Shaolin Monks want an "internet user" to apologize? What!?
Aug 31, 2007 at 7:45 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 27

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070831/...uk_china_ninja

[size=xx-small]China's Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese kung fu, is demanding an apology from an Internet user who said its monks had once been beaten in unarmed combat by a Japanese ninja, Chinese media reported on Friday.

Shaolin Temple, in the northern province of Henan, became famous in the West as the training ground for Kwai Chang "Grasshopper" Caine in the 1970s "Kung Fu" TV series.

Ninjas -- professional assassins trained in martial arts -- date back to mediaeval Japan.

"The so-called defeat is purely fabricated, and we demand the Internet user to apologise to the whole nation for the wrongs he or she did," the Beijing News said, citing a notice announced by a lawyer for the Shaolin monks.

Relations between Chinese and Japanese are sensitive at the best of times, with emotions still running high over Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China in the first half of the 20th Century.

The Internet user, calling themselves "Five Minutes Every Day", said on an online forum last week that a Japanese ninja came to Shaolin, asked for a fight and many monks failed to beat him, the newspaper said.

"The facts that the monks could not defeat a Japanese ninja showed that they were named as kung fu masters in vain," the Internet user was quoted as saying in the post.

The Shaolin temple "strongly condemned the horrible deeds" of the user, the newspaper said.

"It is not only extremely irresponsible behaviour with respect to the Shaolin temple and its monks, but also to the whole martial art and Chinese nation," it quoted the monks as saying.
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Is this for real? I'm sure the Shaolin Monks aren't daily internet users, but come on now? Don't they know internet $hit talk is not to be taken seriously? They actually took offense to words stated by someone called "Five Minutes Every Day" and hired a lawyer over it? Why don't they just trace his ISP and go kung fu his ass?
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 8:25 AM Post #3 of 27
Pure educated speculation follows:
Ninjas were mostly about assassination, espionage and stealth. Samurai's were all about swords, which is definately not un-armed combat. I think the edge goes to kung fu.
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 8:43 AM Post #4 of 27
you'd better, grasshopper...
462001111510823po.jpg
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 11:14 AM Post #6 of 27
Ninjas beat Shaolin monks every day of the week!



[size=xx-small]*ducks for cover and evades Shaolin lawyers*[/size]
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 1:55 PM Post #8 of 27
Internet-fueled globalization is going to have many hilarious consequences.

I don't usually count myself a member of the grammar police, but...

Quote:

The Internet user, calling themselves "Five Minutes Every Day"


We should be able to expect more from Reuters, eh?
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 2:04 PM Post #9 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigglybootch /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Are Shaolin Monks supposed to be prowling the internet?


The Shaolin training grounds are run more like an Olympic training village. 10,000+ students, live in dorms, wear track-suits, have 'net access, etc etc etc. The shaved-head old men in orange robes are the exception, not the norm. (How many americans dress like a 19th century cowboy daily? A few in texas sure... but not all that common).
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 2:16 PM Post #11 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by Superpredator /img/forum/go_quote.gif
We should be able to expect more from Reuters, eh?


This is actually an interesting tension between correct grammar rules and the current climate of political correctness. I teach a college writing course on occasion, and my students are increasingly hesitant to do what Reuters should have done in this case: use the masculine singular as a gender neutral term. Instead, there is a tendency to use the plural, which is clearly wrong. It will be interesting to see whether, over time, the result of this tension is an acceptance of the practice of using the plural in place of the masculine singular; the development of a new, gender neutral singular; or a return to use of the masculine singular as gender neutral.

N.B.: I've been lurking here for quite a while, but haven't posted much as I like to limit my posts to substantive comments, and I just don't have that much to say most of the time. However, I'd like to sell some stuff, so I'll be trying to get my post count above 50. I apologize in advance for any useless posts I might make as part of this effort.
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 3:13 PM Post #14 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by jeremynwolf /img/forum/go_quote.gif
This is actually an interesting tension between correct grammar rules and the current climate of political correctness. I teach a college writing course on occasion, and my students are increasingly hesitant to do what Reuters should have done in this case: use the masculine singular as a gender neutral term. Instead, there is a tendency to use the plural, which is clearly wrong. It will be interesting to see whether, over time, the result of this tension is an acceptance of the practice of using the plural in place of the masculine singular; the development of a new, gender neutral singular; or a return to use of the masculine singular as gender neutral.

N.B.: I've been lurking here for quite a while, but haven't posted much as I like to limit my posts to substantive comments, and I just don't have that much to say most of the time. However, I'd like to sell some stuff, so I'll be trying to get my post count above 50. I apologize in advance for any useless posts I might make as part of this effort.



I'm with you. Common usage is a poor excuse for sloppy grammar.
 
Aug 31, 2007 at 3:22 PM Post #15 of 27
On the 'themselves' discussion: in my university English class I was taught to use the gender neutral plural. Example sentence: "Would the person who lost their baby please come to the service desk?"

P.S. This was an English class about writing proper legal dissertations etc.
 

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