The performers of the Kung Fu Studio attached to the world-famous Shaolin Temple want to emphasize the role Zen Buddhism plays in their daily lives when their world famous skills in martial arts are next demonstrated on Shanghai stage, writes Michelle Qiao with the Shanghai Daily.

Kung fu meets music? It's not a fantasy -- the legendary Shaolin kung fu is returning to the Shanghai stage for most of next month.

The Shaolin monks performed "Shaolin Soul," a martial-arts-plus-music show, two years ago, and the name of the show as well as the martial arts skills will still be seen in the upcoming revised version staged by the Kung Fu Studio attached to the Shaolin Temple.

However, the new production contains added elements designed to arouse in audiences the emotions they would feel when viewing ancient Chinese paintings. If successful, the show will become a regular tourist attraction at the 600-seat Lyceum Theater, just like the acrobatics show at the Shanghai Center Theater.

The performers will demonstrate their martial arts on stage under a "waterfall" or on a "rock" alongside a limpid "spring" or in a foggy "forest." A gauze screen will act as an abstract temple gate instead of the solid real-life one that was on stage in the original performance. In the new show, a room in the monastery will consist of an incense burner, a hanging Chinese character of "Buddha" and artful lighting.

Boys will sit on five lotus seats instead of on the ground to practice Tong Zi Gong (a boy virgin's kung fu) which they have to begin learning from childhood. Buddhist music will enhance an already tranquil Zen atmosphere.

"True Shaolin kung fu is a mixture of tranquil Zen Buddhism and superb martial arts," says director He Shuanglin, who also directed the performance two years ago. "I've asked the performers not to wear aggressive expressions when fighting."

He has also taken the advice of Jiao Hongbo, president of the Kung Fu Studio attached to the Shaolin Temple, to sprinkle more Zen elements into this revised theatrical kung fu feast.

Jiao says the practice of Zen had been neglected in the previous performances. "With a history of 1,500 years, Shaolin kung fu is rooted in Zen Buddhism," he says. "Shaolin monks meditate, chant Buddhist scripts and practice martial arts every day. But the performances in past years focused only on the martial arts leaving audiences with the superficial understanding that Shaolin kung fu is merely hard, aggressive fighting. Now we want to highlight Zen in the new show which, after all, is the true essence of Shaolin kung fu."

In addition to the Shanghai shows, Jiao's 21 performers have also joined with Taiwan's percussion-based U Theater to create a new show called, "A Touch of Zen."

The show, with a budget of four million yuan (US$493,827), tells its story through dynamic demonstrations of martial arts and sacred drumming. It was an instant hit in Taipei last month and already has been invited to the next Hong Kong Arts Festival and there are also plans for a 60-show annual world tour.

"A Touch of Zen" is an English version of the Chinese title which is literally "Zen, Martial Arts, Not Two." This emphasizes the premise that martial arts are incomplete without Zen Buddhism and vice versa.

The storyline of "A Touch of Zen" follows the life of a child abandoned by his mother at a Shaolin temple after a high-ranking general has killed his father. When the boy is 18, he learns of his father's murder and his mother's imprisonment and he vows to avenge the injustice done to his family by killing the general. Throughout the story, both the boy and the general are confronted with the inseparable relationship between Zen Buddhism and martial arts.

It was in 1987 that Shaolin's present abbot, Shi Yongxin, introduced Shaolin kung fu to the world stage. He wanted to use the medium of the theater to popularize the Zen Buddhism practiced in the Shaolin Temple, an institution founded in 525 AD by the Indian monk, Bodhidharma.

In the past 18 years, Shaolin monks have trodden the stages of more than 60 countries and made their ancient temple renowned throughout the world.

Today, hundreds of martial arts schools have sprung up around the temple, attracting thousands of overseas kung fu practitioners. But most of the schools focus only on the easy-to-learn martial arts but not Zen Buddhism.

To go beyond entertaining audiences with the amazing skills in martial arts, the monastery has started the application process to have UNESCO declare that Shaolin kung fu be included as one of the World's Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Only two other Chinese art forms, Kunqu Opera and guqin (seven-string instrument) music, have received this accolade.

Abbot Shi has repeatedly emphasized the difference between Shaolin martial arts and Shaolin kung fu.

"Shaolin kung fu is a rich, religious Chinese cultural relic which ranges from martial arts to Zen Buddhism, Shaolin medications and art," he has said. "In history, the practice of martial arts was used only to protect our temple and Buddhism. Zen is the essence and the source of our ultimate wisdom."

That's why the temple applied to UNESCO to have "Shaolin kung fu," not "Shaolin martial arts," listed as one of world's cultural masterpieces.

The temple is also renovating its present guesthouse into a 100-room Zen-themed hotel which is due to open next April. The hotel - built to four-star standard - offers a Zen ambience, Zen seminars, Zen qigong classes and vegetarian food. It will be a refuge for people who want to cleanse their hearts and minds through pure meditation.

So Zen will no longer be seen as a mysterious element wrapped up inside Shaolin kung fu. Through the new production of "Shaolin Soul," the relationship of Zen Buddhism and Shaolin martial arts will finally emerge from its dusty, forgotten corner.

Still, perhaps it may be thought that the true soul of Shaolin kung fu should have been revealed a little earlier.

(Shanghai Daily July 25, 2005)