September 3, 2010 by Chinatown Blogger.

Chinatown Knights team practicing for tournament.

Saturday, September 4, 2010 8:00 A.M.
Opening Ceremonies
Washington St/Traveler St Parking Lot

For complete schedule:
http://boston.nacivt.com/page5/SchedRslt.html

The Beginnings of Volleyball in Chinatown
In the late 1930’s, there was not much for young Chinese laundry workers to do other than work. Just about ten years earlier, the Immigration Act of 1924 had effectively shut the door on all immigration to the U.S. from Asia. It declared that all Asians were “not eligible” for citizenship. It then went on to say that persons not eligible for citizenship were barred from entering the United States. Since Asian were not eligible for citizenship, this meant that any Asian who was not a citizen of the United States at the time the law was passed could not leave the country if he or she ever wished to return later.

Recreation for laundry workers was extremely limited. Laundry work usually meant 10 to 18-hour days, 6 days a week. Sunday was their only day off. On Sunday they could do what they liked, but there was not much to do. The usual “American” entertainment was either prohibited to them, or did not make much sense. Usually they “hung out,” visited Chinatown or visited with other laundry workers.

Henry Oi was one of those young laundry workers who participated in the original tournaments. At 76 he is now retired from business, but is still very active in the life of community. As a young man, he worked in his father’s laundry. He still remembers the hard work, long hours, and how little he earned. He still remembers that on his day off from the laundry, he would hang out with other laundry workers at a local drug store on the corner of Beach and Washington Streets in Boston Chinatown, but this was not very interesting. Life for the young people of Chinatown was mostly “a matter of no time and no money” he says.

Some of them wanted to spend the few free hours they had to themselves doing something which was not breaking the law or getting into trouble. But more than this, they wanted something that would promote friendship. Friendship is essential to society. One thing they found they could do was go to the Chinatown YMCA.

The facilities of the Chinatown Y were quite limited. There, the young men found a table tennis table and a backyard. In this backyard they could play volleyball.

Reference: 55th NACIVT Program Book. Boston, 1999

For the entire story visit: http://boston.nacivt.com/page1/History.html

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August 28, 2010 by Chinatown Blogger.

This week, a vacant lot near Boston’s Chinatown Gate becomes a free, outdoor theater, showing Kung-Fu and classic Chinese-language films under the stars. In 2010, Films at the Gate is back for the fifth year, showing films from Thursday, August 26 through Sunday, August 29, 2010. Films at the Gate is presented by the Asian Community Development Corporation and Boston Street Lab. Email info@filmsatthegate.org

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July 22, 2010 by Chinatown Blogger.

The Chinatown Master Plan 2010 in collaboration with the Chinese Progressive Association’s Wong/Yee Memorial Gallery is hosting an exhibit on the Chinatown Master Plan 2010: Community Vision for the Future Exhibit. Chinatown Master Plan 2010: Community Vision for the Future Exhibit documents the community’s 2-year process to create a plan and vision for the more sustainable and livable Chinatown. Combining photography and drawings, the exhibit includes drawings by youth, sketches, and photos of community members. The exhibit will run from July 23 - Sept. 24 with an opening reception on Friday, July 23 5pm-7pm.

Opening Reception
Friday, July 23
5pm-7pm
1 Nassau Street #2, Boston
Free admission

Normal W/Y Memorial Gallery Hours
Mon - Wed 9am - 5pm
Sat. 10am - 12pm
Gallery is open to the public

Contact:
Tom Chen, W/Y Memorial Gallery 617-357-4499 wygallery@gmail.com
Lisa Liu, 617-635-5129 ext 1071 lisa.liu@chinatowngateway.org

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July 22, 2010 by Chinatown Blogger.

A 2008 Poll revealed that 9.4 million Americans actively practice martial arts in a given year, and some 21.7 million Americans have practiced martial arts of some kind in their lifetime. Casting those numbers aside, along with the 30,000+ active martial arts schools in the U.S., the increasing popularity of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and Hollywood’s ongoing barrage of martial arts infused films; it is shocking the amount of misinformation that still exists in popular culture about the martial arts.

Despite what you’ve heard, martial artists cannot fly, black belts do not need to carry a special card that identifies them as lethal weapons, nor is there a style that is better than another, regardless of what you have heard. That would be much like saying, “what is better baseball or basketball?”

These are some of the myths that the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE.org) will try to dispel during their first annual Boston Martial arts Academy(BMAA) being held on August 28, 2010. The one-day seminar and workshop has gathered together the ‘best of the best’ of various styles in the New England area to play host to both first-time martial artists and advanced stylists from around the United State and beyond. “The Boston Center for Adult Education received enough interest and feedback to create this first ever event in the city of Boston. They’ve aggressively assembled some of the best martial artists in the area and while many martial arts camps or seminars focus on advanced students and physical education based classes, the BMAA hosts all levels of students and provides both classroom based lectures on history and technique, as well as hands-on workshops on everything from basic stylistic techniques to advanced striking, blocking and ground fighting. I am always surprised how many people are extremely interested in the martial arts but are too intimidated to make that step into the dojo, and even more surprised at how many martial artists have no idea where their style came from and how little they know about the other styles out there,” said Spokesperson for the BCAE and Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do practitioner JP Faiella.

