I 've been watching Monty Python's "Life of Brian" and "Search fo rthe Holy Grail." and I think I really want to make a few scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the 108 heroes in this fashion with the kids. Probably we will do something meant to be on stage first. probably not for New Year's but we have some performances coming up in March where for whatever reason we are not allowed to do Lion dance. (Actually the reason has to do with somehow our kids doing lion dance will cause parental political discord or something or other. I was annoyed by it, but it might mean that that venue will be a good place to actually finally add some dialogue to a few of the fighting forms. I am thinking some version of the Peach Orchard Oath (peach Tree Oath?) and when Lin Chong tries to get into the Water Margin, before it is run by Sung Gong or the other guy who is decent.
To be honest, I totally want to make a full length movie on my phone with my kids. I guess what inspired me was the coconuts riding horse thing. Of course its not the first time I saw that. And there are actual parts of say Guan Gong do, where you do something similar, only its not a joke, its just an artistic representation of riding a horse. And I have heard the comparison before.
The kids have performed the fighting form Dai Do cherng before with a galloping out which they found hilarious and in that case it was a joke. But now I really want to have dialogue.
What is Kung Fu and lion dance? Part self defense and fighting, part meditation and culture and part performance with drums and arts and crafts. Come and learn this art on Saturdays at 108 Stirling Road. Warren, NJ We work with Murray Hill Chinese School which also offers many other programs both cultural, academic and athletic. Check ou their website here https://www.mhcs-nj.org/
Kung Fu and Love
A great gift for Valentine's day or Chinese New Year
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Resolutions
Besides having a resolution to get ripped, or my version of ripped, the Chinese New Year season being around the corner has made me want to resolve to seriously put together a group of people that will get stuff done. That means adults. It doesn't mean that they have to be able to endure long hours of lion dancing (though that would be nice) and it doesn't even mean I need 100 people (I am actually thinking of 10-15 people... which is actually high. But maybe 10-15 people total and 6-8 people who can seriously do the art. That don't mean stilts and poles.. it doesn't even mean multiple forms. But be able to drum, lion dance, be or work toward being athletic, and at least one form and willingness to learn more.
More than that, willingness to do creative stuff like make videos, write stories, draw pictures, post memes, organize events... that kind of stuff.
Since store to store seems difficult to coordinate.... even just getting together and doing lion dance would be awesome.... but wait.. is store to store lion dance THAT hard to coordinate? Actually it isn't. You just need a group that is willing.
I guess me resolution is to more actively recruit people. I mean yeah I can do a performance any time with my kids. By I really need teens to adults that are a unit, a team, a group. They don't have to be willing to sacrifice studies or sports or other activities. They just have to be willing to do. To train, to perform, to show up, and to put in mental effort or even social media effort.
Its just that to get a small group together will take more searching and questing than I thought. It will take more effort. I will have to search through and teach 100 people to get those few Knights of a Round Table or Wuxia Heroes, or 108 Heroes (again more like 5-8)
And of course I have to adapt to the people in front of me. If small children don't like a line up and drill class, but they obviously have some talent, then I have to switch it up. yes I have been doing all this, but seeing that I am not where I wanted to be in this goal by now... but at the same time seeing that some of my students have improved (surprisingly) and have more potential than I once thought shows me that I just have to do more. Why? Because I knew 20 years ago that this was who I am and this is what I was meant to do... but in the interim I seemed to have lost my way a little and forgotten that.
More than that, willingness to do creative stuff like make videos, write stories, draw pictures, post memes, organize events... that kind of stuff.
Since store to store seems difficult to coordinate.... even just getting together and doing lion dance would be awesome.... but wait.. is store to store lion dance THAT hard to coordinate? Actually it isn't. You just need a group that is willing.
I guess me resolution is to more actively recruit people. I mean yeah I can do a performance any time with my kids. By I really need teens to adults that are a unit, a team, a group. They don't have to be willing to sacrifice studies or sports or other activities. They just have to be willing to do. To train, to perform, to show up, and to put in mental effort or even social media effort.
Its just that to get a small group together will take more searching and questing than I thought. It will take more effort. I will have to search through and teach 100 people to get those few Knights of a Round Table or Wuxia Heroes, or 108 Heroes (again more like 5-8)
And of course I have to adapt to the people in front of me. If small children don't like a line up and drill class, but they obviously have some talent, then I have to switch it up. yes I have been doing all this, but seeing that I am not where I wanted to be in this goal by now... but at the same time seeing that some of my students have improved (surprisingly) and have more potential than I once thought shows me that I just have to do more. Why? Because I knew 20 years ago that this was who I am and this is what I was meant to do... but in the interim I seemed to have lost my way a little and forgotten that.
Friday, January 4, 2019
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot
I used to be sad when the Christmas and New year's season ended as a child. For some reason Chinese New Year seemed so far away and unconnected. I have tried in the past to connect Lion Dance and Chinese New Year with Western New Year and Christmas (though Chinese culture has its own solstice festival, which I never actually celebrated other than showing up to other people's celebration.
This year we did do a Lion Dance right after Thanksgiving and we will probably be doing some Chinese New Year gigs the week before Chinese New Year. This is actually becoming more and more normal, and I have been told that you can totally do this according to the old Chinese rules anyway, by having a celebration to wrap up the old year. But in America, where Santa Claus is a big feature right after Halloween, it makes its own kind of sense.
I have been in New Jersey for about a year now and I have observed the local State Culture a little more. I am not saying I understand it necessarily. But I can see that it is way easier to get your Lion Dance team to join in Festivals that already exist than to try and create new Chinese New year Festivals. This is not only in terms of logistics. But people will think more about Manhattan's Chinatown in NJ rather than say, a a vision of a huge event in Edison.
NJ seems to be full of people from NY or Philly. Even if they are the children or grandchildren of people from NY or Philly, it is part of the legacy to "go into the city" for celebrations events, mischief, crime, business, whether it is Tracy Morgan or the #2 guy for Madoff, the action happens in Manhattan or Brooklyn and NJ is as Morgan calls it, "the Fortress of Solitude" so whether you are a Wall Street Criminal or gangster or whatever and you are neighbors to such types, NJ is almost like a vacation place where you don't want to see any signs of this. Rules keep the area residential and quiet. Yes this is the opposite of what shows like Jersey Shore and other stereotypes in NY run media show, and of course there are raucous areas of NJ but it all seems to be compartmentalized by geography.
Long story short... this means some sort of Lion Dance parade is a foreign thing to people here. You can do it on a stage in a school or festival, or in a parade that already exists, but the store to store dance so common elsewhere is logistically quite difficult. There are hardly any sidewalks, and you can't cross the street. You will have to load up equipment and drive across a highway.
Not only that, but because the concept of doing lion dance like this is so foreign, even though i am working with the community in several overlapping organizations, pulling together enough people for a team, a real team, a team of adults and teens and kids and elderly that will play for an extended period of time and be really into what they are doing ritually, socially and traditionally, has been hard to make materialize. Yes I can do a school or library with my kids and some students anytime, even a "formal" or "serious" performance... but that feel of a Chinatown Lion Dance or a Chinese Village Lion dance....which is less performance and more ritual, where the difference between the audience and the participants is actually not that clear, and where the beginning and the end of the celebration is not as clear, where the dance lasts the whole day or even seems to carry over several days in a dream like floating world that ties you to the traditions and spirit of people past that you know, even though you have never met them and don't even know their names or stories.
That type of dance is more difficult to bring about it seems.
This year we did do a Lion Dance right after Thanksgiving and we will probably be doing some Chinese New Year gigs the week before Chinese New Year. This is actually becoming more and more normal, and I have been told that you can totally do this according to the old Chinese rules anyway, by having a celebration to wrap up the old year. But in America, where Santa Claus is a big feature right after Halloween, it makes its own kind of sense.
I have been in New Jersey for about a year now and I have observed the local State Culture a little more. I am not saying I understand it necessarily. But I can see that it is way easier to get your Lion Dance team to join in Festivals that already exist than to try and create new Chinese New year Festivals. This is not only in terms of logistics. But people will think more about Manhattan's Chinatown in NJ rather than say, a a vision of a huge event in Edison.
NJ seems to be full of people from NY or Philly. Even if they are the children or grandchildren of people from NY or Philly, it is part of the legacy to "go into the city" for celebrations events, mischief, crime, business, whether it is Tracy Morgan or the #2 guy for Madoff, the action happens in Manhattan or Brooklyn and NJ is as Morgan calls it, "the Fortress of Solitude" so whether you are a Wall Street Criminal or gangster or whatever and you are neighbors to such types, NJ is almost like a vacation place where you don't want to see any signs of this. Rules keep the area residential and quiet. Yes this is the opposite of what shows like Jersey Shore and other stereotypes in NY run media show, and of course there are raucous areas of NJ but it all seems to be compartmentalized by geography.
