The committee is at it again.

[r.(shaolin)]

Chinanews, Zhenzhou, Feb. 27, 2006
"In order to standardize and promote orthodox Shaolin martial arts, the Dengfeng Municipal Administration of Sports in Henan will invite some martial arts experts to offer a 10-day training program to some 300 martial arts coaches. The program will start on March 6."

"In recent years, many domestic and overseas Chinese pick up the old tradition of practicing martial arts. However, there are currently various kinds of martial arts practiced in society under the name Shaolin. Some of these martial arts are far different from conventional Shaolin style and hamper the sound development of conventional Shaolin Kongfu."
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re: "conventional Shaolin style"
The "conventional Shaolin style" referred to above was adopted at the Shaolin Monastery in the early 1980's. This was a hodgepodge of forms coming from a numbers of different communes plus a number of experts from different parts of China, plus modern wushu basics.

I find it interesting that in another article whch appeared recently in Chinanews and dated Mar.24, Shi Yongxin said the purpose of this and trademarking was not over money but over reputation. He said, "The Chinese folk cultural resources have already lost a lot and cannot afford to lose any more."

I couldn't agree with him more, unfortunately this standardize and trademarking (read marketing) of Shaolin martial arts will do just the opposite.

r.

[Sal Canzonieri]

Hmm, I thought they were doing this to research the original way the forms were done.

I heard he wanted to move away from the contemp. wushu-izeation of Shaolin because the people who want to take course there and the tourists (and people doing articles on them and complaining to them a lot like me, for instance) want them to do old style traditional Shaolin (which has to be researched).

They are researching 350 forms and will be publishing the information when done, which I am very curious to see what they will be.

Lots of people have been complaining to them that there are many Shaolin schools, books, vcds, etc, out there that are doing the forms all different from each other and they are losing face over this, which is bad for their UNESCO drive to become declared a landmark.

[GeneChing]

Songshan already is a UNESCO Geopark. Shaolin Temple was bidding for a World Heritage Site, but they don't really qualify as it stands. Talin has potential to become a World Heritage Site, but Shaolin Temple itself was deemed unworthy because it had so much reconstruction. Of course, the Intangible Heritage bid is equally challenging. To be an Intangible Heritage, Shaolin Kung Fu has to be more precisely defined.

The Dengfeng Sports Bureau already created standardized Shaolin Forms and implemented them for local competition. These are not traditional forms. These are new forms that combined movements from traditional forms. The compulsory is really hard. But you have to distinguich between these two governing bodies and their goals. There's Shaolin Temple's Abbot, who is trying to define traditional Shaolin as part of this UNESCO Intangible Heritage bid. Then there's the Dengfeng Sports Bureau which is trying to regulate the 80 private schools in Dengfeng, as well as the Dengfeng sports college. They are trying to implement this compulsory program on an academic level. Given this report, it's hard to tell what's going on; It maybe that the reporter might not be senstive to all the issues here and is crossing political bodies to make his story flow.

[Shaolinlueb]

shaolin is so broad and great that standardizing it i think would hurt it. i mean wushu is standardized kung fu.

just leave it to the different curriculums. if they want to create a new standard for competition fine, but i think the chinese already destroyed enough of the shaolin martial arts in history. jsut cause they aren't burning the temple, doesnt mean they arent killing it by trying to get rid of old stuff. think about that mother *****es

[Jingwu Man]

My Sigong returned from Shaolin on Tuesday where he was training inside the temple and the Monks training him mentioned that are trying to codify the Shaolin forms. They want to make a distinction between Shaolin temple and the other schools teaching Shaolin in the area. The temple has also asked my Sigong to be an Amassador of sorts and teach the temple fomrs here in Canada. The forms are basically the same as I have learn't before, just some minor technical differences, but it all seems real traditional stuff.

[Sal Canzonieri]

My Sigong returned from Shaolin on Tuesday where he was training inside the temple and the Monks training him mentioned that are trying to codify the Shaolin forms. They want to make a distinction between Shaolin temple and the other schools teaching Shaolin in the area. The temple has also asked my Sigong to be an Amassador of sorts and teach the temple fomrs here in Canada. The forms are basically the same as I have learn't before, just some minor technical differences, but it all seems real traditional stuff.

yeah, what i heard was that they were comparing all the different ways that people teach the form (even inside Shaolin, the 'monks' that now teach all over the world)
and 'correcting' the forms to be MORE traditional.

I don't think they are standardiing forms to be like wushu, but the opposite.
Shaolin now wants to move to preserve the traditional ways, cause they will be more successful if they do this.

[xiao]

Is there still anyone here that believe that YX do care about Shaolin Wushu ?

My master had a "conversation" with him last year and YX was very clear. There was no real shaolin kf anymore and he didn't seem to give a **** about that. These are his words , not mine...

[mickey]

Greetings,

MAJOR EDIT:

My ego was at it again. It is best to sit back and watch.


mickey

[Sal Canzonieri]

no one's expecting much from Shaolin.

I just want to see what they come up with when they finish this 'survey'.

I for one, have no desire to be a defender of the place, I just want to see how it will all play out in the end.

[r.(shaolin)]

That reality of the matter is this – even if the sets are old, the system they have compiled is modern and recent. These sets came from a variety of lineage's, each with their own system of basics and fundamental sets, histories, and traditions, etc. Once you begin a project like this you have no choice but to start standardizing and editing.


IMO the UNICO Intangible Heritage bid is to gain an international legal instrument to authenticate the PRC's claim that the new system being created at Shaolin is an old traditional system practiced prior to the the 1980's. This claim is clearly false.

r.

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Chinanews, 2005-12-22
Since the 1990s, the Shaolin Temple started to search and collect some materials on Shaolin Kongfu that have been scattered in folk. In 2002, the temple set up a working office and has so far sorted out materials on over 700 sets of Shaolin martial arts.

Shaolin Buddhist abbot Shi Yongxin said after the saving work had been finished, they would build up a cave to carve the contents of some martial arts on walls or stones. By then, martial arts enthusiasts can find a set which is suitable for them to practice and the cave will become a place for people to touch the essence of Zen culture.


Chinanews, 2005 Dec. 22 – A project aiming at searching and preserving those traditional Shaolin Kongfu scattered in folk, was recently kicked off in Dengfeng city, hometown of Chinese martial arts.

For a long time, people concerned about the whereabouts of these martial arts and now they began to take action to save them.

It is said that a complete Shaolin Kongfu consists of 360 sets. In history, some of the sets were scattered in folk as the temple suffered from constant wars. At present, only 100 sets of Shaolin Kongfu are kept in the temple and other martial arts have become extinct or been at the edge of extinction.

In 1990, local physical committee began to take measures to save these martial arts. In 2005, local authority kicked off an event to protect local cultural heritage and saving the martial arts become an important part of the event.

Shaolin Buddhist abbot Shi Yongxin said after the saving work had been finished, they would build up a cave to carve the contents of some martial arts on walls or stones. By then, martial arts enthusiasts can find a set which is suitable for them to practice and the cave will become a place for people to touch the essence of Zen culture.