After months of haggling over the details of their visit, a group of Shaolin monks from China arrived in Taiwan to exchange skills with martial arts professionals and offer free performances of their world-famous fighting techniques to the general public.
The 19-member delegation, which arrived on Thursday and is slated to depart on Sept. 1, visited the legislature yesterday to offer a treat to the media before presenting routine performances from today through Aug. 26 in Chiayi County, Kaohsiung City, Taichung County, Hsinchu City, Ilan City and Taipei City. Admission to all of their public events is free.
Before the Shaolin monks gave their performances, six kung fu practitioners from the Taipei Chinese Kung Fu Association greeted the young guests with their own individual performances.
PHOTO: CNA
The event was organized by the Chinese Shaolin Association. The association had arranged for 45 monks from the Songshan Shaolin Temple in Henan Province to teach Shaolin kung fu at summer camps.
According to the original itinerary, which would have kicked off on July 25, classes were to be open to the general public and be held at public facilities such as school playgrounds and parks. The activity had attracted more than 4,000 students who had enrolled at a cost of NT$1,200 (US$37.62) each.
At the insistence of the Mainland Affairs Council, the size of the group was downsized and the schedule was pushed back. Members must also enter and leave the country as a group, and stay in one group during the visit.
Saying that summer camps did not constitute professional exchanges, the council requested the monks limit their "exchanges" to martial arts professionals and not the general public. In addition, charging for lessons was deemed illegal.
Andrew Lin (林逸士), chairman of the Chinese Shaolin Association, said that although the event sponsor, security company Taiwan SECOM (中興保全), had bailed out, he is confident that the events will be successful.
"I'm sure Buddha will be on our side and make things alright," said the 54-year-old Lin, who converted to Buddhism and became a vegetarian at the age of 36.
According to Lin, Taiwan SECOM invested about NT$10 million in sponsorship money. While the money has already been spent, primarily on publicity, they still need another NT$10 million. The estimated budget for the original schedule was NT$50 million.
Lin said that he understands the government's concern over national security and he is aware that the council is just doing their job in accordance with the law.
However, he said that he believes the invited monks would not do anything to sabotage national security.
One monk, 18-year-old Shih Yen Lu (釋延路) from the northeastern Chinese province of Shandong, said that although their days are busy at the temple, and sometimes boring, he does not regret joining the century-old martial arts center.
"I am very happy to be with my brothers, and our masters are very nice, although they can be very strict sometimes," he said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS