Well, the latest emerging scandal in China - actually, it's been on the point of emerging for ages but seems to be finally doing so now - involves the Shaolin Temple: the birthplace of kungfu now appears to be involved in a three cornered battle for control between the monks, the local government, and a Hong Kong-based tourism company. Things took an interesting turn when surveillance cameras were discovered in the Abbott's chamber, one pointed at his bed:
In 2011, it was said that Abbot Shi Yongxin had a mistress who was a student at Peking University and that he had US$3 billion deposited overseas. The mistress and an illegitimate son were said to be living in Germany.
A temple spokesman said later the rumor was not worth responding to.
If that's a rumour not worth responding to, I'd love to see one that is.
I used to watch kung fu films and think "this is all good fun, but it's ludicrously unrealistic". Now I read stories about a corrupt billionaire martial arts expert and his hundreds of devoted henchmen.
It's like 2001, when I suddenly realised that the Bond films were absolutely right, and we would indeed be sending our elite commandos to hunt an maniacal billionaire who masterminded international terrorist plots from his remote underground lair and recorded gloating video messages while he was at it.
Posted by: ajay | July 15, 2013 at 04:54 PM
Whats the use of a mistress living in Germany? Or do they both do sudden flying leaps and meet somewhere over the Altai Mountains?
Posted by: Johnf | July 15, 2013 at 05:41 PM