Shi Decheng

[hasayfu]

Ravenshaw,

Here is the place:
http://www.allstarkungfu.com/

Sunday 2-3pm. We are just helping out. This will be the debut show of our lion team. We've only been training a few months. Unfortunately, many of our performers are out this day so we are going with a bare team.

Should still be fun. If anyone from the forum makes it out, I'm the drummer.

[GeneChing]

... to pick up Shi Decheng. It'll be good to see my master again. It's raining pretty hard here now, so that really puts a damper on sightseeing this weekend. Hope it doesn't mess up your opening too, hasayfu.

amitoufo

[GeneChing]

I'm not going to merge this thread to the SF Bay Area workshops from the Tiger Claw Foundation workshops thread like I originally said. I'm going to let this one stand on its own, since it's developed a life of its own (and hopefully, I'll revitalize it on Shi Decheng's return).

Shi Decheng's visit went well over all. He was very happy about everything. The seminar was small, but we filled the room at U.S.A. O-Mei. More students would have got claustrophobic. Thanks for everyone who came out to support. The sun came out Sunday, so we had a fine afternoon at Golden Gate Park.

Here's a little Shaolin Whack-A-Mole, or rather, Whack-a-spam. I'll explain later.

[hvillarruel]

I was waiting like 2 years to meet Master Shi De Cheng but i ran out of money. I hosted my SiFu Zanotti Seminar here at Guadalajara, Mexico one week before Doc's party.

Do you know if Master Shi De Cheng is going to be more time at USA?

Congratulations on your seminar Master Gene Ching!. I hope to reach the next one.

[GeneChing]

Shi Decheng has a one year visa for the U.S. for 2007. That's unusual, but he travels so often that I guess he's earned some props. His 2007 itinerary is crazy. This week, he goes back to China for Chinese New Years. Then he goes to France, then Italy, then Germany, then Austria, staying a few weeks in each place. Then back to China, which should be around June. Then back to France, I think (I'm a bit sketchy on all the details). He's hoping to make the Buddhist pilgrimage in India this year - Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Kushinagar. I've paid my respects at Bodh Gaya and Sarnath, so I hope he makes it. Then he might be back in the U.S. in September or November. Not sure exactly, but I'll certainly keep everyone posted here. Meanwhile, he's opened a second school in Dengfeng and invested in some mountain real estate in between Dengfeng and Shaolin Temple, where he intends to build another school and a stupa for his master, Shi Suyuan. He said Shi Suyuan didn't want a stupa in Talin and loved the mountains, so he's worked to fulfill this wish. He said that when he finishes this stupa, he'll invite all the disciples there. That should be very interesting.

[hasayfu]

Great that the seminar went well. I spoke to one person who went and he had a great time.

Yeah, I was worried about the opening but it was great day on Sunday. Our debut show went as well as can be expected. It was a simple show but I'm proud of the team. They've come a long way in a short time.

Sifu Tony Chen paid a visit. That was a pleasant surprise.

Finally, in typical Chinese fire drill fashion, the sound system went wacky on the dragon dance and guess who had to do an impromptu drum accompaniment?!?

[hvillarruel]

Great Master you have Master Gene.

So, i will wait for him on September or November.

Do you know if someone disciple of him is teaching there at US? ( You, Doc,...?)

Congratulations for the event.

Hector Villarruel

[GeneChing]

Shi Decheng has five disciples in the America. We were discussing this during his visit, and he thought he only had four, but I remembered one he had forgotten. Embarrassingly, that was a person that I had introduced to him, a classmate from Lam Kwoon who disappeared (the Lam Kwoon folks here know who I'm talking about). No doubt he still claims his discipleship heritage, but he's done nothing to honor that, so Decheng completely forgot him. I tried to jog Decheng's memory about him, but failed, and at a certain point, I just gave up. Ironically, he's probably still teaching. Since I gave him this public dressing down, and since Decheng no longer acknowledges him, I'm going to omit him on the list.

