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.

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

Last week I had the fortune of squeezing in 2.5 days in Taiwan! I essentially had 48 hours in Taiwan because the other half days were occupied by actual commute time. My parents happened to be in town so I asked my boss for a few days off. Fortunately he graciously accepted my request…. and so I was off to Taipei! My mom actually won a free tour to Taiwan from some raffle (she tends to win raffles all the time) so my dad bought a ticket and that’s how they ended up in Taiwan.

Madame Tusades hk wax figure

I had just finished a wax figure opening ceremony at Madame Tusades in HK and then was continuing work on a film in Hubei when I found out that they would be in Taipei at the last leg of their tour. Since we were just about to switch filming locations I squeezed in 2-3 days to see my parents in Taiwan.

When I first got there I met up with my sis – Sarah! We’re wushu “bros” and every time I visit Taiwan I always crash with her and kick it with her whole fam (minus Cheryl who is not in Taiwan) so we always laugh that I’m basically part of the family.. with that said… right when I landed I met her up at this HUGE family dinner of hers. Her dad’s cousins who hadn’t seen each other in 30 some years were there.

schang's family dinner

Then we went back to the pad to regroup and figure out the plan for the night. Even though Schang had work the next day she was down to hang out since I was only in town for 2 days. She is awesome. Another person that was awesome was Ngan – my scwa wushu teammate. So Sarah, her cousin, Tim, and Ngan planned to meet up for some karaoke at cash box! We were thinking it could potentially be more fun if we had more people, but it was kinda last minute so we rolled over.

Jerry Liau, Jack Tu, Jackie Chan

Guess what? As we were waiting outside waiting for Ngan some guy walked by me and quickly said.. “alfred” and i turned my head.. and it happened to be Jerry! It was pure chance that I ran into him. The week before we all met up for dinner. He is part of the New Seven Little Fortunes – a tour group that performs with Jackie Chan. I met him through my friend Jack Tu who is on that team and who was also the winner of the BTV show The Disciple. So Jerry was waiting for a few friends as well and we ended up all sharing a room and having a huge group karaoking the night away. haha. We had only planned to stay out till midnight but since everyone started singing we forgot about time and ended staying out till about 3am.

Lunch with Ngan

Even though we went out until 3am I made plans to get breakfast with Ngan the next day. I had to make the most of my 2 days! I met Ngan at 101… but totally got mixed up that Hua Na Wei Xiu aka the Neo19 place was a little ways off.. so we had a little exercise while meeting up for breakfast. Fortunately Ngan is super chill so didn’t mind the mix up too much. We met up at this breakfast place I like to go to for lounging, surfin wifi, and chatting. We chatted over pancakes and milk tea. We had some really great conversation – talked about random things but also some very insightful things. Within a few short minutes Ngan had a very thorough grasp of what I was doing and where I was heading with my goals. It was pretty amazing how quickly she was able to assess my situation. We also talked about personality types and recognized that understanding yourself helps you understand the best decision to make.

Eating Delicious Rice in Taiwan

Since we chatted for so long it became lunch and I HAD to visit this delicious “lu rou fan” (a taiwanese rice dish) mom and pops Taiwanese hole in the wall by where I used to live last year. After lunch I took a few steps and found a hair salon and got my hair cut.. then was off to meet another friend.

Environment Friendly Chopsticks

I’m starting to go green. On set we’ve decided to use our own chopsticks and bowls instead of using the disposable ones. I think this is awesome because for ONE thing.. if you use your own chopsticks and bowls your meal taste better than eating out of a paper bowl with splintered wood chopsticks. Another thing is that it’s more sanitary to use your own utensils. Most importantly though is – if you think about how many paper cups, plates, plastic spoons, wooden chopsticks are used PER DAY for a cast and crew of a few hundred. You easily go through a thousand spoons and plates per week! This goes back to www.storyofstuff.com – I am strongly against the increased consumption of our consumer society. I think we all need to scale back on consumption and I am happy to start with using my own bowls and plates. I know I went off on a tangent there.. but it’s something I get pretty heated about. So anyways, I went shopping for environmental objects with my friend and then she had to run to go teach a dance class.

I also saw this random pic while shopping.

Darth Vader Party

TW Star Tour Team

For dinner I met up with some colleagues I worked with on a star tour! Sarah and D met us up as well. We ate at a “re chao” place that was also more local and a chill hang out spot. Good for having some down home taiwan style food and beer. We hung out for quite some time and eventually ran into Tim and his friends! It shows how small a place Taiwan is because at night I was planning on meeting up with Tim anyways.

