wing chun to eyes

It’s amazing how the universe works. Just as another example of “ask and you shall receive” – this year I had been asking the universe to give me a fight scene in a feature film in Asia before my birthday in November. I kept pursuing my goal and working but it seemed like chances were slim. Suddenly in mid-November I get a call from the director of this film and he asks if I am available to help with fight choreography. After we worked out details — the exact day I officially arrived at the studio was Nov 22nd — 1 day before my birthday. Pretty interesting how everything worked out. =)

wing chun hand to eyes concept

Without giving away too much of the story, it’s essentially about a kid who learns wing chun to help him overcome obstacles. The movie’s storyline is definitely not like Ip Man and is meant for a younger audience… though I think all ages could still check it out.

This particular movie situation was quite interesting. When Antony (the director of “Wushu – The Young Generation”) and I got involved with the project the movie had actually already been partially filmed. In fact a good amount had been shot, but towards the final cut the executive producer realized the action was severely lacking… and since it was a martial arts movie it was supposed to have super action. This is where we came in.

wing chun movie set

Before I continue any further I must highly thank and appreciate Antony for having faith in me as a first time action director for a feature film. Antony has worked as a stuntman in Australia and has directed a movie with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan as producer so it was a truly a great honor to be working with a professional at his caliber who also gave me a lot of respect and freedom with my ideas. Speaking of Sammo and Jackie.. I also want to mention another of the Seven Little Fortunes – Yuen Wah (the landlord in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle / villain in Dragon’s Forever) is one of the actors in this film.

wing chun wooden dummy techniques

Since we were re-shooting all the action plus a decent portion of the drama we had a lot to do. On top of that we had a smaller budget than the original crew, less resources, and no time. I didn’t even know this until I arrived in Guangzhou, but apparently I had to design roughly 10 fights to be filmed in about 10 days… because in total we had 14 days to film and 7 days to do pre-production work (including new casting, location scouting, set design, fight choreo, etc). Also we had almost no stunt guys originally and the lead was a 12 year old.

But first…

alf with wing chun sifu

…we had to learn a little wing chun. So fortunately I actually studied a little wing chun here and there, but of course not on the level of 7th generation wing chun master. We had a wing chun master on set as consultant and sifu of the wing chun movie. He was a bodyguard for a prince and also at one point taught in London where Bruce Lee visited when he was in London. The sifu was 67 years old but his arms were as strong as an oak tree.

Now that we had the wing chun training in order we had to bring in the rest of the artillery.

Heavy Artillery on Wing Chun set

Enter Alberto and Kyle.

Both of my friends had been working on feature films in China and I knew they were perfect to help out on this expendables style intense mission which required 10 fights in about 10 days. These guys had so many different fights to do in such a short time that I’m definitely glad they were able to come out.. without them it would have been a totally different experience.

I mean after all we wouldn’t have been able to add in some dope JCVD moves like this!

JCVD Lineup

..or party like rockstars with hardcore rap blasting rollin deep with hunnies to tha left and right.

How we party in Guangzhou

I actually got more than I bargained for (in a good way). I was coming under the expectation that I would be simply designing the fights. Aside from a few shorts I had never directed a feature film, much less operate a Red One camera.

operating the red one camera

Because timing was so tight, we had so much to cover, and I knew all the action… just a few days into production we sort of broke into 1st and 2nd units. I learned to operate the camera to follow the action on fight scenes.. and directed for the action scenes. This made my head start spinning in terms of camera angles and so much more.

directing a fight scene

A few surprises along the way included:

A visit from Mark Moran and Ruhi.

mark moran and the green screen fireball

I was really happy Mark visited in Guangzhou. He happened to be stopping through the area and then was able to drop by set. I showed him the studio, the green screen room, and we had a nice dinner with Ruhi, the actors, and the director.

Also a visit and cameo by AliveNotDead’s very own JuJu Chan. Speaking of cameo’s.. the director, fight coordinator, and 3rd AD all make a little cameo as well. =P

Alfred and JuJu

Another fun fact: During the period of the shoot 3 birthdays passed – mine, the director’s, and the main star Xiao Long’s birthday. Happy birthday Xiao Long!

Xiao Long's birthday

As I write this, we are a few hours away from being completely wrapped. The past 3 weeks have been intense and non-stop. We all worked over 12 hour days and everyone is starting to feel the wear and tear… but I think for the time we had to work with we got some good results. I hope people will enjoy the action.

takedown caught on camera

There were some ups and downs with the producer side with last minute changes with story, plot, characters, etc.. but it can’t be completely unexpected. Overall I had a great experience working with the Ace Studio team and learned a great deal. I developed fun and lasting memories with my kung fu bros Alberto and Kyle. It was also really interesting to go from all this tai chi training to learning wing chun – both happen to be the top 2 on my list of traditional Chinese martial arts styles that I  wanted to learn… so of course it’s AMAZING when your job is to learn those martial arts styles. I am going to end with an awesome quote that Antony said on set today.. sometimes I get so excited about what I’m doing and think to myself.. so I’m learning all this cool stuff “…AND I get paid for this??!”

Guangzhou wing chun xiao long team

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! =)

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.

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

Click the picture to expand and read.

I’ll still have to properly scan it someday, but for now I guess a photo will do. You can also see that the cover has good ol Mr. Billy Blanks on it. I was kinda hoping the cover would be featuring my boss, but I guess we can’t have everything all the time. haha =P

Enjoy!

Fight Practice from Pitch Films on Vimeo.

Filmed this right before I left for China with my good buddies Sam Tjhia, David Brocca, and Pej Peik. We got Sam on the action, DBrocca on the cam and cuts, and Pej on the gym usage.. and me on the receiving end of Sam’s fist =P

Dave just finished editing this and I think it came out great given that it was more of a practice shoot for some things we had in mind and just for fun.

Watching this 3 months after we shot it is strangely making me miss/think about home. It just reminds me of all my friends I would train with and people I would kick it with back in LA. I totally miss waking up during that time where I was only managing my own business and I could roll outside and see the sun… then hop in my car and drive to the gym to do some wushu/stunt practice. I remember sitting with my legs stretched out with my gym bag flung to the side and a bottle of liptons ginseng green tea. Then after some warming up I get to hit some heavy bags and drill kicks… anyways, hopefully I’ll be back at that when the time is right =)

As for the practice fight, I had a much more complex choreo and storyline even planned out, but we only had like 1-2 hours to shoot since there was a class in the afternoon and people had other things going on that day… I was going to add takedowns, elements of mma/jiu-jitsu, and more acrobatics… anyways it was just a quick fun thing… regardless, I want to thank Sam for coming out on short notice and just training/messin around.. then gotta thank Pej for lettin us use his gymnastics studio.. and Dave already knows he is awesome.. I mean.. just listen to the music he used in the background! He really put the clip together with some good editing skills.

Here is the clip on youtube:

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!

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

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

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

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

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

alfredrocks.com

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

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

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!