Stephen Ho dreams of building a Shaolin Temple in San Francisco and bringing the ancient practice to the U.S. as a religion. But he is at odds with the Shaolin monk, Shi GuoSong, sent from the Chinese temple to help with his cause. Ho is a longtime student of Buddhism and in GouSong he sees plenty of martial arts discipline but little of the practice of silent meditation and spiritual customs that he expected from those following Shaolin as a faith. It’s a classic rift over what constitutes a religion and its practice, but in this case Ho holds GouSong’s visa sponsorship and will make his own vision hold true. He intends to sever his sponsorship and carefully interview the future Shaolin he brings to the U.S.