Shaolin kung fu master appeals to legislators for protection
Mon Mar 14,11:33 AM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - A top kung fu master from Shaolin Temple has urged China’s legislature to enact a law to better protect the world-renowned martial arts centre’s trademark rights, state press reported.
“China needs to make a law at an earlier date so that Shaolin kung fu and other intangible heritage are better protected within a legal framework,” Xinhua news agency quoted master Shi Yongxin as saying
The 1,500-year-old temple, known as the cradle of China’s martial arts, is under siege from competitors taking advantage of its name, said Shi, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament.
Shi cited a brochure that read: “Want to practice Shaolin kong fu? Come to Japan.”
“We have to wake up to the fact that some other nations might have already begun to capitalize on our traditional know-how to sharpen their own competitive edge and make profits amid fierce international competition in a globalised society,” he said.
Shaolin Temple, in central Henan province, has also recently applied to the United Nations to protect the site as a world heritage area.
Today Shaolin is inundated by tourists and the monastery’s monks and practitioners have few places left for quiet contemplation or the rigorous practice of kung fu.
In Japan I saw Buddhist monks trying to sell magic charms to tourists.
Anyway, why the hell would I go to Japan for instruction in shaolin kungfu? At that point I might as well be training in the US where it would be a hell lot cheaper.
I think it’s just there to support the temple. Kind of like a membership here. You don’t really get anything useful in return, but you’re helping support the cause (or religion in that case…?)
In the 1930’s a Japanese monk, Zong Daocheng, came to the Shaolin Temple to learn kungfu. When he returned to his motherland, he founded the world’s first non-Chinese organization specializing in exercising the Shaolin Temple kungfu, “Japanese Shaolin Temple Boxing Kungfu Association”, which has at present a membership of over a million.
it’s probably some bs shit, i have no clue, sorry for the delay, i forgot to check this forum for a while.
