Possible Lion Dances in June

Okay so we have a few possible Lion dances coming up next week.

June 8

At 11:30am we have a lion dance at Mid Jesrsey Chinese school.

Mei San Graduation.I thi k we perform at 1:30 but we will be there anyway.

4:30pm Teacher's appreciation dinner.


6:30 NJ Shaolin anniversary party.

Then June 9 is the opening of little movers Kiddie Gym also at NJ Shaolin. Gotta confirm the time for that.



 Maybe I should be taking pictures and posting on my personal blog like I used to in Boston, and writing more about what happened. The reason why I haven't been is an incorrect mentality and perception. I was viewing the Boston. Chinatown community as somehow more real to me or more worth writing about...  or maybe more interesting. Whatever the excuse, it was a false perception. My reality us NJ now and I feel like I am trying to build up something here. And I should be better about documenting that.

Creative drumming

In my drumming group. We are coming along in our main song. We also have. Fun song.
But I don't want to become a one truck show.
We had had a longer song with several movements. But I have decided to cut the extra movements. One of them becausee the fun song.
Instead of making the other movements into group songs, it might be good to develop songs that have soloists.

For instance, two sisters doing a song together that is tailored to their strengths  and made to develop the aspects that are weak into strengths

For an individual that is technically skilled, maybe he should jump ahead to more difficult time signatures that are easy for him, but hard for the rest if the group.
The others can do something theatrical to match the beat.

Some drummers are developing their own beats. Let's work with that and create a new song just for that person.

Also, let's take some inspiration from thi nb vs that are trending now. Because of "Warrior" all things Bruce Lee and making a resurgence... not that he ever reKly went away. But nunchucks that are also drum sticks.... that deserves it's own song.


Here are some if the songs I have been inspired by when playing on my own.

It would be cool to have some nunchuck moves with something like this. Maybe it can transition into the hip hop style drum beats Anthony has been playing during class between practice. 

If you recognize this as the "opening to the fun song..  that's cause it is. simple...  but significantly different from our other beats.

Aidan can do this time signature and I think he would have fun with it. The rest if the group isn't ready.
These are just some ideas. I encourage the kids to come up with their own and bring these ideas to the individual lessons. During the group lesson there might not be enough time.

 It sure if people have been watching warrior, it's not really for kids... but some cool costume and beat ideas here. Notice there us a hip hop and a cowboy western influence, which brings me to this song.

Drum is simple... but some yelling with it...I did a crazy version of this with my kids.  Could be fun.simple beat.

Finally, warrior doesnt have much Irish music in it, which I happen to love, and would be cool to do a Nunchuck vs. Shilegh sequence. Have to find the riverdance song I am thinking of.

This is a lot for everyone to learn, so I am not suggesting that. I am suggesting instead that we divide it up among the kids. That way everyone has time to shine as the star for a song or two. I also want everyone to get the chance to create, instead of just copying. Tradition us important, but it's also important to innovate and develop things further while maintaining that strong traditional base.

Also something to draw from that is for kids is Naruto. Another movie that isn't for kids but is .ist representative culturally of our group is the Hong Kong/Taiwa ese movie..  the drummer. I'm not saying we copy them. My base environment actually has more Taishanese, Hong Kong and Vietnamese style influence along with my drumming dulcimer teacher from Beijing (our main song is that one) but I have been playing that same song since I was a little kid, almost 30 years. I want to do more than that. 

Tuesday Board of Education Meeting at 7pm

I love our bus driver. My kids love our bus driver. In a suburban town... the few moments that I talk to him while he picks up or drops off my sons are almost the extent of my social life.

I was so relieved when I heard that he had been driving kids to school on the same route as long as some of the parents on my street. A Bus driver's job is so important because he has to keep your kids safe and also make them feel comfortable while in a moving vehicle.

I saw on Facebook that the our town, Bridgewater, is considering outsourcing the jobs to another company. Actually I don't understand the nitty gritty of it but here is the Board of Education's side of the story.

"I am happy to address your concerns in this capacity, however I do refrain from representing the BR Board of Education on any social media platform. You are welcome to share the information as you wish. 

