Shi Yan Ming & Shaolin Temple USA [Archive]

richard sloan

10-05-2006, 02:14 AM

well it is pretty simple actually.

Like many monks, he wants to spread his traditions and share with others. Since Yong Xin's ascendency, a lot of monks have felt a little, shall we say, uncomfortable, with being official, lol...being quite unofficial has allowed us to take in people such as Wan Heng, for example...provide support for others, etc.

Since he got here, and from the days when Guolin and Yan Ming were with Yan Chang on Pike st, running a temple there, I think they wanted to set up a full blown monastery/temple/training facility, someplace near or in the Buddhist Alley in the Catskills. But for a couple of different reasons they went their separate ways. I don't think there is much going on between them but I know Yan Chang stays in touch, and there is some communication back and forth occassionally with Guolin.

So slowly but surely, Yan Ming has been working on establishing a temple upstate, in which he wants to duplicate the training through which he came up, the surface of which we are scratching at now. He's come a far way from duct taping flashlights to the walls and wearing five pairs of socks in the winter to stay warm and keep his knuckles from cracking open and I have to admire his tenacity.

We have quite a bit of funding now, with more coming through various initiatives. The last major drive culminated in a party, at which I was proud to offer my services as a Dj, I was psyched because I had just scored a nice set of 7s of some rare reggae, cost me two machettes in trade no less, and it went over real nice trust me when I tell you. Also, he does seminars. Stuff like that.

I think Guolin is about as "official" as it gets, as far as ties to Yong Xin and the Henan Shaolin temple, as he is training the other ambassador, DeMasco. I forget who is who these days. If anyone is sending money back to China on the regular I would guess it would be Guolin, it's gotta be USSD, but that is pure conjecture on my part, and so what I guess? I don't see anything wrong with religious organizations sending money back to the mother temple or church or what have you, that is just S.O.P, like it or not, I would just assume it as a matter of course. USSD is another matter entirely and that I think is B.S. to the tenth power for a lot of reasons. For disciples, they sure do blunder about, they don't even understand their place in the lineage which is embarassing, and they sure can make some mountains out of molehills.

But we are not beholden to anyone but ourselves and our other temples, of which we have 4 now- Vienna, S.Africa, Trinidad, and Mexico, although I am sure Shifu has helped out some of his brothers back in China through some of the tough times when there was the purge and such.

I'm not surprised a lot of students leave to go and learn to "fight" at other schools, because nothing like that really happens until level 2 is reached, and that is mostly a lot of padwork, depending. What you do learn is not readily apparent as far as what most people think of when they think of fighting.

Level one is all basics, all the time.

We have a temple currently in manhattan- by that I mean we have a space which is used to train martial arts and instruct students in Ch'an, and to also conduct various ceremonies, although it is not exclusively one or the other and I don't think any such distinction is really recognized unless it is convenient. Since a big part of Ch'an is dong ch'an, and since that is how Yan Ming teaches it, that's how we worship, if the word fits. If it doesn't, I'll just shrug at you because you can be my guest at whatever you want to think. We have a body of disciples now, all having gone through the Gui Yi Fo, Fa, Sen, and this body of disciples learns Ch'an Buddhism, various sutras and recitation, etc.

As to the married/celibacy thing, I think it is fair to say that the CR upended that tradition, and as far as I am concerned, for the better, although many vehemently disagree with me. But the fact remains several of the senior monks who came back came back with families in tow, including two of the four olds, upon which the transmission basically hung from pre'28 Shi You San attack to now. Yan Ming will catch flak because he is rather open and unapologetic about it. To me, it doesn't effect anything and the kids are a delight. Maybe for many only a guy locked up in some cubicle apart from the world can only be called a "monk" but that is a rather silly belief to hold to me and a little juvenile of a concept.

Ah,the money, well I wish we had it like people think we do, but I can assure you from direct personal experience he is not teaching or doing this for the "money." Lol...perceptions crack me up. I guess the Pope does it for the money, lol....and the Dalai Lama does it for the money, and Mother Theresa did it for the money, and who else.... Since I am not much of a horn tooter I'll just leave it at that. It's the year 2007 and tons of religious groups have had to adapt to using business models- Catholics have TONS, trust me- from the Trappists making Chimay into a brand that has now evolved into not just arguably the world's BEST ales and beers, but to Cheeses etc, and Toner Monks who sell toner cartridges, to other endeavours, all for the money, heh heh heh...That always makes me laugh, for example, when last year we had our heat go off and I couldn't sleep for the chatter of my teeth...or when my fingers were raw from stitching together our disciple books...

bungbukuen

10-05-2006, 09:05 AM

Originally posted by Richard Sloan
I'm not surprised a lot of students leave to go and learn to "fight" at other schools, because nothing like that really happens until level 2 is reached, and that is mostly a lot of padwork, depending. What you do learn is not readily apparent as far as what most people think of when they think of fighting.

That is a total cop out and a commonly used phrase in the contemperary wushu and McDojo world.

In any traditional CMA school, fight training is obviously apparent from day one.

Cheers,
BBK

Royal Dragon

10-05-2006, 10:06 AM

I don't buy it. Basics are the key to excellence. if he wants to spend extra time on basics, and then get into fighting later, that can only be good.

So long as he's not giving Black sashes to people with 10 forms and no functional fighting skills, i think all is good.

richard sloan

10-05-2006, 10:12 AM

These kinds of threads are always good for a laugh. The way people pick apart what you say. Here's a little more meat for your grinder.

Just to satisfy a response and to kill time before I get into my next meeting, I use and have used my training, from day one, in the real world in my capacity of running various venues and nightclubs in Jamaica, so you can sit and spin on your cop out bullsh!t about what is and what is not "traditional" CMA training, what is obvious and what is not when it comes to training traditional CMAs, as if you are the arbiter of what that means. God. People should remember this is an internet forum, which is generally good for conversation, so when I respond to something Ten Tigers says conversationally, that is all it is, a conversational response. It's not a response that is meant to lay out all information ever about the subject. While the influence of PRC wushu is apparent in the Henan Shaolin temple, especially now, I know the lineage of several masters and my own, and it traces directly back, monk to monk, to before the 1928 attack, which suppposedly crushed Shaolin, it dates back to before the turn of the century and obviously ****her. So um...yeah, it's "traditional." But at a certain point most "traditional" arts we have with us today are frozen in time, they always adopted the weapons of the day, but why did they stop? So to me, the sobriquet of what is "traditional" and what is not....it's pretty humorous to watch armchair warriors bandy about this and that and eventually I lose interest and just frankly do not care because it is a waste of time and worse yet time wasted by people who are generally clueless, rather insignificant, and just have their little point of view to express in tiny words with tiny thoughts and they will go to bed at night dreaming their tiny or maybe inflated dreams of what have you and at the end of the day, it has little to no bearing on my day to day, it just wasted my time.

What I was generally speaking to was we have a lot of preperatory work and very often people don't want to put in the time to get the best benefits. Don't even pretend there isn't a lot of that work in CMA to build foundations, speed, strength, and this tied inextricably to flexibility. I mean that's obvious, because the MMA guys all complain to hell and gone about it, lol....That's basically what I was referring to. There is no ****genous TCMA methodology to establish fighting skills anyway. Do an exhaustive survey and this quickly becomes apparent. IF there was one way there would be only one, Highlander, one style, or a few. Who needs TCMA for that anyway? All you need to do for that is learn how to fight, any fool can learn how to do that and the jails are full of these kinds of idiots. And if you want to learn how to fight, you basically have to develop what I call the hit on 16 mentality. People crack me the hell up, I want to fight I want to fight. Lol. No, they want to live out some fantasy where they beat up 5 attackers single handed and save the pretty girl cue guitar music. I love this one, they want to be prepared for the "real" world. But they spend time training twin broadswords. LOL. Good for you you are so traditional, you are sooooooo cool. Well I live half the year where there is still a sword culture, in that people still resolve issues by going to a machette or cutlass so to speak but I don't know what you are doing in manhattan with your twin broadswords.

If you wanted to be prepared for street encounters the last thing in the world you would really want to do is spend years learning a martial art. You would want to be a cop. You have equipment, and numbers on your side. That would be best. I'm joking sort of, but if I can't have fun with you and your post what good is responding to it. Then I would have really wasted my time. I don't know many MA's who train with modern weapons but I have met a few and admire their honesty.

Anyway, enough of the tirade, for all I know, TT is getting students from the other monks and none are coming to him specifically from us. But I don't assume that, because it is just conversation. But I have seen Yan Ming turn people away who came in and right off the bat stated flatly they want to learn how to fight, because those toolboxes are better off someplace else.

The benefits of the training are "obviously apparent" when I can put my foot in your throat before you can blink after a month of training when I couldn't touch my toes before I started, much less kick anything, or control your drunk ass 10 ways come Sunday right out the front gate to roll you around in the jerk chicken bones just from learning a basic stance form.

It's been awhile since I've had to punch someone, but that's probably because it is true what they say, at first it is about fighting, but later it is about something else. Besides, now I have people under me so I can just freshen up my çocktail when a situation comes up and let others deal with it.

Point is, I train with Yan Ming, and use the benefits gained from my training in my day to day. So to hear you comment about traditional this, cop out that, is where I kind of start to shrug.

Maybe Gene will take a pull at the grist mill, as he has what anyone can see is "tradtional" training and has written about his comparisons back and forth with Shaolin.

Over to you Gene....

GeneChing

10-05-2006, 10:41 AM

You know, I once bought Yanming a Chimay ale. ;) I don't know about Yanming, the Pope, the Dalai Lama, but I do it for the money. You have no idea how much it costs to produce and distribute an independant print magazine nowadays. That's my cue to say subscribe now (http://www.martialartsmart.net/19341.html).

But back to the notion of tithing, beleive it or not, religious figures need money. Giving donations to monks is a common practice throughout Asia. Some donate meals. Others donate money. In addition, any disciple will support his master. This is universal, whether you are Shaolin or any other school of CMA. I support my master with a red envelope everytime I see him. I'm sure that Guolin supports his master, Abbot Yongxin. That's tradition. It's amazing to me how many people will say 'traditional' martial arts are dead in China and they don't even know the basic traditions of Chinese culture.

The McFranchise model just doesn't apply to Shaolin Temple. It reminds me of when I told a good friend that there was a McDonalds by Tiananmen Square. He shouted victoriously "We've won! We've won!" I said, "Yea, one McDonalds in Tiananmen. How many Chinese restaurants are there in America?"

Thanks for the update on Deshan, Pk_StyLeZ. I'm a little out of touch with the Houston scene nowadays (and some of that is intentional).

You know, it's really not going to be about McDonalds and Shaolin. It's going to be about Burger King and Shaolin. This will make a lot more sense next February. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26966&page=3)

bungbukuen

10-08-2006, 08:44 PM

So what kind of Shaolin kung fu does Yan Ming teach?

Thanks,
BBK

richard sloan

10-09-2006, 12:03 AM

BBK- Xin Ching. You're welcome.

Gene- One year I managed to get some Franziskaaner past his lips, and even some Lambic Framboise.

That was a fantastic party, lol...

He is very loyal to Corona, and ironically enough, the disciple who is running things in Mexico is descended from THAT Corona.

Weird, but true.

