Though Shi Yan Ming is a world-renowned kung fu master, he was lucky to survive a poverty-stricken childhood as a peasant in China.
He was born in 1964 in Henan Province, the heart-center of the country, where Chinese civilization is said to have originated, and food was scarce. Two siblings died of starvation prior to Yan Ming’s birth, and he was a very sickly child.
Fearing the same fate might befall him, his parents brought Yan Ming to the door of a 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple. He was taken in by the monks there and began to live by the grueling schedule of a kung fu disciple—training, practicing, meditating, and running. His health, along with his skill, improved rapidly.
“I was running a lot in China,” recalled Shifu (an honorary title meaning “master” or “teacher”). “The temple was built in the woods, in a mountain range; I was running to build strength and endurance.”
In some ways, he has been running ever since.
Kung Fu Meets Hollywood
In 1992, Shifu was part of a group of Shaolin monks invited to perform on a U.S. tour. The temple in which he was raised had been the original Shaolin…
