Shaolin in this wek's Variety

[jun_erh]

http://www.mhvf.net/forum/asian/post...108245668.html


In this week's Variety (October 20-26, 2003), there's an article entitled, "Temple gets hip to film crews," by Arthur Jones, datelined Shanghai. It describes how Shaolin Temple "has tightened rules controlling the use of its name in commercial ventures, and the use of the location in film shoots."
It goes on to say:
"According to the temple's newly registered company, Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Ltd., film and television crews looking to shoot on the location need to be supervised by officials from the local antiquities bureau. Images of the temple used for commercial purposes will have to be approved by representatives from the ranks of resident monks, and the words 'Shaolin' and 'Shaolin Temple' are now registered trademarks."
Jet Li's SHAOLIN TEMPLE (1982) is mentioned as are SHAOLIN SOCCER (a color still from which accompanies the article) and the 1939 film, HOW SHAOLIN TEMPLE WAS BURNT TO ASHES.

I liked this line also:
"The abbot, Shi Yongxin, who is also CEO of the Henan Shaolin Temple Co., was the subject of a recent Discovery documentary.... His corporate approach to managing the ancient religious site and his distinctive combination of traditional saffron robes, mobile phone and SUV transportation has drawn as much praise as criticism from local media."

This sets a scary precedent. What's going to happen to Xenon's "Shaolin Collection"? Is an army of Shaolin lawyers going to start descending on our local Suncoasts and pulling FIVE FIGHTERS FROM SHAOLIN and WARRIOR FROM SHAOLIN off the racks? What if the original Wu Tang Clan suddenly gets ideas from all this and decides to go after everyone who's appropriated THEIR name? "Watch out, Ol' Dirty *******, here we come!"

[GeneChing]

I beleive this is related to a topic we had on the main forum. I'm amazed that it made Variety. Thanks for the tip JE! I'll have to check that out.

I asked the Abbot directly about the whole trademarking issue. His reply is in our current Shaolin Special 2003 cover story.

[jun_erh]

that quote was from the guy who originally posted at the linked site, not me. I wuld kill to see that movie from 1939. i saw a silent kung fu movie from like 1929 at the museum of Fine Arts. It wasn't that different from the stuff they're doing now

[GeneChing]

That does sound good. I've seen some of the early Wong Fei Hung films, but that's about it for old wuxia pian. Tell me more about the 1929 flick you saw. Do you remember what it was called? Was it part of that revival film tour that was travelling around earlier in the year?

[jun_erh]

I saw red heroine and the wong fei hung one from that tour. What was interesting was the soundtrack was provided by a hip hop dj who spun instumental sides of underground-ish hip hop stuff. It actually worked really well except it was too loud and went on too long. That article describes it better than I could otherwise. I saw Bow Sim Mark's sidekick lady in the audience and red heroine began with a performance by yang jwing ming's wushu kids.

[r.(shaolin)]

September 25, 2002
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/20...5_103851.shtml

May 04, 2003
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/20...4_116214.shtml

March 13, 2003
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/20...3_113247.shtml
----
"To date, Shaolin Temple has applied for registration in 68 countries"

"According to figures provided by the temple, 80 unauthorized kung fu schools in China have used the name Shaolin,all without consulting the temple."


r.

[r.(shaolin)]

Canadians - heads up

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/1160/trdp116069100e.html

r.

[GeneChing]

When I spoke to Abbot Yongxin, UNESCO status was at the top of his agenda. He didn't really comment on it's connection to trademarking so much to me. I got the implication that trademarking was more focused on private non-martial business - he kept coming back to the Shaolin sausage case. That was really the precedent. I tried to egg him on to discussing any connection with 'fake' monk tours, but that took our discussion into a totally different realm.

It's kinda funny, because he'll talk very candidly to me when I don't take notes, but if htere's any evidence that I'm going to use this in an article, his tone changes dramatically. It's a trust that I continue to honor.

Anyway, as I mentioned here and in the latest Shaolin special, I was there for a research symposium that was tremendously successful. Next year, they are planning to do another symposium, this time focused on the UNESCO bid. Things still seem kind of dicey at Shaolin following SARS. It really hurt their tourist industry and many events had to be cancelled. So we'll see what the winter brings...

[jun_erh]

Recent studies have shown that sars may come from eating animals like dogs and rodents. The monks being vegatarian should is a good thing, though obviously not enough to protect them from completely.

[GeneChing]

Well, that's great for the monks, but the Shaolin area has a much larger non-monk population, plus a lot of travellers. Officially, there were no documented cases of SARS ever in the entire province of Henan. But you'll have to tune into our ezine because we have some firthand accounts of Shaolin under SARS - one is up now, another will go up by tomorrow, and there's more to come.

[r.(shaolin)]

The Canadian response thus far:
http://www.shaolinwushu.com/articles

r.

[GeneChing]

As for SARS, a lot of chinese beleive it stemmed from the south China practice of eating li mao, or raccoons. Ironically, in our Dec 2000 issue, in an article about Shaolin, on page 67, there is a pic of a local hunter with two dead raccoons on a stick. An omen? Just goes to show that it pays to read Kung Fu magazine carefully.