Alfred and Zhang Fei on Zhong Yi Da Ge Da

Channel 10 TV Station

Yesterday I went to the Channel 10 TV station near Kunyang in Taipei. Famous Taiwan TV show host Zhang Fei interviewed me on my achievements on winning the 10th World Wushu Championships on the show “Zhong Yi Da Ge Da”. I’ve seen this guy host many shows even while living in LA. My aunts, uncles, parents, and grandma has had him on their tv back at home in the states. In any case, it was a fun show. I did a wushu performance and interview. There were actresses and singers on the side that comment along with Zhang Fei and Zhang Fei himself makes a bunch of jokes and comments. All in all, interesting show.

Getting my hair did at Channel 10 in Taipei

I got on the show so randomly. I guess it wasn’t completely random, but it just happened all of a sudden. My mom referred me to a contact in Taiwan and I sent over my demo reel and information.. and before I knew it next day I was called in to be on the show.

It airs Saturday at 8pm Taiwan local time, channel 10. If someone can TIVO this for me, that would be awesome!

Xing Guang Da Dao

Channel 10 is the same channel that airs “Xing Guang Da Dao” the Taiwan Idol singing contest show. They are on their 5th season.

HONG KONG DECEMBER 4th-9th

Hong Kong Time First Week of December

Looks like I will be going to Hong Kong because I am unable to stay in Taiwan for longer than 30 days on my US passport.

Hong Kong City

If anyone is around or can show me around in Hong Kong.. or if there are any dope parties.. let me know. I will be there. Still looking for a place to stay – hotel/hostel/crash. Open to all suggestions. Thanks!

...in the palm of my hands

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

Fri- Went out to Primo.

Outside Club 7

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

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

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

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

Xindian Bike Ride So Fun

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

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

Dan Bing

Cool Coffee Shop

Coffee with Hennessy

Din Tai Fung Dumplings

Dan Dan Mian

Zha Jiang Mian

Organic Food Shabu Shabu

Mouthwatering oysters and clams

Smoothie and Porridge Breakfast

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

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

Dum di dum elavator time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My favorite food in Taiwan Dan Bings

Hey guys! I’m here! I made it passed my 14 hour flight and am in Taipei now. I arrived at 6:10am and was able to take the Guo Guang bus to Zhong Guo Zhong Xiao stop and then hop on the MRT to meet up Sarah who is my temporary Taiwan host. Thanks Sarah!

I had some complications at the airport with immigration because I am staying here for 2 months and I was planning on using my Taiwan passport, but since I don’t have citizenship I still had to have a visa with my Taiwan passport in order to stay for more than 30 days. In the end I had to use my US passport and NOW.. I have to either get an extension visa or leave the country within 30 days and then come back.

LEAVE THE COUNTRY? Yes, if this happens I will be coming to Hong Kong around December 3rd. Mark your calendars. I will let you know if I book a flight to HK or not. Either way, I feel like its a good thing if I’m “forced” to come to Hong Kong, that could be a sign and either way it would be plain fun.

Yesterday was Day Zero because I just got here and it wasn’t a full day. (Plus I just watched “Lelouch vi Britannia – CODE GEASS” – some of you may get this if you’ve seen it) On my first day here the first thing I did was get my FAVORITE food – “dan bing.” It’s an egg breakfast food. SOoooo good. I also bumped into someone from UCLA within my first 2 hours of being in Taiwan at the dan bing place. It was very coincidental! I just happened to be wearing a UCLA wushu shirt. Also two of the friends who were eating at the dan bing place happened to be on the same flight as me.

On day zero I ate with Sarahs family and family friends. I met her cousin Yingling. We dropped by to visit Coach Zhang Shi Bo at the Taipei sport school. I bought a metro card. For lunch Ying’s mom made some food and this one dish with peanut butter sauce was delicious! At night we had Japanese food and also met Sarah’s other friend David who picked us up to go to dinner. The Japanese food was good and we had really fruity tasting cabernet sauvignon merlot from Chile.

WHY AM I IN TAIWAN?
A lot of people have asked me why I am going to Taiwan. I want to answer this on my blog to clear my own thoughts, set some goals, and answer why I am here.

1) It’s a vacation – I just finished World Games and have been practicing a lot for Team Trials, Worlds, etc. This is a much needed vacation as well as a recharger to get me rested up mentally to prepare to start up my own business hardcore when I get back to the states.

