Shi Yan Zi?

[Hei Hu]

I wish everyone didn't have to tip-toe around on the rice paper, to make their point! Was Yanzi SENT to the UK by Yongxin? I don't know about the status of the other monks with schools around the world, so I can't comment on that. Was GuoLin SENT to New York by YongXin? If he wasn't SENT there, and decided to leave on his own, isn't he still on good terms with YX.

p.s. That was fast Doc!!! You must still be a young buck!!

[Andrew - U.K]

Well I heard it when I was in shaolin temple in 2001, from some shaolin layman disciples.
I also heard the story second hand from Topa, a lawyer who helped set up the current school.
The other thing is that I was at the greeting party that meet Shi Yan Zi at heathrow airport. Back when
he was brought over by the Chinese cultural fund to teach at the temple school in Islington, before he did a 'runner' and set up shop in Brixton.

G.B.H is grevious bodily harm, the other part of the story is that he was chased round Deng Fong by dudes
with choppers.

[Hei Hu]

that's a better response than I was expecting to get. Where I come from choppers are helicopters. I didn't know they could afford them in DengFeng. is a chopper a helicopter in your book?

God (or should I say Buddha) bless old SuXi!!!

[Andrew - U.K]

Cultural and linguist differences ;-) Chopper = Meat cleavers. Its a story I can only tell you what I have
been told, it reads like a bad screen play and as you say difference political factions are going too
interpret it to their strengths.

Andrew

[Hei Hu]

Uwo Dong!!!

[Andrew - U.K]

A very perceptive remark.

Andrew

[Shaolin Punchbag]

Well as far as I know from studying at STUK for the past year and reading up on www.shaolintempleuk.org Yan Zi went to Yong Xin, his "master" (presumably in Buddhism, Yong Xin in all honesty just doesn't look fit enough to be that great a gong fu teacher), saying that he no longer knew how to improve his training (this is after Yan Zi's long string of wins in San Shou competitions), and that he felt directionless at that point in his development.

Yong Xin was thinking about sending out some monks to start school in other countries, since the US temple had done so well, and he chose Yan Zi to go set up the STUK. Yan Zi rounded up his gong fu brother Yan Lei and came over here, eventually got the interest and the funds to set up the temple (which is still under construction, they're just finishing the building of a new room) and hauled over a few other monks to help out with the teaching.

That's the official story anyway. Where all this idea of Yan Zi being in big trouble back home came from I have no idea.

Hei Hu, yes, he was sent here, but not in a "get the hell out of here, I don't like you" kinda way, in a "I'm choosing you to be our main representative in a foreign country" kinda way. Yan Zi & the others are definitely still on good terms with HQ, they frequently get performance team members over to stay, organise trips over to the temple in China, etc etc.

[kirvixus]

fei hung:

if a catholic priest isn't considered a false priest for fudgepacking an altar boy then I'm pretty sure yong xin can keep on being a monk.

[doc]

And you're worried about my safety in Shaolin?

[kirvixus]

well I don't think there are too many catholic shaolin monks. are you catholic or something. I mean for all you catholics reading this it's not like I said all the priests are in on that sort of thing. it's a known fact that some were though. so I'm just saying political/religious figures can get away with a lot more than what yong xin is speculated to have done.

[Andrew - U.K]

Shaolin PunchBag.

That official story is well wrong. I was at the airport when Shi Yan Zi and Shi Yong Xin came to the U.K.

Shi Yan Zi was too teach at the Shaolin U.K school run and organised by Sifu Leung. If you want video proof:

http://www.shaolin.org.uk/en/chikung/shidelon.html

Shi Yan Zi, then did a runner, setting up his own school in Brixton then Tuffnell Park. This is not fuedal china, lines of communication are good enough for people to communicate and find these things out.

That story about furthering his studies, look at it, do real people think like that ? No, its a fairy tale. Shi Yan Zi, is not even a monk any more, I believe he renounced his vows to get married.

Andrew

[hermit]

Tony Leung...
Sifu Leung...
"Shi DeLong"......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

what is the world coming to..

why are people so stupid they would believe a crook, conman

[Shaolin Punchbag]

Fair enough.

I wasn't necessarily saying the official story was 100% watertight. Just saying, if you ask Yan Zi or look it up on the website, that's what they'll tell you. Is it entirely true? Heck, I don't know. Almost certainly not, if Shaolin's general record of truth-saying recently is anything to go by.

I do know that Yan Zi is married and has a child (at least I knew one of the monks was, didn't know who until doc told me yesterday), which obviously precludes his being considered a 100% bona fide "monk" at the moment... depending on how you look at it. As far as I'm concerned, the guy spent some 15 years living there, he's about as much a "real" monk as anybody, and he's the head of the best school of martial arts I've ever been to. Probably the best martial artist I've ever met. He's still a pretty devout Buddhist. And that's good enough for me.

And whether or not STUK was originally supposed to be run by someone else, it must still be officially sanctioned by Yong Xin or they wouldn't be allowed to put stuff like "this is the first European branch of the Shaolin Temple officially sanctioned by the Abbot of Shaolin in Henan Province, China", especially considering how tight YX is about the Shaolin name these days.

Oh, and about that being a 'fairy tale'... I'm not so sure. If you've heard any of YZ's little motivational speeches he gives sometimes, you know that he takes his gong fu training more seriously than anything else. He really lives by it, and I know if I threw myself into my training that hard, I'd be pretty distressed if I found I had no place left to go with it. I think it's reasonable to assume there's at least some truth there.

In any case, this is all starting to sound too much like some kind of Shaolin celebrity gossip column for me in a minute we'll be talking about Shi De Cheng's latest hairstyle, and going on the low-carb Shaolin diet.

[Andrew - U.K]

Shaolin PunchBag, alot of good points and I agree with you;

Shi Yan Zi, is a tough guy and an excellent fighter. Yes, Yong Xin, did sanction the temple.

I guess I am jaded and cynical by the whole matter. I was there at those early sessions. I was there when he did a runner. So I am bitter that those early days are just glossed over. So, when I hear all this 'Mission to improve my studies', it makes me smile. I can remeber him just bunking off and all of us standing around wondering were he had gone.

Anyway, enjoy your studies, I have already turned this thread into gossip, and well its just something that I had too say and I accept full responsibility for it.

Andrew

[cassius]

I didn't know Yan Zi was married.. I thought that was Yan Ming.