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

It was my first time in Vietnam. I went to Hanoi for work where we helped create awareness for Red Cross programs in Vietnam as well as learn about what disaster recovery programs the Red Cross has developed. This trip was earlier this year, but I’d been so busy that I hadn’t had time to post. I think I’ll mainly post up some pictures of this trip. – Following this post I should post about my trip to Singapore which directly following my trip to Vietnam.

Vietnam Antique Shop

Some Antique in the Vietnam Shop

Another creepy antique but what do I know

Alfred in Vietnam

First lunch in Vietnam

Salty Drink

You haven't visited Vietnam without having some Vietnamese coffee

Saw many sights straight out of war scenes because they were

Plants were grown by Red Cross volunteers to reduce flooding

Really tasty meal made at a temple in Vietnam

We did a lot of other things in relation to work, but you can check that out at the red cross site: http://www.redcross.org.vn/redcross/

Night View of Taipei 101 on New Years Eve

It was officially New Years Eve and I started the day off right by going to workout with my friend Susan. I hadn’t worked in a while because work was taking up a lot of my time. Any chance I get to work out.. I get pretty excited. I think I ran 3 miles, did a little weight lifting, and then did some kicks in one of the studio rooms.

Working out aside, the main event of the night was New Years Eve celebrations. After working out, eating lunch, and going back to change… I rested a little and before you knew it there was not much time left before the countdown. I got showered and got ready for the new year and head out to meet my friends Elaine and Alan.

Crowds of people in the background

Alan ended up having some work meetings so I had to meet him up a little later. On New Years Eve in Taipei there are tons of people on the streets. Exciting atmosphere.. but still reallly crowded! There was NO PLACE to eat! I tried to find a simple restaurant but there was nothing! We ended up waiting for a bit and finally a spot opened up. Whew! After dinner I met up with Sarah, David.. and the crew!

NYE in Taipei

Lasik Terminator Mode

David’s friend had access to some news or office tower building where you could watch the fireworks. We kicked it there for a while but this would not be our final location for the night! As planned I met up Alan at Marquees. This is where I watched the countdown.

I must admit, this years fireworks were AMAZING. It was Taiwan’s 100th yr celebration and they spent twice the money on fireworks this year. I was in Taiwan last year for the fireworks.. and I can’t even compare.. there’s just nothing to say. Fireworks zigged and zagged up and down the 101 building they shot out of every direction.. they were like missiles blowing up everywhere except they formed hearts and didn’t kill anyone… to my knowledge. Anyways, youtube some Taipei 101 fireworks for this year.. I am sure everyone will agree it was pretty amazing.

ROC 101

After the spectacular firework display this is what lit the sky after the smoke settled. Pretty epic.

So at Marquee, I basically ran into every single possible ABC (American Born Chinese) from LA in Taipei. I felt like I was at a club in LA because so many people flew out to visit and spend new years. For those who have been to Taiwan or have an opinion.. what changes do you see in ABC life in Taiwan in the past decade? How has it affected Taipei and what lies ahead for the future? I ended the night at Primo. Lot’s of friends runnin around and met some new friends as well. Did lots of walkin and runnin around on New Years Eve, but it was all worth it! Had a blast and was happy to have spent my new years in Taiwan. This year was already off to a great start!

The rest of my trip in Taiwan was all quite busy and fun. However, it can basically be summed up in 3 categories: Meet ups, Parties, and Martial Arts.

Meet ups!
It’s nice to follow people on “facebook” or “twitter” to stay in touch… but I MUCH PREFER meeting up my friends face to face and just speaking your mind, hearing what they’ve been up to, and just having a nice cup of tea or coffee or boba! haha!

I met up with my mei Sarah and her fam for dinner. I checked out her new place in Xin Bei Tou – far! but it was a really nice place with like a time travel capable bathroom/shower. haha! Got to meet up with Ngan’s fam as well and take them out for dinner! It was cool that they came to check out Taiwan.

Glad I met up with tha Cool Silly homies Tony, Leeway, and Ray at Primo. They always have concerts and events.. plus every time I’m in Taipei it’s usually for a couple of days only.. so it was good we bumped into each other and said wsup. Too bad for Leeway though.. we didn’t get to go workout this time =P haha next time though! Better start training now. haha!

