American Shaolin

Author: Matthew Polly
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101216840
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
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.

American Shaolin

Author: Matthew Polly
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781592402625
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
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.

American Shaolin

Author: Matthew Polly
Publisher: Perfection Learning
ISBN: 9781613838310
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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

An American's Journey to the Shaolin Temple

Author: Steve DeMasco
Publisher: Black Belt Communications
ISBN: 9780897501415
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
Tells the story of the author's ascension to 10th-degree Shaolin kempo black belt and his appointment as an honorary ambassador to China's legendary Shaolin Temple. Accompanying rare techniques of more than 350 photos, this book is of interest to various Shaolin enthusiasts.

Bruce Lee

Author: Matthew Polly
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1501187635
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 656

Book Description
The “definitive” (The New York Times) biography of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between eastern and western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. Forty-five years after Bruce Lee’s sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee’s life. It’s also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee’s family, friends, business associates, and even the actress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon. Polly explores Lee’s early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father’s struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like James Coburn and Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery. Polly breaks down the myths surrounding Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with the martial arts—not a kung-fu guru who just so happened to make a couple of movies. This is an honest, revealing look at an impressive yet imperfect man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played onscreen.

Summary of Matthew Polly's American Shaolin

Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 41

Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was accepted to Princeton, but I was so busy trying to fit in that I didn’t have time for intellectual activities. When I went back to school that fall, I started the Spanish club at my high school so I could demonstrate leadership potential. #2 I had been taking kungfu classes since freshman year, because when I was nine years old I had seen a rerun of David Carradine’s Kung Fu and was never the same again. I had been studying Chinese culture and religion, and I wanted to learn real kungfu. #3 I had decided to fly to China and ask around until I found someone who knew the answer. That’s the way quest heroes did it in the fantasy novels I favored. Maybe I’d chance upon an old crone who’d give me a magical artifact to help me on my journey. #4 I was extremely ashamed of myself, and I couldn’t tell my father that I had been the boy that bullies loved to hate. I requested a leave of absence from Princeton, and began making preparations for my journey.

Tapped Out

Author: Matthew Polly
Publisher: Avery
ISBN: 159240619X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
An aging amateur takes his shot at glory in the world of mixed martial arts. As a younger man, Matthew Polly traveled to the Shaolin Temple in China and spent two years training with the monks who had invented the ancient art of kung fu. Fifteen years later, his weakness for Chinese takeout and Jack Daniel’s had taken its toll. Firmly into middle age and far removed from his past athletic triumphs, Polly decided to risk it all one last time. Out of shape and over the hill, he jumped headlong into the world of MMA. In Tapped Out, Polly chronicles his grueling yet redeeming two-year journey through an often misunderstood sport. From Thailand to Russia, Manhattan to Las Vegas, Polly studied with the best trainers, concluding with a six-month fight camp at Randy Couture’s legendary gym. He explores the history of fighting sports and joins a fascinating subculture of men who roll around on sweaty mats with one another in appreciation of the purity of contained combat. And in the end, Polly straps on the gloves, gets into the cage, and squares off with a fighter fifteen years younger. An honest and humorous look at a hard-core sport, Tapped Out is a fascinating look into the fastest growing sport in America and what it takes to be an MMA fighter.

A History of Shaolin

Author: Lu Zhouxiang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429537212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Book Description
Shaolin Monastery at Mount Song is considered the epicentre of the Chan school of Buddhism. It is also well known for its martial arts tradition and has long been regarded as a special cultural heritage site and an important symbol of the Chinese nation. This book is the first scholarly work in English to comprehensively examine the full history of Shaolin Monastery from 496 to 2016. More importantly, it offers a clear grasp of the origins and development of Chan Buddhism through an examination of Shaolin, and highlights the role of Shaolin and Shaolin kung fu in the construction of a national identity among the Chinese people in the past two centuries.

Shaolin Cowboy: Who'll Stop the Reign?

Author: Geof Darrow
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
ISBN: 1630089605
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Book Description
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.

The Shaolin Monastery

Author: Meir Shahar
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824831101
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
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.