The four American disciples that Decheng acknowledges in order of their vows taking are:
1995: Steve Li: I can't remember his disciple name and we've lost track of him.
1996: me: Xinglong
1996: Dieter Wagner: Xingda (aka kungfu**** here on the forum)
1997 (I think): Dr. Richard Russell: Xinghung (aka Russbo)

I doubt Steve is teaching, where ever he is. It just wouldn't seem to be in his character. I haven't seen him since '95.
I retired from teaching soon after my kid was born. Now all my teaching skills are directed towards my child.
Dieter runs a small club in NC. After our time spent under Decheng, Dieter studied further under Shi Xinghao in TX.
Doc doesn't teach either. He operated a school that sponsored Xingwei's coming to America, but that's a whole other story. Go to www.Russbo.com for the details.

hasayfu, I'm glad your opening went well. My O-Mei shifu Tony Chen was all over that weekend. There was a huge belt test at O-Mei when we did the seminar on Saturday. Then that night, he invited Shi Decheng to a local kickboxing and MMA smoker. When the promoters heard they had a Shaolin monk in the audience, they were nice enough to give him a ringside seat. Props to my O-Mei brother Spencer, who won his bout after three rounds. And after paying respects to Chen Fei's opening, who knows what else he did on Sunday?

[hvillarruel]

Thanks for the info Master Gene ( you are a Master, sorry ).

[Ravenshaw]

hasayfu,

Glad to hear the performance was successful. I wanted to go, but I had to leave on Saturday after the xiaohong seminar. Working Saturday nights is a bummer.

[GeneChing]

So I've decided to retitle this thread so it's the official thread of my master Shi Decheng. I should probably back track and set up threads for all my masters.

I'm curious if author Simon Rowe went to Decheng's new 'foreigners' school, which I'm dying to get over to check out. Interesting about the food angle. Set up a Songshan Shaolin school that provides decent eats to foreigners is brilliant. I never ate at his old school. He took me to this nearby restaurant, but that was years ago.

Kick-arse, kung-fu travel
By Simon Rowe

BETTER to sweat in practice than to bleed in battle. So goes an old kung-fu saying.
And at the Shi de Cheng School of Shaolin Kung Fu, a modest-looking martial arts academy at the foot of Mt Song in central China's Henan province, sweat is guaranteed.

For 10 days, I rise at 5am to a reveille of opera music croaking from an old Tannoy system and join a torrent of sleepy-eyed teenagers as they pour from warm dorm beds into the chilly streets for the ritual race up Mt Song.

This is the day's first task for the 40 Chinese and six foreign students who have committed themselves to an unwavering routine of eating, sleeping and doing kung-fu for as long as they can take it.

No one slacks off or drops out. And all through the long, hot day of gruelling calisthenics, basic fighting stances and kicking techniques, nobody complains.

Doing so would not be showing the true spirit of kung-fu, or gong-fu, which means perfection through hard work.

Monk master

Former Shaolin monk and master Shi de Cheng encourages any students who show signs of wilting by telling them to go slower.

Even those of reasonable fitness, such as me, find the learning process a slow and painful one.

Always jovial, and usually attired in the loose pants and slippers of a temple monk, Shi de Cheng knows well the limits of human pain tolerance.

He has studied wushu, or Chinese martial arts, since the age of six and at 16 entered Shaolin Temple, where he immersed himself in a curriculum of Buddhist scripture study and meditation, vegetarianism and rigorous kung-fu training.

Shi de Cheng's school sits on a quiet tree-lined street in Dengfeng, a rural service town 8km from Shaolin Temple, the oft-lauded birthplace of kung-fu.

One of the world's oldest fighting arts, Shaolin kung-fu is said to comprise more than 3000 techniques, but Shi de Cheng doesn't overload his newcomers.

He starts them on 18 basic stances that form the basis of the Songyang gong-fu, or long-fist style kung-fu, which he teaches.

The bodyguard

One might ask why, in a country brimming with exotic locations, sumptuous food and comfortable hotels, would anyone choose a holiday of hardship?

"This is a chance to learn an ancient fighting art at the source, which in this case is a former Shaolin monk.

He's the real deal,'' says American Jesse Pasely, a Japan-based English instructor who visits Shi de Cheng's school to train each year and enjoys the cultural exchange with local students.

