Alfred Hsing and Maria Lamb at the 2010 Winter Olympics!

Well, it’s been only 1 1/2 days and my trip already has been filled with quite the excitement. First let me recount my Jason Bourne type adventure at the airport. Originally, a friend asked me to help out a little with some business in Canada. He had some work visa issues, so the whole thing was canceled. One of his other friends was deported a day before I flew in to Canada due to these issues. I fly in not thinking much of the situation because I am going to Vancouver to have a good time and hang out with some friends while taking in the Olympic atmosphere.

After I arrive to the airport, I pass immigration and head for the door. I am politely directed to this long white room with metal desks – It’s the interrogation room! I wait for quite some time and then get grilled for like an hour and then the officer takes my passport back into this information room and tells me to wait. I wait for what seems like 40 minutes before she comes back out. She comes out and says that the jig is up! “I am just going to come out with it, we know what you and your buddies are up to. You going to come clean or keep up with this story? We know about this Beard Head operation”

At that point I tell her what happened – that I was going to help out, but due to work visa issues, the whole thing was canceled and I was going to meet up some friends and enjoy Vancouver. After a few more questions and jotting down my information I am finally let go.

I am glad the whole situation was able to be cleared up, but it was an interesting experience! I felt like I was in a CIA movie.. although it probably would not have been fun to be deported!

FORTUNATELY, I was not deported because….. I got to meet USA Women’s Olympic Team Speed Skater Maria Lamb today! In 2005, she was the U.S. National Allround Champion and she holds Junior records in the 3000m and 1500m as well as the Allround Points National record holder. Maria Lamb skated at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino in the 1500m and Team Pursuit. I ran into her (while wearing my beard head) and she was gracious enough to take some speed skating pictures with me and my friend Audrey. In the picture above (at the top) I am doing the push/glide move for straightaways and she is doing the starting line pose! Busting out my 6 years of speed skating skills for the win! Speed skating is one of my favorite winter game events because I used to do inline and ice many years ago and when I watch them I get to relive some of those moments. I also saw some olympic athletes in their team jackets running and doing warm ups… my blood started rushing thinking about the warm ups I did a day or two before world championships in Toronto. I am totally reliving certain moments just being in this environment and feeling the thoughts and energies going through these athletes’ minds.

Vancouver Olympics Japans Mens Snowboarding Team

We also bumped into Japan’s olympic snowboarding team members. The guy on my right does half pipe! and…. if you didn’t notice… thats right! The one and ONLY Beard Head that actually made it across the border! This one is NOT for sale. It’s my personal face warmer and it’s doing a good job. This is a personal shout out to David – Even though you couldn’t sell them here a TON of people have been giving me great comments and feedback and more than 1 person has asked where they can get them! =)

Here is a pic of my friend Lyd and her twin sister Fara. She showed me around Yaletown and Gas town the night I arrived and I had tasty tuna crepe (maybe cuz I was starving..) I barely ate anything since I got on the plane.

First day in Vancouver for the winter olympics

Then a little Canada love?

USA Canada. Misguided Allegiances?

NOPE! USA ALL THE WAY BABY!!

Team USA at the Vancouver Olympics

I randomly ran into my friend Jacob.. and we actually both didn’t notice each other! We were both just yelling and screaming GO USA and celebrating until I did a double take and saw it was none other than myspace worker drift and club photographer JacobPhoto!

All in all, the atmosphere has been great and this trip has definitely been worth it. I am so thankful for having a place to stay with friends and I hope Team USA and all the athletes here in Vancouver have the performance of their lives!

So if yall remember my previous post with the Pacific Rim interview and wushu challenge for the awesome Heavy Impact you might remember seeing a little move at the end that was featured on their live show at ABDC America’s Best Dance Crew Season 5.

Here was the interview done a few weeks back.

Then… here is their performance for the West Coast Regional part of America’s Best Dance Crew.

Awesome performance!

and lastly we got the POST DANCE PERFORMANCE INTERVIEW by the lovely Angelica Alumia

Feels awesome to have made an influence on this awesome dance crew’s choreo and performance on America’s Best Dance Crew!

