Shaolin monks use law to fight ninja 'slur'

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Shaolin monks use law to fight ninja 'slur'

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China’s Shaolin Temple has has taken the unusual step of hiring a lawyer to challenge an anonymous internet satirist who claimed a Japanese ninja took on its kung fu-practising monks and won.

The temple - renowned as the cradle of China’s martial arts tradition - took exception to an internet bulletin board post, signed with the pseudonym “Five Minutes A Day”, which described the ninja victory.

"This is absolutely untrue,” the lawyer said in a statement. “We vehemently condemn the odious behavior of this “Five Minutes A Day”, which is not just extremely irresponsible as far as Shaolin Temple is concerned but also with regards to martial arts in China, and to the nation as a whole.”

After years when practitioners were persecuted and exiled, pride in kung fu and other martial arts has become central to modern China’s image of itself as a nation that fights back against all the odds.

Grasshopper, the character born in Shaolin and played by Keith Carradine in the 1970s Kung Fu television series, conformed to the Chinese image of fighters defending the downtrodden, while martial arts film legend Bruce Lee is posthumously regarded as a sort of patriotic superhero.

 



By Richard Spencer in Beijing

01/09/2007