That's too bad. I think the Internet has done a lot of good for Buddhist and Shaolin ideals unfortunately they are constantly being "abused" through poorly worded interpretations especially on martial arts sites. Consider that a thousand years back Shaolin Chan was literally limited to personal transmission, today it might actually be possible to transmit Chan's themes in a "virtual" sense, hence my last comment. It really requires little else than a willing mind, than a physical place. Since it is really an idea, "Shaolin" was never "contained" at the Songshan si, it spread like wildfire across China and beyond and quite possibly if it is not constrained by words, "scripture" etc, it may not be contained physically at all and be perfectly capable of transmission through what they call "cyberspace". It's definitely a shame that the public perception of Shaolin is centered around performance wu shu and not more around the social progress possible through a life spent studying the nature of Chan.
I think the last real shaolin master was Bruce Lee. Did you see him playing ping pong??? [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SncapPrTusA"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SncapPrTusA[/ame]
I think he is a Master of Wingchun. Now Wingchun become a national martial arts. For example: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQfVFPsVCw"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQfVFPsVCw[/ame] You can see Wingchun everywhere. I think Bruce advertised for Wingchun. He is a Wingchun Master
This video was created by an advertisment firm for their cell phone client, IIRC, to demo a particular filming technique of synchronising multiple separate scenes with an audio track. If Bruce were around today, I think he to say something to the effect that true greatness need not be embellished.
I believe how much WC Lee knew is a matter of dispute. Many say he was not a Master of this style and didn't learn the complete system by any means.
I think you need watch video about Bruce Lee. He is really a master of Wingchun and Chinese Kungfu [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WSHcGIkw0o"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WSHcGIkw0o[/ame]
I think you may need a sense of objectivity and history Bruce was a talented and innovative martial artist and pushed himself to his limits; latter development of JKD aside, he was NOT an acknowledged master of any formal system though
I have a bit of a rule of thumb here, if it was invented in Oakland, there is a good chance it's not really Gung Fu.
No but the Kuoshu Federation is...I changed it because I thought a HoF accolade was sligtly more irreverent
Your rule of thumb is misguided brother, anybody can develop "gung fu" any where on the planet, given the right ingredients. Likewise I can get some pretty excellent Szechuan fried dumplings all over Manhattan