I had a few Beers with my friends Ryan and Vanessa. Last time I was in Taiwan they hooked me up on an affordable place so it was good catching up with them. My coworker AND roommate Andy was also in Taiwan so of course we met up and then aside from a meetup with some new friends who work at the Golden Horse Film Festival, I also had lunch with my family friends, aunts and uncles.. and that’ssss about it!

Kareoking with Andy

Parties
Luxy.
Primo.
Marquee.
Spark.

Check, check, check….. and check.

Party mode Jess and Tim

Martial Arts + death day workout
Muahhaha! This category is good. Now.. one day.. and I don’t know why.. but for some reason.. I ended up doing A LOT of working out. Sometimes I schedule things and don’t think or care about the physical repercussions as long as it fits with my schedule I’ll just stick it in. So one day I had scheduled to go workout with my friend Susan. Okay… no big deal.. just a workout in the morning. I go workout.. run 3 miles, do some lifting, and do a little light shadow kick boxing and flips in an open studio room. We go and grab lunch.

Behold! I had scheduled to meet up with Ngan to go meet up the Guo Ti wushu team right after lunch… so Ngan meets us up at lunch and straight from lunch I go to Linkou to train wushu! We train for about 1-2 hours.. it was a relatively light workout. We mainly went there to say hi.. but nonetheless, we still ended up doing basic kicks, jump kicks, and short sections.

THEN…. I had made a promise to MYSELF that I would visit Taiwan BJJ – an MMA training place in Taiwan. I had already tried to go once before, but they were closed the day after New Years… so this time I was resolved to check it out. I figured if I didn’t go I might never go this trip.. so riiight after wushu.. I ate 9 pieces of sushi at the train station and went directly to practice.

It’s my first time at Taiwan BJJ and today happens to be a Muay Thai class. Everyone comes in pumped after renewing their new years resolutions. They also all seem pretty serious when it comes to kick boxing.. in other words I think it was a good class.. people weren’t there to do some light cardio kick boxing stuff. The instructor is kind enough to let me sample a class… so we start warming up and doing drills. No one knew or cared that I had come from 2 other workouts already… then to top it off this is no light workout. We started doing jump rope and cardio drills where you go for 3 minutes at a time. I was pretty much dying from the start. Then we switched into doing some Thai clinching drills followed by pad work and finished up by doing some more high intensity conditioning. Whew!

I think if I had been more in shape overall (gettin fat from no working out on the job) and hadn’t run around the whole day working out I would’ve still been tired… but in alright condition. Instead though!!!!…. the next 3 days I pretty much couldn’t walk normally and had a hard time doing anything that required movement. I also had a major pain in my foot so I was limping and sore. (Somehow magically Sarah’s dad had some light device that apparently healed my foot, but that’s another story).

As if that day of 3x workouts wasn’t enough.. I had one last martial arts session in Taiwan. My friend and MMA promoter Holly took me to her friend’s BJJ school near bei tou. We joined in on a more beginner BJJ class.. did some more conditioning and BJJ basics. I still came out learning some good stuff. I was in much pain though still.. haha!

after mma workout at sarahs new house

If only this picture could express how sore I was.. haha! We did do some hot spring therapy and Sarah’s dad used this crazy light to help me heal my gimp foot. I don’t know for certain if it healed my foot, but the next day after I got some rest, I felt significantly better.

Alright.. well stay tuned for the conclusion of Taiwan Adventures III: Ninja Battle

Alrighty! I went to Taiwan to spend my New Years Eve and every time I go to Taiwan you know I have some funnnn adventures! ..and of course this time was nooo different!

and so begins my third adventures in…. Taiwan!!

Taiwan Adventures III - (Sarah, Ngan, Alfred)

Immediately after 2 conferences and finishing up our last day of filming in Beijing I jetted off to Taiwan for some “fun in the sun” per..say. I was like a hitman out to have fun with precision accuracy.. haha… I say this because I had a pretty planned out and packed schedule. Upon arriving in Taiwan, my good homeboy E and I met up at the airport. He was stopping over for about 6 hours on his way over to Malaysia. I hadnt hung out with him for close to 8 months.. I havent really seen a lot of people in the states since I left for China… so we had a good couple hours to chat, get food, and catch up.

A and E

We took a picture “outside” of the airport just so E could say he technically visited Taiwan. haha.. also we thought taking a picture in the mirror at the same time would be cool.. but it wasnt that cool. lol

After the airport I immediately went to meet up my two US Wushu teammates! Ngan and Sarah. I had lunch with Ngan while Sarah was at work.

