SPOTLIGHT: Houston Shaolin Kung Fu Academy

by Justan Cormier and Pravdeep Banwait

For over 20 years, the Houston Shaolin Kung Fu Academy has shared Chinese cultural traditions throughout the Houston area. In this martial arts center, located in Houston’s Chinatown, a diverse group of students join together to learn the skill and philosophy of martial arts, competing in competitions and winning medals around the world. Now that they've performed Lion Dance at Asia Society's Lunar New Year festival for several years, Shaolin has answered a couple of our questions so we can learn more about their school, lion dance team, and the values that guide all of their activities.

Q: What is the main goal that the Shaolin Kung Fu Academy works to achieve?

A: Shaolin Kung Fu Academy is an institution dedicated to spreading traditional Chinese heritage and promoting the exchange of culture between the East and West. The Shaolin Kung Fu Academy has been instructing the people of Houston since 1998; we are located on Sovereign Drive in Chinatown. Our master, Shi Xing Hao, is from the famous Shaolin Temple in China and settled down in Houston after touring with the Shaolin Warrior Monks of Song Shan for many years. The Academy provides a complete system of traditional and competition kung fu, tai chi, kickboxing, self-defense, and lion dance.

Q: Can you tell us more about Shaolin-style kung fu and where it originates?

A: The Shaolin style of wushu, or kung fu, is regarded as one of the first institutionalized Chinese martial arts. The first reference to it is in 610 B.C. The word “wu (武)” means “martial.” Its Chinese character is made of two parts; the first meaning “walk” or “stop” (止; zhǐ) and the second meaning “lance” (戈; gē). This implies that wu is a defensive use of combat, or literally, “stop fighting.”

Traditional Chinese schools of martial arts like our Academy and the famous Shaolin Monastery of our Master deal with the study of martial arts not just as a means of self-defense or mental training, but as a system of ethics. “Wude (武德)” can be translated as “martial morality” and is constructed from the words “wu (武),” which means “martial,” and “de (德),” which means morality. Wude deals with two aspects: virtue of deed and virtue of mind. Virtue of deed concerns social relations; virtue of mind is meant to cultivate the inner harmony between the emotional mind (心; xin) and the wisdom mind (慧; hui). The ultimate goal is reaching “no extremity” (無 極; wuji), closely related to the Taoist concept of Wu Wei, where both wisdom and emotion are in harmony with each other.

Q: What kinds of students do you find participate in your classes? Do you find there are multiple languages and cultures within the group of students?

A: The Academy provides a complete system of traditional and competition fung fu, tai chi, qi gong, and lion dance. Our kid classes start at four years old; roughly 60 percent of our students have an Asian background, however, the remaining students are from varied backgrounds. African American, Hispanic, European, American, and Asian cultures blend harmoniously in our classes and represent a significant portion of our students and instructors. Additionally, the pandemic has given an international dimension to our school— online students from multiple states in the U.S. and countries in Europe have joined us online since last year. We intend to keep our online classes open even after the pandemic.

Q: What impact do you believe you’ve made on your community? What values does the center strive to teach its students?

A: Our demonstration team performs at more than 70 events per year, helping our Academy share Chinese heritage with the local community. These events include St. Jude’s Children Hospital Fundraising; private shows for the NBA, the Dynamos, and the Rockets; demonstrations for Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Children’s Museum; local universities including TAMU, UT, Rice, UH, and HCC; and at public events such as iFest, among many other events. We received many awards from our Congresspeople Al Green, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Nick Lampson and Mayors Bill White and Annise Parker for community services from 2007 until now.

Our school is driven by eight tenets: motivation, confidence, discipline, perseverance, respect, community, righteousness, and tolerance. We teach our kids to develop self-confidence, leadership, and team spirit.

Q: How does the lion dancing tradition fit in with the martial arts that you teach in the school?

A: Lion dance displays the spirit of the kung fu school, and it is often performed by kung fu practitioners. No traditional kung fu school is considered complete without a lion dance team. Along with the style, lion dance has been passed down from master to student for centuries. The skills needed for lion dancing include strength, stamina, flexibility, balance, and the ability to visualize and improvise dramatic movements. The heavy lion head requires a dancer with strong shoulders and arms, and the performers' footwork incorporates most of the various kung fu stances and kicks.

Q: What other events outside of performing at Lunar New Year celebrations has your lion dance team been a part of? Have you traveled to different locations to perform or compete?

A: The Academy has successfully hosted a variety of large-scale cultural and artistic activities, including Kung Fu Hero 2014, Shao Lin Legend 2013, Texas Shaolin Culture Month, International Chinese Martial Arts Health Day, the previous Asian American Art Festivals, Houston International Film Festival, Greater Houston Regional Spring Festival Gala, and the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II, as well as the China-America Rhyme from Heart performance, and the Water Cube Cup Chinese Songs Contest for overseas Chinese Houston Competition Awards Ceremony.

Shaolin Academy actively participates in various charity performances, including charity fundraising for St. Jude Children's Cancer Research Hospital, The Yellow Emperor Ode & Mid-Autumn Festival, disaster relief charity concert, Guangyanshe charity concert, National Day flag-raising ceremony, Thanksgiving parade, and Christmas charity performance.

Our students have won numerous gold medals at national and international competitions. In 2012, several of our students reached the highest level an athlete can achieve in martial arts: representing the USA Team, they became world champion in Wushu at the Junior World Wushu Championship. Over the past 10 years, our students have accumulated more than 200 gold medals in competition.

Q: What does the ideal future look like for your academy and your lion dancing team?

A: It is a great question, especially in this changing environment. We have now expanded to reach online students around the globe, which is extremely exciting. This is an avenue we will continue to grow. This year, we celebrate the Chinese New Year differently as well—another opportunity to reinvent ourselves as a Lion Dance Team. But we will continue our demonstrations across Texas as soon as the pandemic is behind us, as it is an important part of who we are.

In the long-term, we hope all our students, our “Kung Fu Kids,” as we like to call them, and their families, will carry and apply the wisdom and lifestyles of the Shaolin Martial Arts in their own lives and perpetuate the traditions for many centuries to come.

Learn more about Shaolin Kung Fu Academy at houstonshaolin.com