Word: kung
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...brass Buddhas and plastic prayer beads at stalls crowding the temple's gates. For martial arts displays, a lucky visitor might spot a young boy in a monk's robe willing to perform a trick or two. "Shaolin," as American martial artist Brian Gray wryly puts it, "has become kung fu's answer to Colonial Williamsburg...
...wants the temple to look pretty for visitors but, left to bivouac on what used to be her living-room floor, she tearfully deems the project "obviously un-Buddhist." Yong Xin is less imposing when it comes to Shaolin's intangibles. If, as he claims, he practices kung fu every day, his pillowy physique has borne its rigors with baffling indifference...
...that doesn't mean he's not serious about being a monk. At his U.S.A. Shaolin Temple, housed in a funky third-story loft in lower Manhattan, Yan Ming instructs nearly 500 students in Buddhism and kung fu from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Eyes blazing, arms akimbo, voice roaring?picture Yul Brenner in The King and I?he exhorts his students to summon "more qi" and "train harder." "Occasionally" he admits, "I still forget that American students are different from Chinese. In China I could tell a kid to stand in the corner for two hours...
...make Yan Ming such a funky monk will also serve him well as an actor. "I love his contradictions," says Jarmusch, "he's so playful and yet he has the potential for incredible physical ferocity." The RZA, producer of and Yan Ming's co-star in the upcoming urban kung fu flick Z Chronicles, is also a fan. "When I looked at the dailies, he just exploded on the camera," he says. "I'd say, 'Damn shifu, you're a real live movie star.'" If he likes the kudos, Yan Ming remains circumspect. "It's just because...
...nothing new for Shaolin?the macho fighting monks were flouting dietary laws as early as the Ming dynasty, but abbot Yong Xin, anxious about Shaolin's newly pristine image, finds his prodigal brother's behavior poisonous. "The man openly eats meat and drinks," he gasps. Even in the U.S., kung fu aficionados?many of whom themselves know Shaolin only from the movies?believe Yan Ming is too much the joker. Martial arts websites abound with references to the "fake monk." But Yan Ming isn't fazed. "To be a monk you have to know how to be yourself," he says...