Shaolin Shows in SF Bay Area

[GeneChing]

The Shaolin Chan Wu Xue Yuan is Dr. Richard Russell's school, make no mistake about that. I think he got the name from Xinghong, who was trying to franchise internationally. Xingwei was brought out by Doc on a contract to work there. The word is that Xingwei has violated that contract and is on the run.

[Pk_StyLeZ]

well i jus say xing wei school..since he was the teacher there so i use his name..sorry if i offended anyone

[GeneChing]

...but we're all still wondering where Xingwei will pop up.

I found out a little more about the Flint Center show this weekend. Apparently it comes from some Henan organization - something to do with a society for Henan people abroad or something. I'm completely unclear on the amount of monks and such now, but I hear there are also acrobats and dancers involved. I've also heard that there is some sort of free show in SF on Friday, then the show at the Flint the next day. I was just asked if I want tickets, but of course, I'll be at Taiji Legacy.

[Pk_StyLeZ]

wow xing wei disappeared??

so ths flint center thing is the same weekend as taiji legacy..aww so u will have any people covering the flint center so u can keep us updated about it?

what about the IntMAT..know anything about that??..ever find out or hear about a new monk appearing in cali??..apparently there is because my sifu said he called him..and he invited my sifu to a show/competition in august too..and i am guessing it is the samething as IntMAT since our school name is on there...so yeah....

well see u at taiji legacy....i wish it was now..i want to get it over with..i have not been trainin as hard as i was last year.....i just want to get it over with...i am so out of shape...ahhh!!!!!!!! 2 days left to practice!!

[GeneChing]

...you konw, we'd go nuts if we tried to cover all the Shaolin and Shaolin-style shows in the area now. I guess that's partly the point of this thread. I have some friends going to the show this weekend, so I should get an informal report and I'll let you know.

As for monks in this area, there are some performance monks here already. I did an article on them a while back, in our Jan Feb 2004 issue - Shaolin's second wave.

As for IntMAT, it's mostly the brainchild of Ann Woo, who is the executive director of the Chinese Performing Artists of America. She's done a lot of great work promoting Chinese arts - I think this is her first venture into Chinese martial arts.

See ya at TJL!

[Pk_StyLeZ]

ooooo i see
know the name of the two monks?
got pictures?beside the one in ur magazine obviously..lolz

[GeneChing]

See, that was part of the point of that article. There is a new generation of monks that I've dubbed the Second Wave - these are wuseng that have only been indoctrinated for a performance tour, then they leave the order immediately after. Many, like these two, did the bulk of their training outside of Shaolin. The two featured in this article were Chen Fei (who took the name Yanfei) and Ben Zhang (who took the name Xingzhen). They were working together for a short peroid, then Chen Fei split off to join CPAA as their Assistent Wushu Director (he was with my master Sifu Tony Chen and the O-Mei Kung Fu Academies prior to going to Ben). Ironically, CPAA has some connection to IntMAT. Anyway since then, Chen Fei has split off again to form his own school, which I know I have the contact info for somewhere on this chaotic mess I call a work desk, but I can't find it just now.

Maybe now you get a little taste of the crazy Shaolin environment we have here in the SF Bay Area. And this is just the Songshan Shaolin circles. It gets even nuttier when you look at the traditional circles and the wushu circles...