Eating Bitter in Shaolin

 

American Shaolin

By Matthew Polly

Matthew was a student at Princeton who wanted to learn genuine kung Fu.  The best way to do that is to go to China and learn kung Fu at the Shaolin Monastery. Of course now they call it the WuShu center. When the communists took over they took all the combat out of kung Fu and called it WuShu.  When he wanted to go over there he consulted with a professor from China who said that if he wanted to learn kung Fu he had better learn to eat bitter.  In other get ready fro  grueling hard work.  His parents were dead set against it and he had some self esteem issues.

Arriving in China was an adventure. First off hardly anyone knew how to find it. He hasd to ask directions and take varied routes to get there. Upon arriving there the communis officials in charge of he monastery agree to take him and charge him for lesson and rent. He ends up living in a nearby hotel. As a foreigner he is called a low wai and it does not garner tha much respect.  He has several near romances as it is not considered proper for a chinese woman to be with a low wai. If a woman is in a mans hotel room after midnght it is considered illegal and she would be a courtesan. He has several adventure while training. He is not the only Low wai. There is a German guy who comes over and a chinese american kid Matthew's age. One foreigner finds Jesus while in the shaolin monastery and promptly leaves. 

The Chinese American is named John. His entrepeneurial father sent him to learn kung Fu to get some discipline. They have drinking adventures together and they have gil chasing adventure. At one point Jon meets a dancer ho broke up with a chinese mafioso.  John asks Matthew for help and gets some weapons and advice from one of the coaches . He goes over to the mafiosos hotel and threaten the manager. They nver hear from the mafiosos again. At one point John injures himself and this leads to a confrontation in the hospital where in the doctors are unprofessional and lazy and it is up to Mattew o confront them about medical cleanliness.

throughout his journey he has sparring matches in some he is a typical low wai nd in others he wins the fight and brings honor to Shaolin. He also studies Sanda which is chinese kickboxing. He details how this martial art is different from Shaolin kung Fu and Thai Kickboxing. He ends up goin back to America. He visits China much later and finds thart everything has modernized. Some Shaolin monks migrate to America.