Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! For this holiday season I have spent the past few days putting together my Acting Reel. Here it is!

My 2011 Acting Reel

(For mainland China)

Wikinews Screen shot 2011-08-17

Hey guys! I recently did an interview with Wikinews. Today after muay thai practice, to my pleasant surprise I received an email notifying me that my interview is on the Wikipedia news main page – (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page) and also a Hungarian martial arts online magazine asked to use the article http://www.budomagazin.hu/cikk.4612.negyszemkozt_egy_wushu-vilagbajnokkal.html

Here is the direct link to the article: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_Chinese-American_martial_artist_Alfred_Hsing

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Wikinews interviews Chinese-American martial artist Alfred Hsing

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Alfred Hsing, a US martial artist with Chinese origins, besides having a long history of martial arts training in various styles, such as traditional kung fu, tae kwon do and karate, considers wushu – an athletic sport based on Chinese martial arts – as a form of art that pushes one’s physical limits and stimulates the mind at the same time. After having won the gold medal at the 10th World Wushu Championships, he became international movie star Jet Li‘s personal assistant and went on to do stunts, action coreography, and land roles in movies.

Hungarian Wikinews contributor Teemeah has interviewed Alfred Hsing about his views on martial arts, life and Wikipedia.

Interview

Teemeah Why did you start practicing wushu? Is it a way of retaining your origins?

A. Hsing When I was young my father brought home a lot of Chinese martial arts movies so my brother and I grew up liking martial arts. For a long time we would practice moves at home and play fight each other. There are a lot of styles of martial arts and I took classes in tae kwon do, karate, and some traditional kung fu, but when I discovered my first wushu class I knew it was exactly what I was looking for.

I think at first I wanted to learn wushu because I enjoyed it, but as my training became more advanced and serious I realized that it led me back to my roots and I learned much more about my own culture because of it.

Teemeah What does wushu mean to you personally?

A. Hsing Wushu comes second nature to me and through the repetition of practice it’s like a form of meditation for me. When I practice I can release all of the stresses brought on by the world.

Teemeah Do you have an idol or role model in martial arts?

A. Hsing When I grew up my dad rented a lot of Jet Li and Jackie Chan movies. As I got to learn more about how hard working and dedicated they were, they became more of an inspiration to me and motivated me to challenge myself to my limits.

Teemeah Now you live in China. Do you consider to stay there or would you move back to the US if you had the opportunity to?

A. Hsing I am living in China right now, but I don’t usually limit myself by setting strict plans for the future because we never know what the future will hold so I usually stay open minded and keep myself open to whatever opportunities come my way. Of course since I have family in the US I do see myself being back there at some point, but Asia also is like home for me.

Teemeah How do you find living in China? What is your favourite pastime there?

A. Hsing China is a very exciting place right now because there are so many opportunities and there is so much growth. Most of my time is spent working, but when I’m not working my favorite pastime is probably working out with friends. I enjoy anything with physical activity like swimming, playing ball, sparring, etc.

Teemeah Can you tell us what you have been doing lately?

A. Hsing I’ve been increasing my scope of knowledge lately. Aside from wushu, I’ve been training boxing, muay thai, and tai chi. I hope to keep expanding my knowledge and skill so that I can be versatile and well rounded in martial arts.

Teemeah You have accomplished great results in competitive martial arts but an individual always needs a goal in life. What is yours now?

A. Hsing I have many goals right now. I think one of the biggest ones is simply maintaining balance in life. Another goal is to keep on improving myself. Right now I am also doing more acting and action choreography and following my passions.

Teemeah You seem to travel a lot, have you ever visited Hungary?

A. Hsing I have been around Asia and Europe, but have not had a chance to visit Hungary yet. Maybe you could show me around sometime.

Teemeah And now a different topic: what is your opinion about Wikipedia, as a project [that] aims to collect the knowledge of mankind?

A. Hsing I think Wikipedia has been very useful. The ability to aggregate data onto a single search-able platform is definitely a great contribution. Mankind has [always] been able to improve through building on knowledge from the past and now Wikipedia is making this process more efficient.

Teemeah Do you use it? Have you ever contributed yourself?

A. Hsing I do use it when I need to quickly find out information on a certain subject. I have made some small contributions on Wikipedia in regards to wushu.

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!

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.

Sometimes things are better the second time around.. just like when you finish an essay and sleep on it and then read it again the next morning with renewed eyes, you think.. I can make this better now. Well with that said, I took a good look at my previous showreel and came up with a cleaner and shorter version. I think most will agree that in this regard simpler is better.

Alfred Hsing 2010 Theatrical Reel (Re-edited)

I also cleaned up my site a little today and uploaded my latest vids. Check it out when you have a moment: www.alfredrocks.com

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:

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!