wing chun to eyes

It’s amazing how the universe works. Just as another example of “ask and you shall receive” – this year I had been asking the universe to give me a fight scene in a feature film in Asia before my birthday in November. I kept pursuing my goal and working but it seemed like chances were slim. Suddenly in mid-November I get a call from the director of this film and he asks if I am available to help with fight choreography. After we worked out details — the exact day I officially arrived at the studio was Nov 22nd — 1 day before my birthday. Pretty interesting how everything worked out. =)

wing chun hand to eyes concept

Without giving away too much of the story, it’s essentially about a kid who learns wing chun to help him overcome obstacles. The movie’s storyline is definitely not like Ip Man and is meant for a younger audience… though I think all ages could still check it out.

This particular movie situation was quite interesting. When Antony (the director of “Wushu – The Young Generation”) and I got involved with the project the movie had actually already been partially filmed. In fact a good amount had been shot, but towards the final cut the executive producer realized the action was severely lacking… and since it was a martial arts movie it was supposed to have super action. This is where we came in.

wing chun movie set

Before I continue any further I must highly thank and appreciate Antony for having faith in me as a first time action director for a feature film. Antony has worked as a stuntman in Australia and has directed a movie with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan as producer so it was a truly a great honor to be working with a professional at his caliber who also gave me a lot of respect and freedom with my ideas. Speaking of Sammo and Jackie.. I also want to mention another of the Seven Little Fortunes – Yuen Wah (the landlord in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle / villain in Dragon’s Forever) is one of the actors in this film.

wing chun wooden dummy techniques

Since we were re-shooting all the action plus a decent portion of the drama we had a lot to do. On top of that we had a smaller budget than the original crew, less resources, and no time. I didn’t even know this until I arrived in Guangzhou, but apparently I had to design roughly 10 fights to be filmed in about 10 days… because in total we had 14 days to film and 7 days to do pre-production work (including new casting, location scouting, set design, fight choreo, etc). Also we had almost no stunt guys originally and the lead was a 12 year old.

But first…

alf with wing chun sifu

…we had to learn a little wing chun. So fortunately I actually studied a little wing chun here and there, but of course not on the level of 7th generation wing chun master. We had a wing chun master on set as consultant and sifu of the wing chun movie. He was a bodyguard for a prince and also at one point taught in London where Bruce Lee visited when he was in London. The sifu was 67 years old but his arms were as strong as an oak tree.

Now that we had the wing chun training in order we had to bring in the rest of the artillery.

Heavy Artillery on Wing Chun set

Enter Alberto and Kyle.

Both of my friends had been working on feature films in China and I knew they were perfect to help out on this expendables style intense mission which required 10 fights in about 10 days. These guys had so many different fights to do in such a short time that I’m definitely glad they were able to come out.. without them it would have been a totally different experience.

I mean after all we wouldn’t have been able to add in some dope JCVD moves like this!

JCVD Lineup

..or party like rockstars with hardcore rap blasting rollin deep with hunnies to tha left and right.

How we party in Guangzhou

I actually got more than I bargained for (in a good way). I was coming under the expectation that I would be simply designing the fights. Aside from a few shorts I had never directed a feature film, much less operate a Red One camera.

operating the red one camera

Because timing was so tight, we had so much to cover, and I knew all the action… just a few days into production we sort of broke into 1st and 2nd units. I learned to operate the camera to follow the action on fight scenes.. and directed for the action scenes. This made my head start spinning in terms of camera angles and so much more.

directing a fight scene

A few surprises along the way included:

A visit from Mark Moran and Ruhi.

mark moran and the green screen fireball

I was really happy Mark visited in Guangzhou. He happened to be stopping through the area and then was able to drop by set. I showed him the studio, the green screen room, and we had a nice dinner with Ruhi, the actors, and the director.

Also a visit and cameo by AliveNotDead’s very own JuJu Chan. Speaking of cameo’s.. the director, fight coordinator, and 3rd AD all make a little cameo as well. =P

Alfred and JuJu

Another fun fact: During the period of the shoot 3 birthdays passed – mine, the director’s, and the main star Xiao Long’s birthday. Happy birthday Xiao Long!

Xiao Long's birthday

As I write this, we are a few hours away from being completely wrapped. The past 3 weeks have been intense and non-stop. We all worked over 12 hour days and everyone is starting to feel the wear and tear… but I think for the time we had to work with we got some good results. I hope people will enjoy the action.

takedown caught on camera

There were some ups and downs with the producer side with last minute changes with story, plot, characters, etc.. but it can’t be completely unexpected. Overall I had a great experience working with the Ace Studio team and learned a great deal. I developed fun and lasting memories with my kung fu bros Alberto and Kyle. It was also really interesting to go from all this tai chi training to learning wing chun – both happen to be the top 2 on my list of traditional Chinese martial arts styles that I  wanted to learn… so of course it’s AMAZING when your job is to learn those martial arts styles. I am going to end with an awesome quote that Antony said on set today.. sometimes I get so excited about what I’m doing and think to myself.. so I’m learning all this cool stuff “…AND I get paid for this??!”

Guangzhou wing chun xiao long team

The Life of a Stuntman in China

The life of a stuntman in China… is far from glamorous. Just look at my shitty state of being pictured above. haha… that was after a long morning and nights worth of falls, getting shot, fighting, and weathering the elements. When you wrap at night you go home with the blood and dirt on your face that you’ve had on all morning.

But let’s start at the beginning – I’ll give you the full story before we step into the shoes of a China stuntman. A China friend and talented stunt man referred me to work on a TV show in China. The show would shoot for about 4-5 months. He told me working on a TV series in China as a stuntman wouldn’t be easy, but if I wanted some work, he could refer me over. I also want to make the distinction that in China stunt men are called “wu hang” which kind of means “martial [arts] industry”. I don’t know if that’s the best translation, but basically the distinction between an actor and someone working in stunts is quite different. In my opinion, (aside from A-List actors) working in LA a professional stuntman and an actor get a certain level of respect for their trade. As an actor you must practice your craft and perform on camera and as a stunt man you risk your health and must also give your best performance on camera even if it’s not in dialogue or as the lead character. In China however, there are just so many people that (perhaps) the value of most manual labor is so low that the “wu hang” have a bigger disparity in value from actors compared to that of Hollywood.

