Officials are beginning to reap the fruits of their efforts. On February 15, a team organized by the Henan Provincial Government went to Macao, revealing the new initiatives in the Central Plains Culture Expo in Macao and the 2009 Henan-Hong Kong-Macao Investment and Trade Fair.

On February 16, a joint venture by Henan Television Channel, Beijing Yitai Media Co. Ltd. and Macao Asia Satellite Television Co. Ltd. officially launched a kungfu television channel.

On February 19, Xu delivered a speech to the Chinese University of Hong Kong expressing his confidence in being able to develop Henan's economy and culture. The province, he said, is in the midst of a historic change from a region with abundant cultural resources to one with strong cultural power.

"Rapid economic development brings promotion to leverage our cultural resources and that stronger culture will add new energy to the development of the economy," said Xu.

Spread of Shaolin Culture

The Shaolin Temple, which sits on the Songshan Mountain, is undoubtedly the cultural "name card" of Henan. The temple was built in 495 during the period of Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589) in Chinese history. In the year 530, a famous Indian monk named Tamo came to the temple and created Shaolin wushu, or martial arts. In the following years, Shaolin wushu became mature, forming more than 100 kinds of boxing genres.

Hong Kong action movies, especially those performed by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, introduced Chinese kungfu to audiences around the world. In the 1980s, to take just one example, the movie The Shaolin Temple, starring Li, aroused an upsurge of interest for Chinese kungfu among people around the globe.

Today, the Shaolin Temple is the first choice for tourists coming to Henan. Shaolin kungfu has also been exported to other countries. According to information provided by the temple, more than 50 nations and regions have built special schools and organizations to teach Shaolin kungfu to more than 3 million students.

With the development of the cultural industry, Henan has sped up its progress in promoting Shaolin traditions. On February 20, Shi Yongxin, Abbot of the Shaolin Temple, said the temple would invest 370 million yuan ($54.2 million) to build a Hong Kong branch. The new location, he said, would be the largest branch of the Shaolin Temple in the world, occupying 50,000 square meters.

"The new branch of the temple will not only provide an ideal place for Hong Kong citizens to worship Buddha and purify their own spirits but also will be a new scenic attraction for tourists," he said.

Shi said that Hong Kong is a city that combines Eastern and Western cultures in a way that would be convenient for further promoting the Shaolin culture. The Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau is researching a plan to build the branch temple.

"After the policies of opening up and reform, Chinese traditional culture has been on the defensive. Here, though, the Shaolin Temple took an active position to spread Chinese culture and it is proving positive," said Xia Wanqun, Vice Chairman of the China Society for the Study of Folk Literature and Art. The Hong Kong branch temple would be an effective platform to spread Shaolin culture to the world, he said.

Besides the possible expansion to Hong Kong, the Shaolin Temple is also taking other routes to spread its culture. In November 2008, temple leaders signed a contract with the Government of Kunming City, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, that allowed them to take charge of four temples in the city.

"The energy of Shaolin culture will add popularity to the four temples," said Shi, who added he would also bring Shaolin martial arts to the four temples.

The Shaolin Temple also put its publications on sale through a number of websites. This movement to commercialize Shaolin teachings has not come to pass without heated debate, of course. But Shi seems to take a pragmatic tack.

"We just want to carry Shaolin culture forward in a new way," he said.

Early in 2004, the Shaolin Temple published some of its martial arts methods onto the Internet, including the Yi Jin Jing, a famous manual often called the source for Shaolin kungfu.

"We are trying to find more effective ways to spread Shaolin culture. The Internet is one such way," said Wang Shifa, a temple website manager.

Wang said it is important for people around the world to better understand the Shaolin culture because it represents not only Zen Buddhism but also the wider Chinese historical experience. 