Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, this coming-of-age tale explores one young American's quest to become a kung fu master at China's legendary Shaolin Temple. 8-page photo insert.

Bill Bryson meets Bruce Lee in this raucously funny story of one scrawny American’s quest to become a kung fu master at China’s legendary Shaolin Temple. Growing up a ninety-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970s TV series, Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to spend two years training with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism. Expecting to find an isolated citadel populated by supernatural ascetics that he’d seen in countless badly dubbed chop-socky flicks, Matthew instead discovered a tacky tourist trap run by Communist party hacks. But the dedicated monks still trained in the rigorous age-old fighting forms—some even practicing the “iron kung fu” discipline, in which intensive training can make various body parts virtually indestructible (even the crotch). As Matthew grew in his knowledge of China and kung fu skill, he would come to represent the Temple in challenge matches and international competitions, and ultimately the monks would accept their new American initiate as close to one of their own as any Westerner had ever become. Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, American Shaolin is an unforgettable coming-of-age tale of one young man’s journey into the ancient art of kung fu—and a funny and poignant portrait of a rapidly changing China.

The Power of Shaolin Kung Fu offers readers a comprehensive course in the fundamental movements that have been practiced and perfected by warrior monks for centuries. It includes instruction in the powerful striking techniques that so often lead to decisive victory in today's mixed martial arts bouts. The book includes 300 color photographs along with detailed textual instructions and training tips. Shaolin Kung Fu is an indispensable part of every martial artist's repertoire--a vital means to improve your movement, motion, and balance skills and the best way for a mixed martial arts fighter to improve and perfect striking skills. This informative kung fu book also shares the moral and ethical philosophies that underlie the Jow Ga system. Shaolin Jow Ga Kung Fu is a combination of southern and northern Shaolin techniques--making it by far the most effective in terms of combining blinding speed with devastatingly powerful strikes.

Part of the monastic lineage of fall and strike medicine. Presents hundreds of treatments for a wide variety of external or martial arts injuries.

This meticulously researched and eminently readable study considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.

Who doesn't like Surf and Turf? Well, what do you do when Surf and Turf doesn't like YOU????????? The Eisner Award-losing and winning, drawing-room talkfest The Shaolin Cowboy returns and will try to answer those questions as the titular hero of the series finds that his road to hell is paved not with good intentions but old nemeses hellbent on bloody revenge ... AGAIN!!!! He fought an army of the shambling dead, but can the Shaolin Cowboy survive a sinister desert town filled with guns, prostitutes, and white supremacists, all run by a crustaceous mafia? Collects Shaolin Cowboy: Who'll Stop the Reign #1-4.

Secret training manuals, magic swords, and flying kung fu masters—these are staples of Chinese martial arts movies and novels, but only secret manuals have a basis in reality. Chinese martial arts masters of the past did indeed write such works, along with manuals for the general public. This collection introduces Western readers to the rich and diverse tradition of these influential texts, rarely available to the English-speaking reader. Authors Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo, who coauthor a regular column for Classical Fighting Arts magazine, showcase illustrated manuals from the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and the Republican period. Aimed at fans, students, and practitioners, the book explains the principles, techniques, and forms of each system while also placing them in the wider cultural context of Chinese martial arts. Individual chapters cover the history of the manuals, Taiwanese martial arts, the lives and livelihoods of the masters, the Imperial military exams, the significance of the Shaolin Temple, and more. Featuring a wealth of rare photographs of great masters as well as original drawings depicting the intended forms of each discipline, this book offers a multifaceted portrait of Chinese martial arts and their place in Chinese culture.