http://www.shaolinsecrets.com/ :eek:
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I have these books, they were given to me by one of my teachers who helped write sections of it, I also met and know the author of the whole book. The guy who was commisioned by the Govt of PRC to write the book.
Every book/volume are number stamped only a limited run of 3000. Every person who has this book is registered as an owner.
This looks like blatant plagarism, I doubt that the publishers will have given permision to reproduce as it was commisioned by the PRC
WTF???
http://www.shaolinsecrets.com/aboutus.phpQuote:
In 2001, he [Charles Materra] was adopted by the Head Abbot of the Shaolin Temple as a disciple and promoted to the rank of 10th Degree Black Belt, Grandmaster and Professor. He is one of only two non-Asians to hold this distinction in the world.
GENE!!???
The book that Abbot Yongxin is presenting in that photo was one of several 'high end' Shaolin editions published by Shaolin Temple since Yongxin was inaugurated. I think that one was the first major one I saw - we might have discussed it in a previous Shaolin special, but offhand, I can't remember where that might be and I'm feeling too lazy right now to look for it. The abbot asked us if we were interested in distributing it, but the USD price was really high, far too high for our market and it's only in Chinese. It was classic stuff - a lot of medical info - and the presentation was really beautiful. I'm glad someone has taked on translating it and would be interested to see their translation. However, the sell text in that website is pretty dubious, so I'm pretty skeptical of the quality of that translation. As for the translation being PRC funded, that surprises me. Do you know what branch of the PRC funded this, Wong Ying Home?
Prof. Matterra was one of the main instructors in the Fred Villari organization.He and Steve DeMasco formed United Studios of Self-Defense, a very large and successful Shaolin Kempo chain. They also are well known for teaming up with such notables as Shi Guolin, and Tak Wah Eng. Steve DeMasco , who was appointed the Official US Ambassador to the Shaolin Temple, now has a column in BB magazine on his Shaolin Journey, as well as several books and vids out. Facinating reading.
I think this whole USSD/Shaolin affair is a $ad one...for any "official ambassador," the materials I saw for one of their productions were loaded with silly mistakes that were embarassing. Especially the whole belt promotion thing...
the way they have it set up, it is like Shaolin is endorsing their ranking system and testing.
quite a few notable people, who shall remain nameless, have gotten quite the kick out of USSD and their "Shaolin" links.
the organization itself gave quite a bit of trouble to some real Shaolin in Vegas for example, tearing up posters of Shi De Cheng and Xing Wei and what not.
I went into one of their branches in Long Island- it opened up next to one of my favorite Taquerias so I figured what the hell, and they had their wall covered in Shaolin posters.
The sales pitch was really amazing.
man is there some whacky stuff in that material...things like this:
http://www.shaolinsecrets.com/boxpres.jpg
and the caption....
they are disciples. they should act like it.
Gene
I did'nt say that the PRC funded the translation, the book however was commisioned in part by the PRC govt.
I very much doubt that the organistaion pushing the book have distiribution rights. The text is a mix of modern and old, the meaning of a lot of it is very cryptic in parts. So unless the people translating it are martial arts scholars with a good understanding of things, the translation is going to be next to useless in parts.
I will have to contact my teacher about what dept commisioned the book. I can dig out the contact details of the guy who did most of the reseach work for it. I do know that he spent a lot of time travelling all around china to meet with old masters who were supposed to have special skill.s
One story he told me while I was with my teacher was that he was told of an old man who was good at jumping, somewhere out in the sticks so he hack out to the back of beyond to find an old man lving in a self made mud and brick hut, with a chest level wall around it and no visible door to get it through the wall.
the purpose of the wall was to stop flodding and animals getting in. The olnly way he could get inyto his house was to jump over the wall...and that was his special amazing kung fu skill......the author said there were many such so called magic masters he went to see.
Let me know if you want the authors contact details.
Regards
Wong Ying
I don't need to contact the authors, but if they want to contact me, here I am. This is sort of a mountain/Mohammud situation. We do accept reader's copies, but only for potential resale. We do not do reviews or excepts, although if a book is really good, I'll recommend it privately, like I do with any book. I currently have a huge stack of reader's copies I'm muddling through, on top of our regular article submissions, an academic paper, and the stuff that I want to read for my own enjoyment. But I'd be open to reading this work, if they want to send one. ;)
If they want me to review, I will, since I write for various martial art publications
and newsletters.
This is great. i've just placed in an order. Can't believe he was adopted as a son only after 38 years of training. I thought it takes over 100 years to master shaolin kung fu?
I kow all the leaping skill lloks grerat but all I want is just to be able to walk properly again.
That's some seriously weird Shaolin math you're doing :rolleyes:
Was that Ji by chance? He mentioned working on a big volume series for them & was going to present it when he went back home in '02.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wong Ying Home
Yup it was Ji, been a student of his since 1991. He had lots of great stories to tell on that book.
Cool... thought it might've been. Just curious. Please pass my best wishes to him the next time you speak with him.
road apples.