With that said, my main focus in China has been to make progress as an actor (in action related projects), but I accepted this offer for a few reasons: 1) I don’t like being idle and it was an opportunity to immediately get on the field and do some work 2) it was a popular tv series and would be good training with top level stuntmen in china since i am focusing on action movies as my niche 3) it would be a rare and unique life experience

Let me expand on the 3rd point. I think as an ABC (American Born Chinese) a tv series or movie would rarely choose to hire an ABC because there is enough skilled labor and we have the same look. Also even if an ABC understands Chinese, local Chinese stuntmen understand the industry rules better, understand the language and culture better, and typically will work for much less. So I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could and to open myself up to another life experience.

Here is what was in store…

Living Accommodations while Filming in China

A Good Nights Rest in Jiao He

So while in Beijing, everything was arranged; I would take the train to Ji Lin and arrive on the weekend. We would have a crew car pick us up at Ji Lin and drive us to Jiao He and then our rooms would be ready at a hotel in Jiao He.

I took a 7 hour train ride. When I got to Ji Lin it turns out that there was no car to pick us (me and this other stunt guy) up. Even though it was night and we were pretty tired from riding in a train all day.. no big deal.. there was a smaller train to take us from Ji Lin to Jiao He. This train was slower so it took about 2-3 hours to get to Jiao He. We arrive at the hotel and bam.. it’s locked! Moreover, it was more of a motel than hotel. It was all dark inside and if it wasn’t for 5 crew cars parked outside I would’ve thought the motel was abandoned. We banged on the doors for about 30 minutes when finally these 2 old ladies woke up from the couch inside and turned on the lights. Then they unlocked the doors and got us registered. I was kinda going “hmmm… what am I in store for at this point”. As we registered they said there were no rooms available so they would have to put us up in the big guest room. As pictured above it was basically a pretty unclean room with 8 beds with a thin dirty bed cloth on a wooden desk feeling bed. Also there was no internet or hot water. When we asked why there wasn’t internet the attendant said in surprise “why do you need internet so badly?”

We were on the 4th floor so naturally we got in the elevator and were going to push “(4)” but the attendant quickly alerted us “do not push the 4 button!” Apparently it was broken and the elevator could only stop on the 3rd or 5th floor. From there you could walk to the 4th floor. So that’s a quick summary of the living situation on the first day. I went to sleep around 2am and got ready for the first day of work tomorrow.

Beginning Filming Ceremony

The next day we got up and went to the beginning filming ceremony. In China they unveil the cameras, burn incense, and set off firecrackers. It’s just a celebration and gesture to wish that everyone has a successful, safe, and smooth time on the project. I burnt some incense with the stunt coordinator. I met the stunt team that day and everyone was very nice to me. They knew I was from abroad and had different training and experiences so we chatted a lot… also there was not much work on the first day because we mainly had the opening celebration and would have a cast and crew dinner at night. A nice hearty dinner was followed by drinks and karaoke! Okay! Not bad!

Enough celebration. Let’s get to work!

After the first day there was no such thing as downtime. We were shooting a war time tv show so there would be many battles and armies fighting. That’s one pro or con (depending how you look at it) of shooting a tv series.. a tv show films 10x faster than movies. Movies take hours for lighting, getting the right camera placement, set design, etc that a movie might shoot 5-6 scenes on average per day… but a tv show is way different. They just keep shooting takes all day because they have to crank out so much in such a short time with a lower budget as well. Therefore you get to do more and learn more, but you are also constantly working and hardly resting.

Do I look like a Russian Soldier?

Here I am as a Russian soldier. We would switch back and forth between Chinese local army, Russian army, double a lead hero, or put on a mustache and double the enemy. You might think it’s weird but they had a mix of actual Russians for the front line in the battles, but for the stunts they would just wig us up and in wide shots we would get shot, fall off horses, fire guns, dodge explosives, etc.

Now speaking about dodging explosives, here’s where I will go back to discussing health and safety. In the US there is risk in being a stuntman for sure, but at least there are certain rules and precautions in place to ensure the safety of the props and environment around the stuntman so that he can use his physical prowess to his fullest. In China we had to run and get blown up by explosives, but we had no idea how large the blast would be and weren’t even comfortable knowing whether there would be real explosives detonations that could burn you. Fortunately we got through them okay, but I did see a few flames come out of the explosives that were supposed to just shoot dirt in the air.

Battle Field of Stunt Casualties

After getting blown up and shot a few times and running through both sides of the battle field it was about time for lunch. Our meals would consist of a combination of rice, tofu, potato, and cabbage with an occasional piece of pork that seemed like it was accidentally left in the lunch box. Breakfast was always congee and a hard boiled egg. I wasn’t getting enough fiber or protein for sure and wasn’t feeling in tip top shape after a week of white rice and tofu. It was a good day when we got fish or someone from the team decided to bring some pickled radishes or hot sauce.

Lunch Time!

Shortly upon working on set, something totally stupid happened. Since there was no hot water at our motel, we got vouchers to go shower at a public bathhouse type place down the street. We didn’t always get to shower because sometimes we would get back from shooting past midnight and the showers were closed.. also we would just be too tired to shower because we would have to be up around 6-7am the next day. On one fortunate day I finally got to shower. I took my shower accessories and my motel slippers to shower. The shower didn’t smell that great so I quickly showered I dried myself. After my shower despite a long day.. I felt pretty good. It was nice to take a hot shower. It was night time no doubt and I had to walk back to the motel. I stepped out of the bathhouse, breathed in the fresh night air, strolled a few relaxed steps towards my motel… and BAM! Someone decided to place a cement block in the middle of the street. I didn’t see it since I didn’t expect a huge cement block placed where people walk and it was night… and in my shower slippers my toe was in for a surprise!

Toenail Memories

I smashed my toenail on to the concrete slab (you should see what happened to the concrete slab! haha jk). I felt pain as I kicked the slab and in the dark grabbed my foot as a normal reaction. When I grabbed my foot, I felt my entire nail flipped upwards.. and blood. I hopped into the light and saw my toenail ripped off from my toe! I hopped back to the motel and immediately showed and told the motel attendants “my toe is bleeding, help, what should I do?” They meandered over and took a glimpse at it and slowly looked around and said “you should go see a doctor”.. then they aimlessly looked around the room as if they were pretty sure about their response. Fortunately one of my stunt teammates was in the lobby looking for a lost sweater. He saw my foot and took me to the hospital. The hospital was not much better than those 2 attendants. I knew this would not be good.. and this also made me think how bad it would be if anything more severe happened while in this rural part of town. Even though it was empty, the hospital workers didn’t care much about my state of emergency. They told me to fill out some forms and pay first. After that, I had to hop up three flights of stairs.. they were those slanted ramps and not staircase type stairs… either way I wasn’t feeling great about this facility.

When I got to the doctor, he was explaining some x-rays to another family. I asked him if I could disinfect my foot or something and he just glanced at me as if “how do you interrupt while I’m talking about X-Ray 5″. He took his time and I waited for about 20 minutes while my foot was dripping blood. Then he took me to this room next door where he wiped some swabs over a pair of scissors. I was kinda skeptical but really had no choice. I just wanted to get the nail cut off and bandaged up. He proceeded to cut and halfway through he pinched part of my meat! I clenched down for a bit and he finally finished. He bandaged it up and said I would have to come back for shots tomorrow and some other treatment. No thanks! I had my tetanus shots and I’m probably better off outside of the clinic.

Stuntwork in China

The next day it was back to work as usual. Running through the battlefields. Falls, getting shot, trudging through dirt, grass, etc. I probably could have spoken up and taken it easy. I don’t think that anyone would have had any problems with it… but for me.. I was here for the experience and journey and I wasn’t about to compromise it by sitting out for a week while everyone else worked. Also I started with everyone together so unless I couldn’t physically walk or perform what was required I was just going to suck it up and work like everyone else. I’m not going to lie.. the foot was really tender and on a few falls I tapped my toe and it hurt like a mofo.. but at the same time I used my judgment that I wouldn’t do something beyond my capabilities.. so in that sense I still stayed safe and took others safety into account.

The one thing I was concerned about was an infection. We were trudging through dirt all day, the wardrobe we wore was pretty dirty, and we would eat while squatting in dirt. I cleaned my feet and re-dressed the bandages at night so I guess I was okay. If this was a movie this would be where I would re-direct you back to the opening scene.. where I am worn out after a day of stunt work and leaning against the window in the bus ready to go home.

Dinner on Set

Despite what might seem like unfavorable situations compared to what many might be used to.. I took it for what it was. I’m not saying it was luxury, but when I focus on living in the present everything is simply what it is. In other words, when you are hungry on set and you get rice and pickled radishes.. you get excited and it tastes good. We ate by car headlight in the dark while sitting in the cold and dusty road.. but you know what? It was a great experience. Everyone was talking, making jokes, passing the hot sauce around.. and it was more about the bond and no one griped about the food not being 5 star hotel quality. So I guess one other thing I realized on this experience was to always be grateful.. many people complain about work or living situations, but I think where we stayed was pretty low quality but all the stunt people I was with were living there with no complaints and accepted it as a lifestyle and they were able to enjoy each day. Also my luck turned around because a few days later I moved from the 8 person room to a 3 person room with a tv.

Room for Three

After a couple weeks in, I had some urgent business come up in Beijing (life happens like that). I had given the action director a heads up before accepting the work so they knew I would have to be back in Beijing, but it happened quite suddenly – more suddenly than I had even expected and within 2 days notice I was back on a train to Beijing.

Here is a shot with the guys on my last day on set.

The Team

Almost as soon as I had gotten into the flow of things, I had to head back to Beijing. Though it was work, it was more of a learning experience. I learned a lot about the lives of stunt men in China, fellow martial artists, about myself, and about the skills required to work in this industry in China. After all of the situations that passed I felt it was a great experience. Would I want to do it again? Given that I am in a fortunate enough situation where I don’t have to live without hot water and internet for a living, I don’t think I will go out of my way for that… however I think it simply is what it is. When living ‘in the now’ I think there were many fond memories and great experiences in Jiao He… and I hope I’ve shared some interesting insights on stunts in China.

Landing in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

Though I’d been to Vietnam before, I’d never been to Ho Chi Minh City… which according to my friend Andy was “where it’s at” – so of course I had to give him a visit. I had been to Hanoi on a prior trip, but Andy said Saigon had more of a city life so for most of this trip we checked out a lot of cafes, clubs, and local spots.

When I got to Andy’s place, I was greeted with a red Vietnamese flag. It was a national holiday and if you didn’t put up the flag you would be fined Andy said. Haha very interesting, but not a surprise.

Right after I dropped off my bags Andy had some plans ready to go!

First dinner in Saigon

We went to a Japanese style bbq restaurant. It was pretty nice and the water and ice were drinkable without having to buy bottled water. We got too much meat in our system so had to do a little pumping iron pose… and we were getting pumped to go out! haha!

Anyways next up after dinner was a chill hookah place. It was strewn with red satin curtains hung everywhere and had a cozy feel. Andy said it would be nice to open up a place like that in the future. It was a good pre-party hangout location. After hookah we hit up Model Club.

Philip, Andy, and I

We had a group of friends at the table and it was my first experience going to a club in Vietnam. So how was it inside? Comparing to the clubs in China, it wasn’t as big or as packed.. I don’t like it super packed where you can’t move. We had a good group of people at the table and ate, drank, danced, laughed.. so it was definitely a good first night.

Of course afterward we got some late night noodles. It’s funny because normally after going out.. in LA.. I would get either korean bbq or pho.. but in Vietnam we got some other kind of noodles.. and I was totally craving pho. So even though I wanted to try pho immediately, the noodles were still good.. and when I got back to Andy’s place I knocked out.