GeneChing

10-09-2006, 09:47 AM

...I don't care for Corona at all. Any beer you gotta add a lime to, that's just wrong. I only make exceptions for Hefeweitzen and that's lemon. ;)

Shaolinlueb

10-09-2006, 09:56 AM

you guy need to try national bohemian. or natty bo for short ;) ay better and cheap ;)

richard sloan

10-09-2006, 10:26 AM

...I don't care for Corona at all. Any beer you gotta add a lime to, that's just wrong. I only make exceptions for Hefeweitzen and that's lemon. ;)

you gotta see how they drink it in Mx. They add all kinds of stuff waaaaay beyond lime- hot sauce? No problem. Tekillya? Yup.

Saw one guy dump grenadine in his corona which really sent me for a loop. I guess that is kind of like framboise, lol...

I'm basically a rum guy since I also like cigars. But if I drink beer, it's gotta be something akin to chimay. You and leub'd love franziskaner, the dunkel is awesome.

jigahus

10-09-2006, 12:28 PM

They put worms in tequila bottles. Beat that!

GeneChing

10-10-2006, 09:46 AM

Where do you squat a lot?
China.
You squat in horse. You squat taking a dump. You squat waiting for the bus. It's all about squatting. And you've never dealt with weird crap in your hard liquor until you've been to China. I've seen snakes, lizards, turtles, sea horses - some of their liquors look like biological specimens. Of course, RS and SL know this because they've both been there. China drinking can be pretty intense. But at least they don't add crap to their beer. The local China beers are quite good, mostly descended from brewing they learned from the Germans. Mexican brewing, well, tropical brewing in general isn't that great, too light for my tastes. That makes sense where it's hot, but that's still not to my liking. The exception is the former Brit colonies. At least they all know Guinness.

SL: Natty Bo is good. Not a fav of mine but I'd grab it out of the chest if none of my faves were present. Might grab it just to change it up a bit.

RS: Sounds like we have similar tastes in high end beers. Love that stuff. Can't afford it, but love it.

hmmm, this thread took a funny turn, eh?

richard sloan

10-11-2006, 08:59 AM

lol yes quite a turn, but as they say, how "Ch'an."

You know you can age Chimay?

It's like wine, since it is bottle conditioned, it just keeps getting better the older it gets.

GeneChing

10-11-2006, 09:19 AM

I have a few bottles of Chimay in the wine cabinet. They've been aging for a few years now. :)

richard sloan

10-11-2006, 12:50 PM

PARTY at GENE'S!!!

lol...I hope it's one of the Grand Reserve Magnums...

Songshan

10-12-2006, 08:18 AM

Shi Yan Ming has been quite successful in setting up his schools, books, etc. Whats wrong with that? Shi Yan Ming has things always in the works it seems. It never ceases to amaze me how many people sit back and criticize. Shi Yan Ming and probably Shi Guolin, IMO, are the two top monks in the USA that have been the most successful in running and expanding their schools. They have solid foundations.

I really can't believe how many people still sit and ponder how real "monks" are these days. After numerous articles and a few conversations with some of the monks would obviously tell you that the "martial" monks are not religious monks. 100% of the "monks" at Shaolin are there to learn gong fu and not to become a religious monk in a religious temple. These guys have spent half of their lives training day in and day out at shaolin and yet some are going to say they cant be associated with shaolin because they eat meat? drink alcohol? decide to marry? Ridiculous. Some of you need to re-read some of the previous shaolin issues (especially the ones with the Li Peng interview).

GeneChing

10-12-2006, 09:42 AM

...Funny that, because one of my old friends who's a cop just made the papers today because he was hit for the third time by a hit-&-run on duty. He's ok, but it just struck me as a funny coincidence.

Currently, within Shaolin Temple, the monks are split between wuseng and wenseng. There are about 200 monks there now, split 50/50 between scholar (religious) and warrior monks - and this data is very fresh because I just got an update. See, we didn't do a Shaolin Special for 2006 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/mlist.php?magyr=2006). But we're already working on our 2007 issues and so I got to make up for lost time. People have been pestering me about it. I just tell them it's coming, so subscribe now (http://www.martialartsmart.net/19341.html). But between all of us here on the Shaolin forum - our next Shaolin Special is coming very, very soon. ;)

richard sloan

10-12-2006, 10:39 AM

I really can't believe how many people still sit and ponder how real "monks" are these days. After numerous articles and a few conversations with some of the monks would obviously tell you that the "martial" monks are not religious monks. 100% of the "monks" at Shaolin are there to learn gong fu and not to become a religious monk in a religious temple. These guys have spent half of their lives training day in and day out at shaolin and yet some are going to say they cant be associated with shaolin because they eat meat? drink alcohol? decide to marry? Ridiculous. Some of you need to re-read some of the previous shaolin issues (especially the ones with the Li Peng interview).

well the confusing thing is that some cross boundaries. some come to buddhism later, some sooner, some never, all to different degrees and even different schools of Buddhism. You can see a heavy Pureland influence these days. you may find some martial monks, as they are called, who know more about Ch'an than some of the monks who are supposed to be buddhisty. There is no real set criteria and if there was I would find that odd. I always say it's our problem, not theirs, because if we were not looking at Shaolin or getting involved in it, and by that I mean outsiders, there would be no need for them to deal with these definitions. They would just be what they always were and are.

Cappadonna

09-17-2009, 07:28 PM

http://www.usashaolintemple.org/news/columbus-day-shaolin-retreatst-josaphats-monastery-october-9-11-2009/

seems interesting. what do you guys think?

GeneChing

09-21-2009, 10:56 AM

...but I did travel with Shi Yanming and his students. Check out Wu-Tang Enters Wudang (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=5).

GeneChing

05-07-2012, 10:16 AM

Congrats to Shi Yanming!

Musician and Filmmaker The RZA Brings Blessings and Beats to New USA Shaolin Temple Opening Ceremony (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-786471?hpt=hp_bn8)
By ByHandMedia | Posted 22 hours ago | Fleischmanns, New York

CNN PRODUCER NOTE ByHandMedia says the Shaolin Temple Opening Ceremony in New York was a joyous occasion with a familial atmosphere. 'There was a sense of pride in everyone's accomplishments, yet there was also excitement for what is to come,' he says. He says the New U.S. Shaolin Temple mirrors the famous Shaolin Monastery that has long been associated with Chinese martial arts. During his coverage of the opening ceremony, ByHandMedia says artist and musician The RZA, member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, performed for audiences by improvising beats. 'It had the feeling of what we used to call "park jams,"' he says. He also adds that The RZA was a student and is a close friend of Shi Yan Ming's, the head of the U.S. Shaolin Temple.
- Jareen, CNN iReport producer

Yesterday, I had the honor of attending the opening ceremony for Shifu Shi Yan-Ming's brand new USA Shaolin Temple location in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

The five year journey that brought students, instructors and their families & friends to this event, actually began in 1992, when Shifu - founder and Chief Abbot of the Temple - defected while on the first-ever Shaolin Temple Monks tour of the United States. A unique and sometimes dangerous journey from San Francisco to a basement in New York City, somehow helped to forged a desire to share the ways of Shaolin with anyone who wanted to learn. Over the years, that list of eager disciples has grown to include a number of notable celebrities, such as Rosie Perez, Bokeem Woodbine, John Leguizamo and countless others. Also on that list is Wu-Tang Clan co-founder The RZA, who was able to attend yesterday's celebration, bringing with him positive words, and even an impromptu jam session.

Other than the fact that this was "The RZA" walking around the grounds of the 88 acre campus, what intrigued me most was that, this was not the RZA from Ghostdog - cool, camouflage-wearing urban samurai. Nor was this the musician who has scored more than 35 movies and produced hundreds of records. Nor was it the director who just wrapped a major Hollywood martial arts film, where he shares the screen with Russell Crowe, Lucy Lui and Pam Grier. The person I shook hands with - who gave my friend Alvin a pound after graciously posing for a shot - was Robert Diggs, a student who came to show his support for an instructor he obviously respects tremendously.

It's clear that what's stressed at USA Shaolin Temple, along with many other martial arts schools I've visited for this ongoing project, is that what's taught is much more than the physical aspects of fighting. In fact, one student from Brooklyn mentioned to me that the most difficult aspect of his training is the "inner" rather than the "outer." I also sensed after seeing the near-pristine condition of the 7 buildings that make up the newly-opened Temple, that discipline is key to successful training at USA Shaolin Temple. Much of the work on the previously dilapidated structures was completed by volunteer students and "Shihans," who made the 2 hour journey on weekends, where they cleaned, cleared, built and painted.

The cultural practices of Chan Buddhist philosophy has successfully adapted itself to Western traditions and ways of life, through the school's cultural diversity and Shifu's approachable persona. Through all of the lion dancing, gymnastic flips and kung fu, it seems that Shi Yan-Ming is creating a new type of American dream, but one based on thousands of years of tradition.

Future plans for the location include a summer camp for kids as well as an extended stay training program.

Amituofo!

New Shaolin temple in Fleischmanns opens its doors this Saturday (http://www.watershedpost.com/2012/new-shaolin-temple-fleischmanns-opens-its-doors-saturday)
By J.N. Urbanski
5/4/12 - 4:31 pm

Above: A recent photo from the ongoing construction of the new USA Shaolin Temple, on Breezy Hill Road in Fleischmanns. Photo from USA Shaolin Temple's Facebook page.

The Catskill Mountains are famously a magnet for people who want to create their own reality. But of all the quixotic dreams that have taken root in our craggy slopes and stony soil, none may be as ambitious as the plans of the USA Shaolin Temple, an international group of kung-fu-fighting Buddhists under the tutelage of the charismatic Shi Yan Ming. (The Shifu, or "master," is known for shouting cheery affirmations like "Merry Christmas! More Chi!" while delivering a punch that could crumple the hood of a Volkswagen.)

In September of 2010, the USA Shaolin Temple closed on a property in Fleischmanns, a moldering, 80-acre former summer camp. Since then, they've been busily renovating the property, restoring old buildings and dotting the landscape with gorgeous Chinese pagoda roofs that are beginning to make the view from Highmount look like a scroll from the Tang Dynasty.

The Shaolin warriors are still a long way from their ultimate goal: A temple with 72 chambers, reflecting the levels of Shaolin training, where students of the ancient martial art from all over the world can come to train "whether it is for a day, weekend, month, or years." But on Saturday, May 5, the world at large will get its first look at the new temple, in an opening ceremony that the community is invited to attend.

Recently, the Watershed Post's J.N. Urbanski spoke with USA Shaolin Temple trustee Shi Heng Zhi -- né Peter Traub -- about the origins of the fighting Shaolin, the group's grand plans for the temple, and how a bunch of kung fu Buddhists ended up in teeny-tiny Fleischmanns. --Lissa Harris

Watershed Post: Tell us about the history of Chan Buddhism and when it was founded.

Shi Heng Zhi: Bodhidharma was an Indian monk who left India in 524 AD to go to China to teach "Chan Buddhism", which is the precursor to Zen Buddhism. Bodhidharma, or "Damo" as he was called in Chinese is considered the father of Chan Buddhism. "Zen Buddhism" was started when a Japanese Monk went to China to study Chan Buddhism at the Shaolin Temple during the first millennium. When he returned to Japan, he introduced "Chan Buddhism" to his people. "Chan" translates to "Zen" from Chinese to Japanese.

