Today I decided after working for the One Foundation for a few months that it wouldn’t make sense for me to work for a charity and not make my own contribution. I didn’t have much on me, but the One Foundation motto and belief of Founder Jet Li is to donate $1 every month or contribute a little every month to make a big difference as a global family. I think this message is the most important. It’s not about donating thousands only when you have finally “made it”, it’s about always remembering to give back.. and pretty much everyone I know can afford $1 a month. The number “1″ makes sense because it’s symbolic of taking action to do your part.. moreover a $1 contribution by everyone in the world every month would be more than enough to make a huge impact.

Now today I wanted to designate where my contribution would go, but unfortunately the amount of resources it would take to allocate my small contribution would not be a worthwhile use of resources within our organization… Thus, the One Foundation Shanghai team proposed that I start a mini fund within the One Foundation and when it gets to a sizable amount I (along with my friends and contributors) could determine an event/project to focus our donations. My top 3 areas of interest currently are medical research, impoverished youth, or environment / natural disaster. I think this will be really exciting and closer to home because when the project comes to fruition you all will get to see the direct efforts of your donations whether it’s a dollar or a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars.

Here is the link where you can donate to the One Foundation – http://www.onefoundation.cn/html/en/beneficence_01.htm

Please put a note that it is for the Alfred Hsing fund and then EMAIL me at alfredrocks [at] gmail.com to let me know so that I can make sure the amount goes into our pool. =)

One Foundation is a direct partner with the Red Cross. For more information feel free to check out the one foundation site.

One Foundation – One Family

Alfred Hsing Sport Accord Combat Games

The US and Canada national teams were in attendance at the 2010 sport accord combat games held in Beijing China among many other countries such as Russia, China, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brazil, and Japan. The US Team sent veteran wushu athletes Sarah Chang, Peter Dang, and Alfred Hsing.

Aug 28 Changquan Alfred Combat Games Competition

Changquan was the first event of the entire Combat Games held at 9am on August 28th, 2010. There was significant media coverage and the event was in part sponsored by Samsung. I was 2nd in line to compete.. I didn’t make any major mistakes and given that I have been focusing on work in Beijing the past 2-3 months I am pretty happy with my performance today. This will be my last major wushu tournament and I am glad I got to share it with my good friends and teammates in Beijing – the land of wushu and where I always dreamed I would be on the main stage competing in front of hundreds. My dreams as a wushu athlete were finally completed today.

My Longfist – 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games

An Interview with Tom.com – in Chinese (please dont judge my Chinese.. im still practicing)

Peter Dang rocked the house when he took 3rd in the staff competition beating worthy adversaries such as Russia and 2 other Asian countries.

13 Combat Games Ambassadors

In addition the Opening Ceremony held on the evening of the 28th spared no expense as a dazzling display of physical prowess and beautiful music filled the stadium main floor. 13 Ambassadors for each sport were in attendance – among the ambassadors were Don “the dragon” Wilson, mma fighter Fedor “the last emperor” Emelianenko, and many other legends of martial arts. The final closing song of the evening was sung by Jackie Chan who was surrounded by dancers and acrobats as the ceremony came to a close.

There are many more events such as kick boxing, sambo, jiu jitsu that are still occurring since the Combat Games just started. Look forward to these amazing sports broadcasts featured online. I wish I had more time to watch all the other events. =)

It was nice hanging with the US and Canada wushu team peeps… but it’s back to work for me!

So I’ve been in China and on the job for a bit now. I can say that my Chinese has improved, I’ve gotten to meet a lot more people, and I am definitely getting settled in to Asia.

With that said, a lot has happened since my last update… for one – Hong Kong Colin has come and gone back to China already. Colin and the rest of the Hong Kong wushu team were in Beijng for team training. It was good to see him. I was made into honorary HK Wushu Team when the whole team plus me went to go eat with the team coach. =) Colin even had his birthday at Mix during this span of time. We went out a bit while he was here like old times. =) He just headed back to HK a few days ago. The team is preparing for the Asian Games. Good luck Colin! Jia you!

Danika, Vanessa, and other friends were here from the sates too. It was good to see them in Beijing/at Colin’s Bday.

Climate Group

One of the events we went to during this time of settling in was The Climate Group event with Jet and Tony Blair. It was a discussion about how to improve efficiency in energy consumption. It was a closed door breakfast with a few other company head figures. Mr. Blair had uber secret service types around him… however on his way out from the meeting (to the elevator) as I waited for Jet, he looked me in the eye and said “hi”. Of course I replied hi as he vanished with security into the elevator.. haha =) so that was the extent of our dialogue.

Ritan Park

Last week my friend from the UNDP introduced me to Ritan Park. It’s a very beautiful park with trees that have been around for thousands of years. We ate some really awesome Beijing style food… our lunch wasn’t cheap, but lunch was well worth it for the taste and ambiance (and good company of course!).

Delicious dish and fish

Haha I know that normally you’re supposed to take pictures when the food first arrives and looks all pretty.. but it was so delicious that I decided to take a picture of the aftermath.. after we devoured all the delicious dishes.

So my last update is going to be about Health and Exercise. When I first got here I was wayyy too focused on getting acclimated to my surroundings and job.. as is understandable. I’ve ended up traveling to some very nice hotels, restaurants, etc which means good eats. Good eats combined with pressure from a new job setting plus very little working out created a bad combination for my fitness standards. As a result, I decided to get back into shape!

My good buddy Andy Tong who is a CEO and amateur body builder created a very disciplined diet/workout program for himself and got ridiculously in shape in 6 months. He documented and posted his results for 6 months straight. Inspired by my buddy Andy’s program combined with the fact that the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games, which I will be competing in, are coming up — I decided to get back into fitness mode. I set a 2 month goal to be way more ripped and have a healthier diet. I started this program for myself August 8th, 2010. I have managed to work out once or twice every day since August 8th so far. I have also decided to minimize red meat and in particular decrease pork consumption. I am trying to eat less simple carbs and more fiber and protein to match my workouts. Here are the results of my diet and exercise execution from August 8th until now:

2 Month Fitness Goal

I’m not planning to be as strict on my diet and exercise program as Andy because my job requirements are a little more sporadic + I still want to enjoy some new awesome cuisines and I’m not trying to enter any bodybuilding magazines. I’m just doing this for myself and to feel healthier. Also for functional wushu/martial arts training I want to stay more flexible and quick as opposed to being too big which could hinder some of the acrobatic moves in wushu.

I’m going to head over to the gym soon and do some swimming and lifting. Tomorrow we head out to a One Foundation event. I think my coworker and I might go for Hutong Pizza tonight! =) Peace!

Recently over dinner I met someone who mentioned a project called “Life in a Day“. I saw a short clip of it a few days ago.. and then lo and behold I log in to YouTube today and see it boldly blasting all over the place. Today is “YouTube Filming Day” for the project of Life in a Day.

Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create a user-generated documentary film shot in a single day. This experimental documentary will be executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald. The film will premier at the Sundance Film Festival Jan 2011.

It also just so happens that July 24th and 25th (which is still the 24th in the US) are the only days I will have YouTube access because I’ll be back in China tomorrow (where YouTube is blocked). Thus I felt some calling to document my life on this day… and plus I had been meaning to create a video on “A Day in the Life of Alfred Hsing“.

Let me know what you guys thing because I plan to submit this tomorrow.

In other news, I created a new website – www.alfredrocks.com

alfredrocks.com

I’ve always had the domain alfredrocks.com, but before it simply linked to a blogspot page. Now that I am getting more involved in production and acting, I felt it was only right to have a clean simple page with my head shot, demo reel, and resume – all of which are on the site. =)

There are still a few minor changes I might make to both the “Life in a Day” short and my new alfredrocks.com site. Overall they were both fun to work on. Feel free to leave feedback!

Tsim Tsa Tsui Meeting

So Misa and I among a group of other young entrepreneurs have a monthly meeting we like to call Young CEO meetings.. we try to model the meetings like the big boys in EO… but either way it’s a great way for us to get good feedback on ways to improve our businesses and also keep each other accountable. This meet up wasn’t specifically a “CEO meeting” but it was awesome in that we both usually met up in LA and this time we were able to update each other while both being in Hong Kong.

Alfred and Jet Avenue of Stars

We took a walk on the Avenue of Stars so of course I had to say what’s up to my boss’s hand print!