Re Chao in TW

We rolled to Tim’s friend’s house and did a little pre-partying and then headed to Luxy. I had no preference on where we were going that night since I was more down to just hang out with everyone… since Tim promotes at Luxy that’s where we ended up. This time I didn’t have to flip over any lasers to get in.. but they had lasers there anyways.

Luxy Lasers

The next day despite staying out late I woke up super early again (sarah had work too so she was up early).. and I spent a good 4 hours on my business. I was up at 7 and before I knew it.. it was 11. I took a shower and all that and by then started getting pretty hungry. I saw Leeway online so I said ‘yo’ lets get some lunch.. and he was like ‘yo’ i want to go workout. So we did both. After we ate and rested for a bit.. he took me to this community gym near his place. I showed him this HIIT Cardio program I’ve been workin on.. while we were warming up on the bicycle machine I said “hey u wanna try this HIIT cardio program? its pretty crazy but u might die.. im not sure though..” and then he looked at me like “what??” then i said “but hey! itll be fun!” so he said okay. Normally I go through 14 drills. Let’s just say we only got to the 4th drill… haha…

I’ll let Leeway give u his feedback himself.. or u can just look at this pic.

Leeway after A Cardio Session

Aside from his death cardio workout we had a really good chat about where we both are in our careers in entertainment. He updated me on his band Cool Silly and the progress he’s made since I left Taiwan in 09. I look forward to more awesome jams from Cool Silly. I also look forward to more clips of Tony holding a gun.

By the time we finished hanging out it was about time to meet up my parents! I took them to Kan Pai because that’s where I celebrated my birthday last year. I thought we could have some beers and chat.. and we did. The meat tasted fattier than last year… maybe it’s because I’ve been eating healthier or maybe it was just more oily this time.

i-baked

After dinner I hung out with my parents a little more at Tong Ling night market and then parted ways for a bit to go check out my friend Ivy’s new cookie store called i-baked. It was kinda late when I got there, but amidst customer’s coming in and out we talked about a lot of business ideas. She also caught me up on what I had been missing out on since 09. Since I had left she finalized her cookie recipes, set up a physical store, and designed all her logos and flyers, and etc. I was pretty happy for her and her accomplishments. I always like seeing people hustling, using their brains, and moving up! She also added fuel to the fire on this idea I’ve been moving forward on. It’s been taking me quite some time, but I think things are coming together. My goal will be to have it ready to roll by the end of this year. (If you know a patent attorney out there, let me know.)

Ivy's dogs at her Cookie Store

The next day was my last day in Taiwan before flying back to Beijing. I woke up and caught up on a little work before heading to Breeze Center (Wei Feng Guang Chang) to meet my parents, uncle jerry, aunt tan, and sarahs dad for lunch. We ate some good Shanghainese food and I was off to the airport. On the way to the airport we did stop by i-baked again since the cookies were so tasty and also since my uncle wanted to talk to Ivy’s partner who is an animal rescue volunteer.

Well that’s it for my 48 hour taiwan trip. It was awfully action packed just the way I like it. There were tons of other people I wanted to meet up with but simply did not have enough hours in the day! I hope I will be back soon!

Essentially reposted from www.wushukicks.com

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!

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!

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! =)

Chris Yen and I

I had a lunch meeting with Chris Yen, Donnie Yen’s sister, last week… and it was a very productive meeting! Read on!

Chris Yen Inside Kung-Fu

For those of you who don’t know – Chris Yen is an awesome martial artist and entrepreneur. Early in her martial arts film career she worked with acclaimed action director Yuen Wo-Ping in 1986 on a project shot in Taiwan. Later in her career she went on to work with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson helping her brother out on the set of Shanghai Knights. Soon after she went to Hong Kong to film a stylish female assassin role in “Black Rose.” Chris Yen’s performance in Black Rose led to a profile in the South China Morning Post, which in turn led to a featured appearance with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, broadcast live from Hong Kong to millions of viewers. Invited to LA for auditions by a top casting director from Columbia Pictures, she has been featured in several commercials and was cast as the lead in the youth market action film Adventures of Johnny Tao, as well as in a supporting role in A Good Day to be Black and Sexy, an official 2008 Sundance Selection. She continues to work hard and develop projects with her writing partners.