Pork Chop Noodles with Ngan

Here we are getting some delicious Taiwanese food. Ngan and I caught up and I was talkin to her about life, some recent religious concepts, my businesses, and other goals and such. She really got what I was saying and we chatted for quite a while. When Sarah got off work, she met us up at this little old style coffee shop.

Coffee Shop Time

Sarah just got lasik so she’s wearing crazy sunglasses at all times of the day! So by the time she arrived it was time for dinner! D and Sarah decided to take us to this Beer Factory for dinner.

Taiwan Beer Factory

Food at the Beer Factory

It’s not a beer factory without beer on the table! The place is simply a Taiwan beer factory with tons of beer bottles everywhere. Then you can order some “re chao” and chomp down with your beer.

After beer time we went to a Jazz bar via invitation from my friend Mei!

Mei Yi Ho it up at the Jazz Bar

Last time I saw Mei was in 2009 so it was exactly a full year since kickin it in Taiwan. We had some good chats about her work and her thoughts on the current situation of the film industry in Taiwan. After this I called it a night.. after all it was essentially my FIRST day in Taiwan.

The next day I met up with another friend.. and for the first time too! I think this trip I really squeezed in a lot because I knew I only had about 10 days to hang out with all my good friends in Taiwan.

So yeah, the next day I met up Nadia and we went for dinner. We were going to cook some food with her FT crew I think.. but then plans changed so we ended up going to chill at her friends studio. It was a totally pimptastic spot with a great view. Some pretty awesome beats gettin made there! There was simply too much goin on this trip.. I couldn’t document it all! After a while, we got hungry again and went for a snacky snack. See below!

Oil Treats in a Bun

I’m thinking about how unflattering the name of this sounds if it’s directly translated into English… it’s called “oil sticks” hahaha.. cuz this is a completely vegetarian snack.. and its basically dough dipped in oil… haha.. but it tastes so good.. AND I was introduced to the crack of all sauces. If you look in the background of the pic you see this awesome sauce. I don’t know what it’s made of or what it’s called but it made the oil stick taste pretty ridiculously delicious. haha

Oil Stick Chomp Down

After eating on some oil sticks, I was pretty much ready to call it a day.. the next day was New Years Eve and I needed to charge up. Plus, I was going to wake up early to work out!! Rah!! Also, I think all my exhaustion from work and then flying in to Taiwan and getting settled into my hotelmotel was catchin up.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this adventure… New Years Blast Off!

So I guess I finished off 2009 with a bang by quitting my desk job, winning gold at worlds, and then taking off to live in Taiwan for 2.5 months. I finally broke free of this “path” that seemed carved since birth. Once I had walked this path of getting good grades, graduating college, and getting a corporate job, I felt I could finally venture into what the rest of the universe had to offer. I just started truly discovering the endless possibilities of life towards the end of 2010.. but 2011 was the year that I would start learning more, questioning more, and pushing the envelope on what is capable in life.

Let me take a look back at the fruits of my labor for 2010.

It was definitely a year of meeting people! Not that I ever cared too much about merely “meeting people” but if there were ever celebrities or idols that I wanted to meet, I more than definitely got that out of my system this year. So to start out.. right after watching the fireworks at Taipei 101 I finished my enjoyable trip to Taiwan and headed back to LA. I headed straight back to LA just in time to rehearse and perform at a demo for Jackie Chan!

Jackie Chan at the Lionsgate's Movie The Spy Next Door Premier

Immediately after the demo before my body had even cooled down I caught a flight back to SF bay area to perform with my brother at an event my mom was helping out with around the Civic Center in San Jose.
Here I am with my brother working on our fight choreography for the performance.

Aside from all these demos, 2010 was also a new year for “wu shu” for me. Taking a gold at the world games was as far as I could have ever hoped to go with competitive taolu wushu. Immediately when I got back to LA I started training with world games sanda medalist Jason Yee. I was really excited to hear that he had moved to LA and was also working in entertainment. Including some wushu private lessons that I started teaching, I basically trained every day of the week – sometimes 2 times a day. My training would consist of sanda with Jason, wushu at LA wushu, tricking at white lotus, and gym time at LA fitness.

Me and Jason

A little sampler of my training at White Lotus.

For me, it was also a really meaningful year for wushu in another sense. 2010 was my last year doing competitive wushu. I was invited to the 2010 Sport Accord Games in Beijing, China based off of placing top 6 in a qualifying event at the world games.

