My China Story How I Became the Cultural Ambassador of Shaolin Temple By Steve DeMasco

Steve DeMasco is the International Cultural Ambassador and disciple to the Shaolin Temple in China, and a 10th degree black belt in Shaolin Kempo.

Why it is me who has been chosen by the Abbot Shi Yongxin to be the International Cultural Ambassador of the Shaolin Temple? It’s a question I have asked myself more than once.

ou could say I didn’t About thirty-five years ago, when I In 1996, I unexpectedly received an have the best start in first learned about Shaolin philosophy official invitation to visit China after I life. I was born in 1953 and the kung fu martial arts that go had studied martial arts for thirty years. to Concetta and Al with it, I had no idea how it would A medical doctor named Robert DeMasco in Spanish profoundly change my life, but it did. It Sporn, who studied kung fu under one YHarlem. My mother, who for some changed my perspective on power, and of my students, had spent time in China reason was always called Carol, had two my way of thinking. and spoken to the Chinese about his wooden legs and four fingers on one For decades, I felt my body and soul study of Shaolin in the United States. hand. My father, Al, was a psychotic, empowered by Shaolin spirits. After They were fascinated that someone in abusive man who beat and abused me years of learning kung fu from three the West would be teaching their art to repeatedly as a child, until my mother grand master teachers of Shaolin kung non-Chinese, as far fewer Westerners remarried in 1962 and moved us away fu, I started my own kung fu schools in studied it in the 1990s than now. to Brockton, Massachusetts. the U.S. Officials connected with the Shaolin