The District owns a small fleet of buses and employs drivers to drive them. These drivers handle approximately 20% of our regular daily school runs, and also provide flexibility to handle athletic and extracurricular events, field trips, etc. The remaining daytime runs – approximately 80% – are outsourced.  It has been this way for many years.

The Board highly values our in-house drivers, who provide exceptionally good service.  Unfortunately, in recent years, the cost of employing drivers has skyrocketed.  This is largely due to escalating health-insurance premiums, which will actually exceed the drivers’ salaries within the next few years.

To combat these escalating costs without impacting instructional services in the district, our preferred solution is reducing premium costs. But the only way to accomplish this is through a negotiated settlement with the bus drivers’ union (BRTA). We remain committed to negotiating a fair settlement with sustainable insurance premiums, and we remain confident that the process will lead us to that point.

That said, we have no choice but to investigate other options in case negotiations break down. Towards this end, the Board has solicited bids for additional outsourcing. We believe it's wise to know what our options are, but we hope there won't be a need to actually move forward with these back-up plans.

We understand and appreciate that some residents are concerned about the potential impact that additional outsourcing could have on their children.  Please rest assured that all our outsourcing partners also provide quality services under our staff’s close supervision.  Their drivers pass the same background checks and have the same driving credentials as our drivers do. 

Again, we look forward to continued conversations with the BRTA to settle a fair contract in the very near future."

Hopefully they will come to an agreement. I would like to support my bus driver... without at the same time getting in the way and making it worse for him though.  I definitely don't want him to lose his job. The Tuesday after Memorial day is the BOE (Board of Education) meeting. It would be good at the very least to go to that and find out what is going on. 

Drumming in the Dark

I had never really practiced the drum.. the Kung Fu Drum, the Lion Dance drum. I played the drum. I played the drum while we practiced forms or lion dance. I played the drum while we performed... but I never practiced. Probably because often for Chinese New Year you will play on the drum for hours at a time.

So I never thought of the drums as a form of basics. I tried to develop basics that you did in the air, using the drum as a way to the martial arts.

And then I tried to hit something else, but not like a kid. I am a large adult. Large not as in height but in weight. Basically screws came loose, things started to break even though my sticks were made of rolled up newspaper.

I wanted to hit something above eye level, because it is more like striking an opponent.


But realistically we do not have that type of drum.


So I engaged the real drum, lights off, full force, still with paper sticks.


What would happen if I put aside an hour a day to play these beats, basic though they may be. Yes I experimented with other beats too.


But what would happen if I took the time to hone my spirit and my skill, to sharpen it like rolling an iron bar into a needle, with regards to the drum?

Everything from the Drum

When you are in your mother's womb, you here her heart beating. Before you have even fully formed you have this contact with a beat. A beating of the heart. A sound that the beating of the drum emulates and tries to express artistically. 

Even our modern music has a heavy beat. And our most ancient music has the drums. 

So more than Kung Fu or Lion Dance, I should begin here. With the drum, with an almost Shamanic meditation exercise which can strengthen the individual, but also be performed and relieve stress through beating out ones frustrations in rhythmic strikes that can express the soul. 

Wandering Earth Part 2

Okay its not part two. It's just that I was not able to watch the movie in more tan one sitting. I still have like 40 minutes left. This movie was like an EVENT, which is exactly what a movie needs to be nowadays. Because its mostly action.... I guess even though you have to pay attention if you really want to understand what's going on, in reality, you can enjoy the movie without understanding anything. In order to Justify paying the money to see it on a big screen, this is how movies like this, Jupiter Rising, Avengers Endgame,.. have to be.