My Last Wushu Competition

After more than 10 years of training wushu and competing, part of me looks back and thinks, it’s hard to believe that this part of my life is over. A couple years ago I couldn’t imagine a day where I wasn’t focusing on making the US wushu team. Of course everything has it’s time and place. I am so happy to have finished off my final competition at the Sport Accord Games. It was a high level first of it’s kind event recognized by the IOC to be held like an olympics for martial arts. I got my chance to compete in Beijing – a birthplace of modern wushu. Best of all I got to spend this trip with my US wushu teammates Sarah Chang and Peter Dang as well as my Canada wushu buddies. =)

Plus I finally got some espn-like wushu coverage with one of those high flying dolly-ing cameras. Check out my final performance.

Jackie Chan even congratulated me after the tournament. He ended up being an honored invited guest performer for the 2010 Sport Accord closing ceremony. You can still see my competitor badge below.

Alfred Hsing and Jackie Chan

It’s amazing how things are all connected. Before getting a job in Beijing, I was going to fly to China anyways because I was invited to compete at the Sport Accord games. Then I happen to attend the games to compete AND for work because Jet was an honored international wushu ambassador. Meanwhile Jackie Chan was singing as an honored performer.. and I had just happened to perform for him earlier on in the year for his movie premier at The Grove in LA.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a year of meeting people – part of that was because I became a News Correspondent / Interview Host for Pac Rim baby!

I had the opportunity to interview a lot of artists and performers that I have a lot of respect for.. such as: Mike Shinoda, Cung Le, Tia Carrere, ABDC dance crews, and many others.

Cung Le Interview

Mike Shinoda

Outside of meeting some awesome peeps on the Pacific Rim team and on the red carpets.. my celebrity streak didn’t end there… but first! let me do a little summary on my business developments.

2010 was actually a very interesting year for WushuKicks.com – my online martial arts business. Aside from acting projects and training all my other time was focused on WushuKicks. WushuKicks went through some good clean ups. The site design and functionality was improved; it was the first year we were incorporated; sales increased month to month; vendor relationships developed; and I grew new lines of business. WushuKicks was also a sponsor of CMAT this year. Overall the scale of WushuKicks definitely grew.. and in fact I am looking for another person to possibly join the team to help out in a learning and assisting capacity (contact me at alfredrocks(at)gmail.com).

WushuKicks sponsors CMAT 18

Martial Arts Complete

One of the new lines of business under WushuKicks was Martial Arts Complete. My good homie and buddy Adam McArthur and I had this idea to promote martial arts nutrition. I started talking to him about this in 2009. Finally in 2010 our idea came to fruition and was finalized. We set up the site www.martialartscomplete.com (after being scammed by some guy who only half finished our site). Then we finished the designs, product pictures, legal work, certifications, and got our first sale not too long after our product was completed. =) Look forward to more development for 2011.

I guess the most interesting part was that in the middle part of the year I ended up moving to the other side of the world and still fully remotely managed WushuKicks. With less time spent I even noticed sales continued to increase! Life is good!

NOW.. why did I move to the other side of the world? I guess most know by now. I got a life changing email (and skype call) that landed me a job to work for my childhood role model Jet Li.

andy alfred jet clinton

The job has had it’s ups and downs in terms of how draining and demanding it can be… but I never regret making this decision to up and move from LA to China. Oh yeah, so the picture above is with Clinton at a Clinton Global Initiative event in Hong Kong. Also the reason I shaved my head is because I landed a small role in a movie WITH Jet. I shaved my head to play a monk. I actually got lines, a close up, and some work with the stunt team as well. I mean.. wow.. from driving hours in traffic just to audition for scattered roles in LA to working with China’s most famous directors and being in a scene interacting with Jet Li… this alone made 2010 an amazing year for me! Unfortunately I’m not allowed to post up pics from the set yet, but when the movie comes out I will definitely post up some news.

Some other good memories on the job include: meeting other celebs like Rob Cohen, Ekin Cheng, Jay Chou; working with top entrepreneurs and philanthropists like Jack Ma, Wang Shi, Ma Hua Teng; emailing Bill Gates and Warren Buffet; shaking hands 6 times with Bill Clinton; helping choreograph Jet’s Adidas Q4 clothing line poses; hitting up movie premiers; changing history (watching the One Foundation achieve status as a public NGO in China).