WP: What is Buddhism?

SHZ: It's more philosophy than religion. Buddha means "awareness." Chan means everything and nothing. Buddhism doesn't contradict any other religious core principles, and you can belong to another religion and Buddhism simultaneously. Buddhism is an awareness and an understanding of oneself. It's also respecting others, but you cannot understand or respect others without first doing so with yourself.

WP: Tell us the story of your Shifu, or Master.

SHZ: Our Shifu, Shi Yan Ming, is a 34th-generation Shaolin monk, the last monk truly trained and raised at the Shaolin Temple in China. He is the last of a dying breed, who possesses all the knowledge and training the Shaolin Temple had to offer. Now that temple has ceased to function because of its conversion to a tourist destination. Shifu Shi Yan Ming defected to the USA in 1992 in order to re-start the Shaolin Temple and its traditions here in the USA.

The Shaolin Temple lasted for 1,500 years before being slowly converted to a tourist destination in August 2010, when it officially became a World Heritage site.

WP: What made you choose Fleischmanns?

SHZ: Well, we looked as far afield as Pennsylvania, but this property came up and we liked it. But it was unaffordable, so we waited and the price came down. It's 80.88 acres on Breezy Hill Road.

WP: What are your plans for the Temple?

SHZ: The temple will teach Chan Philosophy through the core Shaolin disciplines of martial arts or action meditation: Gongfu (Kung Fu), Taiji Quan (Tai Chi), and Qigong (Chi Kung). Members of the whole community, regardless of religion, are welcome. It's possible to be Buddhist and still belong to another religion. You can be Jewish and Buddhist, for example. We are also looking forward to hosting summer camps and day camps in the future when the site is completely finished. We have monks coming to teach from China who are just getting their visas approved.

USA Shaolin Temple, 383 Breezy Hill Road, Fleischmanns, NY. Opening ceremony: 3pm, Saturday, May 5.

webcastGreg

05-07-2012, 10:24 AM

Is it an official Shaolin Temple sanctioned by the Abbot?

TaichiMantis

05-08-2012, 12:33 PM

RZA, new USA Shaolin opening. (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-786471?hpt=hp_bn8)

ShaolinDiva

05-11-2012, 07:37 AM

Is it an official Shaolin Temple sanctioned by the Abbot?

No he isn't and Guolin is more so..... He does not use any of the "Shaolin Temple" copyrighted logos and he has his own "wheel of life" logo that he uses. He and others pretty much run themselves separately without the support of the Abbot. Like a franchise vs non franchise business..... He is probably the most successful of them all.

But nonetheless, he is still spreading the Shaolin kung fu name... he has a temple and still continues to spread Chán Buddhism . He seems like a nice guy so more power to him. I am not sure if he donates any money back to help rebuild Shaolin and I think he should since his roots are there... It would be like an alumni donating back to the University he graduated from....

bawang

05-11-2012, 10:23 AM

Shi Yan Ming has been quite successful in setting up his schools, books, etc. Whats wrong with that?

he drinks vodka and bangs korean lesbian.

Lucas

05-11-2012, 10:27 AM

he drinks vodka and bangs korean lesbian.

again...whats wrong with that?

Pk_StyLeZ

05-11-2012, 04:47 PM

again...whats wrong with that?

hahaha ROFL
SUPER LIKE UR COMMENT

GeneChing

01-22-2013, 10:30 AM

There's a vid if you follow the link

Meet New York City's Shaolin Warrior Monk (http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/01/meet-new-york-citys-shaolin-warrior-monk/267226/)
By Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg
Jan 22 2013, 11:34 AM ET

Shi Yan-Ming's life story is more astonishing than the action movies he occasionally appears in: At age five, he began training in the 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple in China's Henan province. On tour in the United States in 1992, he made a daring midnight escape and found his way to New York City. There, he founded USA Shaolin Temple, where he teaches philosophy and martial arts to kids and celebrities alike. As you'll discover in the short documentary below, he still has a sense of humor too. His studio's claim to fame? It's run by the "most handsome Shaolin Temple monk on the planet," he says, grinning. "Can't help it! Know'm'sayin'? Represent." When three filmmakers, Erik Hartman, David Rowe, and Douglas Spitzer, interviewed him for their documentary series New Yorkers, they discovered a "huge" Wu Tang symbol in the studio -- the monk counts RZA among his students. Hartman, Rowe, and Spitzer, who work together as Moonshot Productions, describe their ongoing quest to document interesting New Yorkers from all walks of life in a brief interview below.

The Atlantic: What inspired you to do this series?

Moonshot Productions: The New Yorkers series comes from our passion for the city of New York. We get a kick out of all of the wild characters that we see here on a daily basis and wanted to capture that same feel in this series of videos.

Are you native New Yorkers yourselves?

We are native New Yorkers and if we weren't, we would move here ASAP.

How do you select people to profile? Any favorites so far?

The selection process has no rules. We've gone up to interesting characters on the street and asked them if we could shoot them. We've pulled people from our network of friends and family. We've gone on scouting missions to find characters. We also have a button on the Nyorkers.com website where people can send in suggestions.

If we had to pick a favorite, the ice sculptor Mark Mckenzie may be it. He is such an awesome guy and works such a unique and visual job. Guess' video has become a fan favorite as well.

What do you want people to take away from the videos?

We just hope that people watch and enjoy them. This is a passion project for us so we hope that people can enjoy the videos as both individual characters and as a collection. It's a project that, with funding, we hope to continue for a long time.

What's next for you?

Moonshot is a versatile company doing digital, commercial and television work. We have a bunch of projects that we are currently developing for TV.

GeneChing

05-26-2016, 07:49 AM

USA Shaolin Temple Moving to 102 Allen Street (http://www.boweryboogie.com/2016/05/usa-shaolin-temple-moving-102-allen-street/)
Posted on: May 26th, 2016 at 5:17 am by Elie

http://cdn01.boweryboogie.com/content/uploads/2016/05/102allen-facade-620x465.jpg

Photographer Alex Cao departed the second-floor loft at 102 Allen Street not too long ago. The studio had been a mainstay for over a decade, with images of pop-art framed in each of the windows.

It’s all gone now, replaced with brown paper.

The replacement is from left field. Here comes the twenty-two-year-old USA Shaolin Temple, which is moving from its longtime SoHo stomping grounds. It’s apparently the second move for the temple since the congregation formed in 1994.

More info on the temple:

The USA Shaolin Temple teaches Chan Philosophy through the core Shaolin disciplines of martial arts or action meditation: Gongfu (Kung Fu) Taiji Quan (Tai Chi) and Qigong (Chi Kung). Students of all backgrounds, religions, ages, and athletic ability can train at Temple. Students come to the USA Shaolin Temple from all around the world to learn and grow from traditional Shaolin training. “Heart to Heart” and “Mind to Mind” is the essence of Shaolin Chan Philosophy — and this system of training spans the differences between language and culture as a direct form of growth and understanding. Students find many paths to get to the Temple; while some students seek to build better health and create a feeling of well-being, others may train for self-defense or flexibility, but there is a singular concept behind Shaolin training: martial arts and Chan Philosophy are one and the same.
The USA Shaolin Temple should open sometime next month.

“Shaolin” is also slang for Staten Island. Just ask the Wu-Tang Clan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJk0p-98Xzc

I'm posting this mostly to repost this video. :cool:

GeneChing

06-24-2016, 12:03 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYr0mvsF0bo

GeneChing

02-08-2018, 10:17 AM

When Your Mom Is the Longtime Manager of Wu-Tang Members and Your Dad Is a Shaolin Monk (https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/my-parents-work-life-balance-when-your-mom-is-sophia-chang-longtime-manager-of-wu-tang-members-and-your-dad-is-a-shaolin-monk.html)
Featuring Jian Hong Shi, age 15, grade 10.
By LAURA BENNETT
FEB 08, 20189:04 AM

https://compote.slate.com/images/c9b29180-150b-4a0d-84ea-7686f5004395.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=1560x1040&offset=0x0
Jian Hong Shi and her mom, Sophia.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo courtesy of Sophia Chang.

In this series, kids (and not-exactly-kids-anymore) review how well their parents balance life and work. To nominate a potential subject ideally between the ages of 5 and 17, email humaninterest@slate.com.

Laura Bennett: Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with your parents?

Jian Hong Shi: Well, my mom and I are very close. I feel super comfortable telling her if anything happens with my friends. She gives me very good advice.

What kind of advice?

She always gives me the grown-up answer, like, when I am having a problem at school: You should pull them aside and talk to them. I tell her, Mom, we’re not as mature as you think we are. They are gonna think that is weird.

My parents haven’t been together since I was around 5 or something like that, so they don’t live in the same house. My dad and I are not as close because he’s not at home as much as my mom is. But when I do see him, he is super goofy and silly. So I’m always laughing when I’m around him.

What does your mom do for work?

Well right now, she’s writing a book and doing public speaking. She also briefly worked at a cannabis company. That was kind of a wild thing because she’s never smoked a day in her life. But while I was growing up, she managed hip-hop artists.

Do you remember how she became a manager of hip-hop artists?

She had been close with the Wu-Tang Clan for a long time. So I think it happened organically. She worked with a lot of different artists in Wu-Tang, like RZA, GZA, ODB while he was alive, but that was before I was alive. [She also managed D’Angelo and A Tribe Called Quest.]

Does she manage anyone now?

Nope, she’s completely out of that now. She says that she doesn’t want to manage other people now. She wants to focus on herself. I think she’s come to a place in her life where—she told me, for example, that her friend said, “Sophia, I want to stop seeing you work with egotistical men.”

Your mom mentioned to me that she was very aware of raising a daughter who was a hip-hop fan, because hip-hop is not always kind to women. Was that something she talked about with you?

She always made it very clear to me when certain lyrics were misogynistic. She would ask me if that was how I thought I should be treated. And I was like, “No mom. I just enjoy the music.” If we are in the car and the radio is on, and we hear some really misogynistic lyrics, she always goes: “Oh that’s nice.” “Oh, haven’t heard that one before.”

She always wanted me to know my worth. Through her job, I always saw her as a powerful female figure, not someone who was easily swayed by male opinion. Also, the artists she worked with, she knew them on a deep personal level—she knew their heart and their intent.

Do you like Wu-Tang’s music?

I do. I went through a phase when I listened to just Wu-Tang, when I was like 12. It was super eye-opening for me. I loved how all the different Clan members had their different flows and styles and voices, even though they were one Clan.

“I had this moment last year where I was super tired and I started thinking about a bunch of stuff and I sat back and realized what my parents did and got super happy.”
— Jian Hong Shi

What do you think your mom loves about Wu-Tang’s music?

I think the production and sampling as well. But also the wordplay and the metaphors and how they all blended together as one but people who were fans really felt like they knew each of them, their strengths and their weaknesses. I think she really respected that whatever deal they had, the RZA made sure it was inclusive. No one was ever left behind.

What was it like to know these guys personally and also be such a big fan?

I felt super grateful. The RZA is actually my godfather. I’ve known him and his kids since I was really young. So when I listened to his music, it was learning about the RZA instead of him as a father and a friend. So that was really cool.

It is pretty wild to have a mom whose job means you get to have the RZA as your godfather.

Yeah. It’s crazy. I don’t think I realized how influential and huge these artists were until later. At the time I just thought, this is just mom doing her job.