Mango Smoothie and Tea

After that it got hot from all that walking around so we kinda randomly stumbled our way around and found a chill spot to have some drinks. This day was a much needed day of chillin out because Jet didn’t have anything really work related planned and I actually got to meet up someone I knew from LA which was a nice change of pace. Moreover, due to our monthly meetings, Misa pretty much knows everything that’s going on with WushuKicks up until I left for China and I was pretty up to date with her food truck business NomNomTruck so there was tons to talk about.

Rockin out at Racks in lkf

We hit up the Jade market, did a couple of other things, met up Ryan for dinner in Central, and then ultimately ended up at Racks to hang with Pat from AliveNotDead!

Pat and Alfred at Racks

It’s nice to be able to meet up other AnDers in all different places from LA to Beijing to Hong Kong. Pat, Ryan, and I caught up over dinner. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay out too late so I’ll have to continue where we left off and hang with Pat next time I’m in Hong Kong.

Misa and Alfred at Racks in LKF

Surprisingly, some of the pictures that Ryan took – that Misa and I both thought he was totaling messing around… came out okay!

base jumping

 Just watched a program on BBC at my Hotel in Macau. It was about a world class ER surgeon that thrives on extreme sports. They started talking about base jumping – which is free falling from a fixed object. The surgeon said that base jumping is more thrilling than skydiving because when you skydive its all just air, but when you jump from a cliff or building you have a reference point for how fast you are going. The BBC reporter questioned him, “Why do you do these things? Don’t you realize you could get injured?”

The surgeon replied “…or die? It’s exactly because of those reasons that I do it. Anyone who says they have ‘no fear’ is lying. I want to feel fear. For me it’s like something inside of you that lets you know you’re alive. Of course you have to be very confident and make sure you cover all the possible pitfalls. I feel like it has helped me be a better surgeon. You have to make life and death split second decisions. Extreme sports have made me more decisive and confident in making choices.”

I guess the reason I felt compelled to share this is because I feel a connection to this surgeon base jumper. I feel that when you put your life on the line and realize your own mortality you don’t stress out about trivial things. You realize that it’s not worth it to put someone down.. or you realize that it’s not worth it to do anything less than what makes you happy.

That fear pushes you out of your shell or comfort zone and gives you a connection with all things that are living.. because you are potentially on the threshold of being in the other category. I really think the more encounters people have with extreme situation / life and death situations the more you can become a carefree person.. like… “hey, im alive and im happy about that!”

karate kid villain fight

So I go to wushu this week and LO AND BEHOLD… it’s my arch-nemesis from Jackie Chan’s “The Karate Kid“! I had to get revenge for him breaking Jaden’s leg so we fought for a little bit..

The Karate Kid / Kung Fu Dream

…and after we fought it out, we became friends just like in the end of Karate Kid (sorry if I spoiled the ending for some of you!) But yeah, he is actually a really cool kid. We trained wushu a couple times and he always wears that Y-3 shirt. Wushu-wise I am tying to squeeze in as much training as possible, but working 24/7 definitely does take it’s toll. Nevertheless!  I will train as much as I can for the Sport Accord Combat Games. Jet miiiight watch. This is just a maybe… but either way I need to stay sharp and in shape.

Ryans Last Day

So it was Ryan’s last day on Sunday. He is moving on to getting an MBA. Congrats to him. However, it was a sad sad day in some ways..

For 3 weeks I was on this crazy crash course of Jet-ology. It was like I was on The Real World or Road Rules where every week you get crazy ridiculous challenges while staying in baller suite hotels.. but if you mess up the challenges you go home! Well 3 weeks have gone by and I guess the show has ended, cuz the “host” Ryan has had to part ways. Now it’s just my every day life and there’s one less person to say “haha remember when Jet and I did this and this… haha… good times..” Now I just talk to the hotel attendants or the people that clean my room… haha!

In all semi-seriousness the job is super cool, but the schedule is demanding so (for now at least) there’s not much time to go out or meet new people so it was nice that there was someone that was working with me. =) In any case, in August we’ll be getting someone else on board so I just gotta take the helms and run both ships for another month or so. As Ryan would say “You da man now!”

In pimp news, I went to my first movie premier in China.

aftershock red carpet movie premier

Jet and I were invited to this movie called “Aftershock” – In Chinese it literally translates to “Tangshan Big Earthquake“. The movie is a Huayi Brothers production and I compare Huayi to the Warner Bros of Asia. They are one of the leading production companies out here in Asia.

The movie is about a disastrous earthquake that occurred in Tangshan in 1976. The movie follows the lives of a few people that managed to survive the earthquake. It was a very emotional movie, but I think overall it was well shot and well produced.

aftershock premier invitation

aftershock inside ticket

The above 2 pictures are the invitation card they give to the guests. It’s a very sturdy-feeling card with a ticket inside. In Asia they also always assign seats in the theater unlike the US where you walk in and pick your own seat. I think this is more organized and fair. Say you get to the theater early, you can just pick a seat from the ticket counter. The theater itself knows which seats are available and you also know that you won’t have to scramble for seats if you have 3 people and one friend ends up sitting 8 seats away from you.

aftershock cast and crew

After the movie, a singer came out to sing and then the main cast came out and said a few words. It was great to get to watch the movie and then see the actual actors come out to talk. I am still learning about the Asia entertainment industry so I don’t know that many of the actors and actresses. Even when we were in the VIP guest room a lot of people were coming to greet Jet and I am sure they were baller Asian celebs, but I didn’t know most of the people in there except for the Huayi brothers and Jet. I’m sure over the course of a few months I will learn who most people are. Anyways, great performance by the cast of Tangshan Da Di Zhen.

Last but not least, I gotta put at least one picture of food up in here.

delicious salmon

A hotel staff member introduced me to an all you can eat Japanese food restaurant the other day and it was delicious! Under $20 for ALL YOU CAN EAT SALMON! This is what I love about China. They have all you can eat Japanese food and it’s not buffet style. You order what you want from a menu – including bbq beefsteak, chicken, unagi, sashimi, sake, beer, fried rice, etc.. and it’s unlimited for about $20. I could go back to this place every day! Alas, I have no time or cash to be going there all the time. =P

Anyways, I’ll be on the move again flying out tomorrow at 6am. Macau/HK/Shanghai bound. Feel free to write or mail me postcards people!

So I’ve been out in Beijing for a little over 2 weeks now. Why did I move out here? I got an offer to work for Jet Li / The One Foundation and in less than 24 hours I had decided I would relocate everything to Beijing. A frequent slogan of the one foundation is that with “one” it symbolizes a beginning to something. Without 1 there can not be a 2 and subsequent growth.

People ask me what do I do? This is such a difficult question because there’s just so much. As much as the previous assistant explained and prepared me for what was in store when I got off that plane, actually diving into it head on was a completely different sensation. I remember 3 days in RW constructively told me “stop sighing… I know it’s a lot to take in. I sighed a lot when I first got here too, but I know you can handle it.” ..and since then I do feel a better grasp on things of course, but I just wanted to use that quote to exemplify how much was going on.

One Foundation Research Institute Ceremony

So a quick recap of some of the things that happened in the life of Alfred Hsing upon first arriving. I feel like I barely drop off my 2 huge luggage bags and before I know it I am on a plane again. We essentially traveled to Shanghai, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Macau, and back to Beijing in 7 days or so. We had meetings, lunches, interviews, dinners, red carpet events, philanthropy discussions, and press conferences to attend throughout the day. The first first day on the job for me was the announcement of the One Foundation Research Institute at Beijing Normal University. After that it all blends together, but a few notable events include meeting the CEO of Alibaba.com, fighting our way out through a mob of fans, seeing Jet promote his “WuJi” Adidas line, first hand tour of part of the Shanghai Expo, and attending press events for his latest movie “Ocean Heaven”.

Ocean Heaven

I had the opportunity to watch Ocean Heaven with the One Foundation team. Let me cue you all in on both real quick in case you don’t know. Ocean Heaven is a non-action film starring Jet where he is the father of an autistic child. One of the reasons he did this film was to support various causes and create awareness for people out there. This sort of ties in with the One Foundation in terms of his aims to help others. The One Foundation was created in 2007 and the simple message is that everyone should do a little every month because the world is one big family. He says that above all.. before we get into races and genders and who owns what and who does what.. we are all humans and we share one earth.. so we should all do our part to help out. That is a very high level explanation, but day to day there is a LOT more going on. He and the team are always striving to develop and grow the foundation so that it can do more in cases of natural disasters, poverty, education, health, and environmental protection.