Jack Ma and Alfred Hsing

adidas front kick pose

Despite all the cool people and fun sounding events… moving to China and working for Jet was one of the most draining and demanding jobs I have ever had in my life. For the first 3 months, every day I passed out from exhaustion. Within the first 3 weeks on the job one time in Shanghai I woke up in a hotel and didn’t know which city I was in for about 2-3 minutes. When I got here, I couldn’t read Chinese as well and I was much more unfamiliar with how everything works. I am so thankful that my reading ability has improved and my listening comprehension for business and philanthropy terminology has increased as well. I still feel I have a ways to go, but I sincerely want to make a push to improve my Chinese to a near-native level this year.

It has definitely been a year of accomplishing goals. I got the chance to work with both Jackie Chan and Jet Li this year.. and that’s a goal I had set upon achieving since the 7th grade. Also I had always wanted to move to Asia and live here for 6 months – 1 year and now I’ve made that happen as well.

I rounded up the year and made everything come full circle as we finished up 2 movies by the end of December and I took a short vacation to Taiwan. So again, for the second time I spent my New Years Eve watching the fireworks at Taipei 101. This year was a 100 year celebration for Taiwan and it was also 2010, a nice round number, so apparently double the money was spent on fireworks. The firework display was in fact AMAZING this year! Fireworks zigged and zagged and flooded up and down the 101 building. It also lit the sky with all kinds of shapes and lights! I think this was a great great great way to kick off 2011.

Taipei 101 2010 NYE

New Years in Taiwan with homies

It was great to spend the end of 2010 in Taiwan with friends. Ngan, Sarah, and I joked about all the former US wushu team members moving to Asia and kicking it in Taiwan. It was a fun vacation and my Taiwan trip will surely have it’s own post.

Overall this year I think I reached new heights in my understanding of the universe. If last year I pushed physical limits of the human body (training and training and more training till it hurt all over) this year I started to push the limits of the mind… my mind.. human minds.. and questioning more deeply on how our human minds limit ourselves. I hope and sincerely believe that the relationships I have developed this year were many and far reaching. I believe the fruits of labor that will be sown in 2011 will be seismic!! even in comparison to past years. I hope for success in the acting and entertainment field for 2011. Even beyond acting developments.. I think I am growing in knowledge around spirituality and life’s truths. I know there will be further developments in this area as well. If 2010 was pushing boundaries.. 2011 is where we break the tipping point for goals and possibilities.

I hope you enjoyed my recap of 2010. Welcome 2011!
- Alfred Hsing

our movie storyboard artist drew his version of monk alfred

On November 11, 2010  I got my acting debut in China. It has always been a dream of mine to work with amazing actors and directors that are world renown and on 11/11 my opportunity came. I was promised the chance to pop my head in this upcoming feature film and on Wed 11/10 I was suddenly told to shave my head… so of course without hesitation I jumped in the makeup car and said “shave away!” because I knew that meant the next day I would get to play a role.

The next day I had no idea what was up. I got dressed in wardrobe and thought that I would get to walk around as a monk and just be in the background for a bit. Turns out I was sitting down amongst 100 other monks.. with my eyes closed praying. (woopee) I was hoping something more awesome would happen, but either way I was still happy that I got to be in the movie with the people I look up to.

Lo and behold though! After lunch I had another part and this time it was me and 5 other monks and I was way more featured…. THEN…. to top of it off the script guy gave me dialogue to say! and what’s more.. they were cool with my dialogue and the director decided to give me a close up! Wow! This made my day! =)

To top off topping it off, the next day I was around set just helping out when the director himself saw me and told me to go get in wardrobe and continue helping out in a few other scenes!

This was the first time I had dialogue in a major feature film, the first time acting in China, and the first time speaking Chinese in a feature film. I am so happy and grateful – this is something I’ve always wanted to do! =)

Thank you!!

Hey! Haven’t written much in the past few days/weeks. We’ve been on set for 2 films – Dragon Gate and White Snake. I won’t go into too much detail.. but it’s been busy and not the most comfortable of filming environments. We are filming in the desert and near some mountains meaning the weather has been COLD to say the least… and there’s always sand in your eyes and mouth. =P bleh! Everyone is wrapped head to toe with hats, scarf, big jackets, glasses, waterproof boots, 5 layers.. and its still not enough! Regardless it’s been cool to be on 2 films at the same time because I can easily compare and contrast.. and see how each production works differently…. not to mention one film is in 3D so I am essentially getting a super crash course in action films, wu xia, 3D, choreography, acting, filming, production, scheduling, etc etc..

