March 14, 2010 by Adam.

(The following is an  e-mail I sent out to the heads of some student organizations, edited for this blog)

Greetings all.
I am writing from the Woo Ching White Crane Kung Fu School in Chinatown, in the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association building.

I’m writing because I would like to organize an event that would be a social gathering for all of the organizations in Chinatown, as well as all of the Asian Affiliated Student and Professional organizations in the Boston Area  and of course anyone else interested in coming. The idea would be to bring us all in closer contact with each other so that we can build a stronger community.
Of course I would need advice from College Students on how to plan an event that would be targeting college students which is why I am contacting you.

Some upcoming events our school is participating in is the Chinese Resident Association Banquet on Friday March 19th at 6pm in Chinatown and the Tai Tung Village Residents Association Banquet on Saturday the 27th of March. Both these events are in Chinatown, (probably Empire Garden but I’m not 100% sure.) If you would like to come to one of these events to see what we are about we will meet up at our Kung Fu School at around 5pm.
The address will be listed below.CCBA building on 90 Tyler street and we will move around the entire Chinatown. The idea is that if there are more people to witness the brutal beating on old people that have become more commonplace in Chinatown recently, that the perpetrator will choose not to assault that elderly person because of the crowd.
Dressing up in colorful costume is encouraged.

This will be the second time we have done this this month. The first time was March 13th at 6:30am on Saturday. (The assaults are really across the board in terms of times, which is disturbing.)

One of the participants also had the idea of making more of a party out of it with music performance and outdoor grilling perhaps in the park by the Chinatown gate.
I am looking into this further as well.

If you are interested in being added to Woo Ching White Crane’s mailing list which details our upcoming events let me know and I will add you.

I will post a copy of this e-mail on the Chinatown blog, which I occasionally contribute to as well.

I am looking forward to your advice, feedback, and suggestions.

Adam Cheung
Woo Ching White Crane- Instructor
90 Tyler Street Suite 21
Boston, MA 02111
acheung-whitecrane@hotmail.com
www.bostonwhitecrane.org

781-888-0631

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March 13, 2010 by Adam.

Some people have commented that they would like to know more about the history of Kung Fu in Chinatown. Chinatown used to be a very small and tight community where everyone knew each other, so the man I am telling a story about in this article might be known to many of the old timers. His nickname was Crazy Ming or “Ngau Ming.”

I think I was in College when I met him. Jing, Sifu’s son, told me Ngau Ming would be stopping in with his son so I should try to be at the school when he came so that we could do some forms for him. He was an old friend of the school and had brought us down to Worcester to do Lion Dance (He owned a restaraunt there). Before we used to have people with sticks to barricade some space for the Lion Head to move. Apparently in Worcester, Ngau Ming had done this job himself by swinging a Gwan Do (Polearm Sword made famous by General Gwan) around hard. Needless to say people moved and obviously Ngau Ming had his nickname for a reason.

Upon going into one of the restaurants, the head waiter in the front had said, “Oh that’s okay. We don’t need a Lion Dance.” Ngau Ming replied in angry tone dabbled with expletives about the man’s mother, her reproductive organs, their age and smell, that he should get the owner out to the front right now, and did he know who he was talking too. etc.

In Chinatown Ngau Ming had quite a name for loving to fight. He would hang out at the bars, get drunk and get into fights with Americans, and then befriend them afterward. When I met him I realized more clearly why it was easy for him to get into a fight. He had a crazy stare that just looked off and made you nervous even if you were his friend. Whether he was born like that or became like that over a lifetime or a combination of both is unknown to me. He had met Sifu in China. And at that time I think he was already in “Collecting” business. He did the same sort of occupation in Hong Kong and probably in the States too.  He saw a great deal of violence and talked with one of the other Chinese Workers associated with our school about just how disgusting those fights can look in real life, when hands are being hacked off etc. In other words he was a Gong Wu/Jiaghu person if there ever was one. And he also practiced various forms of Kung Fu.

In China he had actually questioned Sifu’s skill. Sifu demonstrated a technique which passed/parried his attack and pushed him flying out the door. He came running back in and bowed down saying “Sifu!”