Ocean Heaven Red Carpet Event

Wushu
I think it’s cool that Jet was one of the first that broke through and brought wushu to the world and a couple of wushu generations later I am still practicing wushu and working alongside him. We had a brief chat about who I trained with and it was cool that he knew most of the people and they were people that competed in his era and or trained with him. We had a meeting with some wushu federation members and it came up that I would be attending the Sport Accord Combat Games which they are helping to host.

For the Sport Accord Combat Games I will be competing in changquan only. Some friends in China asked to see my longfist form and some videos since youtube is BLOCKED in China.. I’ve uploaded my videos on youku.com! Here are two clips:

Social Life
I haven’t had much time to go out since I’ve just started working, but I was able to hang out with some friends at Shi Cha Hai and train once or twice with the Beijing Wushu Team. Although I’m working a lot and learning a ton, I need to remind myself to stay in shape still… on top of that, I need to keep in shape for this last tournament in August at least. I also have interacted with Jet’s previous assistants and they have all been very talented and very cool people.

Food
One thing about this job is that food and hotels are never shabby. I have had some really delicious food the past few weeks. The other half of the time when we are not out at a restaurant room service becomes your friend.

Thank You Room Service

Thoughts
I am definitely learning a lot out here. I do not for a second regret this decision although to be honest at times I do think to myself “I could be in LA with family and friends. I could be in an environment where I know all the places; I know the people around me; the language, roads, etc are more familiar” but then I do consider that this is a very rare opportunity to take in as much as possible from the movers and shakers of the world. We’ve met UN officials, real estate moguls, and the largest web entrepreneur in Asia. I am very passionate about the work we do and it just so happens that the things my boss is involved in happens to be “business, entertainment, and martial arts.”

Jet and Wang Shi

So the quick update is that I am in China. I havent even had a chance to unpack my bags yet since I’ve been flying around so much. I’ve been to 5 different places in the past week. I am learning a ton.. and I am not joking when I say this week has been intense to say the least. I am having a good time though. I love learning new things and taking on exciting challenges. I have also met some cool people and influential people.

I’ll give a more detailed recount in my next post.. gotta be up early. Ta ta for now!

Me and Jason - Final Sanda Training before China

This may be my last post from the US in a while because for those of you who don’t know.. I am MOVING TO CHINA TODAY! I kind of can’t believe it myself that I am re-locating to China. I’ve always wanted to live out there for over a year, but I’ve always had various reasons why I had to be back in the US. Now I have the perfect reason. I got an amazing job opportunity in China and there is no better reason or time to be out there than NOW!

That being said, I still want to update you guys on everything I’ve been up to aside from the move. I’ve honestly been so busy the past 3 weeks that I haven’t even had time to sit down and spend 20 minutes updating my blog.

The Move
I’m not even sure where to start. Let’s see – So about 3 weeks ago I get a call on a bright and early morning. I’m still half asleep when I get a phone call. I pick up. It’s an international number. It ends up being an interview for a job that I applied to. Fast forward a few days later; I got the job and I am told that I need to fly out to China in about less than 3 weeks! Yikes! In less than 24 hours I decided this was the right thing for me to do… and I decided to make the move.

I now had to cancel my trip that I had ALREADY booked for August for the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games, which I will still be competing in, and I had to get a visa rush processed since there was so little time. I turn my passport over to my travel agent.. and gadzooks! my passport pages are FULL (darn all that other traveling) so now I have to do an expedited “add pages” to my passport. Meanwhile I also had to get a visa done on my Taiwan passport, but I needed my US passport in order to process some paperwork.. which made things cut very close!

There were sooo many other things I had to do. To list a few, I had to find a new roommate to take up my room, sell or have someone look after my car, work out logistics with wushukicks, say farewell to friends and family, pack, buy new luggage because my old one broke, purchase new airline tickets, and clean out my place since I was moving out.

