China's traditional culture is spreading worldwide faster. Two recent Hollywood blockbusters, The King of Kungfu and Kungfu Panda, are based on Chinese martial arts. The great international influence of martial arts proves that it is an important symbol of Chinese culture. As a big component of Chinese martial arts, Shaolin kungfu should play an important role in spreading Chinese culture around the world.

The kungfu knowledge in the Shaolin Temple is a contribution of Shaolin master monks in past centuries and covers helpful ways of keeping healthy. It will be of great benefit if this knowledge is spread to the people.

Fang Jiaping (www.qq.com): Nowadays, any activities concerning the revival of Chinese traditional culture will meet resistance from society. From the hanfu (traditional costumes of the Han ethnic group) revival campaign to the spread of Confucianism, we've already seen tension between traditional culture supporters and modern values.

Different from the above two campaigns, as the cradle of China's Zen branch of Buddhism, the Shaolin Temple is moving in line with the modern marketing rule. Therefore, we should not focus on the temple's commercial operation, but should realize the significance of the Shaolin Temple's innovative practice.

The Shaolin Temple chooses to sell its products online. This is a relatively reasonable and economical way of doing business. We should show more support and understanding to its business efforts. After all, this is a good beginning. We have many reasons to believe that in the near future, the Shaolin Temple's commodities will become a brand of high reputation and a bridge for the spread of Chinese traditional culture.

Yu Liang (hlj.rednet.cn): If the essence of Shaolin culture is able to remain unchanged in the process of business development in order that this culture can better survive and develop, it's no sin to adopt a new way of promoting the culture. Lack of modernization can only destroy Shaolin culture. It can be well protected only in the process of communication and integration with other cultures.

The head of the Shaolin Temple, Principal Abbot Shi Yongxin, tells the media again and again that the temple's innovative actions mean to promote and spread Shaolin culture and protect the Shaolin brand. At present, it's still too early to say that this commercial operation model will help the achievement of the two targets. But at least this model has brought no negative consequences.

Every year, millions of Muslim pilgrims travel to the holy city of Mecca. They bring huge revenue to Saudi Arabia, which accounts for 4 percent of its gross domestic product. It also provides more job opportunities and greatly pushes forward the country's economic growth.

The problem does not lie in whether Shaolin culture should be promoted in a commercial model or not, but in whether this culture can be developed and accepted by more people after it is run as a business.

Zhao Zhoucha (www.sina.com.cn): Those who insist that the Shaolin Temple should not modernize misunderstand Zen culture, believing that this culture should never change.

Chinese traditional culture keeps developing and the essence of a culture needs to be expressed in new forms suitable for the modern time. It is more than a historical heritage. Thus, to transform the Shaolin Temple into a leisure and entertainment venue and to run it as a business are not a big problem. The key is the objective of doing so. If it is for the spread of Chinese culture, we should support instead of opposing it.

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Editor: Yao Bin