But for some strange reason I do not understand, when he came to the school with his son, he seemed to praise Jing’s (the son) Kung Fu over the father, our Sifu, Woo Ching. All of us know that Woo Ching’s power, fighting, skill, Gung Lik, and many other aspects of the art far exceeded Jing, especially when Woo Ching Sifu was in his prime.  But Ngau Ming kept talking about Jing’s sword form. When I performed a form, he said “That’s alright, but it’s not as intelligent as Jing’s Kung Fu. I only want my son to learn from Jing.” I should back up and say that by this time he had already written a large check to our Sifu.

Now all these events I describe didn’t happen one after another, but rather all jumbled up, mixed together, repeated again in a very bipolar schizophrenic like fashion.

“Son bow down to Jing and let’s take a picture of it!”

“Take a picture in the Lion Head!”

“Son show them that Karate form that Lo Fahn taught you. They don’t have Kung Fu where we are so he has to do Karate. But you can’t use that form if you’re really fighting!

See son block this punch.” He threw a punch at his son and his son passed it and avoided. “See that’s not what they taught you that’s the hand techniques I showed you.”

The techniques in the Karate form were a lot like Fukienese White Crane and were more straight in and a hard to hard philosophy of fighting. His son was very courteous and good at his form. I have heard that he has since grown very tall and  done well in some fighting tournaments.

Then at some point he started praising my Kung Fu, saying that I was strong and young and should keep practicing, while touching my stomach. I stepped back he stepped forward. I sort of thought he was going to punch me in the ribs as hard as he could. Not to be mean, but just out of excitement, like “Wow you do Kung Fu!” Punch.

I said, “Hey what do you want to do first.” I wasn’t sure if he wanted to try hands or what, but I got the feeling he was going to start punching. I was getting a little on edge because he had alreday challenged my skill and now it looked like he was going to physically challenge me. At the same time, he had just donated a large sum of money to the school. Awkward situation, you had to be there. His wife told him to stop scaring people.

Suddenly the conversation shifted to story telling, “You know Master X?” (Master X is a Sifu who was quite well known in Chinatown for being a good fighter, and people say able to punch while holding 100 pound bags of rice. His name is not really Master X, but I will refer to him as Master X in this story unless he reads this story and tells me I can use his name.)

“Master X and me are sworn brothers. (geet bai hing dai) I was able to hit him like this!” and he demonstrated his Kung Fu (now at a distance from me.) A second a go I thought that if I went hard to hard with him at close range I would 90% win because he was old and short and skinnier than me.  After seeing him demonstrate, if I had to fight him, I would definitely stay outside and be cautious.

His hands were so fast. The technique was to touch the attaching punch and then follow it in with a counter punch. Now many people practice this, but his hands were very fast. Real Kung Fu Fast. As in not just technique, and youthful quick hands, but the counter strike had gung. Even when I demonstrate this technique to others and they say “Wow that is fast.” I have to explain that his hands were much faster.

Now if people ask me, do you think Ngau Ming could beat Master X in a fight, I would say I don’t know, and maybe not. Ngau Ming often tied or even lost his bar fights. He also didn’t always look where he was punching and hunched his head over much the same way boxers do, which can leaver the back of the head open or leave you open to a tackle which would result in two people rolling on the ground.

But if you ask me, “Do you think Ngau Ming really was able to hit Master X?” I would reply yes, because of the speed of the hands, and the technique’s philosophy. Especially if it was unexpected. Apparently Master X’s reply was, “You are the first person able to hit me.” and none of the students wanted to play hands with Ngau Ming. Again, he was also sworn brothers with Master X, which would explain the dynamic of the situation.

If I had played hands with Ngau Ming before seeing him demonstrate, I could easily have been knocked down, out, or dead, especially if the counter strike attacked the neck. he learned the techniques in China from Tong Bak (Grandfather Tong?) who other of our members have also talked to recently when they went back to China to visit family. That Kung Fu is supposed to be Hung Gar, but is recognized as the practitioners as completely different than any other Hung Gar, and is claimed to be by the practitioners to be more original than other Hung Gar.But who ware we to judge since that is not the system we practice. (We practice White Crane. Both the Shaolin and Tibetan Branch. Sifu also absorbed the best of the Kung Fu of the surrounding Villages, and Masters he defeated in Guangzhou while hiding out there.)

As Ngau Ming left he continued to touch my stomach pushing on it with his fist even as we saw him off to his car. “Keep up! Keep Practice! More Power! Very Powerful.” He kept telling me in English, despite the fact that we had been conversing in Chinese.