The next morning however my wish was granted – I wake up all groggy the next morning around 11:30am and stumble out of my room… my eyes half open.. I walk downstairs. Halfway down the flight of stairs Andy opens his room door and groggily says “if you’re hungry just go downstairs and eat some food”. I have no idea what he is talking about.. but I am half awake and a little hungry so I just keep walking downstairs.

I get to the kitchen and Lo and Behold!

Pho Fantasy Feast

I see a freaking entire fresh cooked meal laden all over his kitchen table. There is a fresh steaming pot of beef stew ready to fuse with the freshly cooked pho noodles. There is sliced chicken, basil, fish sauce, and the oh so aromatic toasted garlic flakes. WOW! The smell, the first bite.. I had like 3 bowls.

Best Bowl of Pho

I can’t forget the taste of this bowl of Pho. I think I would have to go back to Vietnam just for this pho alone.

So eventually we all climb out of our half-awake states; I tell Andy I want to do at least one touristy thing and then we can do all the cafes and partying possible. There were 2 touristy things to do on my to do list. 1 was the tunnels + AKs, the other was the Reunification Palace.

Reunification Palace

Reunification Palace, formerly known as Independence Palace, was the equivalent of the White House for the President of South Vietnam. It was also the last stand and site for the end of the war. But yeah… unfortunately when we got there it was CLOSED! I think either we got there too late or it was due to the holiday… so I had no choice but to get some…

Vietnamese Coffee

…Vietnamese Coffee! Also known as ‘ca phe sua da’ is delicious iced coffee with condensed milk. It’s not a trip to Vietnam without some Vietnamese coffee! It’s super strong and got me pretty wired.

After I got all wired we went to dinner with Andy’s friend Tommy and Tommy’s wife.

Tommy throwin down some knowledge

Tommy was hilarious! He was an international model and traveled to all these different parts of the world in the past and over dinner and drinks he kept throwin down all this knowledge. It was interesting and he was comical at the same time. In the picture above we went to a local pub bar type place.. but it’s different from bars in the US because at this bar there are girls that work there that hang out by the bar and you can select for them to accompany you while you drink. The way it works is you ask some to join you and then at the end you give them a standardized tip. In Vietnam and many parts of Asia this is pretty commonplace. At the same time you don’t have to ask them to drink with you. We just sat for drinks and there was also live music so it was a cool spot to chat and hear Tommy’s stories. At night we went to Shadow Club. There are mainly a lot of tables all lined up in there, but didn’t really have a dance floor. Tri dropped by too and we ended going to some cafe afterward.. we ordered food.. the food came.. but by the time the food came we were passed out. hahaha..

Okay, so due to our failure of doing one tourist thing the day before the first thing we did the next day was to check out the Reunification Palace again. This time it was open and I got to check it out (Unfortunately I did not have time to check out the tunnels and AKs this trip because that location was about 2 hours away from where we lived and we didn’t have enough time).

Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside:

Helicopter at the Reunification Palace

Commanding Room is for Commanders

Pictures on the wall in the Reunification Palace

The inside is what you could expect – it’s just some different board rooms, offices, library room, theater room, etc. Then there’s a helicopter and tank on the premises. Walking through it was a little boring, but at the same time when you realize it was a part of history and then see all these pictures of the war and slaughter, it’s pretty moving that I’m standing in the same place where tanks crashed through and people fought with their lives and struggled through so much.

Upon leaving, I was however touristed into buying some over-priced useless artifacts. Anyways, we headed to meet up a friend and get some coffee. I wanted to try some more food and though it wasn’t dinner time I wanted to try the banhi me and beef stew which I often have in San Gabriel on Valley Blvd. I may have not ordered the exact thing I was looking for but it was pretty good. I was hoping the beef stew would be thicker and more suitable for dipping the bread in.. but overall the taste was still good. With that, I will note one thing – at least from what I saw, though Beijing has a lot more modern looking buildings and some bigger more developed establishments.. the one thing that always nags at me in China is that when I’m eating, I’m not quite sure what I’m eating.. I often get this it’s half food, half synthetic feeling… and I did not have that feeling in Vietnam. Everything I ate tasted good and tasted like real food.

Beef Stew and Banh Mi!

For dinner we went to a really local spot and had some other kind of Vietnamese noodles. I was pretty full after already eating like 2 hours before dinner, but I remember the soup and noodles were really tasty.

spring rolls

After dinner we went to a more western club lounge called Lush. It was my last night and I had to catch a flight the next morning plus we had gone out enough so we took it easy and then headed out around midnight.

look at the picture behind me

So the next morning I’m at the airport. I’m sitting by my terminal going doot da doot.. and then suddenly this URGE for pho starts rising and 30 minutes before it was time to board my flight I run upstairs to the restaurant area and frantically search for some pho. haha! I figured it would be a while since I could get some good authentic pho in Vietnam so I should get one more farewell bite. =P Though airport food is not known to be the best ever, I figure it is still a Vietnamese airport so the pho should still be pretty above par.

airport pho

airport fried spring rolls

I was wrong. The pho was very average. The fried spring rolls were slightly tastier. Not the best, but still tasty. The size of those spring rolls reminded me of filipino lumpia.

Anyways, overall had a good trip. I didn’t really go to Vietnam to do anything crazy or do too much sight-seeing. I just moved on from my job and finally had a chance to take a small vacation for myself and I hadn’t seen my friend Andy in a while so it was the perfect timing. I got to see his pad and personally see and hear what he’s been up to in Saigon (and he’s been up to a lot). It was a good breather in the sense that I didn’t worry about work, training, housing, planning, etc for those few days.

On the other hand it was still action packed because we squeezed in so much in these few short days. So the journey doesn’t end here. There was a reason this trip was cut short. Originally I was planning on staying 1-2 weeks, but life slapped me in the face and said I had things to do.

Find out what was so important that I had to reduce my pho eating days in my next post! – The Life of a Stuntman in China!

My run in with life happened a few months ago. I keep falling behind on posts because too many things are happening and they are all worth posting about, but I’m too busy running with these things that I’ve hardly had a minute to just write and reflect.

Sometime though we are too busy with our fast paced lives that we don’t look at the big picture and remember to enjoy the journey. This was another reminder for me. So about 2 or 3 months ago I had an operation. I had this benign cyst that I had for a long time. It was no big deal actually as people will get cysts from plugged pores or irritation or whatever. I had this one for many years but recently it seemed to be getting larger so I wanted to remove it. Work kept me so busy with travel and all these “urgent” things that I never had the appropriate space of time to get a surgical procedure done. I knew it was important to monitor my health but I thought it could wait. Every day I delayed checking it out, I psychologically created more and more anxiety in the back of my mind.. like “what if it was something worse?”

A year later than I had wanted to drag it on, I finally had the right opportunity to get it checked out. Fearing the general health practice in China, I decided to go to Taiwan – which is known to have quite exceptional medical practice. Sure enough the doctor in Taiwan said it was most likely but not for certain a benign cyst that got inflamed but should be removed. He wouldn’t know what it was until he could remove it and sample it. All of this happened within a medical break I requested when we had no events going on.. but I would have to be back in Beijing as soon as possible. The day of the procedure, I was pretty antsy for sure. Sure enough all went smoothly and I was down to my last day before my flight to Beijing. It wasn’t over yet though. I got a call from the doctor who said I should stay a few more days in Taipei because there was a possibility the removed tissue was cancerous. He sent the tissue to the lab to be checked because the material seemed pretty hardened which could be an indication of cancerous tissue. Upon hearing that news my heart skipped a beat. I tried to stay positive because nothing was confirmed yet.. and since I had booked my flight to Beijing I was pretty set on keeping that date.

I would have to wait 3-5 days to get the results back. Those few days were hard to describe. I carried on as usual but just with a much more open mindset… I looked at everything with an added hint of “life is short”. I think I normally view life that way already but it gave my mindset an added jolt of that. Those few days my outlook grew more vast and I think it stamped in my mind that we must do something worthwhile and that we enjoy. Fortunately a few days later I got a call saying the results came in and it was in fact benign so I would not need to go back to the hospital.

New Beginnings: The Plunge Back into the Darkness

Back to Training

After my surgery I was pretty much not supposed to be active until the opening healed up. This was pretty tough for me and I started getting restless. Especially with my boosted outlook that I had to be active and push myself, I really wanted to start training again and focus on making the most of life. Plus all my time working with Jet we were so busy I barely had time to train. 2 things happened – not directly due to the cancer scare, but of course I’m sure it had some influence.

I decided I wanted to get back to focusing on personal travel, development, training, and health. I also decided that the timing was right for me to move on from my full-time job.

So there it was.. the plunge back into uncertainty. No regular paycheck. No guided set of tasks and direction. No place to live again. Another leap towards my goals, but at the same time not being able to see the ground where I would hopefully land.

When the decision was made, I knew I would have to fight. I guess it’s both physical and metaphorical… but it so happened that I found an awesome Muay Thai / Boxing gym in Beijing.

Hero Gym

So I checked myself and realized I was getting a little flabby from being surgery incapacitated, lack of training, too many long nights, and not eating carefully. My friend in Taiwan also commented that I was getting a beer belly. I was also motivated by my buddy Andy who did a very intense 6 month diet and exercise regiment where he transformed himself from average Joe to 3.75% body fat diesel. I didn’t go as hardcore on the strict eating, but I decided to go light on carbs, high on protein, fish, chicken, no sugar, and many meals throughout the day as opposed to 2 big meals. I also stayed consistent with muay thai training, wushu, jogging, and lifting pretty much 4-5 days a week for about 6 weeks.

sparring

bag work, getting in shape

I need to find some before pictures, but I finally felt back in shape after 6 weeks of intense training. It really felt good to move again especially after I healed up.

A lot of other intense things were happening during this time as I was transitioning work, preparing to move, and also going on a trip due to visa reasons. I think keeping busy keeps me motivated because at least I feel a direction to improve in my fight training.. and with that progress it pushes me forward in my other endeavors. I think this is definitely a new stage in life and it’s not my first time taking this leap. I am rather excited about the opportunities and looking forward to having more time to train muay thai, boxing, tai chi, sanda, weapons, etc.

Next post – Vietnam Adventures!

Wikinews Screen shot 2011-08-17

Hey guys! I recently did an interview with Wikinews. Today after muay thai practice, to my pleasant surprise I received an email notifying me that my interview is on the Wikipedia news main page – (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page) and also a Hungarian martial arts online magazine asked to use the article http://www.budomagazin.hu/cikk.4612.negyszemkozt_egy_wushu-vilagbajnokkal.html

Here is the direct link to the article: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_Chinese-American_martial_artist_Alfred_Hsing

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Wikinews interviews Chinese-American martial artist Alfred Hsing

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Alfred Hsing, a US martial artist with Chinese origins, besides having a long history of martial arts training in various styles, such as traditional kung fu, tae kwon do and karate, considers wushu – an athletic sport based on Chinese martial arts – as a form of art that pushes one’s physical limits and stimulates the mind at the same time. After having won the gold medal at the 10th World Wushu Championships, he became international movie star Jet Li‘s personal assistant and went on to do stunts, action coreography, and land roles in movies.

Hungarian Wikinews contributor Teemeah has interviewed Alfred Hsing about his views on martial arts, life and Wikipedia.

Interview

Teemeah Why did you start practicing wushu? Is it a way of retaining your origins?

A. Hsing When I was young my father brought home a lot of Chinese martial arts movies so my brother and I grew up liking martial arts. For a long time we would practice moves at home and play fight each other. There are a lot of styles of martial arts and I took classes in tae kwon do, karate, and some traditional kung fu, but when I discovered my first wushu class I knew it was exactly what I was looking for.

I think at first I wanted to learn wushu because I enjoyed it, but as my training became more advanced and serious I realized that it led me back to my roots and I learned much more about my own culture because of it.

Teemeah What does wushu mean to you personally?

A. Hsing Wushu comes second nature to me and through the repetition of practice it’s like a form of meditation for me. When I practice I can release all of the stresses brought on by the world.

Teemeah Do you have an idol or role model in martial arts?

