Who we are
The Shaolin Cultural Centre of Canada (SCCC) is a non-profit organization. Its main goals include gaining a better health and promoting martial arts ethics. It seeks to develop obedience and discipline; practise the Mahayana Buddhism doctrines, and propagate the spirit of compassion. The centre advocates the Shaolin's 1500 years of profound culture and Chan (Zen) Buddhism including the purification of the mind. It strives to improve the understanding amongst nations and peoples, to enhance the East and West cultural exchange and praying for a Peaceful world.
Shaolin Kung Fu has evolved from the monastery's signature skill into a global folk culture. It has become the most accessible expression of traditional Chinese culture, a key pillar of cultural cohesion across ethnic groups, national borders, and even faiths, and plays a unique cultural role globally.
Shifu Yan Chong
Shifu Yan Chong, head coach at the Shaolin Cultural Centre of Canada, entered the Shaolin Temple at Song Mountain in 1996, and became a 34th generation disciple. He has been the coach of the Shaolin martial arts demonstration team since 2002, and has toured in North America, Europe, Australia and South East Asia for the team's stage presentation "Shaolin Warriors". He has visited more than thirty countries for cultural exchange in Shaolin Kung Fu and Chan Buddhism, including U.S.A., Germany, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Shifu Yan Chong serves as one of the friendly ambassadors of Shaolin culture. He is committed to sharing Shaolin Kung Fu to benefit the people of Canada. He will dedicate his life to promoting and disseminating Chinese Shaolin culture to the world, to promote world peace.
Yan Chong was awarded first place at various Provincial competitions and served as head judge at the National Martial Arts competition. He is proficient in Shaolin martial forms of Da Hong, Xiao Hong, Lohan, Mei-hua and Pao, as well as mastery of the Shaolin cudgel staff, hooked sword and broadsword art form.
Because of the flourishing International Cultural Exchange, Shaolin Temple martial arts monk Yan Chong wants to be an ambassador so that the broad and profound Shaolin culture can be shared in Canada. He hopes that this will bring happiness, good fortune, good luck to the people of Canada and peace to the world.
He teaches Shaolin focused health exercise, Qi Gong and various other styles of Shaolin martial practice.
Shaolin Kung Fu
Among the numerous schools of traditional Chinese martial arts, the martial arts of the Shaolin school form a particularly important part of the cultural heritage passed down by forefathers of Shaolin Monastery. These arts - sometimes called Shaolin Kung Fu - are unique and brilliant and belong to the greater body traditional Chinese martial arts. Because of its philosophic sophistication and technical subtlety, Shaolin Kung Fu has become a term familiar all over the world. Shaolin Kung Fu is able to engender mighty catalytic mechanism in the body of a practitioner, bringing prowess potential and latent physical strength into full play. As time elapses, fame of the monastery has spread worldwide because of its seemingly supernatural attributes.
From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty onward, martial arts of the Shaolin school has grown more sophisticated and mature, with many growing branches of martial arts. The number of Shaolin arts repertoire has now amounted to several hundred; among them are boxing, broad sword, spear, double-edged sword, quarterstaff, qigong, jumping and soft treading, developing prowess potential, juvenile wushu, etc. The forefathers of the Shaolin monastary who originally developed these martial arts drew from the strong points of martial arts developed by other wushu schools. Even so, Shaolin Kung Fu retains its uniques while assimilated successful techniques of other schools.
Shaolin Kung Fu consists of three major categories:
(1) Boxing, which includes such varieties as arhat boxing, liuhe boxing, xinyi boxing, hong boxing.
(2) Standardized Series of Movements Intended for Optimizing physique, which include a variety of movements intended muscular optimization and and fortifying bone structure.
(3) Weapon use, which include numerous varieties including shaohuo Quarterstaff, meihua spear, Dharma sword, chunqiu broadsword.
