FEATURE: Monks shun Zen for showbiz at Shaolin Temple

0 Comments | Asian Political News, April 29, 2002

DENGFENG, China, April 24 Kyodo

In the 1980 hit kung fu movie ''Shaolin Temple,'' a boyish Jet Li plays a monk who fights an evil general to gain revenge for his father's murder and to help stop the destruction of the temple.

Today, however, the main maladies afflicting the home of China's legendary fighting monks are those associated with unbridled capitalism.

Visitors to Shaolin Temple in central Henan Province are greeted by huge floral billboards of warrior monks striking various aggressive poses and shaven-headed men walking the streets in saffron robes.

However, the locals of Dengfeng, a small town nestled at the base of Mt. Song where the renowned temple is situated, insist many of these people are not really monks.

The temple's mantle as China's kung fu mecca has drawn so many Chinese and overseas adherents of martial arts here during the past 20 years that the number of resident kung fu students approximates 50,000, equivalent to half the town's permanent population.

In order to attract more students, a number of the 50 or so kung fu schools set up in Dengfeng in recent years claim nonexistent ties to Shaolin Temple.

In fact, false claims to Shaolin fame by the schools have become so rampant that the temple's abbot, Shi Yongxin, told Kyodo News he is taking legal action to stop them.

''The Shaolin Temple is a temple which has cultural, traditional and historical significance,'' he said.

''There is a lot of pirated use of the Shaolin Temple name both in China and overseas. This has brought a great negative effect to the protection and teaching of Shaolin culture, and it causes us great concern,'' he added.

The abbot recently returned from Japan as part of a delegation led by top Chinese legislator Li Peng, chairman of the National People's Congress. Shi is also a member of the congress, China toothless parliamentary organization.

Shi proudly describes his monastery as a gem of Chinese culture.

Unfortunately, since becoming a major tourist attraction over the past 20 years, this cultural gem now appears decidedly tawdry if not downright tacky, with the earlier Shaolin monks' tenet of spiritual seclusion mixed with physical discipline having given way to crass commercialism.

There is no denying the temple's historical pedigree.

Built in the sixth century, it is famous not only for being home to the country's famous fighting monks but also for being the well-spring of Chan Buddhism, better known by its Japanese name Zen.

According to legend, past Shaolin monks were so imbued with Buddhist spirituality that during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) one of them cut off one of his own arms while meditating in deep snow to prove his disengagement from the temporal world.

Today, the only arms and legs being lost are those occurring through the sale of merchandise and the payment of kung fu tuition fees.

Any hopes of modern day pilgrims to the temple of seeking a higher Zen plane are soon shattered at the temple entrance.

Visitors are battered by a cacophony of cries by hawkers trying to flog a variety of the ubiquitous plastic trinkets and squeaking toys.

While the gaudier aspects of the tourism industry seem to have overpowered the traditions of Shaolin Temple, the bona fides of its modern-day monks are also suspect.

Recently they have been winning fame around the world for the choreographed martial arts displays they perform for fee-paying spectators, including the ''Wheel of Life'' show which recently traveled to Australia after touring Hong Kong. Two performing troupes from the temple are constantly on tour overseas.

Shi, the temple abbot, insists the purpose of the tours is not to top up the coffers of commercial backers or the temple, but to ''use modern methods to popularize Chinese culture and raise awareness of Chinese Buddhism.''

It is questionable, however, whether all of the troupe members are really monks.

Although glossy advertisements promote the performers, who range from young men to little boys, as being real monks, Chinese law prohibits men under the age of 18 from becoming monks, a point confirmed by the abbot.

Meanwhile, Henan Province tourism officials say the Shaolin Temple is their major draw-card in bringing increasingly large numbers of visitors to the province.

Construction is booming in the town of Dengfeng, with new schools springing up and existing ones being expanded. The flow of investment to the town results in such bizarre architectural sites as the Henan Province Sport Institute martial arts campus, which resembles a huge prop for a film about ancient Rome.

Dengfeng's most populous martial arts school is Tagou School, where 10,000 school-age students learn set kung fu style acrobatic movements, as well as attending regular academic classes.

The school was founded by former farmer Liu Baosan who originally only had nine students years before the ''Shaolin Temple'' movie sparked the kung fu pilgrimage to the town.

Now, the school plans to invest $12 million to $24 million to set up a new campus in the area.