What does your dad do?

He’s a 34th-generation Shaolin monk from the original Shaolin temple in China.

Whoa.

Yeah. I used to be kind of embarrassed about telling my friends because they’d be like, “Oh yeah, my dad is an accountant or something.” But now I’m super proud of it. Anyway, he’s a monk. And he created his own temple, the USA Shaolin Temple. His English wasn’t that great and he didn’t really know about America, so my mom really helped him with the business side. Now it has branches in Austria and South Africa and Mexico. It makes me really proud of him. He helps a lot of people both physically and mentally.

Here’s a ridiculous question: Do you think your parents have interesting jobs?

Yes. Over time I became kinda used to it. But I had this moment last year where I was super tired and I started thinking about a bunch of stuff and I sat back and realized what my parents did and got super happy. Then I fell asleep.

But it was a fascinating moment where I was like, “Wow, I should really talk to my dad more about his experience coming from China to here and creating his own business. I should talk to my mom more about how she built herself and became successful on her own.”

Who generally works crazier hours, your mom or your dad?

My mom would get calls during dinner and would never pick up. She would call them back afterwards and that could go pretty late. Or she’d only pick up calls that came directly from the artist or from her mentor, Michael Ostin. With my dad, once he was home, he was home.

What stresses your parents out the most about their jobs?

For my mom, it’s working with people who aren’t as dedicated to their job as she is. People who aren’t passionate and are just doing it for the money. For my dad, I don’t really see him stressed.

Well, he is a monk.

Yeah, you’re right, he’s very calm. He never really loses his temper. He’s super in touch with the monk he was in China, when he was under all of those rules. He didn’t have enough food to eat. He had no heat. Having that all inside him helps keep him grounded.

When you were growing up, did your parents have rules for you around screen time?

My dad really hates it when my brother and I are on our phone. Because he’s like, “It will ruin your eyes.” Not because he is worried about what we’ll see. I don’t think he’s too aware of exactly how much is out there on the internet. With my mom, it’s more that she doesn’t like the idea that strangers can talk to me.

How did your mom inform your music taste when you were growing up?

She was obviously very deeply involved in hip-hop. But also on Sundays, when we would clean the house, she would always have old-school R&B on. Like Maxwell, Tony! Toni! Toné! Uh, I guess Robin Thicke doesn’t count as old-school R&B.

Do you have a sense of what you want to do for work one day?

I’m super interested in architecture. My school offers classes on it. I’m going to take them and if I do end up enjoying them, great.

Would you ever want to manage hip-hop artists?

Probably not. Just because that doesn’t really interest me, not because I’ve seen a negative impact on my mom. She used to always tell me, you’d be so good at this. But it’s not really my interest, so I’d feel like I wasn’t really doing what I wanted to do.

Would you ever want to be a monk?

No. No no no no no. Yeah, no. There are way too many rules.

Laura Bennett
Laura Bennett is Slate’s features director.

When I was in Wudangshan with Yanming and Sophia (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=5), she was pregnant with his first child. I should've realized that because of some of Sophia's actions, but at the time, I was too swept up with with the trip. I've never met either of their children.

Thread: Shi Yan Ming & Shaolin Temple USA (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA)
Thread: Wu Forever! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?49338-Wu-Forever!)

David Jamieson

02-08-2018, 10:31 AM

Shi Yan Ming still comes across as a likable guy.
Despite the foibles of American life, he's doing alright.

GeneChing

06-25-2018, 10:30 AM

Sophia Chang Ain’t Nothing to **** Wit’ (https://www.theroot.com/sophia-chang-ain-t-nothing-to-****-wit-1827052249)
Anne Branigin
Today 9:00am

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--HxMqPPLU--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/xjp7mvo5n6a6oamonykq.png
Illustration: Sam Wooley (GMG/Getty Images)

In The Art of Exchange, The Root explores the intersections where different identities and communities of color meet. Each story covers a different place or personality that expands or challenges our idea of what cultural exchange, allyship and cross-cultural support look like.

Sophia Chang wears her heart on her neck.

On a sliver of red thread running across her collarbone hangs the iconic Wu-Tang “W,” a symbol so ubiquitous and recognizable, variations of it appear all over the planet. But Chang isn’t just signaling her fandom. As the former manager for members of the Wu-Tang Clan, it’s as much a sign of devotion as it is one of appreciation.

On her website, Chang includes the tagline, “Raised by Wu-Tang.” Not only is it a clear subversion of the manipulative Svengali trope that dominates our view of artist-manager relationships—think N.W.A’s Jerry Heller—but for Chang, it’s simply the truth.

“So many things have come to me because of Wu-Tang,” she says. “There’s no way I would be who I am or where I am without those friendships. There’s no way. And it’s really important to me to acknowledge this. How their love of, and respect for, and embrace of me has impacted me.”

Along the way, Chang—who, as a Korean-Canadian woman, was an anomaly within an anomaly in the male-dominated world of ’90s hip-hop—advocated fiercely for Wu-Tang and other artists behind the scenes, helping to shape the very foundation upon which hip-hop’s golden era is built.

“I always say that ‘The Message’ is the song that changed my life,” Chang tells me over a long weekday lunch at a Japanese teahouse in New York’s East Village (full disclosure: Chang and Danielle Belton, The Root’s editor-in-chief, are longtime friends).

Chang had biked over, having just finished a workout. She has practiced kung fu for years, and Chang’s dedication to the martial art shows in her small, taut physique.

On first glance, the most noticeable thing about Chang might be her haircut: shaved down at the sides, her long black hair wrapped in a loose bun balanced atop her head. But what permeates through her conversation—the thing that seizes you, that is as present in her contemplative moments as when she’s gushing over Hasan Minhaj or Chow Yun Fat—is a welcoming, hard-won confidence.

As she speaks with both care and passion—Chang is not the type to hide either—it’s easy to imagine Chang as the sort of friend you’d call to help you figure things out. The kind of woman capable of both seeing you and gathering you up.

Chang encountered Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” as a high school student in Vancouver, British Columbia—it was one of her first tastes of hip-hop, and she was instantly hooked. She says “the urgency, the anger, all of that, the defiance, the owning of all of it” spoke to her.

“Watching these artists long for connection to their Motherland, to Africa. You know that’s a lot of what it was about. It was the medallions and the colors, you know, the green, black and red color scheme. I found that really moving. Watching them want that connection was deeply impactful.” —Sophia Chang
Chang understood the anger. For her as a Korean Canadian, the Vancouver she grew up in didn’t bear much resemblance to the diverse, cosmopolitan city people encounter today. Back then, she says, it was majority white, and her experience of going to mostly white schools instilled in her from a very early age that she didn’t belong. As early as age 5, Chang dealt with racial taunts, being called “*****,” “Jap” and “gook” and all the other words blanketed on Asian immigrants to impart that they don’t belong.

Even in the instances where her Asianness wasn’t called out directly, “looking different was a constant reminder,” she says. “You’re other, and to a large degree, you are less than.”

The bullying eventually faded away as she grew older, says Chang, but the feeling of otherness didn’t. It’s a strange tick of the minority experience—particularly the Asian immigrant experience, with its emphasis on assimilation and performance as a way to endear yourself to a white mainstream—to feel both hyper-visible and invisible.

Fueling her anger, too, was the way she saw her parents treated, particularly because of their foreign accents. So Chang lived her teenage years actively pushing away her Korean heritage, shunning Korean food, even while at home.

“It was a broad rejection of the culture,” Chang says, acknowledging that her family probably took it as a rejection of them as well. Even as the taunts receded into her memory, that sense of rejection remained. Of course, pushing her culture away didn’t bring her the sense of belonging she sought.

“That’s how white supremacy works, right? You still always know you are outside,” she says.

And it remained that way, even as Chang first discovered hip-hop, which gave her a vehicle for the rage and defiance she’d long felt. It wasn’t until Chang moved to New York City to work in the music industry that it changed.

“When I first came to New York, I hung out a lot with the guys in Native Tongues, Tribe [Called Quest], Jungle [Brothers], De La [Soul], Monie [Love]. And they were a huge part of the Afrocentric movement, which impacted me really deeply,” she says.

“Watching these artists long for connection to their Motherland, to Africa. You know that’s a lot of what it was about. It was the medallions and the colors, you know, the green, black and red color scheme. I found that really moving,” she says. “Watching them want that connection was deeply impactful.”

But it was her relationship with the Wu-Tang Clan in particular that sparked what she refers to as a personal renaissance.

“Their wholehearted, unabashed, extremely expressive embrace of Asian culture—it piqued a curiosity in me about my own culture because they celebrated it so deeply, and in a way that was so organic and so reverential,” Chang says, adding that she never once felt fetishized or tokenized by the group because of her heritage. The connection between Chang and the group, particularly with Wu’s mastermind, RZA, was visceral and immediate.

“It’s kind of like a futuristic or sci-fi movie where you get to compress time, so that months and months and years and years of getting to know each other was compressed into moments,” she says of the intellectual and spiritual connection she felt with the group. “It doesn’t mean they knew about my life, but they knew who I was.”

continued next post

GeneChing

06-25-2018, 10:30 AM

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--P0STwEJJ--/c_fit,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/phgce8wymbeukx0l7ncg.jpg
RZA and Sophia Chang. Chang describes their connection as immediate. “I just remember thinking that RZA was one of the smartest people I had ever met,” she says. “Just going, ‘Holy ****, is this guy smart.’”
Photo: Courtesy of Sophia Chang

It’s difficult to think of a group like the Wu-Tang Clan stepping onto the pop-cultural scene today and not running headlong into a discourse about cultural appropriation, a conversation that has become increasingly messy on the social media sphere, in part because people impart their own definitions on the term.

Chang herself approaches the topic with refreshing humility.

“I’m not smart enough and I’m not erudite enough” to define appropriation, she tells me, adding that she can’t articulate specifically why Kendrick Lamar employing his “Kung Fu Kenny” persona doesn’t bother her, but seeing a white person do it would.

“Somewhere there, in the back of my mind, are the terms ‘colonialism,’ ‘imperialism’ and ‘white supremacy,’” she says. “I couldn’t write a thesis on this; I just know how it makes me feel.”

As we continue talking, though, she makes clear that power dynamics and acknowledgment—whether one attributes the source of their inspiration or influence—matter deeply to her.

“Like the bone-broth thing,” she says, referring to a burst of stories in mainstream media outlets about bone broth, long a staple of Asian cuisines that has become trendy among white Americans.

“Mother****ers, you ****ing think you invented bone broth? Right now in the 21st century? I don’t think so,” Chang asserts.

Through Wu-Tang’s influence, Chang herself became a student of kung fu films, watching them with girlfriends and falling in love with the John Wu films and Chow Yun Fat in particular. The movies weren’t specific to her Korean heritage, of course, but they gave her a foothold to embracing her Asian identity—particularly the parts that didn’t jibe with being a “model minority.”

“It’s one thing to be angry and just kind of keep it all to yourself and, you know, punch pillows in the quietude of your home. It’s another thing to be able to get out and claim that anger and express it,” Chang says.. “As the ‘model minority,’ especially as a petite Asian woman, I’m expected to be quiet and docile and not upset the apple cart. So being around people [like the Wu-Tang Clan] who helped me own that was incredibly empowering.”

