Shi Xing Hong visits America

Photos taken in my personal wushu guan, Las Vegas.

The owner of this Shaolin school apparently studied with Deqing sometime back in 93 or 95. He had been an accomplished martial artist in Hungary at the time, and is a little older than me. I guess that he made some sort of arrangement for Deqing to go to Hungary to teach with him there; at the time, he had 500 students in his school. Now Deqing has spent a lot of time over there, actually, he spends most of his time there. He teaches at this school, usually most of the day, starting at 0900 with a group of 20 year olds (college? work? Not sure these people have much going on in their lives either). He gets a room from them, living in a small room at a school, but I don't think that he gets food. I know that he does not get a salary from this school, though it does pay for his flights back and forth from China, and, he used this past opportunity to come back to the US with the owner to visit me. But Deqing derives other benefits from teaching at this school; it helps him fulfill his almost self-appointed goal to spread the tradition of Shaolin gong fu. Deqing keeps mentioning that the school is a Shaolin temple (a temple, being a place where a monk lives. Thus, my house is now an ex-Shaolin Temple. God help Shaolin history....) I can see in his eyes that even though financially, it might not be as beneficial as one would desire, it does help him satisfy a far more important goal.

Now, Deqing apparently gets no salary from these people. He does it for, well, free I guess. You cannot imagine the immense sense of pride that he exhibits when he talks about his school and his students in Hungary. But he does make money teaching the Hungarian commandoes at the police force, and does drive (a student's car) to Berlin to teach tai chi. He makes decent money, by US standards, each month doing this, but I don't know how much goes out for hotels and the like. He also sends money back to his schools in Shaolin, Wudan, and some other place that I can't remember. China, being a relatively poor country, doesn't have a lot of paying students, and he doesn't have the heart to send them away. Thus, the work. Every three months or so he goes back to China for a month to visit the temple and his three schools.  I did get the feeling that though Deqing was proud of his school and his students (he wasn't very proud of me, I can tell you that, when we went over Tong Long Chuan... My, I have been a very bad disciple this year) he wasn't terribly happy with the financial or living arrangements. He has big plans. Really big plans. And the energy to do it.. (And I've partly become the focus of this. Great. More later).  Back to the day. Having stayed up late "working out" (as my friend Paul calls it), playing Tribes online and kicking people's asses all over the world  (I have become a Tribes master, no doubt. But that's going to be the limit of my mastering anything at this point), I drifted off to bed around 130 AM. It had been a terribly successful gaming night yet again, bringing fear into the hearts of my probable 12 year old challengers throughout the internet world. The Russbo name is no doubt feared, and I can imagine the shudders that travel through the fifth grade elementary schools the next day). It all started at 6AM, with the sound of wood slapping incredibly loudly, with a high pitched sound, reverberating throughout the house. It was punctuated with the occasional slam of a 125 pound heavy bag getting the not accustomed to shit kicked out of it. Mindy, my female golden retriever, who had been sleeping soundly under the covers next to me, woke up and looked at me with one of those "what the f-ck is he doing" looks. Max, my male golden retriever, continued to snore loudly through the ruckus, as expected. For a good half hour I tried to fight back one hell of a killer migraine, but finally, succumbed to the absolute uselessness of the whole thing, and got up. The dogs no doubt, were not at all happy with the event. But we all trudged on downstairs to find Deqing, at 630AM, doing a form in my living room, as he watched some horror movie on my big screen TV. He appeared to be in martial arts heaven, as he went back and forth from my wushu guan to my living room, first to kick the heavy bag, then to return to the TV, then to the wooden dummy, then to the TV, then to the kick bag, then to the TV, without missing a beat as to where he was in the form. Then, he sat down and said "Tong Long". Great. I'll be the first to admit my poor daily workouts in gong fu. I had forgotten a few of the pieces of this praying mantis form, and it showed. Having one hell of a migraine with a little hemiparesis didn't help either. But onward I struggled with it, and after an hour and a half I had to stop. Deqing noticed I was hurting and showed me something I didn't know existed; Shaolin Qi Gong massage. I watched in my mirrored wall as he did a combination of qi gong, brushing strikes, and minimal massage. It was interesting, to say the least. But an hour later, with headache diminishing, it was time to start the day. At 0900 we left the house to visit one of the facilities where we would teach in the future.


