BEIJING - China’s Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese kung fu, is demanding an apology from an Internet user who said its monks had once been beaten in unarmed combat by a Japanese ninja, Chinese media reported on Friday.
Shaolin Temple, in the northern province of Henan, became famous in the West as the training ground for Kwai Chang ”Grasshopper” Caine in the 1970s “Kung Fu” TV series.
Ninjas — professional assassins trained in martial arts — date back to medieval Japan.
“The so-called defeat is purely fabricated, and we demand the Internet user to apologize to the whole nation for the wrongs he or she did,” the Beijing News said, citing a notice announced by a lawyer for the Shaolin monks.
Emotions running high
Relations between Chinese and Japanese are sensitive at the best of times, with emotions still running high over Japan’s invasion and occupation of parts of China in the first half of the 20th Century.
The Internet user, calling themselves “Five Minutes Every Day,” said on an online forum last week that a Japanese ninja came to Shaolin, asked for a fight and many monks failed to beat him, the newspaper said.
... Seriously though, this is just insane. I can't think of a more asanine thing to cause an international incident over than some guy, who's probably barely an adult, made unverifiable claims about a ninja whooping the ass of some Shaolin Monks. On the internet. Surely they have bigger things to worry about. This certainly doesn't warrant some apology to an entire nation, unless I'm missing something.
Seems like a silly thing to get worked up over. But it made me chuckle...
General Zod wrote:I almost thought this was an Onion article.
It's almost enough to merit placing your "Internet: a series of very serious tubes" quote back in my signature, just for this article.
I mean, national pride I can understand to a degree, especially because my country currently has far too much of it. But to react this way to something from the Internet?
It seems to me that both countries, China and Japan, are made up of pretty reasonable and rational people (cultural and ideological differences from the West notwithstanding). But when it comes to the two countries dealing with each other, seemingly all sanity just gets thrown out the door. I guess its like the whole British and French rivalry but on Crack Cocaine. The whole Northeast Asian thing about not losing face (most especially when it comes to those two countries dealings with each other) probably doesn't help the situation much either.
Wow, this is not something I was expecting from a bunch of experienced martial artists. All of the good practitioners that I know tend to be a bunch of generally humble blokes who really don't care what people say about their art..
Shovels.I've seen the gardeners use them. You stick the sharp end in the ground. Then it gets a bit technical.
The Shaolin temple has it's name and style copyrighted. You can't use either without paying a fee.
Ninjas in the modern era are so emasculated as to utterly lack any groundfighting techniques at all, and their striking is laughable. Ninja is and has been for a long time just a word for Assasins. Ninjas used to come in all skill levels. Nowadays, SUCK is the main level of ninja ability. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awGpWzJVgMA comical? yes. All too real 'ninjas'? Oh yeah.
In closing, both are jerks, and deserve to feel the rightous fury of Randy Couture.
PS. Mike, if you ever think about martial arts, either for you or your kids, go on over to Bullshido. You'd fit right in.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
Ninja never was and is not an actual style, any more than Samurai or fucking Duelist is a martial style. Modern reconstructions of Ninpō are just ridiculous trying to simplify peasant-assassins, clans of martial artists, and unfounded tropes into a single whole.
That said, a Shaolin monk of proper skill could kick any ninja, fake or real,'s ass.
Can you imagine if news agencies in the States tried to hold internet users accountable for the stupid shit they say?
Internet User: "Yes, I am a Christian, but evolution does violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. How do I know? Well, I hold a Ph.D in physics, anthropology and biology. See, I used to be an atheist, but then I traveled around the world trying to disprove the Bible... and I only found it to be true! What, you don't believe me? FUCK YOU then! I'll laugh at you when you burn in Hell!"
(Now imagine the above with the spelling and grammar of a second grader.)
Of course they want an apology; they're trying to cover it up!! Whereas the ninja is just sitting somewhere and laughing silently at the silly monks a second time.
"Nippon ichi, bitches! Boing-boing." Mai smote the demonic fires of heck...
Solauren wrote:Considering Ninjistu is the art of infiltration, not combat, I can see why they'd be annoyed at such a claim.
However, the media reporting it, that's just sad.
That would be like them reporting on the SW vs ST debates.
Don't people starve to death and get murdered over video games around those countries?
Ah, Chit, once again you demonstrate your lack of tact and intellect by making broad generalisations. What's worse is that in this case, it's a broad, inaccurate generalisation, because the only place I've heard about that happening in is Korea.
Shaolin Monks are from China, Ninjas are from Japan. And making dumb comments that insinuate that Asians in general are so obsessed with video games that they'll kill over them is usually bad form.
SilverWingedSeraph wrote:
Ah, Chit, once again you demonstrate your lack of tact and intellect by making broad generalisations. What's worse is that in this case, it's a broad, inaccurate generalisation, because the only place I've heard about that happening in is Korea.
Shaolin Monks are from China, Ninjas are from Japan. And making dumb comments that insinuate that Asians in general are so obsessed with video games that they'll kill over them is usually bad form.
Besides, everyone knows it's Korea that's obsessed with video games to the point of stabbing each other and starving themselves to death. I suppose Chitty just can't tell one Asian country apart from another, but that would be par per course.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Solauren wrote:Considering Ninjistu is the art of infiltration, not combat, I can see why they'd be annoyed at such a claim.
However, the media reporting it, that's just sad.
That would be like them reporting on the SW vs ST debates.
Don't people starve to death and get murdered over video games around those countries?
Ah, Chit, once again you demonstrate your lack of tact and intellect by making broad generalisations. What's worse is that in this case, it's a broad, inaccurate generalisation, because the only place I've heard about that happening in is Korea.
Shaolin Monks are from China, Ninjas are from Japan. And making dumb comments that insinuate that Asians in general are so obsessed with video games that they'll kill over them is usually bad form.
The unfortunate part of that post is that it took me about ten minutes to regret it, yet I was unable to retract said statement due to a prior commitment at that moment. So I would like to say that it was a very knee-jerk reaction of me to come out and say that.
I'm pretty sure that the stabbing and the starving incidents occurred in mainland China. South Korea, on the other hand, obsesses over its video games by making its champions into national sports superstars.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
