Shaolin Trips: The Shaolin Zen Music Ritual

By Gene Ching

From Luohe to Dengfeng

Many years ago, and I don’t remember when exactly, my Shifu Shi Decheng told me to get WeChat. I hesitated. I already had enough apps. But as I was preparing to return to Shaolin, I ran into my old Kung Fu Shidi (younger brother 師弟) Jeff Hung at a class reunion workout session. We were instructors together under Sifu Lam Kwong Wing and trained together under Decheng at Shaolin Temple. Jeff had just come back from China and reiterated Decheng’s advice. Get WeChat. Everything is done on WeChat (a.k.a. Weixin) in China. I finally downloaded just prior to my trip.

Unfortunately, for reasons still unknown to me, my WeChat account was almost instantly blocked. It told me that I had to have a friend unlock it. I had just joined WeChat and only had two friends – Decheng and my disciple brother under Decheng, Dieter ‘Xingda’ Wagner, a.k.a. Kung Fu Dork. Dieter was eager to help but after several attempts, WeChat said he reached his quota for unlocking friends. When I got to the Shaolin Decheng Wuguan, my Shifu was eager to help too. But I didn’t invest in a new SIM card – I was only going to be in China for a week, so it seemed extraneous – and consequently that function of my iPhone didn’t work. No WeChat for me.

Leaving Luohe, two of Decheng’s staff drove me to the high-speed railway station. They couldn’t get past security but gave me some quick directions on where to go. Flashing my USA passport was enough for me to get through side gates and avoid the lines. My ticket was completely in Chinese, as was every sign in the station, but my written Chinese comprehension was just enough to get me where I was going (I understand Spanish and Jamaican patois better than Chinese, and mi espanol es muy malo).

With my whirlwind trip to Luohe, I hadn’t had the chance to exchange any money. My credit cards didn’t work. No WeChat. And I could only use my iPhone to text other people with iPhones if I had wifi. It dawned on me that if I missed any of my connections, it would be tough to get back on track. I had to meet a deadline – I had to catch up to the North American Team for dinner and a show.

High-Speed Railway to Zhengzhou

The high-speed rail was amazing. I’ve ridden Chinese trains before, but nothing like this. It was thoroughly modern, comfortable, and relatively clean (perhaps not as clean as Eurail, but cleaner than my local BART trains). I found a USB port to charge my somewhat useless iPhone and watched the station signs like a hawk to be sure not to miss my stop.

My old friend and contact, Wang Yumin, offered to pick me up from the station. Mr. Wang was *the travel agent* to Shaolin back in the day. He arranged the travel for the Abbot and was extremely well connected. Over the years, he helped me so much and played a key role to a lot of the research we did for our Shaolin Specials. Our Shaolin reports would have been sorely lacking without his continued help and support.

However, he retired a few years ago. Nevertheless, I reached out because I dearly wanted to see him again. Fortunately for all of us, he came out of retirement, volunteering his time to help the event go smoothly, because he has so many international Shaolin friends like me, and it’s been his life’s work to support Shaolin. I was honored that he took the extra steps to see to my safe passage.

When I arrived at the Zhengzhou railway station, I was quickly reminded how massive it is. Zhengzhou is a major train hub, where China’s railroads cross. It was big when went through it over 20 years ago, plus it’s been expanded since then so now it’s absolutely ginormous. Mr. Wang told me to meet him at the Southwest exit in the West Square. Unfortunately, we missed.

I don’t know how many times I walked around that massive square in the sweltering heat, carrying my backpack luggage, looking for him. We found each other eventually. We had just missed each other initially, and then went searching in opposite directions. However, I was never doubtful. Mr. Wang has always been a man of his word and has always got the job done. It was just a bother having to hike that massive square in full pack in that ridiculously high heat and humidity. A Shaolin test. Shaolin always tests us.

We were soon in a luxurious air-conditioned taxi on the way to Dengfeng.

Dengfeng, the Gateway to Shaolin

Gigi Oh, our Publisher Emeritus, was travelling with the North American Team from Beijing. They had come through the train station too, but earlier that day. We were texting back and forth about where to meet – the hotel, the restaurant, the show. Ultimately, it was the restaurant.

And what a restaurant it was. The Songshan Bu Yi Ban (嵩山不一般) has architecture that echoes another one of Dengfeng’s historical treasures, the Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory (登封观星台) built in 1276. It is part of the Historic Monuments of Dengfeng, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, alongside of Shaolin Temple.

The Shaolin Zen Music Ritual (禅宗少林音乐大典)

The Shaolin Zen Music Ritual is like no other show on earth. As I mentioned in my previous installment, I got to see the Sphere in Las Vegas back in June. For this trip in July, I got to see the Shaolin Zen Music Ritual. Both are shows of such immense magnitude that there is no way to capture their magnificence on camera. Both are way too big, too intense. You just got to be there and experience it for yourself.

