forget that the "wheel of life " team are monks and they represent both performance shaolin gongfu and shaolin as a living heriatage equally respectfully. It'll be worth watching regardless.

Serpent : the quotation marks on the quote you pulled indicates that that's what I was saying to the colleague.

[Serpent]

And?

[SaMantis]

down, boys ...

from what I read it doesn't look like it'll be monks from the Wheel of Life show, most likely kids or young people from a shaolin-vicinity school, in orange robes. I have a feeling it'll be All Wushu, All the Time -- but probly a good performance nonetheless. Monks, though? Nah.

[blooming lotus]

no. But the intro for westernern joe blog population'll be catered for. It'll be a representation in some capacity and of shaolin and traditional gongfu at worst. So tune in and come back to us later

[bungle]

I have to wonder sometimes. Why does wushu have to represent shaolin kung fu.

In my opinion they should give them the real thing and start to be honest about what they know and where they fall short.

[blooming lotus]

unfortunately wushu is what was left during and post cultural revoloution because of native chinese diplomat relations ( Ie : philosphical expression with real beliefs comprimising or giving reason to question our authority is out , but if you must do your shmancy gongfu, you may practice like this) and so wushu was born and martial arts had a leg to preserve itself on legally. It's not tma but it's valid and a part of gongfu culture and history.

viva gongfu however you get it.

[Pk_StyLeZ]

so was there ever any wushu or shaolin monks or kung fu demonstration at the closing ceremony??i missed it

[Brad]

Not exactly... it was kind of a wushu/ballet combination. Pretty cool if you're into artsy dance kind of stuff. Started off with some taiji type opening, and then did a combination of dance, changquan, and ditang(all with a ballet flavor).

[blooming lotus]

but being generous, you can see where that wushu became applicative to style and that flippy shyte was impressive by any measure. Laying it down performance style to hollar to new interest is a very good thing for a dying art and belief system...we are there already...some folks don't even know our name ( xiaolin)... I think you're missing the big picture.............but go ahead and demean it if you choose... getting a lil close to home for myself so exuse passion on "getting the word out"... how ever you can by what ever means you find...

BL

[bungle]

Blooming Lotus. Do you think it is important to keep shaolin alive? Why?

[Liokault]

LOL:D

Keep it alive? Shaolin died, what you have now is a theam park, again I will refeer to how authentic the cowboys are at the Ok-coral lol.....there has always been cowboys there to so they have liniage, but are they real cowboys?

[David Jamieson]

Keep it alive? Shaolin died, what you have now is a theam park, again I will refeer to how authentic the cowboys are at the Ok-coral lol.....there has always been cowboys there to so they have liniage, but are they real cowboys?

Shaolin lives in it's practitioners. The body of information is huge, so the practice manifests itself in myriad ways from the esoteric to the performance wushu.

Shaolin is only secondarily a geographical place. It is firstly within the people who follow the training regimens as laid out by the Shaolin over a period spanning hundreds of years inside China and outside of it around the world.

You do kungfu? It's likely been effected by the Shaolin way.

As for cowboys, there are still lots of living breathing cowboys all over the place. My own uncle is a bonafide cowboy as are many of his pals.

Anyway, just saying.

as for the olympic show...well it wasn't shaolin monks as was thought, but it was a nice show.

[Shaolinlueb]

you said it was very ballet like? oh man I'm gonna puke. :barf:

[Brad]

Well... I guess it was more like it was ballet that was a bit wushuish, but you get the picture ;)

[shrub]

What Shaolin? How about the girls band!!

[Brad]

That rocked! Shortest skirts I've ever seen in an Olympic ceremony :D

[Shaolinlueb]

Originally posted by Brad
That rocked! Shortest skirts I've ever seen in an Olympic ceremony :D

that post is worthless without pics :D ;)

[GeneChing]

I've seen some traditional Shaolin KF demos but the're only reserved for when they know they have a discerning audience that's familiar with the martial arts. And I do mean discerning - even martial arts tour groups won't get to traditional for the most part. Traditional just isn't that spectacular unless you know Shaolin KF. It lacks the eye-popping wow factor of wushu. You don't have to know anything to enjoy wushu. In fact, the only way you wouldn't enjoy wushu would be because you're fixated on traditional. Personally, I admire the athleticism of wushu, and appreciate it on the same level as rhythmic gymnastics (which I might at, is my favorite Olympic event to watch after fencing).

Actually, there are authentic cowboys still, but most of them are Mexican. Being a cowboy isn't really a lineage thing; it's a job and a dirty one at that.. ;)

[Meat Shake]

"Actually, there are authentic cowboys still, but most of them are Mexican. Being a cowboy isn't really a lineage thing; it's a job and a dirty one at that.."

Yes... and a little known fact that really seems to **** off the local rednecks who call themselves "cowboys"... The first cowboys were actually african american. :eek:

Wushu is cool to watch regardless, unless they are disillusioned about what they are doing.

[MasterKiller]

Originally posted by Meat Shake
Yes... and a little known fact that really seems to **** off the local rednecks who call themselves "cowboys"... The first cowboys were actually african american. :eek: What? Google that one up for me, because I'm pretty sure Mexicans were filling that role long before white and black boys strapped on spurs.

[shrub]

http://2004.sports.sohu.com/upload/hd04082912/index.html
http://sports.sohu.com/20040830/n221795951.shtml

[Shaolinlueb]

thanks, eh the girls in the skirts are okay lookin.

http://www.knight-online.com.cn/events/empire/index.shtml

this seems like a much cooler link though ;)

[Liokault]

Mexican, african american whatever, the cowboys who quickdraw and stage fight in wild west cowboy shows are no more cowboys than 'monks' from shaolin are monks.

Now at no point did i say that there are no longer any cowboys, nor did I say that there was no shaolin kung fu, just that whats going on at shaolin is the theme park business.

[Kaitain(UK)]

the chinese girl band were fabulous :) legs that went forever. My girlfriend had to push my mouth shut. At speed.

[blooming lotus]

how cool did they make those over grown uekelailies look....lol...It's like femme version of an accoustic set china style :)

welcome to the prequel :cool:

[wall]

Well the inside story...

The Beijing show at the closing was due to last 15min, and was cut to 8min a few days before due to organizers concerns with light etc. That meant that the choreographers had to cut something ... and wushu was amongst what got cut. The dance+wushu mix we saw was the lead up to individual 30sec forms by the current champs, CQ, NQ, cudgel, sword, bsword, spear. Unfortunately all the individual bits were cut, so all we got was the crappy ballet-like thing that was meant to be the soft intro to the hard high-impact stuff. Boooo. What a pityful show for wushu, really presented like lame ballet with no MA whatsoever.
If it's any consolation everyone in China didn't like the show either (just read the papers).

W

[No_Know]

I saw it as a performance-ish. I liked the fliidness between the ballet. I liked the conditioning of the spin that looked like ice skating before it went to standard ballet type spin. The Drunkad boxing was also a delight. I saw Chang chuan but the smoothe T'ai Chi Ch'uan and drunkard I really identified with.-ish.