For the Chinese students, the reasons are more ambitious: many aspire to working as stuntmen in the burgeoning Chinese and Hong Kong action film industries, or as professional performers or bodyguards.

It is pure curiosity that leads me to travel the 14 hours by overnight train from Shanghai to sign up for this 10-day taste of authentic kung-fu lifestyle.

Loose pants

On arrival, I am given a set of loose training pants and T-shirts, toiletries and slippers, and shown to my quarters in a rustic former hotel.

Rooms are spartan, shower facilities basic, and everywhere there are signs that its youthful residents eat, sleep, and breathe nothing but kung-fu; the lobby wall is pockmarked by throwing needles, improvised barbells litter the passageways, and the 2m-high rubber shoe prints on the walls are evidence of what students do on rainy days.

The daily pre-dawn race up Mount Song is not compulsory for foreign students (my French roommate has trouble raising an eyelid before 7am), but making the early morning line-up impresses Shi de Cheng's committed young instructors.

Stretching and strength-building exercises follow the uphill jog but after doing a handstand against a wall, which turns my face the colour of a tomato, I decide my stamina (and sanity) might already be ready to pack their bags for the journey back to Shanghai.

And this is just the warm-up. After a brief but fortifying breakfast, we begin the two-hour morning class.

Each day I discover a new muscle as we execute high kicks, turkey-walk, bunny-hop, cartwheel down the street and take a partner to do wheelbarrow-style pushes and pulls up and down the footpath.

To the bemusement of many foreign students, training takes place not in a hall or gymnasium but on the street outside the hotel and office.

Driller killer

A row of plane trees provides precious shade and outdoors training certainly has its benefits: the dry winds blowing from the Gobi desert offer cool respite from the heat and the delicious aromas of the dumpling shop and passing watermelon vendors are a welcome diversion from our exhausting drills.

These melon sellers – along with chain- smoking grandfathers, mothers pushing babies and buses filled with commuters – take great interest in the foreigners attempting tornado kicks and emulating a praying mantis up and down their footpaths. I feel like passing a hat around for the free spectacle I am providing.

The afternoon training session follows a similar pattern to the morning routine and finishes at about 6pm, when dinner is served.

One aspect of Shi de Cheng's school that receives few complaints is the food. A small kitchen behind the office creates delicious and highly nutritious daily menus of vegetables, river fish or chicken, rice and tofu dishes.

Temple of doom

Evenings are given over to joining local students for tai chi, wooden staff and nunchaku practice on the street, or taking a stroll downtown for an ice-cream or a game at one of the dozens of open-air pool halls lining Dengfeng's streets.

Because of its proximity to Shaolin Temple, and in some degree as a result of the success of movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle, martial arts has become big business in Dengfeng, attracting movie-star hopefuls and entrepreneurs alike.

An estimated 50 or so schools offer tuition in kung-fu, Chinese boxing and taekwondo, and many of them accept foreign students for about $US40 ($45) a day, including meals, lodgings and instruction.

Training gear is supplied and rubber-soled kung-fu shoes can be bought cheaply at Dengfeng's martial arts stores. (Liniments, supporters, extra socks and isotonic drinks are a good idea.)

A conservative estimate puts the number of students in Dengfeng at about 60,000, which means that Sunday, the official holiday for most schools, is the most hectic day of the week in downtown Dengfeng.

Pool parlours and basketball courts are clogged, supermarkets get jammed and the post office overflows with youngsters drawing on remittances sent by their parents.

Yet what do these kids, who spend their entire week kicking the sky, want to do on their only day off? Play kung-fu computer games at one of the city's ubiquitous internet cafes, of course.

[Qixing Tanglang]

Dont know sh!t about Hong Quan but isnt it suppose to be an entire system? Not just one form.

Nate

[GeneChing]

There are other hong forms that are commonly included in the Songshan Shaolin system. Hong is a system on its own too, but that'd take an entire thread to explain to you.

[hvillarruel]

Hi Gene!.

Will you bring SiFu Shi De Cheng to US again this year?

[GeneChing]

...but it's almost over. We'll see about 2008.