The child cast of Shaolin Heroes Photo: Courtesy of Henan TV

Yu Rongguang (from left), Zhao Wenzhuo and Ni Hongjie stand behind the child cast of Shaolin Heroes on Monday at Shaolin Temple. Photo: Courtesy of Henan TV

Engulfed by huge controversies concerning its abbot's alleged misbehavior and the commercialization of the temple over the past few decades, Henan Province's Shaolin Temple still attracts fans like a huge magnet. This is especially true during the high travel season, which sees large crowds of tourists gather outside the temple doors every morning before opening time.

To avoid the crowds of tourists, the press conference for new reality TV show Shaolin Heroes was scheduled to start Monday at 7 am outside the temple's gate, during which the abbot would give a speech about the show's contributions to promoting Shaolin culture. However, the abbot ended up not appearing, leaving the "heroes" of Shaolin Heroes, nine kids aged 4-9, to give a decent Shaolin kung fu performance on stage.

Delving into mystery

While this is not the first time the public has had the opportunity to see Shaolin kung fu up-close, children's reality show Shaolin Heroes wants to bring the mysterious temple and the life of monks living there closer to audiences.

"The unfolding of Shaolin Temple and its culture is one of the two leading lines in our show," said Qin Feng, the producer behind Shaolin Heroes. "We are trying to show audiences as many sides of the temple as possible, but it's also impossible for us to include all of its mysteries in the show."

Giving Qin's team great leeway, the Shaolin Temple allowed them to film anytime during the day or night so long as the team did not violate Buddhist doctrines or disturb the monks.

Having witnessed the many mysteries of Shaolin kung fu himself during filming, Qin explained to the Global Times that it's a pity they won't be able to demonstrate everything on the show.

"We can't expect these kids to learn highly difficult kung fu skills in just two months," said Qin, pointing out that simply demonstrating Shaolin kung fu without explaining the context would be too jarring for audiences.

Playing the children card

According to Qin, kids are the other main focus for the show. Amazingly cute, these children managed to earn themselves some fans during the press conference by showing off the new stances they had just learned. Selected from thousands of candidates, they come from diverse ethnic and financial backgrounds. Their two-month-long life as monks is set to be the show's biggest draw.

Playing the "children" card has become a popular trend among domestic reality shows over the past several years. Previous examples such as Where Are We Going, Dad? and Dad Came Back, which brought the lives of stars and their families to audiences, ended up establishing huge fanbases for the kids in the show. A less-than-stellar example is Grade One, whose smaller viewership numbers have been attributed by some insiders to its lack of star power.

Similar to Grade One, Shaolin Heroes isn't trying to relying on celebrities. Although the show will feature well-known action star Yu Rongguang and actress Ni Hongjie as mentors for the children, the two are just playing a supportive role. In the end, the kids' performances and reactions to the rigid discipline of the Shaolin Temple, as well as the tough kung fu training, are expected to be the core of the show.

Refusing to shave their heads, being punished for wasting food during meals or having to stand on a narrow chair after being caught for secretly eating food at night, these little monks are not just expected to wow audiences with their reactions to things they have never experienced before, but also satisfy audiences' curiosity about the Shaolin Temple.

"You can't imagine how hard it was for these kids to smoothly complete the entire shoot. Different issues appeared one after the other; for example, some of them became too tired to keep up with the schedule and the littlest girl developed a 'love' for different boys on the team," said Qin.

"But it's exactly this kind of pure 'love' that touches people."

Behind-the-scenes look

Shaolin Heroes is a continuation of Henan TV's Heroes series of reality TV. Previously, the broadcaster has presented Chinese Character Heroes, Chinese Idiom Heroes and Literature Heroes. Although these shows have embraced the most popular elements seen in TV reality shows nowadays, for many in the audience, Shaolin Heroes' trump card, or its biggest difference from other shows, still lies with the window it will hopefully provide into the Shaolin Temple.

Appearing in numerous literature and screen works, the Shaolin brand seems like a guaranteed recipe for success. From passively allowing the Shaolin name to be used to more proactively cooperating with others or even independently expanding its influence, the Shaolin Temple has continually increased its push to promote its culture. Shaolin Heroes marks the first time, temple has allowed a TV show to use its name.

"The reason why the Shaolin Temple decided to participate in the program is because we want society to pay more attention to how young children grow," the Shaolin Temple's Monk Yanda said at the conference.

However, to date, details about what the agreement between the TV station and the temple actually entails - for instance how revenue from the show will be split - are still unknown. So far the temple has declined interviews with media. However, according to Qin, the temple has shown no interest in revenue earned from the show, even though it provided great support by opening valuable places, such as the Pagoda Forest where senior monks are entombed, to the crew and acting as a consultant for Shaolin kung fu training.

The program is expected to hit the airwaves in early September.