“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest mofo in the world…
If I moved to a martial arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”
— Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest mofo in the world…
If I moved to a martial arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”
— Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
DROPPING Out of PrincEton to Learn Kung Fu
Growing up a 98-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970’s TV series Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to train with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism.
What follows is the true story of the two years Matthew spent in China living, training, and performing with the Shaolin monks.
DROPPING Out of PrincEton to Learn Kung Fu
Growing up a 98-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970’s TV series Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to train with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism.
What follows is the true story of the two years Matthew spent in China living, training, and performing with the Shaolin monks.
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The Only ‘Foreigner’ in a Five Hundred Mile Radius
After an arduous and misdirected journey begun a short time after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Polly arrives at the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province expecting an austere and isolated monastery. What he discovers, however, is that the Chinese government, in its headlong drive toward capitalism, has transformed the surrounding temple into a tourist trap—“Kung fu World.”
After searching the village, he finally discovers the Shaolin Wushu Center, where Shaolin monks teach kung fu to anyone able to afford the tuition and perform for any tourists willing to pay. Polly enrolls and begins life as the only laowai (“foreigner”) in a five-hundred-mile radius. The Chinese term for tough training is chi ku (“eating bitter”), and Polly quickly learns to appreciate the phrase after his first class with Monk Cheng Hao. He is barely able to walk the next day.
The Only ‘Foreigner’ in a Five Hundred Mile Radius
After an arduous and misdirected journey begun a short time after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Polly arrives at the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province expecting an austere and isolated monastery. What he discovers, however, is that the Chinese government, in its headlong drive toward capitalism, has transformed the surrounding temple into a tourist trap—“Kung fu World.”
After searching the village, he finally discovers the Shaolin Wushu Center, where Shaolin monks teach kung fu to anyone able to afford the tuition and perform for any tourists willing to pay. Polly enrolls and begins life as the only laowai (“foreigner”) in a five-hundred-mile radius. The Chinese term for tough training is chi ku (“eating bitter”), and Polly quickly learns to appreciate the phrase after his first class with Monk Cheng Hao. He is barely able to walk the next day.
Matthew Polly at the Shaolin Temple
“As a chronicler of human absurdity,
Matthew Polly makes all the right moves.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
Winner of the Alex Award
Named One of the Best Books for Young Adults
Chosen for Barnes & Nobles’ Discover Great New Writers
Behind the Headlines Observation
I picked up American Shaolin and read it straight through. It is first rate. Polly’s book tells more about what’s going on in China and has more insights into the real China than anything in recent years. It is a wonderful true-life story with profound, behind-the-headlines observations about Chinese life. A tip of the Stetson to Matthew Polly.
During the Months of Brutal Practice
Polly grows close to several of the monks, and through them he encounters the paradoxes of life as a contemporary Shaolin monk, in which these devout Buddhists must perform daily for tourists and hawk merchandise in order to support their art. Polly also sees their incredible abilities, ranging from their phenomenal physical strength and endurance to their thunderous dunks on their basketball court to their practice of “Iron Kung Fu,” in which the monks make a body part (such as the head, forearm, stomach, neck, or, most frightening of all, the crotch) virtually indestructible through repeated torture.
Polly eventually switches to a rigorous study of Chinese-style kickboxing under Coach Cheng, Shaolin’s best fighter, and represents the Shaolin Temple in one of China’s national tournaments. At the end of his journey, the monks initiate him into the Shaolin Temple, making him the first American to be accepted as a Shaolin disciple. Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, American Shaolin is a funny and poignant portrait of a rapidly changing China.
Original And INsightful
An original and insightful book, moving beyond mere fish-out-of-water territory to become a story of personal redemption that’s never a drag… Polly’s winning memoir manages the near impossible: maintaining a careful balance between acute observation and forthright views of his Chinese hosts without condescension.
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Matthew Polly is the national bestselling author of American Shaolin, Tapped Out and Bruce Lee: A Life. A Princeton University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, he spent two years studying kung fu at the Shaolin Temple in Henan, China. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Esquire, Slate, Playboy, and The Nation. He is a fellow at Yale University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Polly grew up in Topeka, Kansas to Dr. Richard Polly and Linda Nolan Polly. Dr. Richard Polly was a physician to the Dallas Cowboys and Matthew spent a significant portion of his childhood on the sidelines of the Texas Stadium. However, it was the prowess and mystique of Bruce Lee and Kwai Chang Caine—the protagonist of Matthew’s favorite 1970s series, Kung Fu—that inspired him to one day become a fighter and writer.
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"It takes a special kind of person to leave the comforts of Princeton University and move to rural China to smash his forearms against tree trunks. Meet Matthew Polly."
—THE NEW YORK POST
More Praise
A True Adventure
American Shaolin is a true adventure. The story is a first hand account of a young American who is out to find the essence of Chinese martial arts. 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. Polly’s story is about just such an experience.
For the martial artist in this country, this book provides the first hand look into kung fu and other stlyes of Chinese martial arts. Cultures clash. But, old teachings and insights that border on the religious survive.
This book will serve as one of the essential insights into Chinese martial arts culture. However, Polly’s return to Shaolin Temple shows that even in China — and, perhaps especially in modern China — the old ways are quickly giving way to modern commercialism and other forces at work in China today. So, Polly’s book serves as an insight into this transition.
This is a must read for serious students of the martial arts.
A Superb Accomplishment
Hardcore… Polly speaks Chinese, and is not afraid to eat bitter, so his very funny book is both a record of superb accomplishment—he fights and wins a couple of challenge matches with coaches from rival schools—and a loving tribute to his teachers, the fighting monks.
Delightful
Delightfully wry… Polly writes with admirable verve and humor that comes at his own expense.
Brilliant And Funny
A sensibility more alien to my own than Matthew Polly‘s is hard to imagine. I consider foreign cultures to be really…foreign. I don’t spiritually quest; I go to church. As for the martial arts, I own a gun. But I loved American Shaolin. Reading it was like being abducted by an alien—a brilliant, funny, and hospitable alien who took me to another universe of sensibility. There I enjoyed myself immensely.
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