10-25-2013, 12:34 PM
I was gifted a copy of the original Chinese edition at the 1st Shaolin Summit. It's very intriguing. The Abbot reveals a lot about his struggles to promote Shaolin under PRC rule and his work to restore traditional kung fu and Chan to the order. He even states that it should be 'Shaolin gong fu' not 'Shaolin wushu'. There's some great old photos of the Abbot when he was young - stuff I've never seen before, including him doing kung fu. I have seen him in kung fu poses before, but only a few.
The English translation is pretty clean overall. I only noticed a few minor typos and grammatical errors, but given that Kung Fu Tai Chi has it's share of those, I can't fault that . The new edition has some different photos and is clothbound.
It's an interesting read. Honestly, I'm a little too close to the subject to give an unbiased opinion, but every Shaolin aficionado will want to engage this book. It surely has its nationalistic/patriotic propagandist side, and is somewhat defensive in addressing some of the more well-publicized criticisms like the Abbot's role in the forced relocation, Shaolin sausage, and other issues. However, there's a lot of interesting stuff that isn't as well known in the west, like Shaolin's massive charitable efforts and the continuing journey of its restoration. There were plenty of things I didn't know about, and as you know, I've followed the Shaolin saga pretty closely. When all is said and done, the Abbot has the most interesting Shaolin Trip of all.
The English translation is pretty clean overall. I only noticed a few minor typos and grammatical errors, but given that Kung Fu Tai Chi has it's share of those, I can't fault that . The new edition has some different photos and is clothbound.
It's an interesting read. Honestly, I'm a little too close to the subject to give an unbiased opinion, but every Shaolin aficionado will want to engage this book. It surely has its nationalistic/patriotic propagandist side, and is somewhat defensive in addressing some of the more well-publicized criticisms like the Abbot's role in the forced relocation, Shaolin sausage, and other issues. However, there's a lot of interesting stuff that isn't as well known in the west, like Shaolin's massive charitable efforts and the continuing journey of its restoration. There were plenty of things I didn't know about, and as you know, I've followed the Shaolin saga pretty closely. When all is said and done, the Abbot has the most interesting Shaolin Trip of all.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse