For the previous installment of Shaolin Trips, see Shaolin Trips: Interview with Abbot Shi Yongxin at the World Shaolin Kung Fu Games

I am interrupting my World Shaolin Kung Fu Games flow to insert coverage of the more recent US National Shaolin Kung Fu Games which happened in Houston last October. The USA Shaolin Open & Traditional Kung Fu Team Trials were held just three months after the World Games. Apart from China, this was the first tournament I’ve travelled to that was out of state. Prior to the pandemic, I was regularly invited by promoters all across the country, but that changed in the wake of our print magazine dying of Covid. Now, martial arts gatherings are struggling to come back. Consequently, I feel it’s important to bump Houston coverage up while it’s still somewhat fresh in everyone’s minds, especially mine.

I confess my Shaolin coverage has been lagging. It was way back in June when I went to China, and I still haven’t finished writing that tale. My apologies. I was hoping to get all these Shaolin Trips recounted by year’s end, but now I’ll be lucky to get it done by the New Year. And by that, I mean Chinese New Year, which gives me an extra month. I’ve already covered a lot of what happened at the World Games so the final punchline of that series can wait.

The United States of Shaolin

There were two successive National Shaolin Kung Fu Games in the wake of the Worlds, but it wasn’t until the Worlds that I first got confirmation of them.  They both came together astonishingly quickly. That’s Shaolin – keeping us all in the moment.

These National Games are a new thing, just like the World Games and the 2024 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship – Shaolin Kung Fu Games).

Every year, it takes us several months of hard work to put TCEC together. Like every tournament, there are a lot of moving parts. So much behind-the-scenes infrastructure must come together. Being a distributor, Tiger Claw cannot tap a body of student and family volunteers in the same way a school might. But even without that handicap, I’m very impressed as how quickly the second and third National Games came together.

The second US Nationals were held in Denver on September 21^st. These were a component of the 13th Denver National Chinese Martial Arts Championship & Shaolin Games, an event put on by the Denver Shaolin Kung Fu Tai Chi Institute under Sifu John Burns. Akin to TCEC’s first games, having a longstanding Denver National Chinese Martial Arts Championship already well established certainly made the addition of the Shaolin Games easier than starting from scratch. Sifu Burns kindly invited me to witness and report, but I was already committed elsewhere so had to regretfully decline. I’ve only heard good things about the event from those that participated, which was encouraging. Sifu Burns came to Houston too and he was satisfied with how it all went, so much so that he hopes to do it again.

On October 25-27^th, the third Nationals were held in Houston, a sprawling city with one of America’s more invidious Shaolin histories. Four Shaolin monks run separate schools within the tight confines of Houston’s Chinatown. It started over a quarter century ago. In 1999, two of those monks, Shi Xinghao and Shi Deshan, were featured on the cover of Kung Fu Tai Chi, in what was the precursor to our legendary Shaolin Specials (see December 1999). That was soon after they both immigrated to Houston, and right when I began working fulltime at Kung Fu Tai Chi.

Xinghao was among the monks present when I first went to Shaolin in 1995. After several years apart, we crossed paths at Shaolin just outside of Talin at the World Games just a few months ago. I think the last time I saw him was at the Shaolin Temple Cultural Festival in 2013 (see The Shaolin Temple Cultural Festival, JAN+FEB 2014).

It’s been over 20 years since I was in Houston.  The last time I was there was to film the Independent Lens documentary Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America with Kung Fu Tai Chi’s former editor Martha Burr and her film partner Mei-Juin Chen. A segment of that doc focused on Xinghao and Deshan, but they split soon afterwards. Later, two more monks came to Houston, Shi Yanfeng and Shi Xingying, both of whom I knew back in the mid-nineties when young Shami (child acolytes). I covered Yanfeng in our 2004 Shaolin Special (see Little Monk All Grown Up: Houston’s Shi Yanfeng Shaolin Special 2004).

When I was first reunited with Xingying in America, he remembered me from my mid-90s Shaolin Trips, but it took me a while until I recognized him. When we first met, he was a young kid with spectacular Monkey style Kung Fu. When we met again, he had grown and filled out, so it took me like a half hour before I realized who he was. Since then, Xingying re-discipled under the abbot, something several monks have done out of respect, which changed his Shaolin name to Yanchan. We kept sitting next to each other at the World Games. That was just by chance, but now it seems like Shaolin yuanfen (fateful coincidence 缘分) because he was one of the hosts of the USA Shaolin Open & Traditional Kung Fu Team Trials.

But that’s enough Houston backstory for now – as for the rest, IYKYK, right?

USA Shaolin Open & Traditional Kung Fu Team Trials

The third Nationals were hosted by Shi Yanchan (Shaolin Temple Cultural Center) and Steven Li. Li is a former USA Wushu Taolu Team member and a military man. They brought two illustrious Shaolin VIPs, Shi Decheng and Zhao Qingjian.

If you’ve been following my Shaolin Trips, you know that Decheng is my master. I discipled under him in 1996 and placed him on the cover of that start of this Year of the Dragon Trip), his presence at this event made me want to be there. My disciple brother Dieter ‘Xingda’ Wagner would be there, who discipled under Decheng a few minutes after I did. He spent a few years living in Houston training under Xinghao. And another brother that I knew from the internet, Demitri Daniels, was coming. He is a long-time student of Decheng, much longer than me, but we had never met face to face.