The hotels we have been staying at our basically really “roughin it” style since the shooting locations are far from the city and there aren’t really any 5 star hotels. Although when I am in the situation I am complaining.. looking back I’m always happy to have gone through it because only when you go through these tough times can you be truly grateful for the comfortable times. Helps remind me of how fortunate I am.

Couple days ago we had the One Foundation Annual Meeting which was wrapped around a full day event. Tony Blair came as a guest speaker. In the evening awards were handed out to top philanthropy groups that met various standards in their operating processes. Overall good event. Yesterday we went to a YangLan 10 year anniversary event which congratulated Jet on his achievements in philanthropy.

Updates aside I edited a clip of some tricking. I played around with iMovie on my macbook pro. I’m looking to get final cut but for now iMovie will work. I had edited some of these clips before on Windows, but the software made the video quality pretty poor.. so I made this remix.

If watching from China:

Last week I had the fortune of squeezing in 2.5 days in Taiwan! I essentially had 48 hours in Taiwan because the other half days were occupied by actual commute time. My parents happened to be in town so I asked my boss for a few days off. Fortunately he graciously accepted my request…. and so I was off to Taipei! My mom actually won a free tour to Taiwan from some raffle (she tends to win raffles all the time) so my dad bought a ticket and that’s how they ended up in Taiwan.

Madame Tusades hk wax figure

I had just finished a wax figure opening ceremony at Madame Tusades in HK and then was continuing work on a film in Hubei when I found out that they would be in Taipei at the last leg of their tour. Since we were just about to switch filming locations I squeezed in 2-3 days to see my parents in Taiwan.

When I first got there I met up with my sis – Sarah! We’re wushu “bros” and every time I visit Taiwan I always crash with her and kick it with her whole fam (minus Cheryl who is not in Taiwan) so we always laugh that I’m basically part of the family.. with that said… right when I landed I met her up at this HUGE family dinner of hers. Her dad’s cousins who hadn’t seen each other in 30 some years were there.

schang's family dinner

Then we went back to the pad to regroup and figure out the plan for the night. Even though Schang had work the next day she was down to hang out since I was only in town for 2 days. She is awesome. Another person that was awesome was Ngan – my scwa wushu teammate. So Sarah, her cousin, Tim, and Ngan planned to meet up for some karaoke at cash box! We were thinking it could potentially be more fun if we had more people, but it was kinda last minute so we rolled over.

Jerry Liau, Jack Tu, Jackie Chan

Guess what? As we were waiting outside waiting for Ngan some guy walked by me and quickly said.. “alfred” and i turned my head.. and it happened to be Jerry! It was pure chance that I ran into him. The week before we all met up for dinner. He is part of the New Seven Little Fortunes – a tour group that performs with Jackie Chan. I met him through my friend Jack Tu who is on that team and who was also the winner of the BTV show The Disciple. So Jerry was waiting for a few friends as well and we ended up all sharing a room and having a huge group karaoking the night away. haha. We had only planned to stay out till midnight but since everyone started singing we forgot about time and ended staying out till about 3am.

Lunch with Ngan

Even though we went out until 3am I made plans to get breakfast with Ngan the next day. I had to make the most of my 2 days! I met Ngan at 101… but totally got mixed up that Hua Na Wei Xiu aka the Neo19 place was a little ways off.. so we had a little exercise while meeting up for breakfast. Fortunately Ngan is super chill so didn’t mind the mix up too much. We met up at this breakfast place I like to go to for lounging, surfin wifi, and chatting. We chatted over pancakes and milk tea. We had some really great conversation – talked about random things but also some very insightful things. Within a few short minutes Ngan had a very thorough grasp of what I was doing and where I was heading with my goals. It was pretty amazing how quickly she was able to assess my situation. We also talked about personality types and recognized that understanding yourself helps you understand the best decision to make.

Eating Delicious Rice in Taiwan

Since we chatted for so long it became lunch and I HAD to visit this delicious “lu rou fan” (a taiwanese rice dish) mom and pops Taiwanese hole in the wall by where I used to live last year. After lunch I took a few steps and found a hair salon and got my hair cut.. then was off to meet another friend.

Environment Friendly Chopsticks

I’m starting to go green. On set we’ve decided to use our own chopsticks and bowls instead of using the disposable ones. I think this is awesome because for ONE thing.. if you use your own chopsticks and bowls your meal taste better than eating out of a paper bowl with splintered wood chopsticks. Another thing is that it’s more sanitary to use your own utensils. Most importantly though is – if you think about how many paper cups, plates, plastic spoons, wooden chopsticks are used PER DAY for a cast and crew of a few hundred. You easily go through a thousand spoons and plates per week! This goes back to www.storyofstuff.com – I am strongly against the increased consumption of our consumer society. I think we all need to scale back on consumption and I am happy to start with using my own bowls and plates. I know I went off on a tangent there.. but it’s something I get pretty heated about. So anyways, I went shopping for environmental objects with my friend and then she had to run to go teach a dance class.

I also saw this random pic while shopping.

Darth Vader Party

TW Star Tour Team

For dinner I met up with some colleagues I worked with on a star tour! Sarah and D met us up as well. We ate at a “re chao” place that was also more local and a chill hang out spot. Good for having some down home taiwan style food and beer. We hung out for quite some time and eventually ran into Tim and his friends! It shows how small a place Taiwan is because at night I was planning on meeting up with Tim anyways.

Re Chao in TW

We rolled to Tim’s friend’s house and did a little pre-partying and then headed to Luxy. I had no preference on where we were going that night since I was more down to just hang out with everyone… since Tim promotes at Luxy that’s where we ended up. This time I didn’t have to flip over any lasers to get in.. but they had lasers there anyways.

Luxy Lasers

The next day despite staying out late I woke up super early again (sarah had work too so she was up early).. and I spent a good 4 hours on my business. I was up at 7 and before I knew it.. it was 11. I took a shower and all that and by then started getting pretty hungry. I saw Leeway online so I said ‘yo’ lets get some lunch.. and he was like ‘yo’ i want to go workout. So we did both. After we ate and rested for a bit.. he took me to this community gym near his place. I showed him this HIIT Cardio program I’ve been workin on.. while we were warming up on the bicycle machine I said “hey u wanna try this HIIT cardio program? its pretty crazy but u might die.. im not sure though..” and then he looked at me like “what??” then i said “but hey! itll be fun!” so he said okay. Normally I go through 14 drills. Let’s just say we only got to the 4th drill… haha…

I’ll let Leeway give u his feedback himself.. or u can just look at this pic.

Leeway after A Cardio Session

Aside from his death cardio workout we had a really good chat about where we both are in our careers in entertainment. He updated me on his band Cool Silly and the progress he’s made since I left Taiwan in 09. I look forward to more awesome jams from Cool Silly. I also look forward to more clips of Tony holding a gun.

By the time we finished hanging out it was about time to meet up my parents! I took them to Kan Pai because that’s where I celebrated my birthday last year. I thought we could have some beers and chat.. and we did. The meat tasted fattier than last year… maybe it’s because I’ve been eating healthier or maybe it was just more oily this time.

i-baked

After dinner I hung out with my parents a little more at Tong Ling night market and then parted ways for a bit to go check out my friend Ivy’s new cookie store called i-baked. It was kinda late when I got there, but amidst customer’s coming in and out we talked about a lot of business ideas. She also caught me up on what I had been missing out on since 09. Since I had left she finalized her cookie recipes, set up a physical store, and designed all her logos and flyers, and etc. I was pretty happy for her and her accomplishments. I always like seeing people hustling, using their brains, and moving up! She also added fuel to the fire on this idea I’ve been moving forward on. It’s been taking me quite some time, but I think things are coming together. My goal will be to have it ready to roll by the end of this year. (If you know a patent attorney out there, let me know.)

Ivy's dogs at her Cookie Store

The next day was my last day in Taiwan before flying back to Beijing. I woke up and caught up on a little work before heading to Breeze Center (Wei Feng Guang Chang) to meet my parents, uncle jerry, aunt tan, and sarahs dad for lunch. We ate some good Shanghainese food and I was off to the airport. On the way to the airport we did stop by i-baked again since the cookies were so tasty and also since my uncle wanted to talk to Ivy’s partner who is an animal rescue volunteer.

Well that’s it for my 48 hour taiwan trip. It was awfully action packed just the way I like it. There were tons of other people I wanted to meet up with but simply did not have enough hours in the day! I hope I will be back soon!