WushuKicks
For my online business, I had to make it fully functional while being on the go. It was close, but still needed some crazy intense upgrades to be done in 3 days. I created an auto-responder for customer support because I noticed a lot of people were asking the same questions so I forwarded people to the Frequently Asked Questions part of my page.. which I also heavily updated to reflect the most common questions. I then created 2 more team emails where one person would be a backup to handle order processing if I was not available and another staff would handle customer support questions only. I changed a few policies of the business so that things were more clear cut and less dependent on my personal decision making.

I spent 2 weeks negotiating with UPS and my merchant services for better rates. I got them, but I don’t think it was as helpful as I had hoped for. At least I got my shipper account set up with automated billing. I also put my inventory in the hands of 2 trust worthy people and voila…! Let’s see if wushukicks can run while I am traveling, in china, and internet-less (from time to time).

Farewell Party
I had a small going away dinner with some former co-workers and friends that I have and haven’t seen in a while. All I can say is I had a good time seeing all my friends in one place and the positivity and support lit my face up in uncontrollable smiles.

Sweep the leg

The Karate Kid Demo
The next day let’s just say I was the worse for wear and had a long night… but I still had to be up early. I think I was up by 8am (which is how early Ive been getting up for the past week despite sleeping after midnight). I ended up running around doing all sorts of errands only to finally muster up the strength to drive out to Whittier to do a DEMO for a theater’s opening night of The Karate Kid. It took an hour to get there in traffic and I almost fell asleep twice. My buddy Adam was not helping either because he was practically falling asleep as well. We have both had crazy schedules and he booked a voiceover on a Disney show as a lead/regular… so congrats to him too!

We got there and demoed. It was cool… just a standard demo.. and afterward we got to watch The Karate Kid for free. A lot of people are talking about the name and how it’s just a marketing ploy. In the movie itself it does justify the name the “karate” kid to some degree. Also, it stays true to the premise of the original, but yet still is its own unique movie with its own powerful cast that holds its own. The movie definitely struck a cord when Jaden gets on the Air China flight moving to a place so far from home… I knew that a few days later I would also be boarding an Air China flight and making a very big move in my life. I liked Jaden’s performance and the relationship development between him and the girl that he likes. I would recommend watching this movie.

Nor Cal
So I stumble home after the movie around midnight.. because the movie is kinda long and I went to eat pho with Adam afterward. I start to pack for my drive up north AND pack for my move to China.. but I don’t make it passed 2 socks and I pass out asleep on the floor of my room. I was THAT tired! I wake up at 4am and continue packing. It takes me super long because I am not just packing to go up north I am sorting out what I want to bring to China and what I want to bring home and leave at home. I finally start driving up north at 9am but have to make 3 stops just to rest my eyes because I was starting to fall asleep by 11am.

At 3:30PM I run into the Kung Fu Magazine Tiger Claw tournament to support the Wild Aid event. I performed part of my longfist with a few ditang falls! The registration money was donated to help save Tigers for the Wild Aid foundation. I was glad to support my friends at Tiger Claw and the Tigers. Also ran into Dean, Kunyu, Emilio, Cao Yue, Peggy, and other wushu people. I had to cut out soon after the Wild Aid event because I was dead tired and my house was in my car. That night I hung out with my boys E and Hue. The following day I did a photoshoot for Kung Fu Magazine. The last day up north I visited my friend Mike at Google. Google has an amazing campus. The vibe is very casual and cool! I had some lunch there and was surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) that they even do google analytics on their dining halls! Then my bro took me to the airport to return to LA.

Google Campus

Brothers

My good friend Rel picked me up from the airport.. then I jammed over to teach my last wushu lesson with Geeta. She has learned a ton in our few short classes.

…well that pretty much leads up to where I am now.. a few hours away from meeting up with some so cal fam and getting on board my flight in a few hours. I am going to continue doing some last minute packing, but before I close this final US post… please keep updated with me everyone. I am so grateful for all my friends and I don’t want to just disappear, but this is definitely a journey I need to undertake! I hear that facebook and google are relatively inaccessible in China so keep in touch with me via my blog, email, or any other means. If you don’t hear from me it’s probably because I am traveling or in a place with limited access.

Today is the day I make my move to China! Let’s see what’s in store! =)