During the second weekend of November 2023, the First North American Shaolin Kungfu Games and Duanpin examination was held in San Gabriel, California. Tiger Claw President Jonny Oh, Kung Fu Tai Chi Publisher Emeritus Gigi Oh, and KungFuMagazine.com Publisher Gene Ching were present there to support the historic event.

On Saturday, November 11^th, Venerable Abbot Shi Yongxin granted Gigi and Gene a private interview. Gene asked the bulk of the questions while Gigi served as translator. Below is that interview with Gene’s and Gigi’s questions notated as GC/GO, separated only when a question is specifically from one or the other.

GC/GO:  How do you feel that the Shaolin Kung Fu Games and Duanpin [ranking exams] are going? Are they meeting your expectations?

SY: So there are two factors. One is through the Duanpin, I want everybody to understand the depth of the Shaolin Kung Fu more. Another factor is that the Temple wants to have a direct connection to the Shaolin practitioners.

GC/GO:  When the Duanpin was first announced, there was talk about special invitations to private events at Shaolin Temple for participants. Could you clarify that a little more?

Sy: So if you’re ranked within the Duanpin system, you can ask Shaolin Temple directly about what you’re really trying to build up for yourself, what you want to achieve with Shaolin.

To do this, we have established a special invitation desk - an invitation department. If you have a Duanpin ranking, you can reach out to them, and they will give you a special welcome. They can also give you a lot of direction about visiting Shaolin Temple and so forth. So that’s the benefit.

GC/GO: What countries are participating in the Duanpin now?

SY: South America, North America, Europe, Asia – actually we have more than 110 countries across the globe that have joined in the Duanpin system.

GC/GO: Where are you seeing the most progress?

SY: Europe. Surely this is because they were the earliest. Also, the European Shaolin Association is really doing a good job.

GC/GO: Let’s get back to the Games. You’ve held Games in Africa, Latin America, and now us in North America. Then you’re going on to Europe. And then there are two more, right?

SY: Yes, there’s Singapore. That’s the Asia Games. Argentina was a few weeks ago. Then I’m going to Venice at the end of this month [The 2023 European Shaolin Kung Fu Games were held in Venice on November 18-19 soon after this interview – ed]. The last one this year is December.

GC/GO: And how have they all been going so far?

SY: I can see the enthusiasm about Shaolin Kung Fu and Shaolin culture from each place.

GC/GO: So far, who’s held the biggest Shaolin Games?

SY: We’ve limited each Games to 500 participants.

GC/GO: Oh, all the Games are limited to 500. I thought that was just us. Is that because this is just starting?

SY: Yes, we have this limitation everywhere, so it’s hard to say who was the biggest. When we mature, we can increase the length of the Games just like the Olympics, which goes for several weeks.

GC/GO: And then the World Games will be in China next year, right? At Shaolin Temple perhaps?

SY: I haven’t decided yet. There is a final finals next year, most likely in the earlier half of the year. And we hope to have all the finalists from all six continents.

GC/GO: So it’s all the finalists qualified in these various continental games, right? But the time and place are still to be determined?

SY: That’s right. The World Games will be limited to the Shaolin Stars, the finalists. In reality, it may be less than 50. Because it’s only seven to nine qualifiers per continent and only six continents. So around 50.

GC: I want to ask about the Shaolin medicine. I love the cough drops. They’re the most amazing cough drops I’ve ever had. How is distribution going?

SY: I haven’t started distributing it yet.

This is charity. We do have a clinic. Let’s go back a little bit on Shaolin medicine. Our real purpose is to get this exposed, to confirm and reestablish the ancient medicines and to produce them again.

We have not commercialized our medicines yet. Before we even commercialized anything, there were already complaints that Shaolin was too commercial. So we are not really trying to push the market.

Right now, we do have a clinic. It’s more of an internal department. If people come in [to the temple], it is free of charge. It’s a charity division. We don’t charge for treatments.

We have established a company and are trying to make medicines from our original recipes, like our cough drops. Right now, we only have a few products and it’s very limited. It’s not commercialized. You cannot purchase it from any place. We do have medicinal patches that, like the cough drops, have been well received.

We do have a medicine department that is still studying the ancient texts and so forth. But it’s not really out in the public.

GO: Yes, I searched online and couldn’t find it for sale anywhere.

GC: It’s on Shaolin’s website.

GO: Only Shaolin’s website.

GC: Clearly, it’s not been marketed much because those cough drops that I love are called Shaolin Glycyrrhiza and Platycodinin Candy. I get a sore throat just trying to say that.

But moving on…

GC/GO: Everywhere you’ve gone on this trip, you’ve been receiving so many certificates of honor from various illustrious institutions. What do you do with all those? You must have thousands of them by now.

SY: We do have a place where we collect all those certificates. It’s an official storage room. It’s a library overseen by the government.

We are applying to get the Shaolin Temple collection recognized by UNESCO. There are over 50,000 documents including these new ones.

GC Like ancient scrolls and declarations and such?

SY: Yes. Our next step is to go global. We seek to collect every history and every document about the Shaolin Temple for our library.

Shaolin Kung Fu is also on the wait list for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition. The Stele collection of Shaolin Temple is also in queue for recognition as an UNESCO Tangible Cultural Heritage site.  We hope to have some recognition by 2025.

All the certificates I receive on behalf of Shaolin Temple are included in our official library.

[Here Gene took a break to ask Abbot Shi Yongxin a few questions on behalf of UNESCO ICM. That article, which also included other moments from this North American Shaolin tour, can be found on UNESCO ICM’s site here: Current Changes in Traditional Shaolin Kung Fu.

GO: What’s next?

SY: We want to have a global Shaolin Association. There are so many organizations; they can just call themselves Shaolin or whatever. I hope that in the future, each continent will have a Shaolin association and I will be presiding over them.

Right now, in this continent, we have a Shaolin organization, the Shaolin North American Association, and I am the head, in front of it. So if you see an organization where I am the head as the Abbot, then you know that’s from Shaolin Temple. This is more direct and can reach out to other organizations.

Eventually, we want to have individual countries, not just whole continents. Then they can really spread and promote from the Duanpin and the Shaolin Kung Fu Games.

The ultimate goal is for all the Shaolin Kung Fu and Shaolin culture to grow locally.  The base is local. It’s not really from Shaolin. I hope to see Shaolin culture take root locally. Only you can build from ground up, then we can make it more popular. You can spread wider.

You cannot make it from a small circle. That’s not going to spread.

The Next Shaolin Kung Fu Games will be held at the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championships on Sunday May 5^th, 2024 in San Jose, California.