Deqing really liked the rehabilitation center that I had planned on using for the possible future venture, as it had a lot of room, both inside and outside. The facility in Hungary where he teaches has three buildings up in the mountains, one building as an eating area, one for an office, and a small room-type place for working out. This was far bigger than he was used to, and he liked it. But deep down, it didn't meet his expectations. You see, he doesn't want to build a school here, or a place to just teach gong fu or qi gong. He wants to build a temple, a Shaolin Temple, where the monks can come over and live, and teach all sorts of their arts. (Funny, I had been thinking the same thing...). But this will take some time, and the rehab center was going to be far more than adequate to meet our early needs.


After that it was a trip to the Vegas Buddhist temples. Yes, in Vegas. When he first mentioned to me that he had wanted to see some Buddhist temples here, all I could think to myself was, something along the lines of "You've got to be kidding. Whore houses, well, yes. Buddhist temples, well, ha!" But he was determined to find one, so I  looked in the phone book and, after spending some time getting through the two largest groupings in our phone book (escort services and attorneys, you make your own judgment on that...) I  had found one. It actually burned incense outside, and had a combination Chinese/Vegas architecture. But, it was a Buddhist school. I was impressed. Real Buddha statues. No slot machines. Yes, I was impressed. But Deqing was not. He had other plans. One thing that I've come to admire in Deqing, is that his mind is constantly churning out thoughts and ideas. There really is a lot of energy in there.


And that was when I noticed something else. Something far more significant. He has changed a bit in the last few years that I have known him. Here was a guy a few years ago, that I had thought might actually leave the monk hood, as I had sensed a possible desire to meet women and the such. Disco's were not high on his list, but he had liked the music and occasionally liked to see them. I had sensed a struggle between being a dedicated young monk, devoting his life to Buddhism and the sacred art of Shaolin gong fu, and being an older teenager, (kind of like, well, me),  interested in women and the things that the external world had to offer a good looking highly personable young man (kind of like, well, not me). There has been a change, an evolution in him, and it was clear, surrounded by all of the nastiness that Las Vegas has to offer, that the monk inside him had won.


After our visit to this Buddhist temple, I took him to the Stratosphere tower, where we had lunch. The view up there, on this typically nice Vegas day, was incredible, and it must have absolutely blew his mind. He told me that China has one tower like this, in Shengzhen. No doubt it offers a great view of the typical Chinese pollution. We spent an hour or so walking around, talking, and taking pictures. Taking pictures was important, as he had wanted to show all of these to the monks back home. Vegas was a wonderland to him, much like Disneyland would be to a child, or to me. It was interesting watching him take it all in.


But it was soon to get better. After lunch, we met up with my friend Paul, who had been bitching to me in his typically nice humorous way ("Working out at 6AM? Doesn't he know what sleep is? Wait until I "work out" tonight on the computer in Tribes land. I'm gonna turn my damn speakers towards his room, and wipe out some 12 year olds in Tribes. How's that feel!") On and on I heard it, all day. I had showed Deqing the Tribes world on the internet the night before. One would think that a Chinese monk, who had little computer experience, would show a terrible fascination with this horribly interactive and addictive game (as Shi De Cheng did years ago, when I showed him Doom and Quake on my laptop. Talk about a fascinating evening in the heart of Shaolin....) But no, he had been more interested in getting on the internet and looking at my web site. (We had also tried to find his school in Hungary, and the one in Spain, to no avail). Yes, the monk had won....


We went down to Lake Mead with the idea of showing him a large beautiful lake in the middle of the desert. Instead, we ended up renting a speed boat. Deqing, who just started driving a few years ago (he's 27 now), had never been in a boat in his life, with the exception of those shuttle ferries in Hong Kong. It was an overwhelming experience for him, to say the least. He definitely enjoyed it immensely. I saw a little of the teenager coming back out, as, without regard for any sort of safety, he just spun this little unstable but fast boat around Lake Mead. Thank god we were the only ones out there.


After that, I took him back to the house, where again, he spent more time reading my web site. He gave me an interesting revelation then, that even though he wears regular clothing when traveling, he doesn't like having photographs of him published when he's not wearing monk garb. (He wears his monk garb when he teaches in Hungary, and I've seen him in monk garb in China, but usually when he teaches. Needless to say, many of the monks, especially the martial monks, wear work out clothing as opposed to the monk robes, contrary to popular belief).  Again, the monk in him was coming out. There was an image that he had felt that he needed to portray, and he was well aware of the monk wanna-be's, and the faux schools out there, claiming to teach Shaolin gong fu. He was angered by foreigners who came to Shaolin to learn some basic forms, only to leave and open schools, claiming to be Shaolin masters (It is common in Europe, and rarely in America, as few Americans go to Shaolin. The Americans just open schools and claim to teach Shaolin gong fu without going to China.... I would say that we Americans are just more "time efficient" than the Europeans...?) Deqing just doesn't like the whole thing. I told him that unfortunately, it was common here in the US to teach that way.


