During a field trip for my PhD research in China I visited two schools near the Shaolin Temple area, Deng Feng. You can see them in the video just after the intro from the "temple". They are Wugulun Kung Fu Academy and Xin Yi Ba Research Society. Read the report here.
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![]() Visit of the Shaolin temple is definitely worth it. But the less you know, the more you will like it. Otherwise, you would not see the amazing kung fu shows on every corner, monks crossing your path in the temple or the dedication of the number of schools around. You would probably see hundreds and thousands of Chinese children, in dirty cloth of the same red color, doing the same movements. Occasionally, you would see a coach, with not a very fit figure, holding his student on a ground in some painful stretching pose, meanwhile checking his phone. You would also see many kids with very poor basics, such as rising their heels when they are not supposed to, and no one corrects them. They will spend years in the school, maybe without winning any competition and therefore a place in some performing team, or a job among coaches. Only a fraction of them will, and that is enough here. In Shaolin, or rather in Deng Feng (the town nearby) I was going to visit three schools. All of them said they are traditional wushu schools. It turned out I was not so much welcomed in one of them, because “the kung fu students are not friendly to visitors” and “they are now busy training for a movie cast”. It is not necessary to note that I was not very unhappy that I have to skip this one. |