Shaolin Temple USA?

[autohuman]

This summer I was considering making a trip to NYC to train at the USA Shaolin Temple. I'm wondering if anyone has any info about tuition/legitimacy/anything else about the temple?

Their website is:

http://www.usashaolintemple.com/

They seem very legitimate, but I was just wondering if any of you knew anything more about it.

Thanks in advance

Namaste

mc

[NightOwl]

I'm always skeptical about anything with the name 'Shaolin' on it. While the Shaolin temple used to be a mecca of martial arts in its heyday (attracting fighters from all over china), with the rise of the communist government in the early 1900's all martial arts were banned, and likewise all training at the temple ceased. It was only after the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural revolution that sent the county to the brink of internal collapse in the 60's in 70's that China started trying to promote its history (to show the 'Glory of China through the ages') that training restarted. The catch is this: it is actually a modified form of contemporary wushu. Unfortunately, whatever used to be taught is gone now (Chinese MA only survived because of emigration to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other places abroad), and what is left is mostly for show.

...I actually did a research paper for my history class on the subject...hopefully someday it will show up in the 'articles' section soon!

[Bajifan]

From what I know of his school (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong), he teaches modern wushu forms, and some Shaolin forms, but doesn't believe in teaching applications to individual techniques. Instead, application is basically taught through kick boxing.

On his personal background, he is definitely from the Shaolin area, and spent at least some time in/around the temple. He was part of the first Shaolin performing group sent over by the Chinese government, and he defected.

He left a wife behind back in Shaolin (you might be able to find an article about it through a google search), has a wife and kid here in the U.S., and he parties pretty hard on occasion (which you can also read about). So his legitimacy as a monk really depends on how liberal your opinion is in regards to what qualifies someone as a monk. Some people think monks should really stick to their vows like glue, others really could care less and think they shouldn't be held to higher standards than anyone else, and that's not taking into account the fact that Shaolin is currently a communist endorsed religous institution, and conflicting opinions on how thoroughly the monks were wiped out previously. So as you can imagine, he's pretty controversial, and there's a lot of different angles you can view the subject from. A good place to get better info would be http://www.kungfumagazine.com 's Shaolin forum as there's a number of discussions about him in the archive there. Also, a he has a couple students posting there, and other people who've had personal contact with him and the school.