A. Hsing When I grew up my dad rented a lot of Jet Li and Jackie Chan movies. As I got to learn more about how hard working and dedicated they were, they became more of an inspiration to me and motivated me to challenge myself to my limits.

Teemeah Now you live in China. Do you consider to stay there or would you move back to the US if you had the opportunity to?

A. Hsing I am living in China right now, but I don’t usually limit myself by setting strict plans for the future because we never know what the future will hold so I usually stay open minded and keep myself open to whatever opportunities come my way. Of course since I have family in the US I do see myself being back there at some point, but Asia also is like home for me.

Teemeah How do you find living in China? What is your favourite pastime there?

A. Hsing China is a very exciting place right now because there are so many opportunities and there is so much growth. Most of my time is spent working, but when I’m not working my favorite pastime is probably working out with friends. I enjoy anything with physical activity like swimming, playing ball, sparring, etc.

Teemeah Can you tell us what you have been doing lately?

A. Hsing I’ve been increasing my scope of knowledge lately. Aside from wushu, I’ve been training boxing, muay thai, and tai chi. I hope to keep expanding my knowledge and skill so that I can be versatile and well rounded in martial arts.

Teemeah You have accomplished great results in competitive martial arts but an individual always needs a goal in life. What is yours now?

A. Hsing I have many goals right now. I think one of the biggest ones is simply maintaining balance in life. Another goal is to keep on improving myself. Right now I am also doing more acting and action choreography and following my passions.

Teemeah You seem to travel a lot, have you ever visited Hungary?

A. Hsing I have been around Asia and Europe, but have not had a chance to visit Hungary yet. Maybe you could show me around sometime.

Teemeah And now a different topic: what is your opinion about Wikipedia, as a project [that] aims to collect the knowledge of mankind?

A. Hsing I think Wikipedia has been very useful. The ability to aggregate data onto a single search-able platform is definitely a great contribution. Mankind has [always] been able to improve through building on knowledge from the past and now Wikipedia is making this process more efficient.

Teemeah Do you use it? Have you ever contributed yourself?

A. Hsing I do use it when I need to quickly find out information on a certain subject. I have made some small contributions on Wikipedia in regards to wushu.

Well.. Taiji to be exact. The Chinese pin yin for tai chi is “tai ji” and recently a large focus of my time and work has been revolving around this taiji company and the research and practice of tai chi. Here are some my tai chi related activities lately -

Visit to Handan

Jet and I visited Han Dan in Hebei province to pay our respects to Yang Lu Chan the founder of Yang style tai chi. They have strong roots in the practice of tai chi there and when we went there were hundreds of tai chi practitioners showcasing the art. Yang Lu Chan is not the creator of tai chi itself but is supposedly the one who helped spread it to the world and there is a lot of interesting history behind it.

Adidas All In Campaign

We also went to an Adidas pr event which showcased the WuJi training program. This program is in many gyms in China. It is a blend of aerobic and martial elements.

Adidas Event with Olympic Gold Medalists

There we met Adidas sponsored athletes. They were China olympic gold medalists for taekwondo, boxing, and soccer. They also tried out the martial arts aerobic program with the fitness instructors. The taekwondo olympic athlete adapted quickest (for apparent reasons).

Getting ready for tai chi training

I have been immersed in the history, culture, and techniques of tai chi this past year so of course I have also been doing tai chi training. I started learned tai chi before, but since I started focusing on my training for the world games in 2009 I paused all other training. This year however I have been privileged to learn with 19th generation direct descendants of the Chen village for Chen style tai chi. The way they can feel your generation of power and use your force against you is almost superhuman. I’ll have to continue this discussion later as my practice progresses. In summary, I have been learning both the compulsory tai chi sets from China wushu team world games gold medalist as well as the traditional chen style forms and applications from the descendants of the Chen village.

Eating Dinner with Wang Zhan Hai (my right)

One of the people I have been honored to interact with is Chen style tai chi master – Wang Zhan Hai. He is the eldest son of acclaimed Chen style descendant Wang Xi An. Wang Zhan Hai’s entire childhood and early adult life was dedicated to learning Chen style tai chi. He competed in tai chi push hand competitions and various mixed martial art style competitions and has fought with top masters in other traditional styles. He could basically knock someone across an entire room using what would seem to be little to no strength.

In the midst of tai chi philosophy and business talk, we went to meet some friends of his to further some tai chi projects. We had dinner at an interesting restaurant… that served “exotic” food. Let’s take a look.

Fried ants and scorpions

Some people will say it’s not a big deal and they’ve tried crazier things and some will say they would never touch it. I say… hey! I’m thankful for food on the table and… I’m having what the tai chi master is having. Bon appetit!

Mmmh Chips!

Stunt team friends

Last but not least, I’ve made some cool friends who are working on action and stunts in an upcoming martial arts movie in China. Since I have been involved in everything tai chi.. a couple of the people I was learning with told me to drop by some stunt rehearsals.. so I got some good work outs in, tai chi practice, as well as helping out here and there with some of the choreography.

These guys are super skilled, professional, and have awesome personalities. It’s definitely a different lifestyle doing stunt work in China. You are required to be able to help out with everything with no such things as bumps and bonuses and little more than a boxed lunch. On the plus side you learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Chuan Ge Stuntman Extraordinaire

Here I am kicking it with one of the stunt guys who’s frequently worked with JC stunts and was on Ip Man stunts. He has been in the game for over a decade. Super cool guy and loves what’s app! haha!

Here’s the back of his shirt. Looks cool!

Ip Man Stunt Team

So that’s my summary on tai chi developments for this year so far. I will continue training tai chi and researching its market interest and basically keep being involved with the growth of tai ji as a martial art and a social enterprise. Stay posted for further developments! =)

Alfred and Michelle Yeoh in Singapore

Here is another back dated post about the first time I went to Singapore. This was immediately following our trip to Vietnam so the main reason I was here was for a Red Cross promotion of Volunteerism. Michelle Yeoh was also in town to support the campaign… hence the picture above.

