Depicted in countless movies and TV shows, as well as in hip hop lyrics, the Shaolin Temple is a very real place, one of China’s historic treasures and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Established in 495 CE, the original Shaolin Temple lies in the heart of China and is considered the birthplace of Zen and Kung Fu. But before Jet Li came, it was in ruins.
The 20th century was tough on the temple too. In 1928 during the turbulent Republic of China period, the temple was burned down by a warlord named Shi Yousan, who was suspicious of the Shaolin monks. Caused by firearms, the fires burned for 40 days. For a short period in 1941 during the Japanese occupation, it was converted to a secondary school. Then when the communists came, they expropriated 13,171 acres of land from Shaolin, leaving only the temple with only five. But that wasn’t the worst. The Cultural Revolution ravaged Shaolin once more, destroying halls, art and pagodas, and disbanding the monks, forcing them back into secular life. By the 1980s, only four monks survived, struggling to hold on to what remained.
It was Jet Li’s first film, The Shaolin Temple (1982), that brought the nation’s attention back to Shaolin. The Shaolin Temple was to China what Star Wars was to the West: the year’s highest-grossing blockbuster in their respective markets and a complete game changer. One of the first films shot on location, it revealed that Shaolin Temple was still standing to China’s post-Cultural Revolution generation. People flocked to the temple as curious tourists, religious pilgrims, and, of course, as students of Kung Fu. To understand what happened, it’s important to understand who Jet Li is.
Jet Li Takes Off
A devout Buddhist, Jet Li is his Western name, given to him because his career took off like a jet. His Chinese name is Li Lianjie. He was the first superstar champion from a newly formed martial art called wushu. China sought to unify its diverse martial arts for competition by creating a new sport called wushu, which combined traditional Chinese martial arts with gymnastics for a sports spectacle. Wushu bid to be an event of the 2008 Beijing Olympics but didn’t make the official cut.
Jet dominated the early national wushu championships. He captured his first All-Around championship in 1974 before he hit puberty. That shocked the wushu community because the second and third place contenders were well into their 20s. Jet held that national All-Around title for five consecutive years, a competitive record that remains untouched.
Li’s success earned him a slot on an international friendship team of ambassadors to the U.S. When President Nixon helped open the door to the People’s Republic of China, the first Chinese friendship ambassadors to visit the USA was the championship ping pong team. This historic cultural bridge is remembered as “ping pong diplomacy.” The second group of Chinese ambassadors was a wushu team, including Jet. Jet performed wushu for President Nixon and Henry Kissinger on the White House lawn. However, Watergate broke out when the team arrived. That usurped the headlines leaving the wushu ambassadors in its shadow.
But that was the American news. In China, there was a different story. Trying to be cute, Nixon asked Jet if he would serve as his personal bodyguard. The 11-year-old Jet quipped back, “I don’t want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!” With that, he won the hearts of China, the most populous nation in the world at that time.
It’s important to understand the distinction. Jet is native Chinese, born in the nation’s capital city Beijing. Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco as an American, back when birthright citizenship was valid. Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong when it was under British colonialist rule. But by comparison, Jet was part of a new generation of martial arts stars, born in mainland China.
On Location at Shaolin Temple
The Shaolin Temple was a joint China-Hong Kong production. The film retold a classic chapter of Shaolin’s glorious past when 13 Shaolin monks rescued Li Shinmin. Li later became Emperor Taizhong of the Tang Dynasty (598-649 CE). The episode is depicted in one of surviving murals in White Garment Hall at Shaolin Temple.
Alongside Jet were several other leading wushu champions, including Yu Hai, Yu Chenghui, Ji Chunhua, Hu Jianqiang, and Sun Jiankui. Many of them went on to become notable martial arts movie stars in Asia. The film was a showcase of wushu choreography. Even though many of the fight scenes are sped up, the level of skilled choreography remains thrilling. The precision and complexity of the fights, especially the fights with weapons, is what wushu does best. And with the backdrop of the actual Shaolin Temple, the impact of the film upon the martial arts genre is undeniable.
The Shaolin Temple had limited distribution internationally, exclusively showing in overseas Chinatown theaters. Nevertheless, the film was a box office success in Asia, spawning two thematic sequels that were also shot at the temple, reuniting Jet with the cast of wushu champions. Everyone was cast in different roles, but the high level of fight choreography before scenic locations was a constant throughout the trilogy. Kids from Shaolin (1984) and Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986) were among the very few movies filmed at Shaolin Temple.
In 2011, Shaolin was shot on location and was originally promoted as a remake of The Shaolin Temple. It starred Jackie Chan and Yu Hai (of the original The Shaolin Temple) in extended cameos. It also featured Xing Yu, a real-life Shaolin monk who went on to be a star of action cinema. It also had some leading wushu champions like Wu Jing, who is now one of China’s most bankable actors. However, Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse, and Fan Bingbing took the lead roles. While they are all very accomplished actors, they weren’t martial artists at first, which made this film very different from the original trilogy. There’s been a persistent rumor that Justin Lin will direct a remake, in 3D no less, but that has yet to be greenlighted.
The Rebirth of Shaolin Temple
With The Shaolin Temple, Jet Li helped usher in a torrent of tourists and boosted the economy with martial arts. Dozens of massive private martial arts schools rose up near the real Shaolin Temple, run by former monks or secular masters. The community around Shaolin Temple had been practicing Shaolin Kung Fu for generations. The largest private institution, Shaolin Taguo Martial Arts School, has had up to 36,000 live-in fulltime students. Most of these students are children who also receive a complete education. In China, a degree in martial arts is marketable both as a coach or in enforcement.
The influx of tourism and the martial economy has allowed Shaolin Temple to rebuild and restore. Shaolin now has several subsidiary temples within China and dozens of international representatives all over the world. An entire generation of mainland Chinese martial arts masters will cite The Shaolin Temple as their inspiration to take up the practice. Last year, Shaolin hosted the first global Shaolin Kung Fu Games at the temple which drew over 20,000 attendees from around the globe. The temple also holds summits on Zen and traditional Chinese medicine, as well as academic symposiums.
After inspiring so many movies, it’s karma that Shaolin Temple would have a movie bring it into modern times. And Jet Li was the vehicle of that rebirth.
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