SHI YAN MING
Displaying the shaven head and orange robes of a Shaolin monk but with a hip gray hoodie tossed on top, Shi Yan Ming cuts a disconcerting image. That’s especially true when his hands start flashing mock gang signs as he crosses his arms, strikes a street-savvy hip-hop pose and pronounces, “Yo, yo, baby, check it out! Respect!”
Standing in his USA Shaolin Temple headquarters, located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and holding discourse on kung fu, Buddhism and life, Yan Ming is the ultimate juxtaposition of East and West, old and new, playful and profound — a yin-yang conundrum made flesh.
“The world is changing,” he says. “We’re in modern times.”
Although he’s a Chan Buddhist monk, Yan Ming doesn’t consider what he teaches to be Buddhist philosophy. Instead, he proclaims, “I teach global philosophy.”
Regional or global, it’s a philosophy that has roots in China’s Shaolin Temple, which Yan Ming, under his
