“I wonder where true kung fu is taught,” I would often times ask myself. But I was never able to fully suspend disbelief about how successful and loved and accepted he was being the only non-Chinese in a town full of 10,000 Shaolin practitioners.

What a fun and interesting book!

I have to respectfully disagree with that. If only he’d taken good advice to go to Taiwan or Hong Kong in the first place. After reading Mark Salzman’s, Funny at times, and a unique story, but I found myself bogged down in the middle.Bill Bryson meets Bruce Lee in this raucously funny story of one scrawny American 19s quest to become a kung fu master at China 19s legendary Shaolin Temple. He returned ten years later and found a transformed China. Despite his intelligence and open attitude towards China, Polly seems happy to give examples of “Chinese” behaviour while also stressing the individual personalities of the people he meets. It's a quick, funny read with a number of interesting insights and anecdotes about Polly's two years in China. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to read it. American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly. He arrives in a particular province (I can't remember its name, just that it began with d) and after acquainting himself with locals and picking up a few anecdotes to tell the reader, one of which has to do with locals believing he. As for the kung fu itself, Polly is painfully naïve. The early part of the trip is a humorous fish-out-of-water story, which did nothing to dispel his image as a bit of a fool. He crosses 'unattractive to the opposite sex' off his list. I thought Matt was exactly the type of person I'd want representing America abroad: I had a lot of fun reading this memoir about Bao Mosi and his mad kungfu skills!!! American Shaolin really captures rural Chinese culture in the 1990s in a place where communism, Buddhism and kung fu all live together. We’d love your help. Few foreigners up to that time had access to the Shaolin temple and even fewer had the opportunity to “eat bitter” along with Chinese students of his own generation. His first book, American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch; An Odyssey in the New China, was published in February of 2007. 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. The book starts with the background of the author, who writes himself as a character. He changes, becoming braver and more confident, and gradually crosses everything off his list. The way he wrote it makes him so likable and human that I didn't want it to end. Be the first to ask a question about American Shaolin. There are five compelling reasons why I shouldn't have liked this book. Oh, those crazy laowai. Albeit unintentionally.The book details Polly’s trip to China in 1992. Expecting to find an isolated citadel populated by supernatural ascetics that he 19d seen in countless badly dubbed chop-socky flicks, Matthew instead discovered a tacky tourist trap run by Communist party hacks. The big bonus was learning so much about the Chinese culture. However, as the story proceeds, you get the idea that he is using his head to better understand Kung Fu, treating it not as a religious practice but more a sporting competition. He comes to respect Shaolin for what it is, not what he wants it to be, and learns more about Chinese culture and society while he is there. He's not afraid to look kind of ignorant or silly when he describes events in the book. The ‘kung fu’ he is learning is stylized dance taken from Modern Wushu and the iron body skills are individually trained circus routines. Coach Cheng, the kickboxing instructor, becomes a good friend and mentor to Matt. When a visiting master from a rival school challenges Shaolin, Matt steps up to defend Shaolin's honor. China already was modernizing, but not much had trickled through into the inner country. It completely hooked me all the way through, but I hate that this is the kind of American wh. I once had a conversation with a Japanese journalist who said to me, "You don't seem like an American." Iron Crotch - just what you'd think given a sport that focuses on kicks). Mathew Polly spent a year in a school outside the Shaolin Temple (not in it) learning wushu and then kickboxing. i do sometimes judge a book by its cover and in this case the contents matched the goofiness, at least initially. This book came completely out of left field.

The decidedly cheesy artist’s impression doesn’t do the content justice.

I didn't realize it until I was listening to a story on NPR about 'The New China' and I thought, Yeah, I know all about those customs and traditions! Better still, he delivers real insight into modern training at the Shaolin temple. He manages to find a vendor that sells coca cola, but in other ways he misses home and begins to feel quite lonely. This book sat on my shelf for a few months. However, what remains the same is the dedication and passion of the monks and the kung fu students, which is what Matt admires so much. I read it quickly and found it quite delightful; the tale is of a young American who leaves university to travel to China with an interest in, albeit temporarily, living as a monk. Polly himself often refers to better schools and a more open life in Beijing and Shanghai, even Wuhan, but instead is proud to represent Shaolin in the tourney – despite all but one of his teachers and classmates refusing to march with him and making him enter as the Princeton Team, USA.Polly recalls all of this with cheerful nostalgia. At the tournament Matt makes it to the final but loses to the Chinese National Champion. This biography answers all those thoughts and then goes further to further more make my dreams a reality as I read. However, he does not have much luck with women, and still experiences prejudice because he is a foreigner. He gives people who do follow this way of life a bad name. He spends a whole chapter befriending a mysterious caretaker who eventually relents and teaches him “Iron Arm” kung fu. Even if you don't love martial arts, you'll love this book. When Matt is finally ready to leave Shaolin he realizes that he has achieved what he wanted to and become a much more confident person. He catches a train to Zheng Zhou, then a bus to Shaolin. Matt's parents do not approve, but Matt uses his college fund to do it anyway.