Claim: David Carradine acted.

Kwai Chang Caine is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ABC 1972 -- 1975 action-adventure western television series Kung Fu . He has been portrayed by David Carradine as an adult , Keith Carradine as a younger Caine and Radames Pera as the child Caine , and Stephen Manley as the youngest Caine .   In the late 19th century China , Kwai Chang Caine was the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman . He was raised in a Shaolin Monastery in Hunan Province , and was trained by the monks to be a Shaolin master . Kung Fu follows his adventures as he travels to the American Old West -LRB- armed only with his skill in martial arts -RRB- as he seeks his half-brother , Danny Caine . Although it was his intention to find his brother Danny in a way which would escape notice , the demands of his training as a priest in addition to the sense of social responsibility , which was instilled within him during his childhood , forced Caine to repeatedly come into the open to fight for justice . He would then leave his new surroundings in a further search for anonymity and security .   In the Shaolin arts , monks live in temples and most stay their entire life . Once they become masters and leave the temple , they are referred to as Priests . In real world Shaolin , both monks and priests shave their heads and remain celibate . Western audiences might have expected that such a character had taken a vow of chastity , but that was apparently not true in Caine 's case as he frequently had intimate relations with women throughout the series .