The 1-day university consists of classroom lectures and physical classes and students must take a minimum of (6) classes to take part in graduation from the seminar.

The instructors graciously donating their time at this year’s event will be:
-       Sifu Bob Rosen, Chief Instructor of the Wah Lum Kung Fu Athletic Association
-       Sifu Mai Du, Instructor of Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy of Malden
-       Sensei Jason Gould, Founder of Emerald Necklace Budo Martial Arts
-       Sensei Heather Randolph, Head Instructor of Boston Kokikai Aikido, Inc.
-       Gershon Ben Keren, Director of the Boston Academy of Krav Maga
-       Ali Roshankish, Founder of the Roshankish Martial Arts Center
-       Contra Mestre Chuvisquinho, Instructor of Capoeira at Roshankish Martial Arts Center
-       João “Amaral” Miranda, Head coach of Brazilian Top Team Boston

For more information or to sign up please visit: www.bostonmartialartsacademy.com. The event is $199.00USD and includes commemorative certificate and T-shirt. Visit one of the local school listed for a code to get the special price of $99.00 for the event.

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July 19, 2010 by Adam.

A few weeks back my school, Woo Ching White Crane, perormed for the Chinatown Main Street Festival. In addition to our usual crew we had two new guests. One was Master Moi, an elderly Kung Fu enthusiast who at his old age still performed three forms in heatstroke humid heat. (Perhaps I will write another article focusing on him.) But our most popular guest was Ika Hsiao, who performed yo-yo.

As we were waiting to perform, audience members starting going up to Ika baraging her with questions. Was she going to perform yo-yo? When? If she was perfoming then they would stay.

It is true that the audience ad probably seen several hours of Kung Fu and Lion Dance. But Chinese yo-yo is something I have not seen seriously performed in Boston since the early90’s. And although the girls performing it were quite flexible and could hold graceful poses, it took them a while to get enough spin to do tricks, and restarts were often necessary. They also performed to cassete tapes of Chinese music that were copied and recopied until the grainy scratchiness and inadvertent microphone percussion section was wince enducing.

 Ika had not performed seriously (as in on a stage) herself since highschool. Never the less, she gave an extraordinary performance which started after our performance with the Lion head taking the yo-yo and then giving it to her. (Video is available on facebook and youtube I’ll try to get that link up later. I have never seen this done befoe, but I checked and I don’t think we broke any lion dancing rules. Although the old man I write about previously who was giving tips on the Tiger Fork left after were done. I actually forgot or was too tired to do the Tiger Fork at the end. If I did something wrong I suppose I will get a good scolding next time I see him.) But back to the yo-yo performances, which was accompanied by drums gong and cymbals. I tried to follow the yo-yos movements using the northern Chinese beats, which again, I guess are not supposed to be played on the southern lion dance drum. But t that point in the performance, we were’t lion dancing. The audience didn’t seemed to care about these details and adults and children alike were truly amazed and impressed. I must say I haven’t seen a better yo-yo player perform live.

My questions to why this was so were answered when I followed up about ow she learned yo-yo. It turns out, she used to be on a team of eight very acrobatic and flexible little girls who compete at performing yo-yo, in Taiwan. They would practice 6 hours a day and when shecompeted she won the all Taiwan championships in elementary school, middle school, and in highschool. Ika actually performed solo as well as in the group of eight.

Performing in Boston’s Chinatown I saw her transformed on the stage. The audience watching could really tell she was enjoying herself. She hadn’t had the oppurtunity to perform like this in such a long time. After all it’s not like she still practices for 6 hours. Instead her day job is restoring Classical Chinese paintings from the Sung Dynasty for the Museum of Fine Arts. She went to school and got her Masters degree for this art also in Taiwan, which I would imagine, probably has the best programs for that sort of thing in the world.

Upon watching the video together Ika exclaimed parts where she chose to do some risker tricks finally right there on the stage, tricks involving throwing up the yo-yo spinning around and catching it once again. Luckily for many audience members she has become addicted to the thrill of performing and will probably be joining our group again as a guest for the August 15th festival in Chinatown, or “August Moon”, though it is near the Chinese August Moon holiday which goes by the lunar calendar. In any event, it will be a party.

If you are interested in learning more about Chinese yo-yo Lion Dance, Kung Fu, Calligraphyor Custom Chinese paintings or restoration of Ancient Chinese paintings  you can contact me and I can put you in touch with the appropriate people.

781-888-0631

acheung-whitecrane@hotmail.com

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