Hope my boys Heavy Impact continue to rock the rest of the season! H.I.!!

Hey wsup yall! It’s Alfred Hsing with Pacific Rim Videooooo! Haha, that’s my intro to this video / blog session.

I recently connected with Pacific Rim Video - an online channel that promotes asian and latino artists in entertainment, fashion, and that whole industry.. Let me give you guys the story on how we all met in the first place.

I was performing for Jackie Chan at The Spy Next Door demo and then one of the correspondents was there interviewing Jackie, Billy Ray Cyrus, George Lopez, etc at the red carpet. Then a day later after the event I was browsing some videos online and came across their channel.. and long story short we realized we were both at the same event and they thought it would be cool to do an interview with me. I said yes and then… here’s what happened..

Watch!

I gave a little shout out to CMAT the “Cal Martial Arts Tournament” which is probably the US’s largest wushu tournament in terms of numbers of attendees and the scale of the organization. Aside from the official US National Wushu Team Trials, the CMAT tournament probably has the highest caliber wushu athletes overall. As for the entire interview- correspondent Angelica Alumia who used to work for MTV was too cool and fun to get along with that I couldn’t resist joining on board as a correspondent. It just so happened we ended up doing a couple of other interviews that day.

…one of which was totally unexpected – Singer T Lopez came in to the office building we were at to meet up a fashion designer Delise Ana who was giving her a fitting for her dress that she is going (or currently wearing this second) at the Grammy Awards. A quick little background on Cash Money Records Artist T Lopez – She says she is a latino influenced pop singer. She is coming out with an album that’s got T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Colby O, and many other artists featured on her tracks. She was pretty cool because we asked her to sing on the spot and she just busted out into song straight up… and when she hit those high notes.. anyways check it out for yourself.

Here is Delise Ana talking about her fashion spread magazine and her thoughts on her inspiration for her dresses that will be seen at the Grammy’s.

Here is my Adventures with Jackie Chan video blog. My video blog shows my thoughts the day I am meeting Jackie Chan, our actual encounter, and my thoughts afterward.

Later that evening I flew straight back to the bay area and did another demo. Here is my brother and I working on some fight choreography that was incorporated in the performance.

I had a dream 3 weeks ago that I would be working with Jackie Chan – my childhood martial arts idol and inspiration to learn martial arts. 15 years later that hazy mist of a dream clears and seconds count down in my heart. I see a light green dressed figure in the distance. With each footstep that dream grows clearer and clearer until finally that dream becomes a reality. Before me is Jackie Chan – the man who made me want to crash through windows after watching Police Story – he has his hands in his pocket, well postured, attentive, and ready to watch us demo to promote his newest movie “The Spy Next Door”.

I have performed countless times in any makeshift demo setting you can imagine; I’ve even competed at the largest world wushu tournament and won, but today seconds before my turn… I thought of a million moves I should do / could do – which would be the best to show the one celebrity I’ve wanted to meet for so long?

There is not enough space to do everything I want and there are too many people around to wield weapons… I decide on a short section of longfist. As I finish up the last part of my form I do a butterfly twist which happens to be only a few feet short of Jackie Chan. He doesn’t flinch. I cleanly land on my knees with one hand touching the ground. My moment was over. I stand up and salute indicating to the crowd the completion of our group’s demo. Jackie comes over and shakes all our hands. He is pretty much how I expect him to be – jovial, good humored, and filled with presence.

Everything happens so fast at this point. He came in to greet us, shake our hands, and take some photos to promote the movie. There really wasn’t a moment to chit chat. I had so many things in my head I wanted to say. I wanted to sit down and have even 5 minutes to just say “thank you for pushing yourself to the limits to inspire me to want to learn martial arts and action choreography. thank you for giving me that passion to do martial arts which led me to wushu and ultimately many huge accomplishments in my life.” Instead between the cheese smiles and waving I squeeze in the first thing I can think of “Hey, I just came back from Hong Kong and saw your son there.” There are many other things I would rather have said, but the situation we were in was not really suitable for the kind of conversation I was looking for. I didn’t even get to tell him the story of my 3 close encounters with him. Anyways it was a great experience and I am hopeful that I will meet him again.. but next time it will be working on a film with him. =)

Here is the video of us demoing as Jackie Chan watches a few feet away:

Jackie Chan Handprint in Hong Kong

I’m not gunna lie. Jackie Chan has been a great inspiration for me in my martial arts endeavors. When someone bought me the book “Jackie Chan : My Story” I read it in 2 days. Police Story I and Drunken Master II were probably my favorite and more inspiring movies of all time. (I also got a lot of love for Jet Li’s Tai Chi Master and Once Upon a Time in China)

Just a few posts ago I posted my goals in the entertainment world. Let me repost them.

1) Star or Co-star in:
1 HK gangster feature film
1 Chinese Wu Xia Period feature film
1 Hollywood action blockbuster
1 National Commercial

2) Demo for then work with Jackie Chan in a film
3) Host a Travel Channel show

If you will look at Goal #2… Only a few nights after I posted those goals, I had a dream that I was talking with Jackie Chan and working with him on some projects. It was very clear and realistic at the time. I already forgot what the subject matter was… because you know how you can’t quite remember most of your dreams after you fully wake up? well, for some reason I remembered that I was talking to him and working on some projects.

Then 2 nights ago or about a day after I had that dream, my friend messages me and tells me I might be working on a demo… for Jackie Chan! Today I found out it seems like it is pretty confirmed. I don’t usually like to write or tell people about these things because everything is “tentative” until it actually happens.. any number of things could happen, but in any case I have a good/hopeful feeling.

I hope it doesn’t become ANOTHER one of my “The times I almost met Jackie Chan” story. I have 3. Would you care to hear them? I am going to list all the major incidences.

1) 2006 I visited Hong Kong on a layover to Taiwan. I was/am a huge fan of Jackie so I visited the Jackie Chan Fan Club on Waterloo. I decided to buy a jacket and while I was waiting for the lady to get me my size two stunt men from England dropped by to meet/drop off a demo to a stunt coordinator. I had just finished training in Beijing so we got to chatting and I showed them some random wushu clips I had on my digital camera. they invited me to come back with them in 3 days. They said they were potentially meeting with some people. Unfortunately I had to catch a flight to Taiwan the next day. A week later I get an email from one of the guys saying they met Jackie Chan and a whole bunch of action directors! First close encounter!

2) During the filming of Rush Hour 3 in downtown LA, I happened to be working at KPMG in downtown LA. I think I was putting in a little extra time on a Saturday when I remembered that Coach Ming said they were filming Rush Hour 3 around the area. I stepped out of my office and went downstairs.. lo and behold they were doing a stunt scene not too far from our building. I walked on over and ran into the awesome and very humble Brad Allen. We chatted briefly about how he trained wushu in shanghai for some time. He had to return to directing some action choreo so I just hung back and watched for a bit. Then the head of security rolled by and asked me what I was doing. I told him I did chinese martial arts and was told they were filming so I came to check it out. He was very nice and said he had studied some military combat and martial arts as well. Then as we ended our conversation I asked “by the way, do you know if Jackie Chan is on set today?” and he replied “Oh, you didn’t see him, he was right behind you and he just got in that car” as I turned my head I see a black car with tinted windows driving around the corner. Second close encounter!

3) Right after the 2009 US Wushu Team Trials I was rejoicing with glee that I made the US Wushu A Team. I decided to stay in Northern California with my family and friends an extra day before driving back down to LA. In 2009 when I was in Southern California I had been training and helping coach at Master Tu’s School in Temple City. Jack Tu (Master Tu’s son) had just recently won “The Disciple” contest to be on Jackie Chan’s stunt team. I drive back down to LA the next day. After I get back of course I pay a visit to the students and talk to Julie (Jack’s sister). She said “where were you? we just demoed for Jackie Chan in Chinatown yesterday.. everybody went!” (me: silence) I responded “I was in nor cal making the US wushu team.. my other lifelong dream.. but had you told me I coulda came back a day earlier after the competition!” So anyways, I was pretty happy to make the US team, but it was quite ironic that I usually make it to practice every day and help out with demos whenever I am in LA and the one time they demo with Jackie Chan, I was on my car ride back to LA from US Wushu Team Trials. Third close encounter!

So those are my stories for now.  I also mailed out a demo reel to Corey Yuen, Martial Arts Director via my friends referral. Hope I don’t have a “fourth close encounter” and that I actually meet Jackie Chan next month!

Original article from www.wushukicks.com

10th WWC Gold Medal - Alfred Hsing

Alfred Hsing, member of the US Wushu Team brings home the first US GOLD MEDAL at a World Wushu Championships. The US has not taken a gold in wushu taolu at this tournament since the 1st world wushu championships over 20 years ago.

Alfred Hsing placed first in the jianshu or straight sword event with a 9.72 edging above competing Asian countries – Japan and Indonesia who took second and third respectively.

Hong Kong national wushu team coach remarked to Alfred Hsing “It’s an amazing day. You have been etched into history, the wushu history books, as the first USA wushu athlete to win a gold at the World Wushu Championships and become a World Champion. Congratulations.”

The straight sword (1st) and spear (12th) events were on day 1 of the competition. Hsing also competed in Chang Quan or longfist (9th) and placed 9th out of 83 enrolled competitors. He is also the first US team member to beat China in the World Championships. China chang quan team member made some very slight mistakes which bumped his score down. Hsing completed perfect nandu and technical requirements for a final long fist score of 9.65.

Here are both his longfist and straight sword videos:

This year was a great year for the US wushu team. Other notable achievements were Colvin Wang who took 2nd in spear only losing to China’s Wu Di. Peter Dang placed top 8 in broadsword. Sarah Chang placed 8th in women’s longfist… and Stephanie Lim, Joanna Pei, and Max Ehrlich all took top 8 in one of their respective events! Congratulations to all!

10th WWC Alfred Hsing Takes First First Place for USA

World Games with Parents

Official medals are tomorrow, but according to the scoreboards I took GOLD in Straight Sword at the World Wushu Championships!

Today was a crazy day! I was the 5th straight sword competitor to compete and when I finished I was 1st on the scoreboard. I was actually MORE nervous AFTER after I competed because every time a score came out I was afraid it would bump me to 2nd. Alas.. after all the competitors went, my name was still first! I was in disbelief because things just happened so quickly.

A little back story- Everyone I train with in US wushu understands that Worlds is such a big tournament with competitors from around the world and most asian countries train professionally so its very difficult for US wushu athletes who work/go to school/and have busy lives and wushu schools that dont have top of the line professional wushu equipment/carpet. Therefore, once I made my dream of making the team, my next goal was to place top 6 at worlds. I thought this was a pretty legit goal to finalize my wushu career and let me retire happily. Afterall, the requirements to attend the 2008 Beijing Wushu Olympic Tournament required that you place top 6 in an event to qualify.. that would prove that I was at an Olympic caliber of wushu. However, thanks to people who didn’t understand wushu MANY people would say things like.. “dont come back without the gold” or “good luck on your tournament.. we will be awaiting news of you taking gold” and stuff like that. Well.. at first I would try to explain, but after a while I got tired and then said.. “okay, thanks! I am going to get gold!”

Well you know what? On the plane and on the john I had a lot of time to think.. why go for 6th when I can go for first? Why limit my mentality to top 6th.. that sounds wack anyways.. “hey guys I am shooting for third”.. how does that sound anyways? So literally by 2 days before my actual competition (look at the poem in my previous entry) I convinced myself that I was GOING TO GET GOLD. I was convinced… and somehow I did it! I will have to say that a lot of people and factors definitely helped me. My parents were here on the first day and they gave me a ride to the competition, my friends and coaches gave me really good advice and support before I competed.. and so on.. every little bit helped in my opinion.

