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Around Chinatown

Posted by Adam Cheung on October 27, 2016

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Uncle Frank's Tai Chi Tips

When I was doing Crime watch somehow one of the older American guys who would later learn from me was talking about whether Uncle Frank did Martial Arts. Now this is actually more than just American Stereotyping. Some Asians may groan and say, "Just because a person is Asian and is old doesn't mean they know Kung Fu."

But look, if you were to make a movie about the Drama in Chinatown, and it was made in Hong Kong.. frankly all the powers that be would have superhuman Kung Fu as well as their mental strategies and political pull. This is because, Jin Yong wrote a lot of novels where the people in these political positions had secret and powerful Kung Fu. Part of it is just for entertainment.

Plus, Chinese people like to explain greatness through practice. Training done after birth. Whereas Americans like to explain it through Divine right or genes. I.e. you are great because it is something you are born with and this power cannot be taught.

So the explanation for Uncle Fr…

Haunted Buildings in Chinatown.

Halloween is approaching, and Chinatown has some legitimate ghost stories. Fred (not his real name) shared some of his stories with me in an earlier post. Today let's focus on the spooky ones.

"You know that building was all boarded up when I was a kid. It was so Ugly that we didn't even want to look at it. If we were going from Tai Tung back to the restaurant we would actually run, full speed just so we wouldn't have to look at it. It was that much of an eyesore."

Later that building would house Kwong Kow Chinese School and now it is actually a community Center. The school where I learned Kung Fu is there along with several other martial arts, dance and music schools, an after school, a #library, a gallery, and most recently it is where the displaced people from the fire were staying.

"I think the City actually sold it to the Chinatown Community for like a dollar or a penny or something. But you know Kwong Kow wasn't in that building in the beginning, i…

Gourmet China House with Showa students

Grace really wanted to try this new restaurant and so we decided to go with our Showa friendship circle students. Grace picked them up in the car while I biked in. I arrived first on my slow bike because parking is quite difficult to find in Chinatown. The down side was that I was wet. When I came in I spoke Chinese which had a curious effect. Then I recognized one for the waters as someone I had taught Kung Fu too. We spoke in English. "Hey you know he speaks "Bak wah""
" yeah I know him."
Side note, people calle Cantonese "Bak Wah." or Bak language. I don't think it is the same Bak as white. I was recently reading something historical about why it was called Bak Wah... and forgot to write it down. That's worth a post on its own.
In any case when my family finally arrived I started telling the Showa students various stories about Chinatown. Mainly because we could see Hung Mun across the street. And Sun Yat Sen stayed thee hiding fo…

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