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.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake Press Junket

White Snake Jet Li Fight Scene

The Sorcerer and the White Snake premiers in Theaters September 2011. I am pretty much in anticipation for the release of this movie since I’ve been involved since day 1 of its production.

In July we held a press release for promoting the movie. In the above picture you can see stars Jet and Eva with director Tony Ching being interviewed by the host. Here is a closer look at the cast and producers:

Sorcerer and the White Snake PR

At this press release we got to see for the first time the movie trailer on the big screen.

Here is roughly what we saw:

Youtube version:

If you’ll look closely at the scene with the monks, you might see this guy..

The Sorcerer and the White Snake and Alfred Hsing

Yep, that’s me in my costume and the pic on the left is the on-set artists rendition of me. I had a scene with Jet and Raymond Lam where we were trying to control Raymond who is possessed by some demon forces. I was happy to find that I made it into the trailer. Hopefully you’ll be able to see more of it in the actual film. Check out the Hong Kong version of the trailer.

As I reflect back to the stressful long cold days on set shooting this film.. and compare to the present with the knowledge that the film is finished and about to play in theaters around the world, a warm feeling of satisfaction washes over me. This is why I chose to get involved in the film industry – because it feels awesome when a finished product comes together and you have this bond with all the people you worked with on set.

Anyways, I’ll leave you with this picture of all the stunt guys on our last day on set. Everyone was wearing super puffy jackets because it was freezing at that time.

White Snake Stunt Team

Hope you all can get a chance to check out the movie!

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! =)

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! =)

Source: http://alhambrasource.org/stories/wushu-world-champion-who-spars-jet-li-and-calls-alhambra-home Here is a re-post of a recent article on Alfred from the Alhambra Source. Thanks to staff writer Tim Loc and the editors at Alhambra Source for the enjoyable interview.

It’s every working stiff’s fantasy: saying goodbye to the daily grind and embarking on an exotic journey involving movie stars and occasional bodily harm. That’s exactly what Alhambra resident Alfred Hsing, 27, did two years ago. He left his finance job to focus on wushu, an athletic sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts.

So far, the risk is working out. In 2009 Hsing became the first American to win gold in the taolu (??) category, which focuses on form, at the World Wushu Championships. Now he’s jet setting around the globe to choreograph fight scenes for feature films (he’s even landed a small role in Jet Li’s latest project). He’s incurred a few bruises along the way, sure, but as he tells The Alhambra Source, it’s all part of a hectic life spent in airports, foreign countries and movie sets.

It doesn’t seem like a lot of people are familiar with wushu. What makes it unique? Physically and philosophically, what sets it apart from the other martial arts?

First I would like to clarify the definition of wushu. Directly translated from Chinese it means “martial arts.” In the definition most used today, “wushu” or “modern wushu” is a particular style of martial arts created by China as an athletic sport. Modern wushu as a style is characterized by speed, grace, and power. The art form requires high acrobatic ability, flexibility and precision.

I think it’s one of the most physically challenging martial arts styles in terms of basic training. In competition, a standard form must be at least one minute and 20 seconds and have a combination of jump front kicks, aerials, jump inside kicks and more. These difficult moves must be performed precisely and without any extraneous movement.

My philosophy on wushu is that it has pushed me in regards to physical limits, but it has also helped enhance my mind. I believe that when you train in a repetitive motion—the same punch or kick a hundred or thousand times—it is a form of meditation and helps you grow. Wushu’s focus on rhythm and flow help make it a physically challenging martial art, as well as a meditative art.

You’ve recently landed some roles in action movies and short films. When you’re performing your own stunts and fight scenes, are you put in a lot of dangerous scenarios?

I have done high falls, wirework, fight choreography, et cetera, but I don’t think my response can do justice to the situations that many working stunt men and women face. There are many dangerous scenarios out there and that’s why the stunt profession is not for everyone. I have had bruises, fractures, and occasional injuries from my 15 years of martial arts and film work, but I believe I have been very lucky to have remained relatively safe.

I think the important thing is to know what you are capable of and have good control of your body. If you know how to control yourself and minimize risks then I think it’s possible to maintain your health in the field.

You’ve worked with the likes of Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Did anything about them surprise you when you met them? Or were they what you’d expected them to be like.

Yes and no. There are elements of their on-screen characters that really seem to match their real life personalities, but movies are still movies.

One thing that was surprising: Although I knew they were both incredibly successful and hard working people, until you see it in person, it’s hard to fathom the charisma, intensity and drive of both Jet Li and Jackie Chan. They have their own personalities, but one thing they both have is a special drive. Although they are of course physically skilled at martial arts, there is something special they have that has made them standout among the millions of other talented martial artists out there.

Do you follow a certain regiment in diet and exercise?

I don’t have a strict diet. In general the food I like just so happens to be relatively healthy. I am pretty much always happy with chicken and vegetables. I don’t have a strict rule with this either, but I usually avoid soda, red meat, and sweets.

As far as exercise, I used to work out twice a day six days a week when I was training for competitions, but now that I am working in Asia with a demanding schedule I work out whenever I have downtime from work.

You had a job in finance before switching to an entirely different career. Were you hesitant while making that transition?

Leaving something stable is not easy, especially considering that I had great co-workers and a good paycheck. At the same time the stability made the answer very clear to me. One path I knew exactly where I would be 10 years from now; the other path was uncertain—it offered opportunity, hope and excitement. I knew that I didn’t want to be behind a desk my whole life with a couple extra dollars in my pocket when I died. After that became clear, the decision was simple.

You travel a lot, but it seems like you return to Alhambra for downtime. Do see the city as a safe haven? Does it help you retreat from your hectic career?

I fly on average almost once a week—sometimes short flights, sometimes long flights. Traveling wears a person down after a while. It’s definitely nice to have some consistency and a home base. Even though I currently work in China, Alhambra is where my home is and it’s nice to look forward to coming back home. I really think Alhambra is a perfect blend for me—a combination of local businesses, good Asian food, proximity to main street, good location to downtown and Hollywood without being too close to the traffic, and great neighbors.

Follow Alfred’s journey through his personal website www.alfredrocks.com, and his business website www.wushukicks.com.

The Team

Well… we did it!

In my previous post I mentioned I was going to produce a short film while I was back in the states. I was in LA for less than 2 weeks, I personally only had 5 available days to film not even mentioning other people’s schedules.. but… well…. we did it!

I’m not even sure I can express my excitement for this project. I guess I’ll start with how difficult and unlikely this project was to shoot so you can understand where I am coming from with my excitement. My friend Dave and I had this concept a year back while getting some delicious Taiwanese food for lunch.. suddenly at the blink of an eye I get whirlwinded to China to work for Jet Li and Dave discovers that editing the pilot he had finished filming was going to take more work than he had expected. We are both pulled in separate directions so the idea gets pushed to the back of my mind. Though in the back of my mind.. it was always there and I thought it would be a fun idea and an interesting challenge so… practically A YEAR LATER when I discover that I am coming back to the US for a few weeks, I immediately call up Dave.

Mind you, I was only sure that I was coming back to the US 2 weeks beforehand.. Dave and I know we want to shoot something fun while I’m back, but he is not 100% sold on our original idea. We fiddle with a few concepts.. all pretty cool.. but eventually come back to the original one.

Now let me give you the time crunch countdown. We know we want to work on THIS project 1 week before I come back from China. I fly back to LA for about 3 days, then nor cal to visit my family for 1 week, then back to LA for about another 7 days. That gives us 1wk+3days+1wk.. roughly 10 actual days in LA.. but some of which I have to run errands, see family/friends, etc. Also I sold my car so for part of the trip I had no transportation to even get to and from set (just cuz I didn’t want things to be TOO easy u know)… and jet lag? That’s not even part of the equation.

The Stunt Crew

Pre-Planning Pre-Return
So although we had a cool premise in front of us.. it was purely a concept. Dave and I started off big with an entire feature length movie before us with spectacular characters and hyper realistic fx and the whole nine yards. After many 3 hour long conversations it dawned on me.. we had to be precise and narrow it down to a key moment in our story – suddenly the entire short visualized in my mind. We remained practical to our timing and budget limitations, but not in any way that would short change what needed to happen in the movie. I yapped away with Dave and told him what I saw the beginning of the film to be and after I finished he said.. he felt relieved because now we had a more solid grasp on the direction we were going.

In my mind, this is when everything started moving… kinda like in the opening credits of Fight Club.. you knew you were going to be taken for a wild ride. With the specific scenes in mind, Dave went to work on the script and I started planning the action sequences. Yep, I just spilled the beans that there will be some action in this.. is that a surprise? =P

This is all while I’m in Asia. One week passes and it’s time to return to the US of A.

(1 week – 1week) + 3 days + 1 week = 3 Days and 1 Week Left
I’m only in LA for 3 days before going to Nor Cal. Draft 1 of the script is ready and draft 1 of the fight concept is ready. We meet up and discuss. When it comes down to details everyone is going to have their own vision and subtleties… we go the distance on our thoughts for EVERYTHING and it’s good because a day later I have to go back to nor cal.

Bonus Week – Nor Cal
I wouldn’t really call this a bonus week.. this is the heavy lifting week for Dave and Al – our other producer. While I go back to nor cal, I work on revising aspects of the script, revising the choreography going in line with what elements we agreed to add in, and work on getting various equipment and stunt actors. Meanwhile Dave and Al are casting for additional roles, picking up props, dressing sets, and revising the script.

Game Week – 7 Days Left
“You can get a good night’s sleep the night before the shoot.. when you’re well-prepared”. – Al Brocca

Day 7 – I get back to LA in the evening. I’m able to jump start my bike and it starts running after sitting idle for 8 months. I have wheels now.

Day 6 – I go to the studio and we hammer out the final kinks to the script, characters, and to the choreography. Al films the action blocking for reference. We make functional adjustments to the set. Call times go out!

Day 5 – We film! I know, yet I don’t know how these guys did it, but in that 1 week we managed to get 2 camera operators, 1 sound, 1 super-grip (lighting, sound, slate, etc), 1 makeup artist, and all the actors/actresses. We were cautiously pessimistic, but somehow we got through the first day.

Day 4 – Action day! I mean.. it was all action with how much running around we did for the shoot, but today was the heavy lifting in terms of a lot of the stunt work and action choreography. Though I gave all my energy each day to my performance and work, I was the most daunted by this day because all of the action choreography was my responsibility… and everyone was working at such a high level in all other areas that I could definitely not disappoint. We got off to a rocky start.. and at some points I wanted to kill someone more than my character did. haha… but in the end we wrapped for the day and pretty much got the shots that we needed without too many casualties.

Day 3 – Could it be that we only had 1 more major day of filming left? People were feeling a little worn down by Day 3 of filming. The actors were on set for a while, but even after they left we stayed behind to plan for the next day. This week we had probably consistently been doing 15 hour days. With a little Emergen-C, coffee, zipp fizz, and fresh & easy we made it through our last major day of filming. I slept at the studio this day.

Day 2 – Backing up the footage and just getting some much needed rest. We felt pretty pumped that something purely in our head was captured in a digital box now. I asked Dave if it was possible that everything worked out? We had such a crunched time frame and had 1 thing not gone right the project would have been on hold indefinitely or never finished. I would’ve had to go back to China and we would have to wait until I got back and then try to get EVERYONE back maybe 6 months to a year later. He said sometimes you just get pumped and everything happens and it’s like catching lightning in a bottle. You capture the energy of everyone around you and that essence hopefully can be felt in the film.

Day 1 – I come in to the studio for some voiceover and sound work. This is a couple hours worth of work and its an opportunity to come off our high.

Countdown Over
I pack up and fly back to Asia. There will be more thanking to come, but for now let me briefly thank Jeff our super grip, Jacqui our talented actress, double Brocca time, Nelson runnin the 1s and 2s or more like As and Bs, Pej for the equipment, and Phil and Yanwei for taking hits and doin it in style.

So if you ask me what this film is.. I can’t even respond right now.. not because I don’t want to but because… I don’t even know. It’s like what Sean Parker in “The Social Network” says.. we don’t even know what it is yet.. we just know it’s cool. For me, I just know we wanted to make a short and it all came together. There is still going to be a lot of editing, filming inserts, sound, and other work.. but we know it’s cool and we had fun.

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: