Shaolin Kung Fu performance warmly applauded in Houston, Texas

Hundreds of Chinese and US audience members marveled at the performance of China’s Shaolin martial arts on Sunday in Houston, the fourth largest city in the US.

Named The Legend of Shaolin 2018, the show was hosted by the Shi Xinghao Shaolin Kung Fu Academy in Houston, which is dedicated to spreading traditional Chinese culture and promoting exchanges between the East and West.

Students from the academy, young and old, performed all kinds of martial arts, amid cheers and exclamations from the audience.

The academy started as a small class of only 10 students in 1998. Over the past 20 years, it has trained thousands of kung fu lovers, many of which have won national and international medals.

A disciple from the Shaolin Temple in Central China, academy principal Shi Xing hao, told the Xinhua News Agency that during the past 20 years, more and more Americans have shown increasing passion for learning Chinese martial arts.

“Chinese martial arts are a business card for the Chinese people, representing positive energy,” he said.

Billy Nisbett, who has been with the academy for eight years, said that Chinese martial arts have brought huge changes to his life, both physically and spiritually. He said they have opened a door for him to China.

“I’m learning Chinese now and I stayed in China for about two months. I definitely know more about China than before,” Nisbett, also a PhD student majoring in physics, told Xinhua.