STUDY IN CHINA GLOBAL (SCG)Today let’s take a brief introduction of a famous Chinese movie named “Kung Fu Pop”.Kung Fu Pop is the first domestic inspiring film displaying a confrontation of Shaolin Kung Fu and Thai boxing, with the most popular hip-hop as the carrier. The film is directed by Fu Huayang, a renowned advertising producer and secular disciple of Shaolin Temple abbot Shi Yongxin. Starring Chen Xiaochun, Fan Bingbing, and Asian king of dance Nam Hyun Joon, the film combines Chinese Kung Fu with modern hip-hop and disco dancing while adding quite a lot of fashion elements, telling an inspiring story of a man from the grass-root level that bravely pursues his dream of becoming the ultimate Dance King.
In the 1980s, the film Shaolin Temple brought out Jet Li, now a world-known kung fu megastar, and also brought the unique charm of Shaolin Kung Fu to the whole world. All of a sudden, people all over the world got the craze to practice Chinese Kung Fu, and the Shaolin Monastery thus became the world’s pilgrimage destination of Chinese Kung Fu, attracting millions of tourists every year. For the last two decades, Shaolin Kung Fu has formed a unique cultural system, becoming a cultural brand with a complex industry chain and marketing system. Kung Fu Pop is the inheritance of traditional Shaolin Kung Fu culture, and also a brand-new attempt combining Shaolin culture and modern fashion. The blending of Shaolin Kung Fu and hip-hop dancing triggered the great mass fervor for “New Kung Fu Era” once again.
Fu Huayang, monastic name Shi Yantan, became a secular disciple of Shi Yongxin in 2005. He has since then become the marketing pioneer of Shaolin brand. Kung Fu Pop is a collective work combining Shaolin spirit with pop culture. It expresses the dynamic, upbeat and Zen faith with distinct artistic view and image rhythm, pursuing self breakthrough and passion. As revealed by Fu Huayang, the shooting of Kung Fu Pop was inspired by his preference for traditional Chinese Kung Fu and his respect for the Zen-martial art combined Shaolin culture, and it was also the exploration of Shaolin spirit and Shaolin brand. In the film, Shaolin Kung Fu starts an all-round competition with Thai boxing, while the blending of fashion elements like hip-hop brings about brand-new look to Shaolin Kung Fu. The theme of the film, a pursuit of self breakthrough, brings into full play the healthy and dynamic life attitude as well as the striving passion of the young generation, thus conveying to the audience the positive life value of Zen attitude in the Shaolin culture.
功夫gōngfu: a kind of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China.
少林寺Shàolín Sì: It is led by Abbot Shi Yongxin. Founded in the fifth century, the monastery is long famous for its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu, and it is the best known Mahayana Buddhist monastery to the Western world.
