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Getting ready for today’s lion dance I left my son’s diaper and food bag at home and didn’t realize this until I was at the Kung Fu School in Chinatown. My kung fu brothers and sister watched him while I went to CVS to get diapers, formula and solid food. Fifty bucks for my forgetfulness. Good Job dad.
I started feeding him but he was too excited about watching us prepare the lion head and drum to be moved to China Pearl where the Head Start luncheon was to take place. I didn’t want the drum or any other loud noise from a cacophony of screaming children or a loud system to disturb him so we left him at the school with the Kung Fu Sister. Apparrently he slept most of the time we were gone.
At China Pearl we put together a Lion Dance and Kung Fu Performance with our four guys and the help of the parents of kids. It turned out that quite a few of them had actually studied at Woo Ching White Crane when they were kids, before it had moved from Tai Tung to the CCBA building. The Children and waiters were running all around ducking our swords and sticks but we are used to events similar to this and were able to manage. It definately would have been too dangerous to have beginners perform though. Though my Sifu once told me that most performances in China on the street were like that, even when they did weapons fighting forms. The audience will just keep pushing closer and closer in the excitement. But we didn’t do fighting forms and everyone was quite safe with our level of weapon handling, but I’ve been doing this with kids around fro 12 years and my See Hing, for more than 20 years.
While we were taking a break in the back I talked with the parents while head start kids jumped around in mock kung fu battle. I wished all the kids and their parents studied kung Fu and Lion Dance even if just a little bit. Everyone can play basketball or bowl or shoot pool it seems. Why not Kung Fu and Lion Dance? I would even offer classes for next to nothing as long as these families would show up. Lion Dance with elders playing instruments and kids doing Kung fu and Lion head bridges the generation gap and builds a stronger community. In between our performances we heard from ABCD Executive Vice President Sharon Scott Chandler, State Rep Aaron Michlewitz, Councilor Ayanna Pressley, Councilor Bill Linehan, and Senator Sonia Chang -Diaz who came to give supprt and talk about the values of the Head Start Program.
We also saw the various classes of head start perform dances both western and chinese which improve cognitive ability as well as other things.
For a donation you could also get something, either your name or a saying, written in gold paint on red cloth by a Master Calligrapher. This old man impressed me greatly because I have seen trained painters in quiet settings doing calligraphy. This old man was painting beautiful words so quickly on a shaky table with people shouting over his head with such ease and without steadying his brush hand with the table or his other hand. Had I not seen others doing Calligraphy before and only saw this man, I would have thought it was easy. My Se Hing said he probably had to take notes in school with a brush, as opposed to having it only as an extra curricular activity. Soon, even the pen and pencil will be phased out. I’m sure that Calligraphy, Kung Fu, Lion Dance, Music, and Folk Dances all have many traditional arts that we are slowly leaving behind have beneficial effects on growth and development. We must not forget the importance of these traditions that make us who we are and we should introduce them to our children as early and as often as possible.
Adam Cheung
adam.cheung@bostonchinatowngateway.com