16 March 2017 Special Focus 17 old he was, as though this was just one my credibility. I felt empty, and for a time in the temple’s fifteen-hundred- to visit and train in Shaolin. I have of the many secrets the temple held. moment, the old demons of failure and year history,” the translator said, “that a never asked for anything in return for The abbot is like the Pope of China, pain came rushing back. Defying my non-Asian man was named master.” spreading Shaolin culture throughout the number one in charge of all Shaolin brain to screw this once-in-a-lifetime We stared at the booklet, then at the world. martial arts, and he is a symbol of chance up, I reached for my focus, and each other, then at the booklet again. He I have written many articles about China itself in a way. He asked me a lot remembered what was at stake and smiled genuinely. This was like winning Shaolin and its rich heritage, but I of questions about life in the United what I was trying to accomplish (to the gold, I thought. have never taken credit for any of the States and how I taught and mentored show the abbot just what an American That journey began my substantial Shaolin arts. Although in the 18 years children, and when he was finished, he Shaolin martial artist could do, so that connection with the Abbot and the I have traveled to China to study and stood up, and I understood the meeting I might get his blessing, which would great Shaolin Temple. When the train in Shaolin, I know will never is over. My confidence and my ability allow me to share my abilities and what Abbot, Yongxin made me his personal in this lifetime master it all. Shaolin to focus on this amazing situation I’d learned with even more people). disciple in June 2000, he gave me is an art and a philosophy that the suddenly began to waver. I thought, The “iron wire” is from the oldest the name Yandi ( 延谛). It means world needs to embrace and that is “That’s it? I must have done something traditions and seldom taught to non- extension of the truth. A few years to “improve the quality of life for all wrong.” Chinese artists. I had learned it from one later, he announced me as the US people.” Before the meeting, I knew that of my masters, and it had taken several Cultural Ambassador and several I feel the Abbot knows all these. every word I spoke was going to be years to perfect. When I emerged from years later to my surprise, he publicly It was probably based on them, the evaluated by the abbot, so his silence the haze of my concentration, the abbot announced me as International Abbot trusted me and gave the mission and dismissal really threw me for a was looking at me with an expression Cultural Ambassador. to write a full academic course on loop. I expected much more, instead of neither happy nor sad, neither admiring Why it is me who has been chosen Shaolin in conjunction with the United seeing the situation for what it was— nor embarrassed; but he was really by the Abbot Shi Yongxin to be the States Sports University in Alabama, having accomplished an amazing looking at me. International Cultural Ambassador of USA. It took me over one year of meeting—I was already getting down The next day, as I prepared to return the Shaolin Temple? It’s a question I writing to do this. The course is now temple began to investigate how I had the holiest mountain range in China— about it. That was the moment to to the United States, the minister of have asked myself more than once. offered on line in many countries. This come not only to study with Shaolin was an awesome sight. Seeing it in remind myself what I was trying to travel in Deng Feng came to see me, The Abbot just makes decisions and might have added to his decision to grand masters in America, but also to photographs had not prepared me for accomplish. Just being in his presence and handed me a small red booklet. doesn’t ever explain himself. But what I make me the international Ambassador. earn under their tutelage, by that time, the real thing. Ancient and majestic, it was unbelievable, and no matter what, It was from the abbot. Inside, my do believe is that very little is by chance. I’m still visiting Shaolin every year an eighth-degree black belt. had a grace surrounding its red brick I had conveyed how much respect I photo was displayed alongside many For most of my life, I have trained to have a one-week intensive training The Chinese are very methodical walls and old stone steps that I could had for Shaolin, and how important it Chinese characters that I could not with two well-known and respected of martial arts. Up to the date, I have in their business practices, just as almost feel under my skin. was to be able to share it with others, read; the director translated, and his Chinese masters and that I have a deep brought all of my three boys to Shaolin. they are in their mastery of Shaolin. I sat beside the abbot in his private because doing so had changed my life. eyes widened as he read. The Shaolin respect for the Shaolin philosophy and This July, I am bringing my youngest After the initial query from the chambers, a great honor. With his That was why I was there, and I’d done temple, and the abbot himself, now have a good understanding of it. son Gianni again for the third time. agency in Shanghai that had inquired hands folded in front of him on the that. recognized me as a master of the For years, I have brought thousands (Photos courtesy of Grandmaster about my practice, eight months of table, he sat calmly in a simple wooden As it turned out, Shi Yongxin Shaolin arts. “I cannot recall another of students from all over the world Steve DeMasco) correspondence ensued. Finally, I was chair. thought enough of me to invite me invited to visit the Shaolin temple, During our meeting, Jing Jing back to the sacred training grounds of thirteen kilometers from Deng Feng, translated, since the abbot does not the Shaolin monks, which few people known as the birthplace of Shaolin speak English, and it was clear that outside the temple have ever seen. monks, presumably so that the abbot, both Jing Jing and I were nervous. He He had two of his disciples perform Shi Yongxin, could see me for himself. stuttered a little, from what I could elaborate five-animal forms for me with So in 1996 I set out for China to explore make out in Mandarin, and I found an execution that was so flawless I was what I didn’t already know about myself stammering too. slack jawed. I bowed, thanked him for Shaolin. My experiences working with his time and attention, and prepared to After a twenty-four-hour flight, I different grand masters have taught me leave. found myself being escorted through that one definitely does not get a second As I did, the abbot gestured for me to Shanghai and Beijing, and finally to chance to make a first impression with perform for the four of them. It was like the Shaolin temple, by a Chinese guide the Chinese. In particular, Shaolin a bad dream where you are in class with named Jing Jing. There, Shi Yongxin, monks are intuitive, and can see right no clothes on and you think you don’t the best-known monk at the world’s through someone whose speech know the answers to the test: I had most famous martial arts temple and an or actions are not honest. They are demonstrated Shaolin forms in front extremely powerful religious leader in thoughtful, calm, and in the case of the of ten thousand people before, but now, China, was to meet with me. abbot, extremely wise and somewhat I felt I knew nothing—in my mind, it The temple—which sits at the base ethereal. Shi Yongxin appeared ageless, was just as bad as being naked in public. of Song Shan Mountain, itself part of and in fact, no one seemed to know how My ass was on the line, as was

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