[China] Shaolin Warriors at the Chinese State Circus

We went to see the Chinese State Circus on the weekend; I was well impressed.
The Shaolin WuShu Warriers were throwing away moves that I know I haven't a hope in himmel of doing. One of them put four bricks on his head and another broke them with a sledgehammer (do not try this at home). They did a couple of excellent staff (bo) katas.
There were some acrobats who were jumping through hoopes above head height, shinning up poles straight armed (yep - just their arms, straight out going hand over hand up the pole), and other stuff.
There was a contortionist lady who held a candelabra on each hand, foot, and her head, and rolled over, tuned upside down and so-on whilst keeping them upright.
There were a couple of young ladies doing a high wire act (with the assistance of wires), hopping between two ropes and over each other.
And plenty more.
If you get the chance, do go and see it.

 

When people put Bricks on their head and hit it with a Sledgehammer dont they just hold both sides of the Brick and take all the force from their head?

Sorry but no matter how much 'Chi' someone has if they get hit on the head with a Sledgehammer hard enough to break Bricks they must crack their skull.

 

i've seen the chinese state circus loads of times, and would recomend it to anyone.

 

How appropriate that Shaolin is now a circus act.

 

I want to respect the Shaolin as martial artists. I've even seen a few video clips of Shaolin demonstrating authentic MA skill.
I just wish they didn't have to be so #$*(%! tacky about it.

 

True
but spears are completely different stories.... but the tips dont pierce the persons skin....
though its not enough to withstand the force of a sledgehammer...a shaolin monks skull can take about four times the pressure of that of a normal person because of a lifetime of training....

 

Source?

 

Agreed.
It's all known that due to the intense training there is a 25.8% chance that another person would break their hand on a monks skull.

There is a 33.4% Chance that they would do so while being struck in the eyes by a spitting Cobra.

They are 66.8 times more likely to not stub there toe during an entry move than a regular human due the said conditioning drills.

There is 99% chance that clubbing monks in the head with bricks takes 4 times longer to break their skulls than with a normal untrained human.


Source: www.out-of-my-ass.com
oh... wait a minute... I see we have the same source for info.

 

That is really funny!

 

Slip the pic for your stats !!!

 

man i look big compared to those monks(see pic), i thought the circus show was excellent, i went yesterday and thought it was an ace display.Which to be fair it was, they even had a kung fu monkey king, i mean you dont get that everyday.
The kung-fu well....errr...it was okay, i mean with weapons they are flash and fancy and show lots of skill, load of rubbish for fighting but looked great. i was sooo dissapointed with the little bits of unarmed stuff they did, it was all my shaolin warrior dreams crushed by the big smelly foot of reality.
immoral as it is, i really wanted them to do the thing where they call people up to hit them and then their 'chi' stops the blow doing any damadge, i figure as a skeptic of said chi, if i elbow or hook a monk in the face and he is cool about it, then im stupid and getting my ass to some chi kung classes but they didnt do it .
i also wanted to feel the bricks and slabs, which they did let people do but they didnt get round to me! also the blades and spear heads seemed of suspect sharpness i wouldnt have minded giving them a checkeroo too.
but alas on face value they rocked the show,showing great skill and balance(those crazy high poles!!)and they are certainly entertaining but im still dissapointed by their actual talent but this is of course subjective as i never saw them fight,just saw there showmanship but nothing looked meant for fighting to me.
ive seen better kung fu by normal western martial artists, i know its stereotype and wrong but you just expect your shaolin monks to be more badass than the leisure centre kung fu tournament entrants.
BUT my god the rest of the show was amazing, ive never seen better circus acts and everyone was greatly talented and worked the crowd well. anyone who can,should go!

hope everyone had a great new year, hopefully another chinese circus will pop up for chinese new year!

 

sorry about that giant white space, my computer skills are about as sucsessful as Mr T's rap career!

 

Just so everyone is clear --

Anything with the name Shaolin, associated with the Chinese Government, should be taken with a grain of salt at most (and martially, it's worth about a grain of salt).

So please, don't mistake anything that goes on at these circuses as "historic" or "traditional" shaolin, you'll make the baby damo cry. Either that, or we Kung Fu folks will be forced to counter with "Then Ralph Macchio has the realz karate."

That said, enjoy the spectacle and the show. I'm sure it's really cool.

- Matt

 

You mean he doesn't? :cry:

 

man Ralph Macchio IS karate!

 

perhaps the years of "shoalin" training teaches them that sharpening the spears is a really dumb idea?

 

Thanks for making this point Matt.
People should be aware that the Chinese government has turned Shaolin into a tourist destination and is populating what was once a spiritual sanctuary with acrobats and circus performers. They may be talented technicians, but to compare them to 'historic' shaolin monks is just ridiculous.

 

The book 1421 about China discovering the world in that year mentions that the term "Shao Lin" ment "Sea Goddess" or "Goddess of the sea".

www.1421.tv

A serpent, more like a dragon. They are into dragons as the good guys.

http://www.usq.edu.au/users/weppner/Heidi/sea_dragons.htm

If they found many of these they probably figured there was a big one around somewhere.

Sort of like the birds being related to the dinosaur, the little ones have survived while the bigger are no longer around

Gary

 

Lol!

Funny thing is...i actually clicked on the link...