Meeting him was definitely an eye opener in many ways and a good experience. His was the true face of many of the average Kung Fu practitioners in China of that generation. They learned Kung Fu for fighting, but also were so excited by the joy of doing the moves that besides life or death fights, they might not be able to restrain themselves from challenging friends. I think if he was younger, he definitely would have started hitting me. Not that he would have meant anything bad by it, but simply because seeing how my Kung Fu was in the form, we would want to try and crack it’s code, or solve the puzzle playing out the Kung Fu in real time fist to face.

The reason why he so respected Jing’s Sword form, was because he saw no counter to those moves. They were too fast and smooth. Also, I think his real fights, the gang related ones, involved the long knives they used to hack away at each other and seeing that must have left a deep impression in his mind, as he spoke of regret of having been a part of that stuff now that he had  dealt with those memories in old age.

I have heard since that he passed away in his sleep. Considering his life, which had much violence and hardship in his youth, I would say he had a good and peaceful end, being survived by a strong son, and a good wife who was a good businesswoman as well.

I don’t know where his son is now, but we would love to have him at our school if he would still want to learn with us.

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March 11, 2010 by Adam.

Tonight, Woo Ching White Crane helped the U.S. Kung fu Federation host its annual New Year banquet. We performed first as host, followed by Wah Lum and Darin Yee’s School from Plymouth. I would like to thank these schools and the individuals that are part of them for showing support to the Federation.

Before I stopped working, I always wondered why older people in the community like Henry Yee seemed to enjoy running things like these banquets, even though they didn’t turn a profit. “Shouldn’t they just be relaxing?” I would think. I used to find such banquets somewhat of a hassle, but now that events like this banquet are one of my few contacts with the outside world, they are social opportunities that seem to keep me sane.  A few of the members of our group who are restaurant workers who had days off stayed very late too and seem to find the banquet relaxing. They rarely get to see anything but the back of the kitchen, so this was also a social gathering for them that proved to themselves that that they are human, as opposed to just workers. Quite a few people that come to the U.S. from China actually do crack mentally from the lifestyle. Either that or become extremely addicted to gambling, which is a form of mental break down that can ruin whole families.

When I got home I started watching a program on PBS called “Brain Fitness.” it was talking about PTSD, inter-generational learning and Alzheimer’s, and various therapies for other mental health issues. It showed the benefits of elderly people teaching young kids to read or interacting with them in general, as well as the importance of elderly remaining active in the community. It showed how the elderly keeping active physically and mentally in the community, benefited the individual’s health but also society as a whole. Then I started to think about my Sifu and other old Chinese men that are not English speakers. Well, if kids don’t read Chinese, then story telling from a book is out. So essentially a Chinese School like Kwong Kow protect our traditions but also the health of the community.  If kids only know how to speak Chinese well we can still have inter-generational learning through Kung Fu and Story telling. The program mentioned how kids with ADHD would sit still for 45 minutes listening a old person talk about some life experience, even if every time they come back the old person tells the same story. I used to lose patience when my Sifu told some stories repeatedly, but I see now it is as important to the health of a family or community, as the physical practice is.

I may try to reach out to the free After School program  run by Haravrd’s Phillips Brooks House that is across from us to see if they will work with me on this. In the past, when I taught a Lion Dance workshop for them the kids were shocked that I spoke to them in Chinese. Not because I am white, but because they were told that they were not allowed to speak Chinese in that after school program. I understand  why they would do something like that, but I think Chinese Americans seem to catch up pretty well by College in terms of English and may do better on average than many White Americans. The kids should really be learning Chinese, not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of the elderly in our community who cannot learn English.  I wish Phillips Brooks House would work with Kwong Kow, because now even though they are providing a free program that supervises children doing homework, ultimately they are working against Kwong Kow, a by income, affordable after school programs that has many programs including Chinese Classes. Kwong Kow loses out because those kids would have gone to Kwong Kow’s program instead, which even if it is not free, is by income. If my mother could afford it working at the A and P, then families with two parents should be able to afford Kwong Kow.

The kids lose out for not keeping up with Chinese. Their parents, grandparents and relatives in China lose out for not being able to communicate with them. If they were being offered other enrichment programs like at Red Oak that would be different but they are just watching the kids do homework. The program means well, but I disagree with the no Chinese Policy very strongly as it will ultimately further damage inter generational communication in the community.