Now just because I was in town for work doesn’t mean it was all work and no playyyy After the event ended it was roughly time for the lunar new year aka my one official holiday time of the year according to China work holidays. So anyways I had a few days in Singapore to sight see and hang with friends.

Ion Orchard in Singapore

Fortunately pretty much the one homie I know in Singapore (McLangan) is tearin up the nightlife scene with his club Filter among other venues that he promotes at… so pretty much every night was event packed. The first night I rolled out to Ion Orchard and there were a few bars around there.. after which we hopped around to some other events.

Alfred Kristen Traci in Singapore

I randomly ran into Kristen who I knew from ucla and who I also met up with in Beijing. Apparently this girl is just globe trotting it up too and was also mutual friends with Langan. After hanging out, we all went to go eat. Diggin the late night food in Singapore.

Late Night Grub in Singapore

Singapore Hainam Chicken

McLangan Grubbin after a night of Winning

I don’t remember too much of the night because we went to a lot of venues, but I do remember that was some tasty chicken.. solid late night food! I also remember at one point we had a bottle of Dom Perignon from bottle service and since we were hopping around and it was just way too much we hid it in a bush (?!!) I don’t know what we were thinking.. I knew we weren’t going to come back for it.. and we sure didn’t. At food John was sad and kept saying something like.. I can’t believe we put Dom P. – Life’s Trophy… in a bush!

Night Safari in Singapore

The next day Andy, my coworker, planned out a night safari trip with his other friends as well. It was pretty awesome. Going to the zoo is pretty cool for me already, but a NIGHT safari.. that was even cooler.

Crocodile Hsing

When you get there they have a few shows (like with fire or snakes or other animals) and you can even pay to have fish eat your skin! haha… after the entrance area you can enter on this safari car just like in Jurassic Park where you enter the safari and are sometimes only separated from the animals by a little puddle of water or a fence.. then there are points where you can get off the car and walk along certain trails.. then at certain checkpoints you can hop back on the car.

Feet Skin Eating Fish

Fruit Bats on Singapore Night Safari

The whole safari was pretty cool, but a highlight of the adventure was having bats fly all around your face! On part of the walking tour you can enter these caged areas where one door only opens if the other door is closed. You can enter into these bats’ living quarters where bats the size of your head (not including wingspan) fly all around you.. they are HUGE fruit bats.. hella freaky looking.. but also really amazing and interesting at the same time.. walking in there I think I felt 1/100th of what Batman felt when he first fell into the bat cave…

Singapore Night View

The rest of the trip I checked out Raffles Square and my friend Cat showed me some sights including the Merlion which is Singapore’s mascot. It has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. I went to catch up with Cat and see what she’s been up to. We went to chat at Max Brenner – this chocolate bar.. they had realllly reallly tasty chocolate milk. I think to call it “chocolate milk” is like an insult in their eyes.. haha.. it wasn’t cheap either.. but it was really high quality rich tasting chocolate.

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar

Sands in Singapore

Andy and I also visited the semi-recently built Sands Casino in Singapore. This casino is made to attract foreigners income and not locals.. the Singapore government made it such that if you are a Singapore citizen it costs like 100 Singapore Dollars to enter so they check your passport at the door. I also hear they have a sweet infinity pool at the top of the Sands, but I didn’t have time to check it out. Andy won a few bucks playing black jack.. at first I didn’t want to play black jack but since he sat down I played a few hands… as usual I lost in black jack. I don’t think that game has EVER treated me well.. which is why I almost never and should never play more than 3 hands. We left after maybe 45 minutes of playing and checking out the Sands.. then went to eat some high class restaurant pizza. Right before ordering Andy realized we left our player cards back at the Sands.. and since Andy was waiting for a friend.. I ran back to get them (it was just around the corner). When I went back in.. I felt this calling.. it was time – to not lose.. haha. I played basically any other game besides black jack and immediately started winning again. I played 20 minutes of roulette and then was pretty much back up again.. then I called it a day and went back to eat some pizza. So yeah, this pretty much summarizes my first time in Singapore. Not long after this trip I headed back to the US.

Ninja Restaurant in Taipei

This was much earlier in the year. I have a whole bunch of travel adventures and various posts that are behind cuz I never got around to posting.. so I might have a few backdated posts coming up.. but anyways, let me finish this one up – This is the conclusion post to my Taiwan Adventures III series.

There’s a themed restaurant in Taiwan called “Ren Zhe” or “Ninja” where all of the decor revolves around the ninja theme. Let me first give my review and then talk about the restaurant.. if you want to just go there and find out all the surprises then you might not want to read the rest of the article. Overall I thought it was a cool restaurant since I like ninjas and all, but let me get started on the specifics..

So the day I decided to go to the Ninja Restaurant allll of my Taiwan based friends started groaning and complaining that it wasn’t worth it. The main complaint I heard was that the food wasn’t that good and it was overpriced. Probably 7 or 8 people told me this.. I didn’t care because it was one of my last days in Taiwan and I wanted to check this place out regardless.

Ninja Sashimi

We got sushi, sashimi, soup, fried rice, beers, and more.. and the bill came out to roughly $20-25 per person. I guess that can be kinda expensive for Taiwan’s prices but overall it was a themed restaurant with games, a show, and sushi which is usually not that cheap anyways.. also I don’t remember the food tasting exceptional, but I also don’t feel like it tasted bad.. it seemed fine so I wasn’t sure why everyone said the food there tasted terrible. Also consider the effort the chef goes through to make ninja star shaped fried rice for you and how many times the cleaning staff gets cut when washing their ninja swords.. hahha..

Ninja Star Fried Rice

As far as the theme goes.. you walk in and a host shows you the way in.. when you get to this waterfall you say some magic ninja words and then the gate opens and you can enter the secret ninja lair. Cmon.. that’s kinda cool.. haha..

Ninja Sword Skewers

Then the biggest surprise for me was that there were ninjaettes that perform a show and then come around the room and play games with the dinner guests. They come around and play dice games / random little games and if you lose you get hit with a fake weapon and if you win you can win a free drink or something for your table.

