Fanmail

I get some fan mail and emails from time to time.. but usually rarely.. haha so I guess it’s still pretty fresh for me. I got one message from Germany today that I’d like to share.

” Dear Alfred,

I dont know what I wanna reach with this, but I want to tell you that I appreciate your hard work and I’m jealous of your Life-Style.
There are many guys out-there who are jealous just because of your Kung-Fu abilities, but I am because your life just fits into my “Life & Thinking” although I will never achieve something like this and meet some of the greatest warm-hearted Persons like Jet Li who puts so much effort in helping people like I do but will never be capable of(One of my BIGGEST favorites).
I’m following your career just for a short period of time but you seem great and lucky.
I just hope for a little recognition out here in germany, without any possibilities at this moment…

best regards
Dennis B

your upcomming fan ”

Thanks Dennis! You got my recognition! I support your style of life and thinking! Just be positive and believe you can achieve and you will achieve more than you think you can achieve now!

In other news- BDAY SHOUTOUTS!

Happy Bday to my co-worker Andy Toung (April 28), my boss Jet Li (April 26), and my brother Alvin Hsing (April 22)!

Happy bday Andy and Jet!! (Note this picture was not taken on their actual bdays nor was the picture for a bday party.)

Happy bday to this guy in orange too!

Hopefully another year older another year wiser right?

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

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

CMAT 18 Gold Medalists

The results of the all-around championship. The all-around champions of CMAT18 are:

• Adult Contemporary Wushu (Female) — Ngan-Ha Ta
• Adult Contemporary Wushu (Male) — Phillip Dang
• Adult Traditional Wushu (Female) — Priscilla Herrera
• Adult Traditional Wushu (Male) — Randall Tran
• Internal Wushu (Female) — Sing May Chen
• Internal Wushu (Male) — Michael Ng and Larry Rothman
• 13-17 Year Old Contemporary Wushu (Female) — Chrystina Yu
• 13-17 Year Old Contemporary Wushu (Male) — Michael Yu
• 13-17 Year Old Traditional Wushu (Female) — Whitney Vuong
• 13-17 Year Old Traditional Wushu (Male) — Richard Lee
• 8-12 Year Old Contemporary Wushu (Combined Gender) — Robert Yu
• 8-12 Year Old Traditional Wushu (Combined Gender) — Drake Wong
• Senior Wushu (Combined Gender) — Mayumi Yoshida

Here are some exclusive wushukicks.com pictures from our CMAT event coverage! Click picture to see larger image. Scroll down to the bottom to see videos of some US Wushu Team members and the men and women’s adult all-around champions performances.

cmat18 butterfly kick

cmat18 beijing wushu team wudi

cmat 18 power up bryan cartago

cmat18 wei-hsin lee

cmat18 sponsor - wushukicks on jumbotron

cmat18 sifu bryant fong

cmat18 tiffany reyes double swords

cmat18 stephanie lim

cmat18 peter dang

cmat18 ming qiu

cmat18 marc goodman

cmat18 li jing and alfred hsing

cmat18 judges table

cmat18 emcee announcer alvin hsing

cmat18 wushukicks wushu shoes

cmat18 dennis ta

Here is a video of adult women’s all-around champion Ngan Ta! See the rest of the videos on the wushu news page – http://www.wushukicks.com/chinese-martial-arts/cmat-18-results-are-in-plus-wushukicks-com-pictures-and-videos-are-up/

Ngan-Ha Ta

Videos and photography courtesy of Alfred Hsing.

get lucratif street

I did a photoshoot over the weekend for a street wear company called LUCRATIF STREET. Their motto is “making something out of nothing”. I met and interviewed the owner of this brand through Pacific Rim Video. It was a very laid back shoot. I actually taught some dancers some wushu right before the shoot. I will post the video soon! But anyways, the shoot was fun and that grey jacket I’m wearing is quite comfortable. I like the material it’s made out of. Here’s some more of the pics. You can also find them on their blog: http://getlucratif.wordpress.com/

get lucratif air!

get lucratif wushu kicks

get lucratif aerial

get lucratif pacific rim interview

New Boyz get lucratif for their single "Tie Me Down" feat Ray J

Here are a few pics =)

Hiking Look

Did I just hear my phone ring?

Alfred Hsing Side Kick

Remembering something funny from last week.

What am I thinkin about?

One wushu pose is never enough.

...in the palm of my hands

It is technically my fifth day in Taiwan this morning. I have done a lot of fun stuff in a short amount of time. Let’s do a picture update.

Fri- Went out to Primo.

Outside Club 7

Needless to say, it was very fun. I met a bunch of cool people. A lot of people were from UC’s and USC on study abroad. I also met the band members of CoolSilly (http://www.coolsilly.com) who were Sarah’s friends.  One of the band members Tony grew up in the san jose bay area so we had a lot in common and a lot of mutual friends. It is pretty cool when you are so far away and meet people so close to home. The picture above is with Ray, one of the singers in the band. I’ve only heard one of their songs, but it’s catchy.