Long story short... this means some sort of Lion Dance parade is a foreign thing to people here. You can do it on a stage in a school or festival, or in a parade that already exists, but the store to store dance so common elsewhere is logistically quite difficult. There are hardly any sidewalks, and you can't cross the street. You will have to load up equipment and drive across a highway.
Not only that, but because the concept of doing lion dance like this is so foreign, even though i am working with the community in several overlapping organizations, pulling together enough people for a team, a real team, a team of adults and teens and kids and elderly that will play for an extended period of time and be really into what they are doing ritually, socially and traditionally, has been hard to make materialize. Yes I can do a school or library with my kids and some students anytime, even a "formal" or "serious" performance... but that feel of a Chinatown Lion Dance or a Chinese Village Lion dance....which is less performance and more ritual, where the difference between the audience and the participants is actually not that clear, and where the beginning and the end of the celebration is not as clear, where the dance lasts the whole day or even seems to carry over several days in a dream like floating world that ties you to the traditions and spirit of people past that you know, even though you have never met them and don't even know their names or stories.
That type of dance is more difficult to bring about it seems.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
HOT POT: divisiveness and togetherness. FEN JIU BE HE HE JIU BE FEN
3A recent twitter storm over hot pot has inspired me to recount my own hot pot experience. The twitter war has been over whether it is racist to make fun hot pot, or something like that. I have often surprised people when I told them I am not that into hot pot, especially since when I do go to hot pot I grab all the organ type parts and pig out. They assume that my whiteness or germaphobia is the reason why I wouldn't like it. It's actually that I dont understand the cost and hot pot, or shabu shabu or da been lo was introduced to me as an excuse to down all sorts of alcohol and the swishing of meat in broth was sort of an expensive side activity, like darts.
When I said to my wife I didnt understand the cost, she said, "That's cause you never tried to prepare it yourself. There's lots of little parts." Which brings me to the other way hot pot aka da been lo was introduced to me, which was an activity done at home as a party. I did have fantastic hot pot with childhood friends and teachers L Chan and M Li and live shrimp was involved. (That was probably the best hot pot I have ever had) But the hot pot moment that really stands out in my mind was the time me and my Si Hing tried to throw a hot pot party at the Kung Fu school, a grand attempt to bring FOB and ABC and various other flavors of Americans together into one blended thing...it was a happy night but we never attempted this again.
Si Hing: "We should get all the guys together like a lot of people do now and da been lo. Just get together to have fun. Have the kids and the adults. But we have to borrow the electric pot and buy these frozen fish balls etc. There is a lot of preparation."
The night of the grand event was actually the hour after the kids class. Americans showed up with girlfriends bearing gifts of Champagne and dressed up in clubbing gear while the children and I wore Kung Fu clothes, not realizing the level of formality the event had taken on.
As the preparations were being made one of the more suburban Jook sing ish kids started a rebellious chant of "We want food!" Which was emphasized by banging on the home made kids table which was a board on top of those plastic chair stools old ladies sit on the separate stems from leaves on the vegetables.
Sifu: Hey you guys know what you are doing?
We tried to explain hot pot aka shabu shabu aka da been lo to our Sifu and my Si Hing's father. "Such a thing will never work " He shook his head, "You guys are young and lack experience, step aside."
The hot pot pieces were then all boiled at once and served to the kids basically turning hot pot into boiled dinner, (which is how much European food is made and served correct?) And then the adults formed a line and da been lo sort of became a soup kitchen, albeit tasty and home cooked.
The rebellion stopped, though some American women who had never before tried "Chinese Fondu" did not get the chance to experience this. In retrospect kids could have burned themselves if the hot pot would have been to be carried out. And in a way those Americsn girlfriends who probably by now, more than a decade later, have been to many a Chinese hot pot restaurant, got to experience something unique that night.
The kids ran around, conversation was made, nothing was actually shabued but everyone was fed and the champagne was opened.
It was fun, but I don't think a Moh Goon party like that was attempted except for lion dances where food was ordered or once for my birthday when again food was ordered and shots were put out for the lion to drink and drunken kung fu was performed. But never again was home hot pot attempted at Moh Goon that I am aware of.
I wouldn't say it was a failure, it just wasn't what was envisioned. Of course as I am writing this my wife is now saying we should attempt to do home hot pot for New Year's eve.
Sure...what could go wrong?
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