Its been a long time since a posted a tai chi post. I really should do so more often. Here’s another great video of Master Ma Yue Liang, doing pushing hands. See also my previous post about Master Ma, with some background on him and a longer clip.

Now this is what I call Ultimate Fighting:

The Ultimate Fight – video powered by Metacafe

UPDATE: And this is what I call Ultimate Lameness:

Just goes to show, there is a right and a wrong way to lose an eye in a cheesy martial arts movie. It also goes to show, that it really is funny until somebody loses an eye, and then its just hilarious.

Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang was the son-in-law and the best known disciple of Wu Chien Chuan, the founder of Wu style taiji. He truely was one of the last remaining great Chinese martial arts masters of old. Master Ma was jailed by the Maoists during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but continued to teach tai chi in Shanghai, China, right up until his death at the age of 97, in 1998. The following video shows Master Ma giving a pushing hands demonstration when he was already 93 years old.

Last year UK’s BBC THREE network aired an excellent 12 part series on various Eastern martial arts, called “Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves”. Hosted by Chris Crudelli, himself an experienced martial artist, the show followed Chris around the Far East as he visited various Masters and Grandmasters, talking to them about their, at times seemingly superhuman and even supernatural, abilities, coercing them into giving demonstrations and stepping in as a bit of a crash test dummy to cop a hit or 11. Some of the featured Masters will be well known to martial artists – like Ip Shui (Southern Praying Mantis), Leung Ting (Wing Chun) and the head of the Bujinkan Sr Masaaki Hatsumi. Others are hitherto completely unknown publicly, at least in the West.

The show was aimed not only at martial artists but at a wide audience, including viewers completely ignorant of the subject. The down to earth Crudelli went around doing impromtu street performances, demystifying various martial arts feats by explaining the science behind them and offering, perhaps somewhat irresponsibly, self-defence advise to strangers. The show could have probably done without Chris’ party tricks, but the team can be excused for trying to reach to a wider audience. There’s enough of the real deal in there to keep the most snobbish martial artist interested, while still keeping the average BBC punter entertained and perhaps a little amazed.

All 12 episodes of the show have now been released as a 2 DVD set. So far there is only a UK release, which is a PAL format region 2 2-disc set. I purchased mine from Amazon.co.uk and I’ve seen a couple of other sites selling it also. No word as to whether the show will be broadcast in Australia or anywhere else or when an international DVD release may be coming out. Another British channel, UKTV People, just aired the series and it has been very well received, so I am sure we’ll get it out here sooner or later.

You can read a couple of reviews of the series here. Scroll to the end of the post for a full list of the martial arts masters that appear on the show.

Earlier this year BBC THREE screened a follow up 6-part series, called “Kick Ass Miracles”. Here’s the official edisode guide on the BBC THREE site. This time the focus is not on martial arts but various other indigenous esoteric traditions from around Asia that seem to challenge the Western notion of what is possible within the laws known to science. The show features various monks, Qi Gong Masters,
more martial arts Grand Masters,

warriors possessed by spirits, healers and yogis. No DVD has been released as yet.

Here are links for episodes 1, 3 and 4 from the first series in full and a few clips from both Kick Ass Moves and Kick Ass Miracles. There are too many to embed in the post, so follow the links. And there’s plenty more on the show than whats in these clips, the first series alone totalling nearly 6 hours.

Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves, Episode 1 (Google Video)

Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves, Episode 3 (Google Video)

Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves, Episode 4 (Google Video)

(Click more for a few clips from both first and second series and a list of the martial artists in the first series.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week the Mayor of Shoalhaven City Council, Greg Watson, and 4 councillors travelled to China to meet with representatives of the Shaolin Temple. On Saturday the deal was signed for the development of the new temple complex on the 1,200 hectare property, called Camberton Grange, south of Nowra. The original Ch’an Buddhist monastery (its main gate is pictured below) is located in the Henan province in China and has a 1500 years history. It is considered the birthplace of Ch’an (Japanese: Zen) Buddhism and Kung Fu.

According to the Mayor, speaking on the ABC’s AM program on Saturday, from China, the development is to include “a three-tier temple complex, with two pagodas, 500-room hotel, a 500-place kung fu academy”. He then continued: “There’ll be some residential subdivision, a 27-hole golf course, herbal medicine, herbal gardens, acupuncture, special massage, and that’s about it.”

