My childhood was unlike average boy life. My family didn’t have any TV when I was a child. If I wanted to watch TV, I need to go to my neighbor (which also my auntie). I just watched everything they watch. Of course, I was a guess on their house, how can I ask something that I wanted? I remembered at that time there were only TVRI, RCTI and SCTV.
And the cartoons (on Sundays) were Doraemon, Ninja Hatori, Candy-Candy or argh… I forgot what the first 3D cartoon on TV was. O yes, those days, Doraemon was the king of Sundays for kids. Then when I was in elementary school, I was introduced to a comic book or manga by a friend of mine. The first manga I read was Kenji. It was an awesome manga about a Japanesse boy who want to learn Kung Fu.
At that time I was pretending that I was him, that until I knew Chinmi. Yes… Chinmi – the Kung Fu Boy. Well, actually Kung Fu Boy Manga published earlier than Kenji, but I read Kenji first instead. Ever since I read Chinmi – the Kung Fu Boy and continued with Chinmi – the Break Shot, where he became a master of billiard player with the famous Double Headed Snake shot, I really fell for him.
Recently, mid 2014, I found that there’s an apps on my phone for Kung Fu Boy by Dinh Linh. I installed it and yayy… I was able to read all chapter of the Kung Fu Boy again on my phone and it’s in Indonesian. Thank you so much for Dinh Linh who developed this. I remembered all my childhood memories regarding Chinmi.
Chinmi – The Chosen One
At first chapter, we will be introduced with The Old Man. He was representative from Dairin Temple that was on a mission to found the chosen one which has a mole in his forehead. He accidentally found Chinmi on his journey. Chinmi, the energetic orphan, was living with his only sister and a monkey. I forgot her name but remembered the monkey name, Go Kong. Chinmi’s journey was begun. Chinmi learn so many things along the way to Dairin, in Dairin and outside Dairin. The whole journey was written in 37 volumes (not include the New Kung Fu Boy which I didn’t like so much).
If I told you the whole journey of Chinmi here, there would be many pages to read here. Thus, I won’t tell you here about the journey. I would like to share things I learn from him, from his journey to become the real Chosen One.
Things Learn from Chinmi
| Loving and caring | Through his entire journey, we can see that he loves his sister, his only family (aside Go Kong of course). For him, family is number one.And his caring sides of him, even though several times make him get into trouble, he wouldn’t care. Because he really is caring for others, especially those who are in trouble and need help.
If the world now has many people like him, who are willing to do anything for love and care, I am sure the world would be a better place to live for. Caring for others means respect other people around us, perhaps the easiest way to show it is by not throwing garbage anywhere we want. |
| Hard worker/determined/persistent | From the first time, we are introduced thatChinmi is a hard worker. He helps his sister with most of the heavy works on the restaurant. And thenChinmi shows us also that to become great, we need to put our best effort. He always trains himself to be better and better each day or every time he met new “enemies”.It is sadden me when see most of the youngster nowadays (yes I am old) are thinking about how to get things instantly. They just want to sit down and taking any thing they want without do something to get it. Nothing is instant in this world – not even an instant noodle is that instant. |
| Eager to learn | Since beginning of the story, we can see thatChinmi already has some Kung Fu quality inside him (otherwise he wouldn’t be the chosen one right?), but he is willing to learn anything new. He comes toDairin to learn more about Kung Fu. He is eager to learn some new things.This is also relating to the previous point, most of the people now tend to wait and wait and wait. They are used to be spoon-fed instead of looking for themselves. Learning is about willingness to do something, by your own – this is my opinion, just like Chinmi. Show the eagerness to learn by doing it. Not just waiting. |
| Never limit yourself | One thing I remembered the most from this manga is the flee’s lesson from MasterSoshu. He teachesChinmi that if we limit ourselves, like theflea in a box, we will end up be the box.The ordinary flee can jump so high but if you put theflea into a box for a period of time, it can only jump as high as the box.
That is what happens to us if we limit ourselves. Our mind limited our ability to grow as much as we like it. Many people are actually doing this without their own knowledge, but hey, your mind is yours. You are the master of your mind. Control it and be aware of the box that you’ve created. |
| Find your own style | Still from the same episode, I remembered thatChinmi was facing Sie Fan, student of MasterSoshu. Sie Fan was great in stick battle andChinmi was asked to face him on a battle as he was the best student atDairin for a stick battle at that time.At the first battle he was lost. After thatChinmi was spying Sie Fan and do anything that Sie Fan did to be able to counterbalance Sie Fan. The second battle,Chinmi lost again.Then, his sifu, Riki said that if he only copy what Sie Fan did, he wouldn’t be able to compete. He needs to find his own style.
In life, we tend to copied anyone whom we admired. We are trying to be like them, but the truth is that we can’t copy them. We need to be ourselves to be excel. Take any good things you find on them and let it a part of yourself but do not copy paste everything – you need to BE YOURSELF. |
| Sacrifice yourself – let your ego down | Many in battles that written in this manga showed thatChinmi was sacrificing himself to protect his love ones. His sister, his lover, his student atDairin, etc.For me, this is a truly great learning. We ought to be able to let go our ego if we want to do something. Yes, you don’t need to sacrifice yourself for others just like that. But sometimes, in some situations, we need to think about others would be affected by our choices. Don’t be selfish.
Hey, this doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice yourself every now and then. |
| Never give up | On each battle, we can see thatChinmi will fight till the end. He would never give up, not even if he had to sacrifice his own life. He learns it from Sie Fan. During his stake out of Sie Fan one night, they were surrounded by pack of wolves.Chinmi already exhausted and his stick was broke into two, so did Sie Fan but Sie Fan kept fighting until the end.One of the life values is never giving up, no matter what. Many obstacles will come on your way when you do something, believe me, they will. But at the end, the strongest is those who survive and never giving up. As a song would say – what doesn’t kill you, make you stronger, this is the truth. By giving up, you will be going nowhere. Would you like that? If not, never ever giving up on things you want, but that doesn’t mean you are allowed to do anything to make it come true |
Those are some of the things I or we can learn together from Chinmi – Kung Fu Boy manga. I believe there are many other lessons that we can learn in this manga for this life of ours. I only share several there, but don’t mind if you want to share yours also as addition.
The truth is we can learn so much about life from books we read, movies we watched, songs we heard. The question is would you open your mind and eager to learn it or not. As I was mentioned on my previous post, learning is coming from you. Anyone can help you to learn, but if you are not willing to do something (reading, searching, make some notes, practicing, etc), it would be a waste of time.
This post is submitted for BEC’s weekly challenge called English Friday Number 14 – Your Favorite Cartoon Character. I am so sorry if my post is quite off the track, but hell yeah, Chinmi is my favorite character – well one of many. 😀