What Chang doesn’t mention, but comes up continually in conversations with her friends and the people she’s worked with, was how she could take that confidence and empower others.

“Hip-hop taught me everything about loyalty.” —Sophia Chang
Joan Morgan, an author and original staff member at Vibe magazine, has counted Chang as a close friend since they crossed paths in the ’90s.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in my life that’s female ... that’s such a strong advocate for themselves and for other people,” Morgan says. “She’s very clear on what she deserves, but never compromising someone else’s humanity to get to where she wants,” adding that her example has helped Morgan advocate for herself.

Chaz Hayes, who manages E-40 and Spice 1 and worked with Chang when she was at Jive Records, says she impacted his management philosophy and that of others in the business, teaching him to stay loyal to his artists’ vision and advocate for them.

“[Of the other label executives], she would be the one I would say to understand from the artist’s perspective. What we were trying to accomplish,” says Hayes, adding that without her at the table at Jive, hip-hop artists, he believes, would have felt more compelled to bow to whatever the label wanted.

“I don’t think the artists would have longevity because they wouldn’t be themselves,” he says of her influence.

Tajai, a rapper from the West Coast group Hieroglyphics, whom Chang helped sign and develop, says it was her lack of pretentious that appealed to him.

“She wasn’t trying to front like, ‘I’m this super b-girl,’” he says, adding that she knew when a thing was dope and wasn’t afraid to say it, and when she didn’t know something, she would ask questions.

He says Chang also trusted and advocated for what her artists wanted to do—even when they were teenagers. “Her treating you like an equal, like a human being, went a long way,” Tajai says.

It’s striking—but also makes complete sense—that the traits others highlight in Chang, she credits to hip-hop.

“Hip-hop taught me everything about loyalty,” Chang says. To her, both in work and in her personal life, loyalty is paramount.

So, too, is giving back. As the Wu-Tang Clan’s manager, she tracked down a 34th-generation Shaolin monk (Shi Yan Ming, with whom she would later have two kids) and introduced him to RZA. Through her efforts, RZA also became the first performer to ever perform at Shaolin temple, later taking him to Wu-Tang Mountain, “where the abbot of the original Wu-Tang gave the reimagined abbot of Wu-Tang a gift of his temple’s music,” Chang wrote in a 2012 article for the Asian American Writers Workshop.

That allegiance and fidelity to hip-hop’s most well-known artists, and to the art itself, is what makes Chang an integral part of hip-hop’s story, Morgan says. Hip-hop’s golden age helped spark a personal rebirth for Chang, but so much of what continues to shine from that era was made possible through Chang’s hard work and deep, sincere appreciation for the culture.

“She literally is responsible for helping to develop segments of the culture. And not in a way that’s tangential or harder to read,” Morgan says. “She was responsible for finding talent. She’s managed some of the most influential acts in the business. And, like all of us, she was coming of age with the culture simultaneously, and ushering in from some subculture to mainstream.”

Tajai is even more direct.

“Some of the iconic things we love about the ’90s, she had her hand in,” he says, noting that Redman’s classic debut song, “Blow Your Mind,” with its unforgettable Korean-language verse, was penned with Chang’s help.

He adds, “If you want to talk about ’90s hip-hop and you don’t include her in the conversation, you got to question either your historical knowledge or what is your motivation for not including her.”

You can learn more about Sophia Chang and her work on her website, or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne Branigin
News fellow, The Root. Sometimes I blog slow, sometimes I blog quick. Do you have this in coconut?

Nice to see Sophia get some props. If it wasn't for her, I would've never met RZA, Rosie Perez or Michelle Forbes.

GeneChing

09-11-2018, 09:04 AM

I started watching the first episode of Season 2 of Iron Fist (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?49086-Iron-Fist)but only got through the first fight. It was better than Season 1 but nothing extraordinary. I've read some positive reactions on social media so I might give it another go.

Meanwhile, Finn is now training Shaolin under Shi Yan Ming (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA).

Inside Finn Jones’ Intense Martial Arts Training For ‘Iron Fist’ Season 2 (https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/finn-jones-intense-martial-arts-training-for-iron-fist-season-2/)

https://www.mensjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Untitled-43.jpg?w=800&h=450&crop=1
Marvel's 'Iron Fist' New York Screening
Gilbert Carrasquillo / Contributor / Getty Images
by Charles Thorp

Screams ring out from inside a warehouse building in industrial Brooklyn Opens a New Window. . Nobody is actually getting their ass kicked inside, but it sure sounds like it. That is because inside is the makeshift dojo built by Marvel Opens a New Window. to create and rehearse the fight sequences for the upcoming sop****re season of superhero series Iron Fist.

But before stepping through these doors Finn Jones, who stars as Danny Rand Opens a New Window. aka Iron Fist, prepared for his return to the character by committing himself to a pious training regime five months earlier. “I was excited that we had this chance with stunt coordinator Clayton Barber to really dial in the fights,” says Jones. The actor started working with personal trainer Bev Ratcliff who set him up with a gymnastic-based routine Opens a New Window. . “This role requires me to be long and lean so that I can move fluidly, rather than just putting on tons of muscle.”

Ratcliff, who is a nutritionist as well, also created a strict diet plan for Jones to follow. “I dedicated myself to it,” says Jones. “I cut out alcohol and was eating as clean as possible every meal.”

Most importantly though, is the time that Jones spent with a Shi Yan Ming, a 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk and head of USA Shaolin Temple in New York. During their days at the temple Jones was put through a wide range of traditional kung fu Opens a New Window. movements while Ming gave strict instruction.

https://www.mensjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/dfgrbfgnfbs.jpg?w=660
Finn Jones training for Iron First 2
Courtesy Image

“He yelled at me for ‘more chi’ and for ‘more power’,” says Jones. “I was able to find a reserve of energy that I never knew I had through our work together. You never really know what you have until you truly test yourself.”

Jones also incorporated study in tai chi, wishu, jeet kune do, as well more modern martial arts Opens a New Window. . “I see Danny as a brawler who has this foundation of traditional kung fu but also knows he has to get the job done quickly,” he says. “I love throwing elbows. It is so vicious and effective.”

The effort that Jones put in paid off when it came time to shoot the stunts. “I wanted to take what they did with the first season and crank it up a notch,” says Barber, who the producers brought in to do just that. Not only was Barber coming off working as fight coordinator on Black Panther Opens a New Window. , but his career as a taekwondo competitor gave him the background needed for the martial arts-anchored show.

“The first thing that excited me about this project is that there aren’t really any shows dedicated to Kung Fu like this has the chance to be,” says Barber. He also set the goal to have the lead actors perform as many of the sequences as possible, which was made possible through those months of intense martial arts schooling.

The experience has been so beneficial for Jones that he is already looking towards what could be done with more episodes. “There is some weaponry combat towards the end of this season and I really enjoyed working with the swords,” he says. “If we get a third season, I’ll be bringing my swords with me.”

Caption 2 'Iron First' :p

GeneChing

10-08-2018, 08:07 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82vpwD-_8pA

Associated Press
Published on Oct 3, 2018
(3 Oct 2018) RZA directed Wesley Snipes for the first time in the upcoming movie "Cut Throat City." But the two have a longtime shared teacher in New York Shaolin kung fu grandmaster Shi Yan Ming. (Oct. 3)

THREADS
Shi Yan Ming & Shaolin Temple USA (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA)
Wu Forever! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?49338-Wu-Forever!)

GeneChing

07-29-2019, 08:16 AM

More on Sophia here. (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA&p=1309060#post1309060)

Former RZA, ODB, and D'Angelo Manager Sophia Chang to Tell Her Story in New Audiobook Memoir (https://www.complex.com/music/2019/07/sophia-chang-memoir-rza-gza-odb-dangelo)
BY SHAWN SETARO
Shawn is a Senior Staff Writer at Complex and the host of The Cipher, a critically acclaimed hip-hop podcast that conducts in-depth interviews with the genre’s most interesting and important figures.
Shawn is also the former editor-in-chief of Rap Genius, and has written about music and culture for Forbes, The Atlantic, Vibe, The Source, GQ, Esquire, The Sondheim Review, and more.
JUL 25, 2019

https://images.complex.com/complex/images/c_limit,dpr_auto,q_90,w_720/fl_lossy,pg_1/x9jdavuetkubhdwm2w3p/sophia-chang-cropped
Image via Publicist

If you watched the recent Wu-Tang Clan documentary Of Mics and Men or listened to the powerful 2017 podcast Mogul about the late Chris Lighty, you no doubt recall Sophia Chang. Chang, a memorable interview subject in both projects, calls herself "the first Asian woman in hip-hop," and she has the resumé to back up the title.

She has worked at record labels, including stints as General Manager of both RZA's Razor Sharp Records and Joey Badass' Pro Era Records. But Chang is best known for her time as a manager, with an all-star roster of clients: Wu-Tang members RZA, GZA, and Ol' Dirty *******; neo-soul heroes D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq; Q-Tip; and more. ("I'm really hardwired to manage people," she explained to Complex.)

Now, after a career of helping great artists tell their stories, Chang is getting ready to tell her own. Her audio memoir The Baddest ***** in the Room (put out by Audible and Reese Witherspoon's company Hello Sunshine) comes out on Sept. 26, and is available for pre-order starting today (July 25).

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Image via Publicist

Chang will be narrating the memoir herself, which she told Complex was absolutely crucial. To make the point, she quoted an old friend.

"I voiced the book myself because I think it's really important that people are exposed to my voice both figuratively as well as literally. RZA says, 'My tongue is my sword.' That's very much how I look at myself. I'm a petite Asian woman who did not come into this industry having wealth, power, fame. So what I had to do was work really, really hard, and part of crafting my persona and my identity was sharpening my blade. In kung fu, we say, 'Sharpen your blade every day.' So, not only do I train in kung fu every day, but I also hone the way that I speak, and my voice is my most powerful weapon and tool for myself and to speak on behalf of others."

Chang, who in recent years has started a new career in public speaking, says that the memoir provides her with an additional way to get her message out, and to honor the people who have been alongside her for her journey.

"I'm really grateful that Reese Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine and Audible gave me this opportunity and believed that my story was also worthy of telling," she elaborates. "And now that I have the opportunity to tell my story, I'm really grateful that I can share a lot of how other people have been so influential and loving and gracious and generous. That's a range of people from somebody like a Joey Ramone [who Chang met on her very first trip to New York City] that tipped it off, to my mentor Michael Ostin, to Wu-Tang, to the friends that sit around my dinner table, to the extraordinary women in my life. I always talk about the mother****ing village that raised me, and that village comprises all of those people. I get to honor those relationships, and I'm grateful for that."

Baddest ***** in the Room can be pre-ordered here. Chang is coy about details, but says her audio memoir "will be like no other. This audiobook will be a game changer." You can hear an excerpt, in which she talks about her relationship with Wu-Tang, below.

THREADS
Shi Yan Ming & Shaolin Temple USA (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA)
Wu Forever! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?49338-Wu-Forever!)

GeneChing

10-02-2019, 08:16 AM

Behind every great man...

I'm splitting this off from the SYM&STUSA thread (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA) into a separate thread just for Sophia (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71525-Sophia-Chang). She's an old friend and did a lot for Shaolin in America.