Sounds like the primary purpose of the new temple is to function as the centerpiece of a tourist resort. The 500-place kung fu academy however is exciting news for Australian martial arts. The planned hotel is going to be four-star and sounds like it is aimed at the tourists, so perhaps the academy will have separate accomodation for the kung-fu students on top of that? Unless they either think Nowra is much bigger than it is or they are targetting very rich students.
Competition for the site apparently came from Victoria and Italy, with the Italian Government putting forward a deal to the Shaolin abbot. Perhaps the proximity of the Ch’an Buddhist Nan Tien Temple at Wollongong played a part the decision.

Late last year, when the proposal was first brought before the Council, some controversy arose around the development, following comments from local Pastor Trevor Aspin and opposition from some residents. Pastor Aspin said the development would be “bringing evil into the Shoalhaven”. According to the South Coast Register, reporting in November 2005, “ The spark was lit by Pastor Aspin, chairman of the [Shoalhaven] Ministers Association, who sent a memo to fellow ministers saying he believed God had directed him to call a war of prayer to stop the Shaolin temple being developed.”

This earlier report in the same paper has his comments in full:

“I believe the Holy Spirit has instructed me to call the army of God and go to war against this principality,” Pastor Aspin wrote in a letter to members of the Shoalhaven Ministers Association.

“Dear people, it is not worth inviting evil into our city for any amount of money – I’m sure you will agree.”

Although I disagree with the notion that the development is inviting evil into the city, the Pastor’s concerns are understandable, as much as his ostentatious militancy is amusing (if only he had said “Crusade” instead of “war”!). After all Buddhism is Australia’s fastest growing religion, while the number of Anglicans in Australia has declined in the last 3 census’. In the 2001 census 370,345 people were Buddhist, with a 79% increase from the previous one in 1996, accounting for 1.9% of the population. The vast majority are Asian migrants, but tens of thousands are also converts. It will be interesting to see the new numbers in this year’s census.
Predictably ugly was the response from the Shoalhaven City Council. Cl Watson :

“”As a Christian I hang my head in shame at the intolerance which is apparent in this whole exercise,” he said.
“This whole matter is totally misguided, and demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the fundamentals of Buddhism.”

and

“The abbot’s not going to be enamoured towards what’s going to appear to him to be racial bigotry,” Cr Watson said.

Racial bigotry? Where was race mentioned? This deserves the first ever TOD “Bullshit” Award. It is the right of a Christian Pastor to defend what he believes is Australia’s already battered Christian identity. I personally disagree with him, but his concern is perfectly understandable. But I am also thankful that we are a secular nation and his concerns are not government policy. And the Pastor’s “army of God” does not also happen to be the Australian army. Interestingly, one of the Shoalhaven City Council Councilors is a Buddhist – Cr John Anderson. From the same article:

As a follower of Buddhist teachings, Cr John Anderson said the arguments were just religious intolerance disguised as planning concerns – something he described as “an utter disgrace”.

After Pastor Aspin the torch was then taken up by the Anglican minister Peter Robinson of St Stephens Church in Bomaderry. The ABC reported in March 2006:

“In a letter to the federal government, Anglican minister Peter Robinson of St Stephens Church in Bomaderry, raised concerns that the Shaolin temple planned for Comberton Grange, south of Nowra, could threaten the security of the naval base, HMAS Albatross.”

Then it was the turn of the Wollongong’s Anglican Bishop, Reg Piper. From the same ABC article: “For my part, I think I’d be arguing about the difficulty of the Buddhist religion. I think it’s a soul destroying religion rather than a life giving one and so for my part that would be my line.”

Ironically the Camberton Grange development gave rise to far more opposition than a 500-bed prison that was also proposed for the area.

Despite the opposition the Council announced in early March it will officially offer the property to the Shaolin Buddhist Order.
But the controversy did not stop there, as the Council went ahead and planned the trip to China to sign the deal before actually getting State government approval. The NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor wrote to the Mayor to inquire about this decision. According to this ABC report the “Planning Department has earmarked the area as of state significance” and did not want permanent housing on the site. The permanant housing is the dwellings of the monks, as the hotel is not actually “permanant housing” and is perfectly ok, apparently.

At this stage the NSW government is yet to approve the deal, but, according to the Council, no opposition is expected, considering the great economic value the site will bring. The aforemention Cr Watson stated that the complex will add an extra 1.5 million international visitors a year to the Shoahaven region, on top of the current 200,000. It is expected to have 10 times the economic impact of the Nan Tien Temple, which currently generates $16 million a year for the Illawarra economy and attacts between 250,000 and 300,000 day visitors each year.

Lets hope negotiations run to a smooth end.

The Camberton Grange property is located on the NSW south Coast, just south of Nowra and is about a 2 and half hour drive from Sydney CBD.