User:Bigpeteb/sandbox/Shi Deru



Shi Deru, born Liu Xiangyang (___; __location__, __date__), English name Shawn Liu, is a 31st generation Grandmaster of Shaolin kung fu. He was a close disciple of abbot Shi Suxi, and close Shaolin brother of Shi Deyang. His nickname is "iron leg".

He received an OMD from the Wushu Traditional Chinese School of Medicine in Anhui in 1978, and a MS in Exercise Physiology from the University of South Alabama in 1991.

Although he is technically a Chinese Buddhist monk, he does not consider himself one, instead stating that he is just "an ordinary Shaolin disciple who happened, since childhood, to have been traveling in Chan."

In 1999 he opened the LIU Shaolin Institute in Mobile, where he taught kung fu, tai chi, qigong, sanshou, and practiced Chinese traditional medicine. Since then, the Institute has opened additional campuses in New Orleans and Atlanta. Notable alumni of the Shaolin Institute include Patrick Barry, a UFC fighter who studied sanshou with Shi Deru and traveled with him to the Shaolin Temple three times to train.

On 1 August 2002, he was assaulted by townspeople near the Shaolin Temple, who associated him with the appointed abbot Shi Yongxin. He refrained from retaliating, and was beaten and stoned until elderly people in the crowd recognized him and intervened.