NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/martial/14458

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-17 | 3.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!ames!data.nas.nasa.gov!taligent!apple!mikel
From: [e-mail] (Mikel Evins)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Humor, at NH tournament
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 16 Nov 92 20:10:34 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Distribution: na
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Eugene Tyurin) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (alan.j.lapenn) writes:
>>
>>I was at the Northern Shaolin Karate Assn. tournament  in Concord, NH this
>                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>    Pardon me, guys, but how one can glue Shaolin to Karate?
> From all my knowledge about MA history I can only think about this as
> of a funny commercial name. Any experts out there?

Lest you think I'm claiming to be an expert, I'm not.

The head of the system I study calls it 'Shao-Lin Karate-do', and
there is a reasonable explanation for it, which I'll get to
momentarily. As for the above group, I don't know anything about
them, so I don't know whether the name is just a funny commercial
name or what.

My instructor's instructor is Sin Kwang The', a Chinese who grew
up in Indonesia. That last name is not Chinese; his actual
family name is Zheng, however, Indonesia has some rather intersting
laws and customs that bear upon both his name and what he
calls his school.

Incidentally, my instructors call it Shao-Lin Kung Fu. Again, I'll
shortly get to why Master The' doesn't use the name 'Kung Fu'.

The system I am learning was brought to Indonesia by one Ie
Chang Ming, who is said to have learned it in residence at a
Shaolin Temple in Fukien under the tutelage of its head monk,
Su Kong Tai Djin. Master Ie's desgnated successor is Master
The'.

It used to be that Indonesia officially discouraged the teaching
of Chinese martial arts, but Japanese arts were allowed, along
with native Silat. During this period, students of Master Ie
adopted the name 'Shaolin karate' and some Japanese terminology.
Many of the Chinese terms were replaced with Japanese ones to
help conceal the Chinese origin of the system. It so happened
that Master The' got along well with some Japanese martial arts
teachers, and so the subterfuge was a natural one.

Indonesia also required that Chinese change their names to
Indonesian names in order to own property or businesses, and
business owners had to have Indonesian partners. Consequently,
the Zheng family became the The' family, and Master The's
father still has an Indonesian partner in his textile
business, though apparently he rarely sees the fellow.

By the way, friends recently returned from a trip to Indonesia
with Master The' tell me that Indonesia now allows Chinese
arts to be taught, but does not allow them to be known by their
Chinese names. Thus, there are apparently a number of
Master The's contemporaries teaching Tai Chi Chuan, but
their students don't know that it's Tai Chi Chuan, as they are
required to call it by the Indonesian name for 'health and
meditation'. The ban on Chinese names has apparently extended
to the point where, apparently, when Master The' kept referring to
old friends and acquaintances by their Chinese names, which
he had always known, and not their Indonesian names, which
he couldn't always remember, the old friends and acquaintances
were much embarassed.

When Master The' came to the U.S. and began to teach, he called
the system 'Shao-Lin Karate-do' and still uses this name. Some
of his students adopted the name 'Shao-Lin Kung Fu,' but for
a long time he discouraged use of the name 'Kung Fu' because
of its connotations in Indonesia. Where he came from 'Kung Fu'
was the name used by traveling charlatans and snake-oil
salesmen, and so the term was, for him, tainted.