Hip-Hop Memoirist Sophia Chang on Her Audible Original 'The Baddest ***** in the Room' and Managing Wu-Tang (https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8531574/sophia-chang-the-baddest-*****-in-the-room-interview)
9/27/2019 by Eric Diep

https://www.billboard.com/files/styles/landscape_768/public/media/Sophia-Chang-2019-billboard-1548.jpg
Dana Scruggs
Sophia Chang

On Tuesday, the first official day of fall, Sophia Chang made her way through the crowd at The Top of the Standard towards the wooden grand piano. She sits on top of it and smiles, but not for long.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the baddest ***** in the room, Sophia Chang!” says D-Nice, one of the DJs for Chang’s celebration of her Audible Original memoir, The Baddest ***** in the Room.

As everyone shouts and applauds, Chang stands on the piano, flexes and poses. Cameras flash to get the shot of our host, who is wearing her signature Gucci leather fedora and a comfortable outfit to dance in. Tonight’s party in Manhattan brought together her friends and closest confidants, some of them appearing as guest speakers in her audiobook.

“Would you guys like to hear a little bit of my audiobook?” she asks while holding a few sheets of paper. The response is a resounding yes.

“So, get your phones out because I promise, you’re going to want to have this,” she teases.

Chang recites a live rendition of an excerpt in her epilogue (which you can hear in full below), describing her unpredictable path of chasing creative passions while establishing her sense of self. Along the way, she explains, she has countless people to thank, who have built her up and supported her through thick and thin. “They are my pillars, my shields, and my mirrors, who challenge me everyday to be a better person,” she says. “I couldn’t do what I do without them.”

“Then, there’s the Clan. Peace Rakeem.”

“Peace Soph!” says RZA, watching his friend from afar.

“Method Man was the first to call me family,” she continues. “ODB was the first to hire me as his manager. And the RZA was the first to empower me as a general manager of a label. They weren’t a constant physical presence over the last quarter century, but they didn’t need to be. They are with me everywhere I go.”

“Wu-Tang helped me find my voice, and led me to Yan Ming. Method Man gently tended to my confidence as a middle-aged woman. What am I categorically certain of, right now, is it is my turn.”

Sophia Chang's Audible Original Memoir The Baddest ***** In The Room (https://soundcloud.com/audible/the-baddest-*****-in-the-room-prologue)

On Sept. 26, Chang -- a music industry veteran, who once managed RZA, Ol' Dirty *******, and GZA, as well as other hip-hop/R&B icons like Q-Tip, Raphael Saadiq, and D’Angelo, is entering a new chamber as a memoirist. Her Audible Original memoir, The Baddest ***** in the Room, is out this week.

The story chronicles her life as a Korean Canadian, born and raised in Vancouver, who had to face unshakeable racism in her childhood. It follows her through her move to New York, where she lived through the golden era of ‘90s hip-hop, and her breaking into the music industry with stints at Jive and Atlantic, bonding with the Wu-Tang Clan, finding love with a Shaolin monk, dating with bravery as an older woman, and much more. It’s an untold perspective from one of the Wu’s closest associates, who famously bridged cultures by helping to orchestrate RZA’s first trip to the Shaolin Temple in China with Sifu Shi Yan Ming.

Just days before Chang’s audiobook release, Billboard spoke to her about writing The Baddest ***** in the Room, her relationships with ODB and Chris Lighty, mental health, women in hip-hop, and Asian representation in the entertainment industry.
continued next post

GeneChing

10-02-2019, 08:18 AM

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You’ve titled your audiobook The Baddest ***** in the Room and you are narrating it yourself because you wanted listeners to be exposed to your voice—both figuratively and literally. From a creative standpoint, how much time did you spent writing your memoir and when did you start recording it?

So I started writing my memoir last April. I turned in my first draft in August. I turned in a close-to-final draft again in January. I guess it took me eight months to write, and the production behind it has been incredibly ambitious, as you hear. That took a long time. It’s a seven-and-a-half-hour-long audiobook. Recording myself took 20 hours, which is extraordinarily fast. But I have 24 guest voices. No one has ever done this before in an audiobook.

When you were sitting down and writing your memoir and putting your thoughts down, did you have any goals? What did you want to accomplish with your story?

I think what I wanted to accomplish was to inspire people. People have been telling me for years, "Oh, you know, Sophia you gotta write a book. You have such a crazy life. You have all these amazing stories." And I resisted it for a long time because, frankly, it felt like an exercise in narcissism, right? A banal tale of hanging out with famous people. I knew that I didn’t want to do that.

So when I discovered in telling my story I can actually be helpful and be of service of other people, then it gelled for me. But not before that, right? Because self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment and fame, I don’t care about any of that ****. I do not care. So when I finally decided that I was going to write my memoir, and put my story down for history, I did it because I knew that I would be able to inspire -- and hopefully -- empower people.

Before your audiobook’s release, you’ve been tweeting the guests in your memoir, sharing a bit about why they all mean something to you. With your experience in the music industry, can you share some advice on maintaining meaningful relationships in the music industry? Some of these people have stuck with you as you evolved in your career, and genuinely have become your friends.

I love that question. I talk about it in my memoir in talking about [Ol' Dirty *******], God rest his soul. ODB was my first management client. And what I understood immediately and profoundly was my artists had to trust me. I think they would all say this, that Sophia Chang did everything in the best interest of her client. Whereas I think there are plenty of people in entourages that do things that are self-servicing. However that plays out. I wasn’t that interested in getting things for myself, what was satisfying for me was helping artists realize their creative vision and getting their stories out there.

So number one, trust is key. And I think we can say that about any relationship, any given human interaction. And second, I say in my memoir that hip-hop taught me my greatest lesson about loyalty. All of those artists you have seen on my Twitter and you will continue to hear on my memoir have been incredibly loyal to me and me to them in return.

Raekwon was the first member of Wu-Tang that I got, and he was like, "Soph, I know you didn’t think I wasn’t going to come through for you." I was like, "No." And he said, "You know it was just a matter of time and that I am not never, never going to come through for you." I said, "Absolutely." And we had this incredible conversation, and he in turn -- and I love Rae for this; you know, he and [Ghostface] are obviously close -- he said to Ghost [to do the audiobook].

When I saw both of them later, I saw Ghost and he said, "So, we’re going to do the audiobook thing, right?" I said, "Yeah, we’re going to do it." And he said, "Yeah, Rae told me, Rae told me." When we saw Rae, he was like, "Yo, did you do it yet? Did you do it for Soph yet?" [Laughs.] And you know, Rae was the first Wu-Tang domino, and he’s the one that really kicked it off. He cajoled Ghost. I was going to get Ghost anyway, but not easily as I would have if Rae have not been my advocate. That’s a ride or die. That’s why I say, "My name is Sophia Chang and I was raised by Wu-Tang."

In your memoir, you say you became closest with Ol' Dirty *******. He was able to enter your chamber where he could be his “goofy, brilliant, sometimes vulnerable self,” as you described. Why did you and ODB click so well?

I think ODB, God rest his soul, and I clicked so well is the same reason why I clicked so well with all my artists. Dirty used to say to me, "Sophie, I love the **** out of you. And you know why? When I’m around you, I don’t have to be Ol' Dirty *******, I can be Ason Unique." Ason Unique is his righteous Five Percenter name. He also has an amazing sense of humor, I think we used to make each other laugh. I think what all of them would tell you is I treated them like people. I didn’t treat them like stars, nor did I treat them like the anomaly. I think one of the things that I hope comes through in my memoir is the profound humanity of the guys in the Clan.

Nobody has the perspective that I do on Wu-Tang, because nobody has the relationship that I do with Wu-Tang. RZA said, "Who is Sophia Chang? In the Wu-Tang Clan, she is the yin to our yang." At once, she’s kind of like our auntie, she’s kind of like our sister. And I don’t know, frankly, if anyone else occupied that space. And he knew that.

When you talk about getting into the music industry in 1991, it sounds like we come from two different worlds when I compare it to my experience. Do you think it was more open and collaborative back then? Were more people about experiencing the growth of hip-hop from a subculture to mainstream?

Yeah, I moved to New York in ’87. So my first job at Jive was in ’91. But I immersed myself in the scene in ’87. And at that time, hip-hop was still No. 1, very New York-centric. You certainly had artists in the West Coast and the South and stuff like that but not like the proliferation that you see now. New York was still very much the nexus of hip-hop. And it was also a small scene, like you said, it wasn’t mainstream yet. It was still an underground scene and it was still a subculture. And there’s no Internet, right? The dissemination of music only came through the gatekeepers, meaning record companies and radio. There was no listening to SoundCloud. There were no places that you could put up your mixtape. There were these very specific gatekeepers, and I’m grateful for the iterations of those.

But where we all gathered was in the clubs. So in a club you would have MCs, DJs, rap artists, B-Boys. They are the creatives, right? But you would also have managers, A&Rs, publicists, attorneys, touring agents. You had everybody in it. It was a very small, insular scene. And to that end, I would say it was collaborative -- but it was also felt so distinctly like a community, because we were all so excited.

You know, for me, the green, Canadian French lit major, it was a deep privilege to be welcomed into this world that was not of my making. I’m welcomed into somebody else's world and somebody else’s culture. And we were all very, very close. We were also excited because we were making discoveries together, because another way we heard of the music was at the clubs.

So I’ll give you an example: DJ Clark Kent. One of the greatest DJs of all time. I was at the club when he broke a Color Me Badd song called “I Wanna Sex You Up.” And It was a huge ****ing hit. The first time any of us heard it was that he had a white label, which is a 12” that didn’t have the art or anything yet. It was an advanced copy, and he played it at the club and none of us had heard it. He broke the record, single-handedly, at that club. It was incredible.

If you still keep an eye on the industry now, what do you think about it? There’s definitely an emphasis on things like influencers, brands, data, and streaming numbers.

I think the industry is exactly where it is supposed to be, with the advent of technology and social media. I am not really attached to it anymore. I don’t have my finger on the pulse anymore. I don’t know who the latest, greatest artists are. I don’t know who the biggest influencers are. It’s very foreign to me, because that’s not how I interacted in the industry. But I also think that’s just where the state of the business is now, because technology is a behemoth.

The music industry lost for years and years, because we were in denial of technology. We didn’t understand what Napster was, and what it could do for the business. I mean imagine being in the music business, here comes Napster, and all of a sudden the stuff that you produce and make and sell for $24.99 a CD is suddenly free? And the whole world believes they should get this thing that you made for free. Here comes the collapse, right? And the music business is, as the French would say, bouleversée -- it’s turned upside down and it doesn’t know what to do. So I think it is exactly where it should be. But I think the evolution of it is really fascinating.

continued next post

GeneChing

10-02-2019, 08:20 AM

There’s a story where you’re at the New Music Seminar in 1991 as a speaker. You're side-by-side with Joan Morgan, who called herself a “hip-hop feminist,” and it took you decades of learning and living to claim that term. What’s your take on seeing the rise of Cardi B, the support of Rapsody, and just an overall change in how we embrace women in rap?

I think it is amazing and late. It’s really late. I mean, we live in a patriarchy, and I was part of that. Although I did sign a female rapper, a woman named Mz. Kilo from L.A. I think that it is so testosterone-driven that I am so delighted by these female artists that are coming out today. There’s actually a lot of female MCs: [Queen] Latifah, and [MC] Lyte, and Monie [Love], and Isis [now known as Lin Que]. There were lots of them. Yo-Yo and Da Brat and stuff. It didn’t seem surprising.

