Martial arts conference to be held in Georgia

Chinese students showcase Shaolin kungfu during a performance in Washington DC, on Sept 1, 2013. [Photo by Sun Chenbei/China Daily]

The Georgia-based Shaolin Institute will host its first conference of Chinese martial arts teachers from around the world to discuss improving martial arts services and how to raise salaries for instructors.

The Chinese Martial Arts Teaching Service Standardization conference will be held on Feb 22 at the Shaolin Institute in Norcross, Georgia. The Shaolin Institute is the largest private institute of its kind outside of China, teaching students traditional Shaolin kungfu and modern mixed martial arts. The institute has four locations in the south: Atlanta, New Orleans, Alabama and Louisiana. It has plans to expand across the US and around the world.

As the field of martial arts teaching expands, instructors should be "able to enjoy higher compensation," said an institute coordinator who was not identified in a Jan 2 statement.

The institute recognizes the true value of its instructors in providing a true experience of ancient Chinese martial arts and is currently paving the way for all Chinese martial arts schools worldwide to pay instructors between $25,000 to $50,000 a year in salaries and wages," the coordinator said.

"If the main focus of the Institute is health and happiness of each individual who is willing to travel on that high conscious health path preserving thousands of years of wisdom of China and of the Universe, there should be generations of sufficient income to pay those valuable staff members for their services," the coordinator said.

"Chinese martial arts schools must embrace students' value-based experience along with the drive for a 'warrior character' and honor," said the institute's head master, Shi DeRu, in the release.

"With generations of experience in translating the life values taught by the great ancient Chinese arts and minds here in the US, the Shaolin Institute is an established cultural, health-wellness and martial arts institute, focusing on high conscious communication, personal health and safety education, mind-body training," the institute said.

Shaolin kungfu - also called Shaolin wushu - is one of the oldest forms of martial arts in the world, developed and used by monks in the Buddhist Shaolin temple sometime in the fifth century. This form of martial arts has influenced different fighting traditions in the rest of Asia, including on Japan's karate and Korea's taekwondo.