2) Explore work/entertainment opportunities in Taipei – I want to do acting and action films so why not explore those opportunities in a place that I love… Taiwan. Aside from Hong Kong, I want to see if I can get any acting or film work while I’m here. If I am not able to get such work in the short 2 months that I am here, at least I hope to meet some cool people who can point me in the right direction next time I come back for longer.

3) Decide if I want to live here longer – I have always wanted to live in Asia for a year. This trip I plan on gathering information like “where will I live?”, “how much does housing cost?”, “what work can i get?”, “what legal procedures do I have to go through?”, and most importantly “do I like it enough to stay for a year?”
Additionally, meet more people so that I’m not a loner if I do move here. haha

4) Improve my Chinese – This trip I want to step up my reading and writing game. By nature of being here and using chinese, I think my speaking ability will improve, but mainly I want to be able to read things a lot easier and be able to take my chinese speaking ability up to a business capable level. 2 months may not be enough, but I can definitely take my chinese ability to the next level beyond the average ABC.

5) Gather information for my business – I want to find a source for different types of teas and tea tin manufacturers while I am here. Taiwan is quite well known for high quality tea. Also, if there are any fabric supplier or clothing manufacturers I have a pattern already made that I need mass produced so I want to find a place that I can do that in an affordable manner. In the end clothing, I feel might be still done in China, but definitely the tea and tea tin sources I could look into while here.
Also, should look to see if there is a market for vitamins as I have a supplement brand that is going to be big on the horizon.

6) Practice martial arts in general – Even though I may be taking a break from competitive wushu it doesn’t mean I am done with martial arts. While I am here, hopefully I can practice some sparring, learn other weapons in that I don’t usually use in wushu, and learn some tai chi. Taiwan’s tai chi is first class even in comparison to China. Since I’ve started learning Tai Chi, I figure I might as well see if I can improve it while I am here.

6) Miscellaneous – Spend my birthday and new years abroad! Have a blast. Meet up with a whole bunch of various friends that will be coming here. Learn great spots to party and to eat. Watch the Taipei 101 building ignite on New Years. Visit old friends that are in Taiwan.

To Do:
1) find housing for a few friends who plan on coming for a week
2) find tea sources
3) find apt costs/living locations
4) take an acting class
5) learn tai chi
6) improve reading ability
7) explore film industry / drop by film festival
8) figure out legal process to live here for a year (citizenship / work visa)

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.

This poster is platered all over Toronto right now.

I am at the 10th World Wushu Championships. Flew in with my folks from Cali to Buffalo and then drove in the Canada.

Spent the first day sleeping at a hotel with my parents then the next day we went to Niagra Falls!!! It was pretty cool. I’ve been there before, but it’s definitely a cool sight. I was sorta frustrated that day because when we flew in our baggage didnt make it on the flight, but then the next day we had to go pick it up. Fortunately I got a free $50 travel voucher since our bags were delayed. I was also frustrated because I wanted to train, but there was nowhere to train and my parents wanted to visit Niagra Falls which I had already been to when I was a kid…. However once I got there and saw the magnificent sight.. I was still glad to have gone and checked it out. Ate with my parents at Fall View. Very nice view!

Fast forward to later that day – I HAVE to THANK my DAD! It was late in the day and he drove me from Niagra to downtown Toronto to drop me off near the competition site and so I could meet up with my high school friend Mike Jurka. It was about a 2 hour drive with traffic so in total he probably drove 3-4 hours roundtrip. They are going to meet up with me in toronto tomorrow.. but since they had booked the hotel in niagra for 3 days they had to go back to Niagra that night. Thanks! That’s love right there. Anyways, I met up with Mike who I haven’t seen in quite some time.. but once we met up it seemed like we just picked up right where we left off. Jurka hasnt changed much. He was cool enough to let me crash at his place and also show me around a little. We also checked out his work which is a start up called Bump Top (http://bumptop.com/) Cool software that lets you bump around software and reorganize your desktop in a new way.

Today after coffee with Mike, I got to my hotel the Delta Chelsea to find a wonderful gift “The Art of War for Executives” left by Cat for me upon registration at the front desk. She is so thoughtful. It’s the little touches that really make a person stand out! Thanks Cat! Slowly the US Team arrived and gathered throughout the day. I also met international buddies Wu Di, and Hong Kong Colin.. and many other friends from Brazil, Canada (of course), Taiwan, etc.

The US training session was at 5:30pm. At that time only Sarah, Joana, and I were here for the training. I ran through basics, nandu, short sections of all my forms (cq, js, qs) then I did a full form. No problem! Booyah! I’m taking it!

Before I go to sleep. I leave you with this poem:

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.