Her brother Donnie Yen has appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows, including: “Ip Man”(2008), “Flash Point” (2007), “Saat Po Long aka SPL” (2005), “Shanghai Knights” (2003), “Hero” (2002), “Blade II” (2002), “Highlander: Endgame” (2000), and “Iron Monkey ” (1993).

Interestingly enough in March 2009 I posted an article on Chris Yen on the WushuKicks.com Wushu News blog – http://www.wushukicks.com/chinese-martial-arts/tag/chris-yen/ It’s amazing that a year later we got to sit down to chat over lunch.

Enough with the talk. If you haven’t seen her demo reel… check it out. I particularly like the wheel kick at 1:12.

We got in touch through a mutual friend and originally met up to get some feedback on her thoughts on Martial Arts Complete and some sponsorship. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top that pink and white “M” is a Mooto hoodie courtesy of MOOTO USA. Much thanks Mooto! and of course we got love for WushuKicks.com up in there as well.

Chris Yen and Martial Arts Complete

This ad isn’t the FINAL version yet, but it’s pretty close. I must say I’m pretty proud of this because I took this picture on my Nikon D60 at a boba cafe, edited it, and did the design as well. And to do Chris justice I must say that it was not a planned out photo shoot or anything and she just came in her casual attire, but she came out looking great. After clearing out the background and putting in our martial arts complete background I think the whole thing looks pretty cool!

Business aside, we had a lot to talk about regarding wushu, martial arts training, movies, productions, refinancing, and the tasty ham and corn on french bread appetizers. Chris mentioned that she will be back and forth between Asia and the states and we talked a lot about her personal project Kore8Films and what it takes to get things off the ground. It was a really great meeting and I am honored to be able to sit down with such an accomplished yet humble martial artist. Definitely look out for her in some big projects ahead!

ham and corn on french bread

Vietcong on Deadliest Warrior Season 2

I’m an extrovert so I gather my thoughts by talking or thinking aloud… so this post is to help me gather my thoughts. It’s been a few weeks since I got back from Asia and since I did my demo for Jackie Chan and all this excitement has sort of died down.

As I mentioned before I’ve been training more san shou lately and also getting into some tricking. I train basically 6 days a week. I still do wushu once or twice a week. I get this itch to want to compete still, but at the same time I want to focus on movies and learning more applications/styles of martial arts to become more well rounded. I think I am pretty sure now that I want to hit up my business ventures hard for another 2-3 months and then turn most of my focus on acting / stunts / entertainment for 2010.

Speaking of business wushukicks is doing well. All administrative paper work is done. Finances and accounting are clean and ready to go for 2010. Sales are also off to a great start. Have to file taxes in March. Merchant account is set up and been working smoothly this month. Saw an all time high of traffic this month as well which shows that more and more people are discovering the site. Wushukicks supplements are in a few locations in LA now. The last thing on my 2009-2010 to do list for wushukicks was to do a layout revamp. I am going to get on this in the next week… oh and also business cards. That shouldn’t take too long though. After those 2 things are taken care of, I will be quite the happy camper.

AngelsTea is doing well. We are in process of doing some redesigns on the tins and packaging. It’s going to look good when it’s done. The one thing with AngelsTea that I’ve come to realize is that it’s going to be a big project (big but fun) and I will probably have to finish up with the wushukicks to do list before I am able to shift major focus to this.

In TV and entertainment news – I worked on Season 2 of Deadliest Warrior. There was a joke on set that I was going to be a running gag where I just appear on every episode. (Since I was on the shaolin monk and samurai episode last season). The show is always pretty strict on revealing information and I don’t wanna accidentally violate the non disclosure agreement, but basically I was on the show doing some stunts and some shootouts and fighting occur (like on all episodes). DY was also on this and we had some laughs about being the only wushu guys on set. haha! Anyways, look forward to the episode airing when season 2 of the deadliest warrior comes out.

Aside from that, I’m going to start training even more. Hopefully I can get a cork and an arabian soon. I also want to shoot a few small projects where I can get some good fight scenes in and get a better understanding of angles, editing, choreography, etc.

For the first time ever I have my stunt resume finished, professional headshots printed out, and an updated demo reel.. so I think Im ready to start doing things right, hustling more, and submitting myself to more projects.

Cheers to 2010 – My year for film and entertainment.

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: