American Shaolin was a very light, entertaining read that I would absolutely recommend to anyone interested in Chinese culture, regardless of their martial arts experience.

In the early 1990s author Matthew Polly dropped out of Princeton University, flew to China and set out to train at the Shaolin Temple. He was motivated by a mental list of "what's wrong with Matthew", including physical cowardice, spiritual confusion, etc. That list forms a loose structure for his book, as his year of living and training at Shaolin answers his questions and forces him to ask new ones that can't be answered living on top of a mountain with a bunch of Buddhist monks.

Polly begins training in a combination of Wushu and traditional Shaolin formal styles, learning to "eat bitter" in agonizing stretching and endurance exercises. He then discovers a talent for Sanda (kickboxing) and goes on to compete in that style, representing his school in one tournament and one challenge fight before heading back to the US.

Polly is a good writer (now a professional travel writer) and his book neatly mirrors his own journey (a classic fish-out-of-water/coming of age story) with the fast-paced progress of Chinese society itself over the past twenty years. The story is peppered with amusing anecdotes that convey the day-to-day reality of living in a foreign culture, especially a semi-mythical pressure cooker community like Shaolin, which attracts a lot of "extreme" personalities.

From the martial arts point of view, Polly has a realistic grasp of the relative values of Wushu and Sanda. He explains classical forms training as a way of preserving the past and (increasingly) as a performing art, whereas Sanda is explained as a stripped-down, no-nonsense combat sport. He also has an interesting theory about the proliferation of specialized Shaolin styles; you stick a bunch of celibate athletes up on top of a mountain for long enough and they will create new fighting styles out of sheer boredom.

My favorite quote from the book: "Chinese kung fu is the most glorious example of obsessive/compulsive behavior in the history of world culture."

I couldn't put this book down. It's amazingly honest, incredibly funny, and makes one want to have lived the experience. If you don't like it you've got an iron heart.

I really enjoyed this book. Not only
did I learn about the culture of China
and Shaolin, but it was a gripping
funny book. Truly a gifted author.
I wish he would write more.

I just loved this book. It's such a useful glimpse into Chinese life of the period, and a really entertaining story of an ordinary American kid who just one day up and says, "I'm going to China and study at the Shaolin Temple"....and does it! Every boy's Walter Mitty fantasy come to life.

The one major regret I have with it, and why I only gave it four stars instead of five, is that it comes to a stop rather abruptly. He comes home, goes to school, and years later comes back to visit the Shaolin Temple and remark on the changes that have taken place.

But not a word on how his experiences may have affected his later life in any meaningful way. Maybe they didn't, but that would have been a shame since he put so much effort into the journey. Just a word on how he might have used his amazing powers for good back home would have been nice, or how it might have changed his attitudes and perceptions as he grew older.

Well, it's still a great read and very rewarding. Maybe there's a supplement somewhere that fills in the gaps. If anyone knows of one, please let me know. Thanks.