Next day we went to this Firework Festival. SO many people came out. I didn’t even know what the event was for exactly.. except for the fact that there was a concert with singers and then there were fireworks at the end. There were SO MANY people that I felt like the entire city literally congregated in that one area. CoolSilly performed at this event which is why we went. Here it is live:

It was cool meeting and partying with Ray, Tony, and Leeway the night before and then seeing them on stage performing. I had a chat with Tony and we both feel the same way doing our respective arts – seeking to inspire and  follow our passions. I love the feeling of being on stage performing. That’s when you know it is a calling.

Straight after this performance everyone went home and just knocked out. Everyone was pretty drained and needed to recharge. The next day Sarah and I went bike riding with her Aunt Francis.

Xindian Bike Ride So Fun

We rode from Xindian back to Xingsheng nan lu. The view at Xindian was quite beautiful and the ride itself was pretty fun though there were so many people that it was hard to really ride long without having to stop or evade other bicyclists.

I’m going to try NOT to post too many pictures of food after today because then I could just have a blog dedicated to eating after this trip. There has been so much good food this trip that I must make a short picture post on it. Here are some of the foods/drinks I have eaten so far.

Dan Bing

Cool Coffee Shop

Coffee with Hennessy

Din Tai Fung Dumplings

Dan Dan Mian

Zha Jiang Mian

Organic Food Shabu Shabu

Mouthwatering oysters and clams

Smoothie and Porridge Breakfast

The dumplings above were from Din Tai Fung which we have in LA, but they are so delicious I had to post about them still. The last picture is what I’ve been having for breakfast at Sarah’s place. It’s very healthy and she makes it for her dad. At first I had to get used to the smoothies because it’s not like a Jamba Juice smoothie, but yeah its super good for you and pretty tasty.. and with all the other junk food I’ll probably be eating its a good balance.

Here is a funny picture of me with Sarah’s fam.

Dum di dum elavator time

Haha, It’s pretty funny because her parents have been so cool to house and show around this random wushu friend of Sarahs and I really appreciate it. Her fam has been super cool.  In any case, its like her fam.. and then.. me just chillen which is what I feel this picture captures.

Now to the progress of my goals.
1) Having fun? Check

2) Entertainment – Met band members of CoolSilly which is related to entertainment. Hopefully we will all be able to collaborate together in some way. Also another friend who was a former TV show host submitted me to be on a TV show where I would perform wushu. My mom (love this woman) also reached out to some contacts and a TV person called me this morning to get me on a TV interview for Channel 10 possibly. I’ve only been here for 3-4 days so nothing is confirmed but I do feel I am making progress on this.

3) Living information – Did some research on hotel, hostel, and apartment costs. Found hotel rooms from 1,000-7,000 NT. Found apartments for 7,500NT a month but of course it all depends on the area. I like the Zhongxiao Dunhua area, but nearby areas are cool too and it would depend on my location if I had a job or not. Job wise – I emailed and called a few tutoring places. One of them responded to me this morning telling me that I would need to submit a resume and citizenship information. I will get back to them today.

4) My Chinese – I have been consciously trying to read signs while I’ve been here. Usually I will just glaze over signs, but this time I have been trying to recognize words and remember them. Also, I will look into signing up for some Chinese class at Shi Da University (National Taiwan Normal University) but since I am here for only 2 months, I may not be able to enroll on their scheduled enrollment periods. Also, depending on my schedule I am looking for some acting classes here.

5) Business – I haven’t gotten much on teas yet, though I did meet Tony’s friend Annie who is a fashion designer and has contacts to manufacturing clothing. This has been something I have been looking for for my martial arts clothing design. I already have the pattern made but need a source for fabrics and a place to mass produce.

6) Martial Arts – Went to the Taipei wushu place once, but they had to practice for an upcoming performance so I didn’t get to practice. I have decided I definitely want to improve my Tai Chi while I am here. The 5 hour bike ride I went on was my exercise for the trip so far.

Me and Miss Teen Taiwan

Here is a pic with the Miss Taiwan Teen winner. (Their event was before we got there so we got there in time to just snap a picture with the winner – Michelle) (Also, have a pic with Kelly who was Miss Taiwan USA reppin some Angels Tea)

Miss Taiwan Worlds 2009 Pageant
Saturday I went to a 2009 Miss Taiwan Pageant because my roommate had 2 tickets and 2 of his friends were in the pageant. It was close by in El Monte so I said hey I like places that are close by and Taiwanese models so why not. The pageant was cool and I’ve never been to one of these things so I got to see them go through different outfits, answer different world peace type questions, and then get crowned and such. It was a nice event except it was 3-4 hours long I think. I thought they just did one aisle strut each and then the judges voted, but it was a much longer process. In the middle there was a break sorta and Eliver and I went to get In n Out burgers FTW. I also liked hearing their speeches which were in half Chinese/Taiwanese and half English. Most of these girls were from UCs or other respectable colleges so it was good to see educated, talented, beautiful young ladies representing. Overall good event and congrats to all the winners!

Angles Tea
Made our first sale August 24th! Yay!! Thanks for the support everyone!

Then on Sunday.. I worked out and worked on the tea site all day and had another product photoshoot. I been workin harder now that I am jobless than when I had a full time job. haha, but I am LOVING my life more! I was up photoshopping until 5am.

Here is one of the pictures I shot/photoshopped. Notice the AngelsTea T-Shirt she is wearing. =)

Angels Tea Fitness Model