Shaolin & Olympics

[Serpent]

Originally posted by blooming lotus
so these folks wonder how I got qualified to teach le yingyuea!!"

Same thing we've been wondering for ages.

[Liokault]

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

[blooming lotus]

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

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

[Serpent]

And?

[SaMantis]

down, boys ...

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

[blooming lotus]

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

[bungle]

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

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

[blooming lotus]

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

viva gongfu however you get it.

[Pk_StyLeZ]

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

[Brad]

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

[blooming lotus]

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

BL

[bungle]

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

[Liokault]

LOL

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

[David Jamieson]

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, just saying.

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

[Shaolinlueb]

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