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On Friday February 5th the Vietnamese Student Association ISSI and a plethora of other student organizations put together quite a nice event for Lunar New Year. Woo Ching White Crane (My School) was to kick off the Event with Lion Dance and Kung Fu. I was able to arrive earlier and stay later than my team so I got to see the whole event, which was a treat.
This event, held at the Fenway Center or what looks like it used to be a Church on 77 St. Stephens Street I walked in to see red lanterns hanging from the ceiling and a nice lighting system which allowed for a very formal feel during performances. There was a wall where one could get pictures taken like a highschool prom, and red envelopes with candy and a raffle ticket were passed to you as you came in. (This was fortunate for our team.)
I found our contact person Khuong, (who I believe is the head of the VSA as well as involved in other groups.) I mispronounced his name, asked him if we could get water and a place for our team to put our things down. He got both of these things to me very quickly without mentioning my mispronunciation. It wasn’t until I bumped into someone I knew from Kwong Kow Dulcimer Band that I was informed of the correct way to pronounce Khuong in Vietnamese. (I apologized and corrected myself.) I also met a fellow Kung Fu practitioner from the Calvin Chin Martial Arts Academy. His daughter was performing in the event with one of the Chinese Dance Troupes. I hung out comfortably for a while until my team arrived.
It turns out our performance would not have to be that long so when I found out we were missing a few key members I was not too worried. In the past I have been a drill sergeant about training and performances, especially with relatives of Sifu. This led to them simply not showing up to class. Since then I have let up a lot. This means we have a good number of people who show up for performances. However it also means most of them are too rusty or nervous, or simply unwilling to perform well. With a Kung Fu Master from another school sitting in the front row. This left the heavy lifting to me and one other man. Needless to say after we were done we were quite tired.
Not only that, but we has forgotten our “Chiang” or offering that the lion would eat. So I grabbed one of the red envelopes they passed out at the door and a bottle of water. One of the Photographers, thinking the water was accidentally left there moved it while I was bowing with the Lion head. I signalled for someone to put it back while I circled the room with the lion to push away bad luck and evil Spirits. In the end we still pulled off a well received performance.
My team was paid and they left. I then sat down with the fellow Kung Fu practitioner and two Dance teachers who were sitting in the first row table. I believe they were from the American Chinese Art society. They described their large school in Woburn that had easily more than 250 parking spaces for parents. I guess my mouth sort of watered at the idea of having so many students with parents that were motivated to have their kids learn.
There are quite a few fighting forms that Sifu knows that we will never learn because we didn’t have the people to learn it. I was sad about this bust recently I started creating a little skit that involves a simplified multiple person staged combat that I created.
I listened while watching a beautiful Uighyur dance and then a beautiful young woman performed the Guzheng followed by a young very skilled pianist playing a Chinese Folk Song adapted to western Harmony. I believe both musicians were Northeastern Students.
Then they raffled off prizes and I couldn’t help but wonder if the ticket our team had left with had one. There were a few times nobody claimed a prize and they picked the next number.
Following this was food. I didn’t get to try everything but the Vietnamese Tofu Sub I had was excellent. The event was very well planned and fun for everyone that attended.
Adam Cheung
adam.cheung@bostonchinatowngateway.com