The 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple has travelled a great distance from its origins as a humble monastery designed to spread Buddhist teachings.
These days, the spiritual home of kung fu, situated in the forests of China’s Shaoshi Mountain, treads a fine line between serenity and tackiness.
Its chief abbot, Shi Yongxin, has presided over an aggressive campaign of commercial expansion aimed at raising revenue at the hallowed shrine, including hosting pop Idol-style Kung Fu and a bikini beauty pageant and licensing the temple’s name for use in films and cartoons.
The priest, who is rumoured to drive a sportscar, has been rewarded by seeing visitor numbers soar to two million a year.
Now, even by his own excessive standards, Mr Shi has raised eyebrows by advertising for two media executives with English and social media skills to project its sacred values to China and beyond.
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Applicants may be either men or women, non-monks, non-vegetarians - and even non-Buddhists. Since the jobs were advertised online earlier this week, the temple has been deluged with applicants, from fresh-faced graduates to seasoned PR executives and professional broadcasters, all certain they can peddle the temple’s message to the world.
Although the dropping of Buddhism as a role requirement is a striking departure from the temple’s usual form, the job advert is in keeping with the temple’s hard-nosed approach to business.
Just a few days before posting its job advert on the internet, Mr Xi unveiled yet another campaign to raise the profile of the temple: an international martial arts tournament of a sort that has formed the central plot of Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme films since the 1970s.