Kung Fu and Lion Dance is another medium through which the old people in Chinatown can interact with youth. Many of the older people learned or are slightly familiar with these traditions, from when they learned as children from older members in the village, or at a school, if they lived in a city. All the Young Children should not just be learning these arts, but being taught by the elderly in the Community. This keeps the elderly active mentally and Physically, allowing them to tell their life experience to children, passing on the culture and oral history. If this could somehow be put into the curriculum that gets kids to read Chinese it might make these stories and reading lessons more relevant exciting to the children who have a hard time paying attention in Chinese School.

Back to the Banquet. For Our performance, I did a lot of the play by play for our forms in Chinese, which often have historical significance. Not all of my words were correct but as it turns out, one of my old Chinese School Teachers was in the audience, and she came up to congratulate me on at least being able to speak Chinese if not write it. (We were at odds when I was a student to say the least.) I learned Chinese from Kwong Kow, but I learned a lot of it from my Kung Fu School as well, and it was there that I was forced to speak and translate. I always knew that this was important to learn, for young people. But it also benefits the elderly to teach. My mind flashed back to me being at McDonald’s with my White mother, and all these Old Chinese men helping me with my Chinese Homework. I failed repeatedly but it was important for them to teach me, and I think in the long run I identify myself as Chinese because of the input of so many people reinforcing my cultural identity.

Our School already offers free Lion Dance Practice on Saturdays at 2pm when we don’t have an actual performance. Now I would like to somehow get our Kung Fu into a story telling and reading curriculum where my Sifu can benefit by having interested, Cantonese or Taishanese Speaking Children who will listen to Sifu talk about stories from China. I’ve even seen Sifu communicate with Mandarin speakers too. Though his Mandarin is limited, stories and experiences were exchanged, making both sides stronger and more knowledgeable. I see how his spirit rises when he has people around who he can talk to about Feng Shui,  Kung Fu, politics, or history. The next generation can benefit from hearing these things, in Chinese. And I know it is not just my Sifu who has so much knowledge to share, but many of the elderly in Chinatown. Some of these elderly have great English skills, and some do not. Chinatown needs this inter-generational learning in Chinese as well as English. Not enough of it is happening and as a consequence  part of our culture is dying out and our community is breaking down.  And don’t think “Oh well, at least it will survive in China.” Because much of the truly traditional arts left China and are in the United States. In fact old masters from America are only recently reopening schools in China. Yes China has many skilled people still, but a lot of the history, experiences, culture, and arts are in Chinese America because of the Cultural Revolution. These stories if told in a comfortable  setting can help the storyteller therapeutically by hashing out old issues and at the same  time educate our youth.

Storytelling, Kung Fu, and Lion Dance can really be used to make our community  stronger and healthier mentally and Physically. I hope we can start to take more advantage of this as soon as possible.

-Adam Cheung

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March 7, 2010 by Adam.

On Saturday Night our Lion Dance team, Woo Ching White Crane, performed at the China Pearl for the Asian Community Development Corporation banquet. One of our kids asked, “What is ACDC anyway” and that question is most easily answered here

www.asiancdc.org

When I met my contact she was wearing a tiger mask. She showed us the performers room and our teenagers hung out their with 6 year old dancing girls for about. It was fun and strange to see these kids, who I knew as 6 year olds, now having more adult conversations where we adults are now more on the sidelines.

As it turns out downstairs from the ACDC banquet was the Long Gong Association Banquet and we told them since we were doing a lion dance upstairs, we could give them one too, and we did, for a bargain.

This family association comprises Liu, Kwan, Cheung, Zhao and the other spellings. If anyone is familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or Dynasty Warriors, the tie between these four families comes right out of that Narrative. So even if you might be critical of whether Liu Bei, Kwan Gung, and Cheung Fei made an oath before Heaven and Earth on a Peach Farm to be brothers, and then later brought in Zhao Wun as their brother as well… just don’t be critical at this Family Association Banquet. Essentially they consider these four families to be one because of what happened between those four individuals nearing the end of the Han Dynasty and moving into the Three Kingdoms Period.  To explain a little bit about these Characters, Liu Bei was the newphew of the emperor who sold bamboo sandals and belts. Eventually he would have the Western Han Kingdom, with Cao Cao controlling the Wei Kingdom in the North, and then the Eastern Wu. He was considered the oldest brother.