We then went to one of the schools that I train with,  here in Las Vegas. He met my instructor, who was very happy to finally meet him. The students were absolutely enthralled, all wanting to have pictures taken with him. And that is when I noticed something else about him. He and I are fairly close, and it is not uncommon for me to punch his arm or his stomach, or grab his shoulder, in a fun kind of way. There just didn't seem to be a problem with it. But when some of these students touched his upper arm or shoulder, in an absolutely friendly gesture, he froze up. The friendly Deqing turned into stern Shaolin master. I kept telling him to chill out a little, as these people just didn't understand, and that they didn't mean anything bad by it. But he told me that this type of behavior was wrong, and that he was offended by it. He wasn't at all interested in what he had seen, nor was he impressed. But then again, he told me he hasn't been impressed by any school that he's seen in Europe. The only thing that impresses him is Shaolin gong fu. Pure unadulterated Shaolin gong fu. From what I gather, the only thing that is real to him, is Shaolin gong fu. The rest of it is just watered down stuff. I tried to explain to him that what he was watching was a distant derivative of Shaolin gong fu, having been altered as it passed through Taiwan, Japan, Okinawa, and Hawaii. Then again, we Americans have changed the art to some degree. What he was seeing was the end result of a mix of many different styles and cultures. It was no matter. It didn't mean anything to him. Shaolin gong fu is the only thing that matters. And there is a good reason for that.


Deqing feels that our martial arts schools, like those in Europe, emphasize too much the whole concept of the martial art being a fighting skill. We train in these arts to be able to kick other people's asses. We train to feed our egos. Ego. Now there is a concept. We had a long discussion about that. Another discussion, later. He feels, much as I've come to feel, having been at Shaolin too much for my own good, that there just is no substance to martial arts training here in the US. He says, "there is no heart". And he's right. We emphasize the martial arts as a method of fighting.  To him, fighting is anathema. To him, gong fu is more for the heart, for the mind, for the health, and for tradition. This whole concept of being better than one another (the idea of multicolored belts here in the US and in Europe amuses him) is just wrong, and doesn't belong in martial arts training. As Shi Xing Xi told me, there is only master and disciple. There are no levels. There are no stages. One just trains to continually get better. Not to be better than anyone else.

Deqing, at my home, with my family....

We walked around downtown for a bit, so that he could see the older part of Vegas. He was fascinated by the casinos and the lights. I tried to show him how to use a slot machine, but, in a very uncommon response for here in Vegas, he wasn't interested at all. (I also purposely walked by a local strip club, with it's well advertised "assets" outside, and again, he showed absolutely no interest. Yes, the monk had won).  Remember, this was as much an opportunity for me to learn about him as it was for him to learn about Vegas. I pushed him, and challenged him, and, well, he won. After that, we got my little companion, and the three of us went to Chinatown for dinner. He wanted real Chinese food. Enough of this expensive high quality American food. (He had complained bitterly that his lunch was cold. Well, Deqing, you did order a chicken salad sandwich....) The food that night was better for him, as it was prepared by a chef that had lived in Henan province China, and our waiter was from a small village nearby Shaolin. Quite the coincidence. He was happy with his fried tofu, and as I watched him eat his meal, all I could think about was, I'm going back soon, and I'm going to have to eat that shit yet again. The thought just made my ever increasing migraine that night, worse.


It soon became 2130, and knowing damn well that his Hungarian friend was leaving for LA at 0600 the next morning, I offered to bring Deqing back to his friend's hotel. Staying at my house was not going to be an option because of the early hour that they had to leave. (They had a flight to catch back to Hungary in the afternoon). No, he wanted to see more. So, off to some of the major casinos to see some of the sights. And to cap it all off, a trip on a 3D IMAX magic motion ride at 2300. He was really fascinated by that technology. (I had become incredibly ill by it, to the point of not being able to walk straight. Not a good thing to do when you've got a migraine condition like I have). But I knew it, but I also knew that he would like it. So, we did it. And that ended the night. I didn't think it would be too "disciple-like" to puke my guts up at the front desk of the Excalibur, though it took all of the mental energy I had to prevent it.

He had definitely had a wonderful time. And he expects to return here, in America, very soon. It is our hope to eventually start a training center/temple here, and no doubt, there will be more stories....