February 9, 2010 by Adam.

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

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February 9, 2010 by Adam.

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

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