Polly, Matthew
Polly, Matthew
PERSONAL:
Education: Princeton University, 1995; attended graduate school at Oxford University.
ADDRESSES:
E-mail—[email protected].
CAREER:
Writer and editor. Previously worked as an editor for an Internet company.
AWARDS, HONORS:
Rhodes Scholarship; Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing.
WRITINGS:
American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China (memoir), Gotham Books (New York, NY), 2007.
Contributor to periodicals, including Esquire, Nation, Playboy, Publishers Weekly, and Slate.
ADAPTATIONS:
Film rights to American Shaolin have been sold to Fox Studios.
SIDELIGHTS:
Matthew Polly grew up a huge fan of the Kung Fu television series in which an American is trained in the martial arts and the ways of wisdom by a Chinese master. Years later, as a student with low self-esteem at Princeton University, Polly suddenly decided that he would go to China and study Kung Fu with monks at the Shaolin Temple, believed to be the birthplace of Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. Polly's memoir of his experience there, American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, was called "a fine and lively survey of cultural exploration" by a California Bookwatch contributor. In an interview with Justin Glow on the Gadling Web site, the author described his experience this way: "It was terrifying. The Shaolin Temple is situated in a tiny village between five mountain peaks in the middle of rural China. When I arrived I was the only laowai (foreigner) there." In his memoir, the author recounts how it took him several months to show that he was truly ready to make the sacrifices the other native students were making to advance in the art of Kung Fu. The author also writes about the Chinese culture in general and provides an overview of the art of Kung Fu. "American Shaolin offers much more than I anticipated when I picked up the book," wrote Hilary Williamson on the BookLoons Web site, later adding: "This is a wonderfully engrossing read." A Publishers Weekly contributor felt that Polly did not fully reveal how he transformed himself into a confident martial arts expert but wrote that "as a chronicler of human absurdity he makes all the right moves."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Polly, Matthew, American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, Gotham Books (New York, NY), 2007.
PERIODICALS
California Bookwatch, April, 2007, review of American Shaolin.
Entertainment Weekly, February 2, 2007, Hannah Tucker, review of American Shaolin, p. 129.
Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2006, review of American Shaolin, p. 1165.
Library Journal, December 1, 2006, Lisa Liquori, review of American Shaolin, p. 133.
Publishers Weekly, November 20, 2006, review of American Shaolin, p. 50.
ONLINE
BookLoons,http://www.bookloons.com/ (August 26, 2007), Hilary Williamson, review of American Shaolin.
Gadling,http://www.gadling.com/ (April 18, 2007), Justin Glow, "Talking Travel with Matthew Polly."
Matthew Polly Home Page,http://www.mattpolly.com (August 26, 2007).
Princeton Alumni Weekly Online,http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/ (April 18, 2007), Van Wallach; Transformation in China. Matthew Polly '95 recounts His Stint at a Buddhist Temple.