Zhao Qingjian is the Shaolin monk who went on to become one of the world’s greatest wushu champions. Upon hearing his story, I had sought him out for years. Eventually we connected. He came to our studio, and we placed him on the cover of our Jan+Feb 2011 issue. He also did our instructional DVD Chinese Daggers - Single And Double Dagger Methods. Much to our surprise, we discovered that he was also at Shaolin that year we discipled under Decheng. He’s in our group photo, but I didn’t know that until meeting him again on this trip.

Also present was a local VIP, Grandmaster Wang Tao from Wang Tao Kung Fu in Plano, Texas. Together Grandmasters Wang, Zhao, and Shi Decheng served as the head judges for the tournament. They also each gave dazzling demonstrations of their martial arts at the opening ceremony.

Dieter picked me up from the airport and filled me in. He had discovered the Zhao Qingjian connection when showing off the photo above at a pre-tournament dinner. He said that Yanfeng was there too, but like Deshan, wasn’t participating in this tournament at all. I have little connection with Deshan, but I was sad to miss Yanfeng. I think the last time we saw each other was also that 2023 Shaolin Temple Cultural Festival. It would have been delightful to reunite.

Nevertheless, we got together with Decheng and Xinghao before things got started. That was the first time the four of us had reunited since 1996. We had crossed paths in pairs and trios many times over the years, but never all four of us. It was a joyful start to a weekend of connections and reconnections. These Shaolin Kung Fu Games have served to reunite me with so many old friends, as well as introduce me to many new ones.

Xinghao was the only other Shaolin monk than Yanchan to participate in the US Shaolin Open. And he could only be there in a limited way because long before this tournament came into being, he had committed his school to a lion dance performance gig. Ironically that was right across the street at the Walmart. I got a chance to visit Xinghao’s school and it was only two blocks from Yanchan’s school. That’s Shaolin Houston for you. Like I said, IYKYK.

The USA Shaolin Open & Traditional Kung Fu Team Trials were held at the Park 8 Event Center, a spacious multi-function venue with multiple rooms. The tournament only occupied a small portion of the center, while multiple other events were going on simultaneously including a studio event on Friday, some Taekwondo classes at a school located in the center, a church service on Sunday, and preparations for a concert from the Wall of Bass, which blasted the event a couple of times with soundchecks adding to the overall cacophony that is any Chinese martial arts tournament.

The tournament ran three rings, one massive central Wushu carpet, and two rings on either side which were bare wooden floor. The side rings ran a Tai Chi and internal styles division, a Wing Chun division, and some of the Shaolin Games. The Wing Chun division was overseen by Master Brad Ryan of Meng’s Martial Arts in Katy, Texas. That division was dominated by followers of Grandmaster Benny Meng. Master Ryan said other Wing Chun schools were invited but failed to show. It was good to reconnect with him. We first got to know each other years ago as he assisted in the filming of some of Grandmaster Meng’s DVDs at our old studio at Tiger Claw.

In the interest of efficiency, most of competition ran doubles – two competitors performing at the same time on either side of the ring. The bulk of the competition was held over Saturday, with the Grands held on Sunday. Overall, it ran well. Everyone received the coveted North American Shaolin Games medals and the Grand champions received tall trophies from Shaolin or the USAWKF.

Beyond the Grands, Sunday also served as Shaolin Duanpin testing (level 1 through 3) and some seminars by Shi Decheng and Zhao Qingjian. I considered sitting in on Decheng’s seminar. He was going to review some jibengong (basic skills 基本功) but I decided my time would be better spent shooting the seminar. Unfortunately, I had a massive camera failure, which I didn’t discover until I got back home. Clearly, I need to work on my basic skills in Shaolin photography. It was very disappointing for me because like any loyal student, I like to showcase my Shifu well.

Seeing him teach a big class again was nostalgic. He only taught some small private lessons when I visited him in Luohe. I confess that hearing him say ‘Zhe lai bian’ – his way of saying ‘do it again’ – was somewhat triggering for me. I can’t begin to count how many times he has said that to me over the years.

My favorite time at any martial gathering is the afterhours gatherings, when we meet in smaller groups and share libations. It’s where the best stories get shared, as well as some of the best life lessons. It warmed my heart to see Decheng, Xinghao, and Zhao Qingjian together again as they chatted animatedly together. What a journey these three have had, from the early days of the Shaolin Wushuguan to this hotel lobby, surrounded by loyal students and friends. 

And for me personally, it was an honor to finally meet Demitri Daniels (see Jade Fortress Shaolin Martial Arts Academy) in person. We had corresponded a bit over social media but never met in the flesh. I confess that it felt a bit awkward when he kept calling me ‘big brother.’ Demitri trained under Decheng far more than I have. On top of that, he’s fluent in Mandarin having been raised in China. Regardless of rank. it was truly delightful to meet Demitri in person. 

The emergence of these Shaolin Kung Fu Games is bringing together Shaolin family like never before. For decades, we have worked towards unification with various projects like the World Festivals held at Shaolin), to the travelling Cultural Festivals, to the compulsory competition forms. Those are all still going to some degree, although hobbled by the pandemic. Now these Games are bringing the Shaolin Sangha together with renewed enthusiasm where the elder generation joins with the next gen to pass down our venerated traditions.

Grandmaster Zhao said it best, “It’s not a competition, but really a gathering of friends. I hope there are more events like this for year to come.”

What happens in the next chapter? We go back to China. Stay tuned for Shaolin Trips: Shaolin Kung Fu Intangible Heritage and Innovation Conference.