Another interesting story about changing my mind set – When my parents found out that I made the US Wushu Team and would be going to Worlds in Canada.. they decided to make a vacation on the same time just so we could fly out to Toronto together.. then they would visit Niagra Falls and New York. At first my mom said she would just drop me off at the hotel and wish me luck because she gets too nervous watching me compete. I also thought that I would be MORE nervous knowing my parents were in the stands so I said that would be a good idea. THEN I thought to myself – Hey! Am I preparing for failure or for success? How are my parents going to see me WIN GOLD if they arent there to watch it? So when I started convincing myself I would win first, I told them “you know what? you have to come watch my first event… since you guys are already there and its the first event in the morning, just stay and watch.. no worries =)” and of course they did and then they got to see me do my best straight sword competition performance ever.

In bad news I sprained my ankle warming up for spear. Some judges said that we would start at 7pm exactly and we would have all the way until 7 to warm up. I JUST started warming up at 6:30 and they kicked everyone off the carpet at 6:40 so I had NO time to warm up. I ran back on the carpet quickly to run through a few jumps, but in my haste and cuz the carpet was a lil slippery I fell and sprained my ankle on my aerial takeoff.

Check my ankle out:

Sprained ankle

Just some updates for those on the other side of town. Colvin took 2nd in Spear losing only to Wu Di from China. Congrats to my wushu brother Wu Di who became world champion in spear today. Peter Dang got 9.58 in staff. He’s been my roommate at worlds and I’m glad I got to kick it with him more on this trip. We are both naruto junkies. lol. Sarah Chang got top 10 (8th i think) in Chang Quan.

Big thanks to my parents, Shahaub and Collin Lee (who I summoned naruto style) for cheering for me like crazy mofos. I am so glad I got to share this moment with you guys!

Straight Sword World Champion and Spear World Champion

Sorry for the nudity =P but I just wanted to post this pic again because this was around April of this year before I even made the US Team and before Wu Di made the China Team. I just think it’s crazy that about 7 months later we both realized our dreams and became Straight Sword World Champion and Spear World Champion. Anyways, congrats to everyone. I’m just really excited about placing first at worlds and want to inspire others by letting them know in the power of believing… and when others doubt, dont talk back, just SHOW them.

Subscribe to me at www.youtube.com/wushupowered.

Film
Also, just a quick update on yesterday. We shot an entire fight scene for one of the projects I am filming from 9pm-midnight. The 3 stunt guys I worked with were great to work with and I think the scene came out great.

Alfred next Kato in Green Hornet!

is what I would like to see happen. Let’s make it happen!

I spent all weekend updating my 2009 demo reel.
Stephen Chow even gives me a personal endorsement in my demo reel! =)

Here is My 2009 Demo Reel

Alfred Hsing 2009 Demo Reel from Alfred Hsing on Vimeo.

So my agent tells me on Friday that I need to immediately get her my headshots, resume, and demo reel so that she can submit me for the role of KATO in The Green Hornet movie being directed by Seth Rogen.

Here is a little background- Sony pictures is slated to release a movie version of the 1970s tv show “The Green Hornet” in summer of 2010.

For those who don’t know about the show. It is about a pair of crime fighters and the sidekick KATO is played by Bruce Lee.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kato_(The_Green_Hornet)

For 2010, Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) was supposed to play the role of Kato and Seth Rogen would be the main super hero Britt Reid.

Stephen Chow was originally supposed to help Seth Rogen direct The Green Hornet and act as Kato. First news came out that there were some differences and he was no longer filling the directing role and would instead just act as Kato. However recent news indicates that due to his schedule and other circumstances he may not act as Kato at all.

If ur diggin this article please digg/stumble/twitter this article: http://www.casualiscool.com/martial-arts/alfred-hsing-as-kato-in-the-green-hornet-plus-my-new-2009-demo-reel/

As I mentioned, I spent the whole weekend updating my demo reel and also getting some Kato style pictures taken. Special special thanks to John Nguyen (and Ruby) who helped me take some awesome pictures under terrible circumstances (aka no location and no professional lighting equipment, and middle of the night) and also thanks to my roommate Alex for helping with the lighting and also doing some color correction for me on my demo reel dvd!

Alfred doing a Kato action kick for The Green Hornet

(Here is the youtube version. They didn’t allow my other song choice so I went with the Jay Chou Huo Yuan Jia / Jet Li’s Fearless song)