Film Library 2019

Floating Raft takes an observational look at the life of a vibrant Chinese Buddhist monk Shi Yanyi and his Buddhist brothers, in Los Angeles. The Shaolin Temple is famous for its 1500-year Buddhist Kung Fu tradition in China. The Shi Fu, a respected name of a Buddhist monk, who grew up in China and trained in the skills of Kung Fu are now facing all kinds of identity challenges in the US, both in their personal lives and in their mission to promote Shaolin culture. As Buddhist monks, how do they negotiate the contrasts between the sacred world (religious and ascetic) and the secular world (the need to earn a living) and as new immigrants, in the context of Chinese economic booming, how do they adapt from their former lives in China to their new lives in the U.S. and how do they make a decision to stay or leave?