American Shaolin by Matt Polly

[sk girl]

Hi guys

Just got back from Shaolin a few days ago.

Was reading the book while we were up there and just finished it yesterday.

It was great.

One thing though.....

I was flicking through the photo section in the book and discovered that we had eaten at a dinner banquet with "Deputy Leader Jiao"...very funny, the table had a motorised lazy susan with a miniture scale model of the temple and mountains etc..this was one of the banquet rooms in the Wushu Guan restaurant.

At the dinner we were telling him about the book (or our master was who was translating) but he was not sure if he had heard of it...we were going to go and grab the book to show him but there had been far to much rice wine consumed. We thought it was him.. then when we got back to our room to check and we confirmed it the book had an even bigger impact on us

Our master taught up there in 1982 and Master Jiao was one of his students.

Oh I wish I was back there and out of this office

How did you arrange for you to get there and your training? Is there a web site?
How much was it?
Did you train at the Shaolin Temple?

Any info would be great Thanks.

[Shaolin87]

Awesome book, read it in about 3 days, and couldnt get enough of it. Then I met him a few weeks after, and it was great at his signing/meet.

[Blacktiger]

How did you arrange for you to get there and your training? Is there a web site?
How much was it?
Did you train at the Shaolin Temple?

Any info would be great Thanks.

Sorry have taken time to respond - sent you a PM

[latta]

Cool guy.....

[donbdc]

Will there be a book tour. Any plans to be around the D.C. area.
What a wonderful book!
Thanks for sharing the experience.
Don Berry

[Chan Da-Wei]

Having been to China twice I found this a very entertaining read. If you travel to the small towns and villages in-land you can still get the same kinda experiences. My wife is from a 'small' town called Jianli about 4 hours drive from Wuhan and when I went there 2 years ago, I was the first foreigner many locals had seen in person.

[shaolinboxer]

You should check out this book on shaolin that was just released:

The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion and the Chinese Martial Arts (Hardcover)
by Meir Shahar

It may seem a bit pricey, but it's text book quality and gives the clearest picture of the state of shaolin from now back to the root of it's history. The origins of shaolin legend, the use of the staff as a primary weapon, the behavior code of the different types of monks (I had to smile during that part, since one present day monk in particular is used as an example), the creation of fist forms and the historical Damo are all discussed.

Shahar states that the primary goal of the work is to discuss the history of shaolin prior to 1900, but he discusses the present state of the monastery ($5 million in annual ticket sales...not bad) and some of the current monks are called upon as references.

The literature available in english on Shaolin is improving greatly. Buy it up so it keeps coming!

[GeneChing]

We have a separate thread on Shahar's work already.

[shaolinboxer]

lol. too cool, daddy-o.

guess I should glance here more often. the aiki world keeps me busy, but I still rock the CMA

[Chief_Suicide]

I found the book at Borders and couldn't put it down. I'm finally finished reading it and I really enjoyed the book. I have a wife, kids, bills and etc, like most people; so I won't be going off to China, but it is nice to live through others experiences.

I just finished Iron and Silk as well because I saw it influenced him in his decision to go to China. Iron and Silk is a great book as well.

[mkriii]

Gene~

I know this is kind of a silly question, but why is Matthew Polly's name ringing a bell with me??? Was he the guy who did the movie with Pan Qing Fu? Iron and Silk?

Arrgh, I can't remember where I've heard his name before!
Anyway, good go on the book.

cheers

No, that was Mark Salsburg (sp?) your thinking of in the movie "Iron and Silk". I have that movie at home.

[iron_silk]

The correct name of the author (and star of the movie) is Mark Salzman.

As you can tell from my forum name I was a big fan of the movie and even bigger fan of the book.

The book Iron & Silk is quite a wonderful read and educational.

[mkriii]

The correct name of the author (and star of the movie) is Mark Salzman.

As you can tell from my forum name I was a big fan of the movie and even bigger fan of the book.

The book Iron & Silk is quite a wonderful read and educational.

Well I was close on the name, but yeah it was a great movie. You must first eat bitter before you can taste sweet.

[LFJ]

the book was an interesting account of how china was and largely still is today. enjoyably written, comedic. i liked it. never heard of the movie though.

[GeneChing]

...I remember having a discussion of Salzman's Iron and Silk with Matt. We both felt it was groundbreaking and well written. I find the comparison between Salzman and Polly is inevitable and unfair. Salzman has a more romantic vision of China, something that was really exaggerated in the film version (a minor romance in the book into a major plot device in the film). Polly has a more gritty view. Compare his romantic misadventures (one can't but wonder how they might translate into a film). We discussed Salzman seven years ago here. I've just ttt-ed that thread with an update.