I think somewhere along the way, there weren’t as many. So this proliferation -- and also seeing how powerful they are -- is really exciting. Seeing Cardi come up, and really claim her **** and stake her claim and become this really outspoken woman -- and doing it on her terms -- is a phenomenal message.

You grew up shunning the model minority myth. There was a time when you felt like an outsider, rejecting your Korean heritage. For example, when you were younger, you felt ashamed that Korean food looked and smelled differently. But you later decided to embrace your heritage, your traditions, and your culture. Why was that so important for you to do?

I have to give context for that. I am a child of Korean immigrants who was born and raised in Vancouver. And though there was a lot of Asians there, we were still very much the minority. I was born in 1965 so I was in 5th grade in 1975. I grew up being called a ch--k, a J-p, and a g--k, and it was regular. I say this in my memoir, a big part of my rejection of my culture was watching my culture be rejected by my adopted country and being made to feel other. And other is lesser, isn’t it? Nobody is put on the margin so they can be elevated, they’re put on the margin so they can be diminished.

Korean was my first language. I lost it on my mission to assimilate. I was ashamed of my parents’ names being different. I was ashamed that my parents spoke with accents. I was ashamed and embarrassed about our food. Kids saying, "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these" to my ****ing face, because there was never a time that I wasn’t being reminded of it.

As a result of that, I wanted, as a child, to be white. Plain and ****ing simple -- I wanted to be white. From what I can gather from anecdotal evidence, that is a very common experience for first-gen immigrants. And then I hear “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in my senior year of high school. I move to New York. I hear A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders [of the New School], Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, and Latifah, and they’re all a part of the Native Tongues movement, which is steeped in Afrocentrism and this is about yearning for a connection to Africa, to their motherland. That made me go, "Oh, OK, that’s interesting." And it made me re-examine myself. And then I met Wu-Tang Clan. [Laughs.]

Everybody knows this, [but] Wu-Tang is named after Wudang, which is a mountain in the providence of Hebei, China. They called their home borough of Staten Island Shaolin, which is the mecca of martial arts. Not only did they introduce me to kung-fu movies, they also introduce me to John Woo, who is the greatest director of all-time, and his muse Chow Yun-Fat, the greatest actor of all time. It’s the first time I find Asian men attractive because again, I’ve internalized all the bull**** messages, the terrible racist messages, that Asian men aren’t attractive. And then I see The Killer and I’m like, "Oh my God, I wanna marry this man!" He’s married, but otherwise I would be married to that man. So it is this very interesting, circuitous route that I take back to myself.

Do you think we’re in a renaissance for Asians in American pop culture right now? With the success of Crazy Rich Asians and The Farewell, as well as SNL casting its first Asian cast member, Bowen Yang, is there still room for improvement?

Not a renaissance, right? ‘Cause a renaissance implies a rebirth. It’s not like we come back around to something, we were never ****ing here before. Do I think we are seeing an increase of representation? Of course. We have Crazy Rich Asians, we have The Farewell, we have my friend Justin Chon’s film Ms. Purple, which is excellent, that just came out. We have Fresh Off the Boat. Is there a rising tide? Yes.

Again, to the other point? It’s late. It’s never too late, but it’s late. Is there room for more representation? Yes. The bottom of this funnel is small. We are all kind of squeezed through the tiny end of the funnel. I don’t want it to be a funnel. I want it to be a big ass hole that we can just all jump through. It’s better and I’m delighted, but it is nowhere near where it should be.

My brother Heesok Chang, he’s a genius. He’s [one of the] ten smartest people I know. When I started writing, he said to me, "Sophia, what you’re doing with your memoir, is that you are simply asking the world to imagine that you exist." That was profound. And it remains profound and I write it at the end of my memoir. What he is saying is absolutely right. What I promise to the world is if you’ve never ****ing seen anybody like Sophia Chang before and you never will again. And in that way, I am cracking open the imagination to world of: What can an Asian -- in my case Canadian -- Asian woman look like? Because for all the tropes, for all the "model minority" myth, for all the stereotypes, for all of the ways that we have been oppressed -- I am none of that.

My daily life is an act of defiance. I am essentially a 54-year-old Canadian Korean woman, who has a crazy samurai hairdo, who is a single mother of two grown teenagers, who is out here announcing to the world in no uncertain terms and with no compunction whatsoever and with fire conviction, that I am the baddest ***** in the room. That’s ****ing radical.

continued next post

GeneChing

10-02-2019, 08:20 AM

You also talk about Chris Lighty at various points in the memoir. He was someone that became one of your most valuable friends, giving you the gift of sanctuary during tough times. Can you speak on his contributions to hip-hop and what Lighty-isms you kept with you since his passing?

Chris Lighty, God rest his soul, yes, was one of my closest friends. Chris Lighty was my Rock of Gibraltar, he was my shelter to the storm. He was my Kevlar. Knowing that I walk with Chris Lighty figuratively, meant that I walked with this shield of imperviousness.

To his contributions to hip-hop, Chris came up carrying crates for the legendary DJ Red Alert. Way back in the day like the mid-’80s. And the thing about Chris is he was so smart, and he was so entrepreneurial. He was just a hustler to the core. And he grew up doing what he does with The Violators, grew up on the streets. He was no stranger to danger. He had really good instincts on people.

I remember I would go see Chris at his Violator office, and he’s a mogul, and he’s sitting at the top of the world and he’s managing the biggest talents in the world, and he would stop everything to listen to DJ Scratch -- another dear friend of mine -- to DJ Scratch’s radio show on WBLS because it was really important for him to listen to that show.

Chris was hip-hop in a way that I never will be. And I’m not diminishing myself, it was just him. He was from the South Bronx, he grew up there. I say in my memoir, the rise of Chris Lighty mirrors the rise of hip-hop. From the projects of the South Bronx and the turntables being plugged into a streetlamp to becoming this global cultural figure. And he was there. He was there for every one of those transitions.

After going through the deaths of ODB and Lighty, you talk about mental health, telling people if you see signs of your friend suffering, go ahead and speak up. A lot of people in the music industry have been open about their mental health issues as a way to destigmatize the shame from having depression or addiction. Personally, do you think this is a good direction we are heading towards?

My answer to that is yes -- but we need much more conversation around it. I was supposed to do a panel back in March with my friend Danielle Belton, the editor-in-chief of The Root. And it was going to be me, her, a mental health professional, and it was going to be RZA and Joey Bada$$. And the topic was, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Suicide in Hip-Hop. Because of my personal losses, I wanted to crack open this conversation because it’s just not discussed. For us, too. Asians, we don’t talk about mental health. It’s stigmatized. It’s seen as a weakness, as opposed to an illness, which it is. It’s an actual illness.

When I was coming up in hip-hop during what we call the golden era, people may of talked about smoking weed, but they didn’t talk about much else. I never saw anybody doing anything more than smoking weed. Maybe they were, but they sure as hell didn’t do it around me. But now, you have a bunch of really popular artists bragging about drinking lean, taking xans, percs, oxy. Those are prescription opioids. And you don’t have to be very educated to understand that prescription opioids is an issue. There’s an epidemic of overdoses all across the country. Every race. Every sector.

To me, hip-hop is the biggest genre in this country. For the biggest artists in the biggest genre to essentially brag about a lifestyle where they’re slowly killing themselves... Make no doubt about it. As far as I know, people don’t casually take prescription opioids. Oh, you know, every once in a while, I put the kids to bed and I have a glass of Rosé. You don’t casually take opioids. So it’s one of two things: Either they’re lying about it, which is terrible because it still means they’re setting an example. Or, they’re not lying about it, and those boys are addicted. And we will continue to lose talent if we don’t open up the conversation.

Lastly, what is the biggest challenge of being an artist manager?

I think the biggest challenge is that it is largely a thankless job. You have to have the constitution to just keep going at it, and you often don’t get the recognition you deserve because artists are -- and this is partially them, but it is also part of the culture that we created -- they are largely narcissists. And it’s a matter of saying, "I’m going to do this despite the fact I’m not really getting the recognition and the thanks that I wish." So I would say that’s the biggest emotional challenge. And maybe some people don’t care about that. I know that I care about it. The other thing is you’re constantly cajoling. Cajoling, cajoling, cajoling, all the time.

There’s a part in the memoir where you talk about GZA saying, “We did it,” giving you your props and validation for your work.

Holy ****! Yeah, but the GZA is one in a million, for real. I would also say I have to shout-out Joey Bada$$. He was recently on the radio with Angie Martinez and the RZA. And she asked, "How did you guys meet?" And he said, "Shout out to Sophia Chang, she introduced us. And she’s been instrumental in my career." That was stunning. Stunning.

Our interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. shoot. i forgot our forum censors ***** again.

GeneChing

03-12-2021, 09:44 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW4hNBQr5nA

Nice to see our cover on that poster on his wall.

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/images/mzine/1999-4cover.jpg
SEP 99 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1195)

GeneChing

10-19-2021, 10:56 AM

We've been remiss not starting a thread on our dear Senior Graphic Artist's Patrick Lugo (Design Sifu here) and his project continuing A Tiger's Tale (https://atigerstale.com)since our print mag died of Covid.

Read my BTS piece for website: Tracking Tiger’s Tale (https://atigerstale.com/tracking-tigers-tale/)

https://i2.wp.com/atigerstale.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/KFQ_j1996.jpg?resize=452%2C600&ssl=1

threads
A-Tiger-s-Tale-by-Patrick-Lugo (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?72169-A-Tiger-s-Tale-by-Patrick-Lugo)
Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43333-Shi-Yan-Ming-amp-Shaolin-Temple-USA)

GeneChing

11-18-2022, 02:55 PM

A Day in the Dharma with Shifu Shi Yan Ming, Founder of the USA Shaolin Temple in New York City (https://tricycle.org/magazine/usa-shaolin-temple/)
An inside look at the daily life of a Shaolin monk

Photographs by Jeenah Moon WINTER 2022
A Day in the Dharma with Shifu Shi Yan Ming, Founder of the USA Shaolin Temple in New York City

https://tricycle.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/USA-Shaolin-Temple-6-1024x773.jpg
7:00 a.m. I take a morning stroll through the Lower East Side/Chinatown. The USA Shaolin Temple has been in this area since it opened in 1994, two years after I came to the States with the first ever Shaolin monastery tour approved by Congress. Our first building on the Bowery had no heat or electricity. Now we have branches in eight countries.

https://tricycle.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/USA-Shaolin-Temple-2-625x395.jpg
8:00 a.m. I light three incense sticks on the altar to respect Buddha, dharma, and sangha. Chan Buddhism is essential to Shaolin kung fu. One cannot exist without the other.

https://tricycle.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/USA-Shaolin-Temple-5-625x409.jpg
11:00 a.m. I sharpen my blade, a straight sword, and practice dong ch’an (action meditation) between private lessons. Dong ch’an can be anything—it’s your unique, beautiful expression of your life. There is no single right way to meditate.

https://tricycle.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/USA-Shaolin-Temple-1-625x379.jpg
12:00 p.m. I prepare for my weekly livestream class at noon with Kirby, a staffmember. I teach online classes as well as in-person classes on Chan Buddhism, kung fu, tai chi, and qigong, which are open to the public.