Kwan Gung is probably the best known because most every Chinese owned business, Martial Arts School, Police Station , Association, and Organized Crime Meeting place bows to him as a God or Patron Saint of Justice and Loyalty. He is also known for being a great Warrior. as are the younger brothers, Zhang Fei( Cheung Fei) and Zhao Wun or Zhao Jilong. If you really want to know more about these characters and Chinese Culture in general, read an English translation of the Romance of the three Kingdoms, or watch the series.

In some of the comments people have asked for more of a history about Our school as well as other Kung Fu Schools in Chinatown. This Wednesday March 10th is the annual Kung Fu Federation Banquet. Many of the Kung Fu Schools in Chinatown come to it. The “ticket price” which is done in the Chinese way of not directly demanding the money but expecting it,  is $30.00 per person.

I will blog about that event and then perhaps blog about our school’s history and maybe a bit about the Federation as well. The other Schools have their own websites I believe, so if I list the name an interested reader can find it quite easily. Or, you could join our school, learn Chinese, and hear what the old people have to say about each school and you will know all the stories real and fake within about a week.

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March 5, 2010 by Chinatown Blogger.

“It’s really about a transformation of the Boston Public Library and how we deliver services most successfully.’’
Amy Ryan, Boston Public Library President
Boston Globe, March 5, 2010

On the heels of the very successful Chinatown Storefront Library, the Mayor proclaimed in major media outlets that potentially 10 branch libraries may see drastic cuts or closings to close the City’s budget gap. This does not bode well for the Chinatown community which has been advocating for a branch library  for almost 10 years. In 2001, a group of teenagers and youth in a summer program led by the Chinese Progressive Association surveyed their peers on what they wanted to see in Chinatown. The goal of this summer program was to encourage youth to take more of an active role in improving the community. From surveying and talking to their peers, this group of youth decided to campaign to bring a Chinatown branch library back.

A Chinatown branch library in the community would serve multiple roles — a library’s traditional role as a vehicle to increase knowledge, a safe space for gathering, and as a cultural center to promote the neighborhood’s history. This was the hidden power of what the Chinatown Storefront Library had unlocked. On the whole, Chinatown can be very divisive on certain issues and so traditionalist and pragmatic at times that there is no room for new or bold ideas.

The Chinatown Storefront Library showed what could be possible when the community unites behind a single goal and is driven to succeed. Led by Chinatown residents with support from community groups and students, they volunteered their time and energy and put together, for 3 months, a temporary storefront library that was once thought impossible. This group of dedicated volunteers provided innovative ideas and bold actions and through all of this, relied on their own source of funding and the community’s contributions.

In the 3 months that the Chinatown Storefront Library existed in what was an empty storefront space, 540 library cards were issued, 5,000 books donated, 1374 books were circulated with half the books in Chinese, 110 events organized and this was accomplished with 39 volunteers and 2 paid staff. As the City continues to talk about cutting 10 branch libraries, the irony is that if Chinatown had waited for our turn and did not “rock the boat”, a Chinatown branch library would never have happened, even if temporarily. The process to have an official BPL branch in Chinatown is rife with politics, red tape, and budget gaps. Even if the red tape can be cut, a site must be designated, capital expenditures set aside, and ongoing programming funds need to be set aside to ensure the library is open, which is all unlikely in the current economic environment.

What the Chinatown Storefront Library demonstrated is that there is high demand and interest for a library in Chinatown, whether it is run by the BPL or by storefront volunteers.  Perhaps what is needed are new ideas and re-evaluation of the role of the City’s public libraries. These new ideas can include a “hybrid”model. In the traditional model, the City pays for everything from the building down to hiring staff. If the community really wants a library, a hybrid model would share the responsibility in running and operating a library - the City could designate a site and provide the capital expenditures with assistance from grassroots fundraising, and the community could share the operating costs and similar to the Storefront Library, organize volunteers to assist with the operation.

Ten years ago, the City led the revitalization plan of Washington Street which has resulted in the Ritz-Carlton, the Loews Theater, Archstone, and the rehab of the old Paramount Theater. Whatever happens, this current Mayor has 4 years left to create another accomplishment in this neighborhood.

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