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KENPO COMES HOME PART 1
By Jeff Speakman
A perfect day, blue skies, warm sun and a gentle cool breeze--in the shadow of the Hangshan Temple, Kenpo has come home. I stood there thinking “How’s that for a little responsibility?”
After all these years and many experiences in the martial arts this is the first article I have ever written myself. Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because any time I came up with a concept I always thought that there was so much more to do and learn before I could bring some kind of closure to the idea. Well, that finally happened during the week of August 22nd 2005 when I was invited by the Chinese government to participate in the first international forum on martial arts. I was requested to give both a demonstration of American Kenpo Karate and give a speech on this related topic to the members and guests of this forum. I brought my top student Trever Sherman with me and together we went to seek out the origin of this life commitment we share with so many called American Kenpo.
We really had no idea what we were going to find, but we were defiantly up for the journey. Arriving in Beijing in the early morning hours and greeted by the government officials we were taken to an amazing hotel called The Purple Jade Hotel for one day in the city then the next day on a 4 hour bus ride to Datong. We went to Datong because just another 40 minutes outside was the destination that would bring an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and ultimately a homecoming of sorts. This is what is referred to as one of the 5 magical places of martial arts in China, and for all intents and purposes the origins of martial arts and Kenpo Karate as we commonly think of it today. Although there are older fighting systems well documented from the Egyptian and Roman eras, the famous Shaolin Temple and the 4 other associated locations are the places sof legend, myth and fact. This truly special place, called the Hangshan Temple, is sometimes referred to as the “hanging temple”.
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