Jay organised for a bunch of us to go to see the Shaolin Monks perform their Wheel of Life show. It wasn’t what I expected… it was actually a story, rather than just a Kung Fu demonstration (though that did come later). The basic story is this. A long time ago, in a province far far away, traditional martial arts training was outlawed, so the Shaolin Monks created their own form mimicing the animals around them with stances taking on animal forms (e.g. Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon 
).
The Story:
The monks offer their services to their emporer, and he enlists them to protect him from a local warlord. They defeat him and the emporer wants them to remain as his protectors. The monks decline and the emporer seeks revenge. The emporer poisons the monks and very nearly wipes them out forever, however 5 survive and the rebuilding of the temple begins…
The story was fairly simple and while the fight scenes were impressive it looked very choreographed and I was about to write them off as just being actors (albiet highly trained), when the martial arts display at the end began…
The Demonstration
The demonstration was very impressive, and removed any doubt in my mind of their abilities. Notable bits…
- The 6-7 year old monks doing flips from foot-head-foot-head.
- The monk who took two spears, anchors them at two other monks’ feet, and proceeded to bend the spears by pushing on the points with his neck.
- The monk who had two wooden poles snapped over his back at full force.
All in all very impressive…