Launched in 2007, the Shaolin Zen Music Ritual stage is built into the mountainside – actually three mountainsides, one of which has a peak at 4921 feet. At the cost of more than $15 million, the mountains are lit with Buddhist icons and lasers that rise above a valley where a large temple set is built, along with a massive arched bridge complete with a stream, a faux village and martial arts school with a large training platform stage, a waterfall, a sheer rock face that serves as a screen, and an orchestra of stone gongs.

To fill that stage, a huge cast of dancers, musicians, acrobats, and martial artists is assembled. I got varying numbers for the number of cast members ranging from 500 to 2000 and that doesn’t even account for the horse or the herd of goats.

The music was composed by Tan Dun, who captured the Academy Award for his score for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which was one of three of his martial arts soundtracks known as his Martial Trilogy.

The dancing was choreographed by renowned dancer and choreographer Huang Dou Dou, whose first choreographed piece ‘Spirit of Martial Arts’ debuted in 1999. Among many other achievements and accolades, Huang went on to star in ‘Chinese Gong Fu’ directed by Zhang Yimou for the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

And of course, a contingent of Shaolin monks are on loan to the production, all with the blessing of Abbot Shi Yongxin. Huang worked with the monks to make their performance more dancelike, and many dancers and local martial artist fill out the cast to make the spectacular more expansive.

The show got off to a slow start. It opened somewhat awkwardly with a calligrapher, aided by a bevy of pretty showgirls, coming out to hawk his work. Everyone ‘bid’ on them by flashing their smart phone lights. And Gigi won the first one. She was elated. This triggered a bidding fervor amongst the North American team, with everyone bidding on the following pieces. I don’t know how many pieces were bought. Gigi got like four. We have a massive collection of calligraphy stored at the KungFuMagazine.com headquarters. Now we have even more. But Gigi was happy and that’s all that counts. Someday, KungFuMagazine.com should stage a calligraphy gallery exhibit. There are many extraordinary pieces within the KFM collection.

As the sunset, the show began, and it was over the top. There were moments of cheesiness for me (I’m not a fan of Chinese folk dances) overshadowed by scenes of such glorious grandeur that left me in sheer awe of the production. It was a gargantuan spectacle, not to be missed if you’re ever nearby.

It was a big day. By the end of the show, I was ready for bed.

The Shaolin Hotel

We arrived at the Zhongzhou Intermega Hotel (中州国际少林大饭店) soon after the show ended. I’m not sure what ‘Intermega’ means. It’s worthy of note that Zhengzhou is distinct from Zhongzhou. Zhengzhou means “Zheng prefecture (Zheng is a surname from the Warring States period 475-221 BCE 郑州)” and Zhongzhou means “China prefecture.” One letter can make the difference between 'batch' and 'bitch,' and even more so in Chinese. The hotel’s name in Chinese characters could be roughly translated as ‘China Prefecture International Shaolin Big Hotel.’ I’m not clear on where the term ‘Intermega’ came from, but there’s another one in Zhengzhou (not to be confused with Zhongzhou).

Never mind the Intermega thing, the Zhongzhou Intermega Hotel was posh too, just like the Golden Phoenix in Luohe. The hotel was magnificent, another 4-star with all the amenities. The lobby was breathtaking with a radiant Buddhist display and a spectacular dragon throne before a wall fountain with brass loti. There was a koi pond, comfortable waiting areas, a large clean room that served as the cafeteria.

The best part was that the lobby was packed with Shaolin aficionados from all around the globe. I immediately bumped into several old friends and met a few online friends in person for the first time. Shaolin is one family (少林一家), and this was a very special historic reunion and gathering.

Life in Dengfeng has not only improved to US standards; it now exceeded them for a fraction of the cost. My room was clean and elegant, complete with a rain shower, teapot, and empty tea cannisters (for appearance but they were available for purchase). It was a long way from the Wushuguan dorms where I stayed in the mid to late 90s. That was rugged. There were rats stealing our food in our rooms at night. There was only hot water for short unpredictable periods each day. On my first year, a water pipe broke, and we didn’t have water for a week. We figured out how to collect condensing water from the barely functioning air conditioners, enough for one toilet flush a day. We were that desparate. Kids today – they just don’t know what we dealt with back in the early days.

My roommate was the lone North American representative from Mexico, Shifu Arturo Martinez. When I came in the room, he was passed out on his bed with all the lights on. It was clearly a courtesy, one that won my immediate respect. I sorted my things quickly and quietly as he slept and turned out the lights. We would meet the next morning.

And on that brilliant following day, we would go to Shaolin Temple.

What happens in the next chapter? Read Shaolin Trips: The World Shaolin Kung Fu Games.

About author:

Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips.

Note that some of the numbers of the Shaolin Zen Music Ritual were extracted from 'Chinese Extravaganza Uses Valley as Backdrop’ by David Barbosa, The New York Times, August 29, 2008.

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