Kung Fu and Shaolin Philosophy
Kung Fu
My husband recently came home with the second season of Kung Fu, 1972-75 starring David Carradine, and that’s about all the TV we watched for 3 weeks straight. I didn’t tune into all the episodes – maybe half, but despite its cheesiness, I sort of liked them. I vaguely remember watching the show the first time around, but found myself drawn into the story of “Caine”, a Shaolin Monk who is on the run after killing one of the Chinese Emperor’s nephews in retaliation for his mentor’s murder. He finds himself in the American west around the mid to late 1800′s looking for a long lost brother.
Is that not a bizarre story plot – Buddhist monk walking barefoot town to town constantly finding himself in the midst of gun slingers and moral dilemmas in the wild west?
In the show, Caine continually flashes back to the Shaolin Temple, where he received his training after being orphaned as a child. These “flashes” always seem to occur when he is contemplating a course of action or formulating a sparse, yet wise response to a critical situation. The Shaolin Temple is thought to be the birth place of Zen Buddhism in China, hence the source of Caine’s calm spiritual demeanor on the series. He defends himself – yet never attacks, is always honorable, never judges, doesn’t need much, doesn’t lie, cheat or steal and always stands up for the down trodden, wronged or over looked persons. Caine never seems to look for trouble, but trouble always seems to find him – or maybe his eyes are just open and he doesn’t turn his back on the issues. I am guilty of closing my eyes occasionally when it doesn’t fit my schedule/plan. It’s not something about which I’m proud and also easy to do when a person is not totally invested or connected to their community (work, neighborhood, school, etc.). Yet in the TV show, Caine is most definitely not tied to any of the communities or people he runs into and still helps his fellow human being.
Anyway, where am I going with this? As I watched some of the episodes, I entertained the notion that as a human race, we would be much better off if we all acted like David Carradine’s character on Kung Fu.
Yes, my husband and I made fun of some of the pickles he got himself into, the rampant bad acting, humorous special effects and the sheer ridiculousness of the plot. Even so, we kept on watching. I know TV is not real life – but the show is fresh in my memory and I felt like writing about it. On a related note, one of my favorite podcasts is Zen is Stupid, which is sort of a funny title for a show with a Buddhist bent. I’m not even Buddhist, yet enjoy the insight and sometimes off topic banter between the hosts.
Meanwhile, it’s Friday evening and I survived a week of substitute teaching. It was a good but exhausting experience and on a positive note, those darn monkeys have finally stopped chattering.
Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
Mary T.
September 13, 2008 at 6:03 am //
He never blah, blah, blah, and yet his make-up was always just right. . .
LB
September 13, 2008 at 6:25 am //
I hope you gave out extra recess! LOL.
Cynthia
September 13, 2008 at 6:33 am //
lol, Mary – as I said, I know it is TV and since you mentioned it, there was something odd about his makeup. couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
I did LB! Extra recess – I even worked out a system where the class started the day with 3 stars – each star = 5 extra minutes of recess at the end of the day. If I gave them 3 warnings about anything (not cleaning up, not doing what they were supposed to be doing, talking when it was quiet time etc. etc.) and they didn’t heed the warning, they lost a star. If I caught them being exceptional – I added a star. Worked fairly well. By the end of the day, after losing and gaining stars, they basically ended up with 15 extra minutes on average. On the last day, they told me I was “too nice” and that I should have been stricter. I know I always liked the nice subs a lot better when I was a kid.
Chae
September 13, 2008 at 8:23 am //
Vaguely recall the series. Wasn’t that the one with the famous quip of: “Grass-hopper”?
Hugs
Chae
Ron
September 13, 2008 at 9:52 am //
I loved Kung Fu. Being ‘karate kids’ all of us at the karate school were into calling each other grasshopper or whatever. I remember one guy, Tim, was a bit way over board, I think he actually thought he was a Shaolin Monk. He was older than the rest of us, I’d be surprised if at one time he didn’t try to do the whole scalding cauldron thing. I’ll have to look for the DVD’s. I’m sure Sarah would love that. Not!
Cynthia
September 13, 2008 at 12:36 pm //
Yes it is Chae!
Ron, you and my husband have something in common – he refers to our daughter as “grasshopper”. He’s been taking martial arts classes for awhile now – I think it’s called “Shorin Ryu” sp? Something like that. That’s what I said when he started watching the series – but it grew on me.
Melody Madden
September 13, 2008 at 2:14 pm //
I loved this show when it came out in the 70′s. We never missed an episode.
ang
September 13, 2008 at 9:41 pm //
I do remember thinking this guys not asian and what’s with the eye makeup? still enjoyable show.. Cynthia how do i find out if my name is available for my new site? ta mucho ang.
Linda Starr
September 14, 2008 at 8:14 am //
never liked the show, always seemed to far fetched to me. Politics makes me put my head in the sand. I’m studying up to take the test so I can substitute, fuel prices are killing us.
Cynthia
September 14, 2008 at 8:16 am //
Melody – I remember watching it as a kid too. It’s a vague memory, but there none the less.
Ang – when I was researching the show’s history I was struck by a couple of things. First – there was an outcry in the Asian community that an Asian actor wasn’t chosen to play the role of “Caine”. I think Bruce Lee was considered for the part, but lost the role to Carradine. An aside about Bruce Lee – his widow asserts that the show idea was stolen from him by Warner Bros. The second thing I thought was interesting is that the premise of the show was that Caine was on the run from Chinese hit men in the American West and was looking for a long lost brother. There was only 3 seasons, because he found his brother and a few other relatives during the third season. So different than TV series today when it could last years and years until interest wanes.
Also – you can check with any domain/hosting provider to see if your preferred name is available – or also look up at http://www.whois.net/ which also shows you who owns different domains (if they haven’t been made private). If someone owns the domain you want and is using it, domain/hosting providers will suggest alternatives (I know the one I use does.) Or – will show you if for example, you want angdesign.com and it’s taken – providers will also let you know if the .org, .biz, .net, .edu etc. is available. I don’t really suggest using the alternative – because it could become confusing. Some people buy all the alternatives and just park them so no one else can buy them. Also – there are people who register domain names with the hope of selling them to companies – http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/10/domains-flip-aftermarket-tech-ebiz-cz_cf_0811domains.html There’s big money in that practice apparently. I think trade marked names are illegal to hold for ransom, but other unknowns aren’t.
Also – many hosting companies provide for 1 free domain name with a hosting package. This might make a good blog topic…
Cynthia
September 14, 2008 at 8:17 am //
Linda – we must have been posting at the same time… I know what you mean about wanting to put your head in the sand – but don’t do it!
Ilchi Lee
September 16, 2008 at 8:41 am //
I guess in the show he flashed back because, it’s a metaphor before you move forward you must evaluate you past, this was a good show one of my favorite as a child. I guess this could be one of the influences why I study martial arts now.