There are a ton of plot twists, so much so that this is like 10 movies in one. One complaint my wife had was that it had the same excited Mandarin tone throughout the movie... like it's too much to take. I noticed that there are sections to the movie with different characters. In that sense I think it could be compared to an Epic movie like the American, "How the West was Won." Also... "Wandering Earth" is kind of a propaganda film (one could argue that most films have some level of propaganda)


I think that it got a ton of bad reviews because it is a non Hollywood film that is really able to compete with Hollywood internationally, especially with a platform like Netflix. Not only that but even though the aim of the movie is not to make Americans look bad, you can see that yes... this is from a different perspective, from the Mainland Chinese perspective, and this movie is not whack, it has the budget and the graphics to really compete if not out compete a James Cameron Film. And at the same time you can see references to all these American movies and novels. Its weird how HAL has an American voice in the beginning (or excuse me, the proper name in this movie is MOSS, but the robot is obviously HAL) but switches to Mandarin Chinese when explaining another plot twist.

I think even if you don't like this type of movie, you have to watch it. Just like for Chinese movies there was a pre Crouching Tiger era and a post Crouching Tiger Era, I think for Sci Fi movies there is going to be a Pre- Wandering earth era and a post.

I mean historians and current events people should study this movie because it is kind of showing what is already true that China and Russia are coming into their own and able to compete. We already knew this, but to see it in popular culture is another matter.

"Wandering Earth"

I like to sleep right next to a big window so that the sunlight wakes me up. I think its a better way to wake up than an alarm. In fact my second son will cover his ears and try to go back to sleep when the alarm goes off.
I woke up, feeling not so great. I had a weird dream about Jackie Chan using stunt double for all the dialogue in an old movie... this of course makes no sense, I think it had something to do with watching Wandering Earth on Netflix.

I watched half of it and had to stop because of time. The New York Times trashed it, everyone in China loved it, and Grace couldn't understand it.

Americans, even Chinese Americans, will find some of the concepts foreign, even for Sci Fi. But here's a little joke I have as a mixed guy whose dad is Chinese.


"So Americans don't really like Wandering Earth. The movie is about escaping the sun exploding my moving the earth to another Solar System 2,500 years away. I think the part they can't wrap their heads around is the mixed guy in it... has a Chinese Father and a white mom." a dudum cha!!

But other than that, the Chinese are taking the lead in this movie partnering with the Russians. ie... the US is not the most important country saving the world. They are involved though. In fact, (SPOILER ALERT!)


the HAL like robot lying to everyone has an American accent while speaking English.

Also there isn't a lot of Character development, or when there is, it is inserted after the fact. Like ths person is dying and you are wondering why this other character that seems to have just met them is so sad... so flash back,,, he raised her as his own daughter....

That's crazy in an American movie.

It's not that crazy in the many Hong Kong Movies I've seen. There are some digs at Cantonese and HK people too I think as one of the stars is a HK movie star. I think they dubbed his voice.

Also the concept of moving the earth instead of taking off in a ship to explore is kind of super mainland Chinese. Or super Beijing. Chinese Americans are the descendants or are actually people that left China to come to the states. But this movie wasn't made by Chinese Americans, it was made by people who stayed in China. I have only seen this type of concept once in a Stephen Chow film, where a scholar moves his house from Canton to Beijing or maybe the reverse of that, can;t remember. That Uncle Tat actor who is often in Stephen Chow and Andy Lau movies usually as a clown, but has sometimes played a scary Dai Lo here and there, is in Wandering Earth. You can tell he is a better actor then everyone else. The movie really isn't about acting, or words.

So I don't know why the New York Times and everyone else bashed it. Is it stupider than The concept of Thanos and the Infinity Rings or is it Stupider than Jupiter rising or really any other Sci Fi concept? no. Would it have been more developed as a series (that would have made less money)... well yes, but I answered why that didn't happen with the above sentence. I think it was a Chinese New year movie and it made a ton of money. Like everyone in China saw it.

It wasn't stupid at all... I think Americans just have a hard time watching a movie where China would take the lead on something like this. But it isn't like my favorite movie either.

I'll watch the rest of it. In fact I had wanted to see a real Chinese Sci Fi movie for a long time. I had seen a couple of HK ones. If this one is lacking in anything, it isn't budget and special effects. Its also not deep.... but it is thought provoking. The premise of the movie challenges you. It bothers you, more than other apocalyptic movies. That's another thing.. .so a zombie apocalypse is not difficult to understand but moving the earth with jets is?