Master and writer Miao Dian was born in 1977 in Athens. His family name was Kouris. At a very tender age, he met the bitter side of life and lived his first years in the national nursery orphanage in Kallithea and later at the orphanage of Georgios Hatzikonstas. Family situations pushed him to immigrate with his father in Germany. There, at the age of eight, he was taught Shaolin Gong Fu under the strict supervision of the master Liang Che. When Miao Dian was 14 years old his master passed away and Miao Dian returned to Greece. His love for martial arts leaded him to the Shaolin Temple gate. He became a student of the master Shi Heng Jun 释恒君 (Shì héng jūn), 35th generation of Shaolin warrior monks, from then on he stays close to him for over 15 years. On August 25, 2005 he was given the Buddhist name Shi Miao Dian 释妙滇 (Shì miào diān) of the 36th Shaolin generation. In 2005, the master Heng Jun, approved the mission of the master Miao Dian as apostle in Greece with the aim of creating the first Greek approved Shaolin Training Center Shaolin Gong Fu. It officially opened on…
Writer Mado Kalogirou was born in Athens, Greece. At a small age, she discovered she has an inclination toward foreign languages. She was always up to a challenge when it came to different cultures and that was the point when she decided that mandarin Chinese was a language she needed to invest in. Throughout the years, her love of Chinese civilization became stronger, especially when she visited China in 2015. Since then, she has mastered the language and tried to build communication bridges between Greece and China through her work in interpreting for EUAA (European Union Agency for Asylum). Not only does she help immigrants apply for Assylum in Greece, but she also decided to teach the Chinese language and culture to students. Furthermore, she realized that she wants to show the beauty of Chinese culture and civilization to other people through writing. That was when she met Master Shi Miao Dian and found out about their common interest and love for China and inspired one another. They both teach each other martial arts and mandarin dialects respectively, so combining their knowledge and passion was natural to create a series of children’s books about the Chinese lifestyle and traditions, starting…
