Kung Fu and Love

Kung Fu and Love
A great gift for Valentine's day or Chinese New Year

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Where is your Kung Fu from?

Today for little pandas we did some free play with noodles for swords, dragon heads (because the fog made me think that perhaps the lion head would get damaged by the moisture) and the instruments. The children were confused with the freedom they were given so we quickly moved on to Lion/Dragon dance. I wanted to keep the same routine and really if you are one person Dragon, you are more of a lion than a dragon right?
Then we did Kung Fu. I busted out with some more Kung Fu songs. I now have itsy bitsy spider and big spider, counting to eight song, bao jeen dup (rock paper scissors) based on a Japanese version where you make different animals and things with the combination of these hand symbols, and of course, wheels on the Kung Fu bus. Each class did not get all of the songs. And the older class did more forms. It was pretty cool.
The area is pretty nice with a tree, and as I sat there with Jonah after class doing a little one on one time with him, I realized it looked kind of like a Zen Garden except childproofed. I should definitely hold the weekend class there. It's just nice and private.
As the kids played in their little playground and Jonah joined them on of the teachers commented on how I spoke a lot of languages (I had just said, "dai dai, Jau le!") I clarified that I did speak Cantonese, but that my Mandarin was not up to snuff. The teacher spoke Mandarin to me and I thought she was, you know, from one of those unfamiliar provinces. But then she switched to Cantonese and she continued asking me about my Kung Fu and how long I learned etc. I eventually said I did Bak hok pai/ White Crane.
"Is that like crane moves? Or where is that from?"
"Taishan is where my Sifu is from," I said because actually our background is a little complicated and confusing unless you are actually interested.
"Oooo maybe that's from that Crane Mountain area," said another teacher.
Crane mountain is a village. All I know about that village is they do the duck shaped lion heads, and that their dialect sounds closer to Cantonese/bak wah than Taishanese does.
"Doushan." I said.
And the first teacher slipped into Taishanese and exclaimed, "Oh you speak our language?" (Taishanese or specifically doushanese) "I'm also Doushan." and then after more conversation, "So your Kung Fu.. is probably from Woo Ching."
"That's right." I said, "Woo Ching is my Sifu."
"Oh my mother bought a Condo above theirs in Doushan.....


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