http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1218447.ece

The ancient martial art developed by an Indian monk is now compulsory in central Chinese schools. And both pupils and parents love the idea.

The success of popular martial arts films means everybody is kung fu fighting in China these days, but youngsters will soon be adopting a fighting stance in the classroom rather than outside in the playground. Kung fu has now been made compulsory in secondary schools in central China.

The first kung fu disciples in the autumn will be in Henan province, home to the legendary and ancient Shaolin temple, immortalised in the 1970s television show Kung Fu. Soon the schoolchildren of China could be spending their PE classes performing knife-wielding, snake boxing and self-defence moves.

Kung fu is actually a generic term for many different skills, used mainly in the West. In China, people use the word wu shu to refer to martial arts. Practitioners say other martial arts including karate originated from kung fu. It is common in school playgrounds across China to see hundreds of pupils lined up in kung fu poses, going through their choreographed punches and kicks, their high-pitched voices repeating the instructions bellowed by instructors. Participation is generally voluntary and extra-curricular.

Chinese parents like it because it is good exercise, particularly in an era when boys are piling on pounds, thanks to a diet of Western food and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. But with heroes such as Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi are doing it in films, it is something the children think is cool too.

Then there is the spiritual dimension, which parents also like. Kung fu has a strong contemplative element, particularly the Shaolin variety which combines martial arts with Zen Buddhism and features long sessions of meditation to purify the mind.

Schools in Dengfeng city will offer Shaolin kung fu as part of physical education classes from this autumn, says the Henan Daily, although the paper declined to add what action kung fu teachers take when pupils do not do their homework.

The report said: "Dengfeng trained more than 90 physical education teachers in martial arts during the summer vacation and the training finished on Sunday. Teachers hope that kung fu can arouse students' interest in exercise." If the pilot scheme works, it will be extended to primary schoolchildren.

The Shaolin Temple, built in 495, is widely regarded as the birthplace of Shaolin kung fu, which owes its existence to an Indian monk, Bodhi Dharma, who began to preach Zen Buddhism in the temple and started its martial arts tradition. The Shaolin style was expanded over the years from 72 basic fighting movements to 170 moves, divided into five styles named after the animal the movements were supposed to resemble or represent, the Tiger, Leopard, Snake, Dragon and Crane.

The Shaolin monastery has featured in scores of Hong Kong and mainland martial-arts films, but outside China it is best known as the place where Kwai Chang Caine, or Grasshopper, played by David Carradine in the US series Kung Fu, studied the lessons taught him by Master Po and Master Kan.

In March, the temple hosted the K-Star Global Chinese Kung Fu Star TV Competition, which put 108 martial artists through their paces and offers the winners a shot at stardom. The martial arts enthusiasts are ranked by virtue, kung fu ability and artistry; 108 is an auspicious number, referring to the 108 heroes of the classic text, The Water Margin.

In recent years, kung fu films have come of age, from the slapstick, comic-style Bruce Lee classics of the 1970s to elegant artistic films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero with top directors including Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou. But the humorous kung fu movie is still a big draw, as Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle has shown.

Another trend increasingly visible around China is ethnic Chinese children from other countries being sent back by their parents to take summer courses in Chinese culture which, of course, includes kung fu.

The abbot of the Shaolin monastery, Shi Yongxin, describes his temple as "the cradle of kung fu". It is quite a responsibility. There are more than a million learners of Shaolin kung fu around the world and since it built its first centre of Shaolin culture in Berlin in 2001, the Shaolin Temple has established more than 10 centres and branches.

Watching the schoolchildren doing their kung fu training at the summer camps, one cannot fail to be impressed. But their efforts pale in comparison to the regime which the full-time monastery students undergo. These children, aged between four and 10, follow an astonishing regime, with fitness training, stretching, weapons and wu shu training from 5.30 in the morning until 9.30 at night, six days a week. The weekly day off is staggered to make sure there are not 50,000 kung fu trainees on the streets of Dengfeng at the same time.

The children are handed over to the kung fu schools by their parents and it is a great privilege for them to do the three-year course because they are more or less guaranteed a job at the end of it. China has a lot of security guard jobs and there is also the opportunity to join one of the Shaolin troupes touring the country. In some ways they have a better chance of getting a job with good kung fu skills than a university graduate.