Gene, excellent post as usual.
It is much more simple than whatever I have been reading and I have to say that most post don´t do other thing than cause more confusion.
Bak Siu Lam Kuen Moon - Bei Shaolin Quan men - Beishaolin, Bak Siu lam, Northern Shaolin: KYC lineage.
ALSO many people refer to northern styles as “Northern Shaolin”.
Thats it, lets not make a big deal from this!
horacio
r.
Thank you for your valuable thoughts. It is very similar to what I believe. And many of your thoughts are document in various Chinese literature.
I, too, believe the general usage of the term, Northern Shaolin, for Hung, Cha, Hua, etc was originally to mean these styles were once taught at the Shaolin Temple in the north. Chinese martial historians write in a style that assumes everyone has previous knowledge about these styles. It is well document in each of these style’s history that these various orgins of these styles are not of Shaolin and made a natural progression to Shaolin.
The use of the Chinese character ‘Pai’ in connection with Northern Shaolin in a conversation does make a difference in distinguishing exactly what one is saying in terms of general styles or a specific style.
Just because the general MA mis-uses a term, does not mean we, who know better, continue to encourage its mis-use. We, who are in CMA, should set the correct example and should encourage correct usage of terms as well as applications.
Just my $.02
Re: Get your answer crazymaddrunk?
Originally posted by GeneChing
[B]See you don’t have to ask me specifically when there are so many other authorities here.
As for the BSL comments, generally speaking I’d agree with Kung Lek - BSL has come to refer to a specific lineage in English, that of Ku Yu Cheong. But this is only in English, and it demonstrates the funkiness of CMA culture in the west. If you go to Shaolin Temple and say you practice bei shaolin, they might come back at you and say “this is bei shaolin.” To muddle the issue more, would this be a good time to bring up the opening of the new northern temple? 
[/B]
Gene Ching hi
so where exactly would I find this new temple and do they except women or should I expect that I will have to go to Tai Lang Mountain ?
gentlemen (and lady)
Actually I concur with r.(s) & ns in theory but in practice, well, as a publisher I grapple with this sort of problem all the time. Even before when I worked for WLE, we had this problem. Here’s a classic example, Sifu Wing Lam, who passed me the BSL lineage, came from HK, so of course like most all of the BSL masters I know, he spoke cantonese. Thus we called it Bak Sil Lum. At a certain point (I can’t remember when exactly) his former wife and I made the decision to change Sil Lum to Shaolin. His wife was from Beijing so she spoke mandarin. My argument for the change was simple, Kwai Chang Caine went to Shaolin not Sil Lum. Note that this was prior to my first trip to Songshan.
Amongst the non-Cantonese speakers, Shaolin carries more weight than Sil Lum. But with those Cantonese speakers, Bak Sil Lum typically implies KYC’s lineage. So what do you do?
Lately, I’ve gone back to refering to BSL by the Cantonese, just to distinguish it in my mind from Songshan Shaolin. When I practice Shaolin (and my shaolin practice has been weak of late 
) I practice both lineages, so in my position, it’s important to keep them distinct.
In the popular vernacular, certainly Shaolin is the more common term. It’s Shaolin Soccer not Sil Lum Soccer, even though that movie is from Hong Kong. So for me, martial terminology is very context-dependant. Here on this forum, since we have so many BSL practiticioners (something I’m particularly proud of, I must add) and since we love to abbreviate stuff (like ROFLMAO) BSL and KYC have become the accepted terms for the most part. Far be it from me to say that’s the term we should all use. Language is more democractic than that (unfortunately.)
Variant
Hello martial brothers,
Nothing groundbreaking :-))) but just an idea :
Northern Shaolin Meihuazhang Variant
Northern Shaolin Liu He Variant
Northern Shaolin Mizong Variant
Northern Shaolin GuRuZhang Variant
Northern Shaolin Modern Temple Variant
Northern Shaolin Lohan Variant
Southern Shaolin Hong Family Variant
Southern Shaolin Choy Lee Fut Variant
Southern Shaolin Fut Gar Variant
ad infinitum
Cheers
Buddhapalm