Back in the early 1970s, American network television produced a popular TV series called simply KUNG-FU, starring American actor David Carradine (of KILL BILL fame) as Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine, who wandered the old American West righting wrongs and protecting the innocent with his Shaolin martial arts, wuxia-style. The series, which was based on a concept first developed by Bruce Lee, was quite popular in its day and even spawned a sequel in the 1990s (KUNG-FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES), with Carradine playing a similar role as the original character's grandson in contemporary times.
How right or wrong did the American TV scriptwriters get it? Did they utterly, completely misrepresent wuxia in the KUNG-FU series, or did they get it surprisingly right considering how unknown wuxia culture was (and still is) in the West?
One thing that struck me as odd was how *soft* Shaolin martial arts was depicted in KUNG-FU. The "Shaolin" style seen in KUNG-FU was more like Mo Dong Tai Chi martial arts...soft and yielding. It's not the hard, yang-style martial arts we expect from Shaolin.