This ongoing project documents embodied research within the community of Shaolin Temple UK through informal demonstrations during festivals, cultural celebrations, and communal gatherings.

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Using the straight sword (Jian) and staff (Gun), the performances take place outside theatrical settings, where community members gather at close range to witness the practice. Martial arts become less a spectacle than a shared act of observation, through which physical knowledge, lineage, and cultural memory continue to circulate.

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Performed within everyday social spaces rather than institutional contexts, these demonstrations explore how embodied traditions are sustained through direct participation and collective witnessing.

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This research forms the foundation of my wider artistic practice, investigating how the body preserves knowledge that cannot be fully recorded through text, and how tradition continues through lived relationships rather than formal institutions.