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1:00 p.m. I practice calligraphy in the afternoon. Martial arts take many forms, including how one moves a brush. I learned the art form when my father, a highly skilled calligrapher despite never going to school, was hired by the Chinese government for his talent.

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4:00 p.m. I reflect on our precious lifetime on earth. A human’s greatest responsibility is to use this life to help others and understand their suffering, and to push the limits of their own abilities until they reach the level of what seems like myth.

See more of Shifu Shi Yan Ming’s day on Instagram @tricyclemag (https://www.instagram.com/tricyclemag/). Watch Tricycle’s 2013 video profile of Shifu Shi Yan Ming here. (https://tricycle.org/article/amituofo/)
I was subscribed to Tricycle for a few years but have long since let that elapse.

GeneChing

06-07-2023, 07:56 AM

WORLD CHINA
MEET THE LEGENDARY WARRIOR MONK PASSING ON THE SECRETS OF KUNG FU AND BUDDHISM (https://time.com/6282400/shaolin-kung-fu-martial-arts-buddhism-shi-yan-ming/)
Meet the Legendary Warrior Monk Passing on the Secrets of Kung Fu and Buddhism
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Shi Yan Ming Matt Doyle
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL
JUNE 7, 2023 5:01 AM EDT
Shi Yan Ming didn’t intend to make me feel bad. But when a 40-something journalist asks a 59-year-old interviewee to confirm his age, it’s not really appropriate to lift a straight-kneed leg over your head in response. Frankly, it’s a little upsetting.

Not that Shi’s age-defying dexterity should be surprising. He is a living legend in the world of martial arts, a 34th generation warrior monk from China’s legendary Shaolin temple who can break bricks with his bare hands, execute upside down flying kicks, and bend razor-sharp spears with his neck. And on the brink of his sixth decade in this earthly realm, Shi still takes pleasure in passing on the secrets of kung fu and Chan (Zen) Buddhism to both movie stars and harassed office workers.

“I have private students, classes, and train myself every day,” Shi tells TIME via a Zoom call from the USA Shaolin Temple, which he established in New York City in 1994. The relentless quest, he says, is to “sharpen my life.”

It’s a life that has transported Shi from abject poverty in rural China to performing kung fu on behalf of its communist government, defection to the U.S., and then training some of Hollywood’s biggest names, like Wesley Snipes, Bokeem Woodbine, and WuTang Clan’s RZA—who dubbed Shi a “real life superhero.”

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Shifu practicing gongbu (kung fu stance) in Henan Province, China in the early 1970s Courtesy of USA Shaolin Temple
After honing his fighting skills since the age of five, Shi is famed for extraordinary feats of physical and mental prowess, including his fabled “one-inch punch,” which is more powerful than a car traveling at 35 mph, according to The History Channel series “Stan Lee’s Super Humans.” He has also taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and spoken at Harvard and the U.N.

But no challenge Shi had previously faced quite matched up to COVID-19, which shuttered his school in the Lower East Side for two years and seven months, only to reopen late last year. Shi experienced pandemic-inspired anti-Asian hate firsthand and believes, with the WHO recently stating COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, that people everywhere can use the hardship as a springboard to find inner peace and satisfaction.

“In the pandemic, many people got disconnected from reality, and spiritually [suffered] a lot,“ says Shi. “Life is so short, life is precious, we have to cherish every moment— every day, it’s a beautiful gift.“

Shi was born the seventh of nine children in a desperately poor family in China’s central province of Henan. Per local custom at the time, Shi’s mother had her feet bound, while his father went door-to-door performing odd jobs for food. Three elder siblings starved to death in Mao Zedong’s disastrous “Great Leap Forward” industrial experiment of the late 1950s.

Shi fell extremely ill as a toddler, forcing his father to sell the family’s few prized possessions to pay for doctors. After Shi grew cold and unresponsive, his parents thought he had died and were preparing to dispose of his body when a passing medicine man noticed their distraught weeping and asked to see the child. He performed acupuncture on Shi, who quickly roused. Partly in thanks for the supposed divine intervention, and partly to ward off future malaise, Shi’s parents, both devout Buddhists, decided to take him to the Shaolin Temple to recuperate. “My parents had no idea what was wrong with me, but they believed Buddha could save my life,“ says Shi.

The Shaolin temple was founded in A.D. 495 on the forested slopes of China’s sacred Mount Songshan in what is today Henan province’s Dengfeng county. According to legend, the monastery’s fighting tradition evolved from a group of monks who were martial artists before taking orders, and taught their fellow brothers via perfecting household chores like sweeping, collecting firewood, and fetching buckets of river water. Before long, rival warlords would entreat the warrior monks to help in their skirmishes.

Such a focus on martial prowess may seem at odds with a religion as dedicated to non-violence as Buddhism. However, early Buddhist iconography often flanks the Buddha with heavily-armed, ferocious-looking deities who trample demons underfoot. As scholar Meir Shahar notes in his definitive book, The Shaolin Monastery, “if the world-honored one required the protection of martial gods, then his monastic community certainly needs the defense of martial monks.”

At the age of 5, Shi was accepted by Shaolin’s chief monk, but life in the temple was far from tranquil. Mao’s frenzied Cultural Revolution was in full swing, during which all ancient religion and culture was purged. The temple’s walls had already been destroyed during a bout of inter-clan fighting in 1926, though Mao’s fearsome Red Guards picked up where the warlords left off, smashing all buildings, statues, and relics. Monks were forbidden from even wearing their robes. “It was hard to live there,“ Shi says.

As time went on, Shi began to be trained in the ways of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and Shaolin kung fu. Rising at 4:30 a.m., he spent each day engrossed in meditation, chores, and training. Monks slept on a piece of wood with a blanket and bundled their clothes for a pillow. The temple had no electricity until 1981 and no running water until 1986. By the age of 17, Shi could dangle a 40-pound weight from his testicles and sleep standing on one leg.

“A master would order me to do a handstand and then just walk away,“ recalls Shi. “I felt like my eyeballs would almost pop out, arms swelling, body sore,“ he says. “Chinese culture is different from Western culture. Physically, they just push you very hard.”
continued next post

GeneChing

06-07-2023, 07:56 AM

It was a grueling regimen that these days would be considered abuse, and China’s kung fu schools continue to be hit by accusations of mistreatment. However, Shi remains grateful for the opportunities his unconventional upbringing brought. “My generation and today’s generation are totally different,“ he says. “I appreciate they were empowering young men— physically, mentally, spiritually—to stand tall. And now I can share my knowledge, wisdom, spirit, and physical experience with the rest of the world.”

Despite decades of official repression, the Shaolin Temple enjoyed an unexpected renaissance following the eponymous 1982 film starring a young Jet Li. The movie was a sensation, selling half a billion tickets at the Chinese box office, and propelling Shaolin kung fu into Western popular culture. Shi was living at the temple when Li arrived to film, though was unconvinced by the actor’s true potency. “His performance is of a high level, he is an awesome martial artist,“ says Shi. “But a real fight, in combat, is a totally different story.”

Still, the buzz surrounding the film meant the Shaolin temple began receiving floods of tourists and wannabe warriors. The Chinese government, meanwhile, mirrored its newfound flexibility embracing capitalism by also leveraging Shaolin kung fu’s cultural caché. The crumbled buildings were resurrected and before long, training academies peppered the surrounding hillside.

Shi was selected for the temple’s first overseas tour of the U.S. in 1992. But following the final performance in San Francisco, Shi decided to defect. He snuck outside and jumped in a cab but, unable to speak English, could only gesture for the driver to keep moving. After a while, the driver took Shi to a Chinese restaurant in Oakland which was just closing up.

“But they only spoke Cantonese, not Mandarin!“ recalls Shi with a shake of his head. “So I used the pad to write down ‘I need your help.’ And then they said, ’okay’ and made me a plate of fried noodles.

Shi called a friend of a friend who lived in San Francisco. He picked him up and let him stay in his basement for a week. Shi’s defection caused huge waves; the Chairman of China’s Martial Arts Association and the Mayor of Dengfeng were leading the tour, which was one of the first bilateral engagements following the diplomatic freeze sparked by the Tiananmen Square massacre three years earlier.

Shi, however, has no regrets: “My life’s purpose is to help as many people as possible.”

Shi’s life has changed radically in the three decades since his defection. Fully settled in New York City, and today a proud U.S. citizen, he remains unmarried but has two kids, a boy and a girl. In a departure from Buddhist clerical orthodoxy, he occasionally eats meat and enjoys the occasional drink too.

The Shaolin Temple, meanwhile, has also transformed. Today, it is more of a martial arts theme park than a pious sanctuary. When TIME last visited the monastery in 2018, novice monks did daily performances for crowds of tourists snacking on sunflower seeds and instant noodles. The gift shop overflowed with instructional DVDs, posters, and calendars.

Shi chooses his words carefully when asked to comment on the commercialization of his former home, which he has not visited since 2008. “To be a real Shaolin monk, it is not enough to practice martial arts,“ he says. “It’s the philosophy of Chan Buddhism. First, you must shave your head, eat Buddhist food, dress in robes, understand how to challenge yourself, how to discipline yourself.

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Shifu demonstrates forward fold in the NYC temple, May 2023 Matt Doyle
But in recent years, kung fu has fallen down the martial arts pecking order, with the rise of Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA. The florid acrobatics of kung fu may look spectacular on screen but barely feature in serious competition, perhaps propelling the rise to a growing cadre of kung fu practitioners who claim supernatural skills, such as superhuman strength and telekinesis.

It’s a trend that Shi has been vocal at combatting, insisting the true essence of Shaolin lies not in cheap conjuring tricks, but the underpinning spirituality. He backs the publicity campaign of Beijing MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong, who grew to global notoriety in 2018 when he defeated a Tai Chi master who claimed supernatural powers in 20 seconds.

Shi says Xu “did a fantastic job. I respect him, I love him, more people should stop these liars. They disrespect Chinese martial arts, disrespect Chinese culture, disrespect themselves.“ Rather than feel threatened by MMA, Shi says he loves watching UFC bouts, especially those of Jon “Bones“ Jones, Demetrious Johnson, and Urijah Faber. “I like the fast guys a lot,“ he says.

Regarding the spiraling acrimony between his ancestral and current home, which has been dubbed a “new Cold War,” Shi remains diplomatic when asked about assigning blame, urging both sides to seize on common ground to repair relations. “Every country has a different way to make themselves strong, to deal with situations,“ he says. “This topic I shall leave them to figure out.”

He’s more forthright regarding the need to combat anti-Asian hate spurred by the pandemic. Twice during lockdown he found himself the subject of snide remarks on the street by people who thought he might be infected with COVID-19, which was fueled by then President Donald Trump’s use of terms like “China Virus“ and “kung flu.“

“People are not educated, they don’t love themselves, don’t rate themselves,“ says Shi. “It’s easy to blame other people, so we need to stand tall, speak out. Why hate people? Instead, loving people uses the same energy, same time. Why not turn around and love people, encourage people, and help people.“

And he believes that it’s incumbent on America’s Asian community to stand united and strong. “The Asian community should put our hands together,“ he says, “One chopstick is easy to break; ten chopsticks are much harder.”
I wonder if this made TIME's print issue