After all the griping from everyone before I ate at the Ninja restaurant I was really expecting it to be a huge let down. I only went just for the theme but didn’t even know there was a show and games and all this other random stuff. I also might have thought it was more fun because I went in with really low expectations.. that always factors in I guess. If I were to make any suggestions though.. I guess I would make the place MORE ninja-y as in make it even darker either in decor or lighting depending on legal requirements.. and then I would make at least 1 or 2 fabulously delicious namebrand dishes so people would shut it about the “bad” tasting food. I hear there is a hospital themed restaurant by the same owners.. guess I’ll have to check it out next time and give yall a review. =)

Jet Li Adidas WuJi

The new line of WuJi apparel is out. WuJi is Jet Li’s Adidas line of clothes – it is currently a top selling line for Adidas here in China. I believe the line is expanding distribution to more parts of Asia and the world. We’ll have to stay posted to see how that develops!

Anyways! Now that the Adidas marketing campaign is already in full motion and we’ve attended a Q4 promotion event and all the posters are up.. I can finally see the results of some fun and hard work put in from a few months back. Knowing that I also had a wushu background, I got put to the test to come up with some choreography and poses that Adidas, the photographer, and Jet would be happy with… and that was also in line with their theme and so on…

Here are some photos from the day of the photo shoot.

Jet Li Adidas Photo Shoot Choreography

The picture above is me on the monitor (we both had shaved heads at this time!). After I discussed the pose and angles with the photographer, he would set up all the lighting and take all the test shots with me until we were satisfied on a result. For this shot all parties involved decided to go with a more powerful and grounded feel.. so I decided to go with a lower stance that felt more solid, but at the same time avoided the typical horse stance and fist pose or front stance and punch pose. I feel we see Jet in this pose less often so although it’s a small drop in his large bucket of poses.. and we are trying to fulfill a certain marketing need, it was my 2 cents of freshness for this shot.

Jet Li Adidas WuJi Q4 Campaign

Here is Jet’s poster in the main Adidas store in Beijing. I think initially I made the pose a little more aggressive and he slightly modified it to make it feel more upright / a more holistic healthy feel. I know most might be thinking.. “whatever, it’s just a simple wushu pose” but truthfully our body language speaks a lot… even a slight lean forward or down can make someone seem more imposing or threatening, whereas having your chest and body upright might feel more comforting.. etc.. so these were some thoughts that went through my head while aligning everyone’s requests. I just wanted to put my full effort into it since this is what I enjoy doing.

Here we have an outdoor shot. It was shot by the Great Wall – very beautiful view of the sunset.

adidas wuji choreo

So first Adidas specified they wanted a kicking motion pose. We wanted an action pose, but we also wanted to keep a wushu element in the shot… so my idea originated from a front snap kick or front push kick and sort of evolved from there.

After seeing the initial poses and options Jet decided it would be more exciting to catch the pose “in motion” meaning.. seeing the kick before final extension. His creativity and uniqueness always amazes me.

Jet Li Adidas WuJi Pose

The way he pulls off the moves is always just right. I think that for me his style is his style and has definitely had a huge impact on the sport of wushu… but it’s not something to be consciously “replicated” – I think as a sense of self becomes more and more strongly defined you can offer your own “style” and in this way can offer more in the way of innovation and creation.

Anyways, for me this is just a look back at some of the work I did last year and now I get to see some of the fruits of that! =)

Zhang Ziyi at Hong Kong International Film Awards Ceremony

And by madness – I just meant I was going to post a few pictures from the event. haha!

Nadia Hatta at the Asian Film Awards

A ton of AnDers and other people I knew all happened to be at this event. It was very fun.. and I wasn’t even planning on going… I just kinda ended up there. It was great meeting all the people behind the blogs. =P

A few notable attendees of the night included – Sammo Hung, Chow Yun Fat, Zhang Ziyi, Aaron Kwok, and Feng Xiaogang.

Sammo Hung sat 2 rows ahead of me.. he seemed startled when they announced he won best supporting actor for Ip Man 2… not sure if that was his acting skills though.

AnDers at the Asian Film Awards Afterparty

My Dinner at the HK Film Awards

So with my remaining days in HK I’m hoping to be able to meet up with a few other people that I met up from last night. It was good (an unexpected) gathering for me.

Oh and I might as well comment on some of the victories at the awards ceremony: Sammo won for best Supporting Actor in Ip Man 2, a Korean film Yellow Sea’s lead won best actor, Taiwanese film Monga’s lead won best new actor, ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’ won the Asian Film award for Best Picture, and best-actress award went to Xu Fan for her role in ‘Aftershock,’ from Chinese director Feng Xiaogang. Aftershock also won for top grossing film for 2010. It pulled in US $101.3 million.

Veteran Hong Kong producer and co-founder of Golden Harvest Raymond Chow received a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to Hong Kong cinema, which includes classic films starring Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), Jackie Chan (Police Story) and Jet Li (Once Upon a Time in China).

Here is some more info in case you’re curious:

BEST FILM

* Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand)

BEST DIRECTOR

* Lee Chang-dong / Poetry (South Korea)

BEST ACTOR

* Ha Jung-woo / The Yellow Sea (South Korea)

BEST ACTRESS

* Xu Fan / Aftershock (Mainland China / Hong Kong)

BEST NEWCOMER

* Mark Chao You-Ting / Monga (Taiwan)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

* Sammo Hhung Kam-po / Ip Man 2 (Hong Kong)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

* Yoon Yeo-jeong / The Housemaid (South Korea)

BEST SCREENPLAY

* Lee Chang-dong / Poetry (South Korea)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER

* Mark Lee Ping-Bin / Norwegian Wood (Japan)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGNER

* Hayashida Yuji / 13 Assassins (Japan)

BEST MUSIC SCORE

* Indian Ocean / Peepli Live (India)

BEST EDITING

* Nam Na-young / I Saw The Devil (South Korea)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

* Phil Jones, Zhang Yan-ming / Aftershock (Mainland China/ Hong Kong)

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER

* William Chang Suk-ping / Let the Bullets Fly (Mainland China / Hong Kong)

The Asian Film Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema

* Kim Dong-ho