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Chinatown Resident Letter

Posted by Adam Cheung on February 08, 2017

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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…

"A-Woke" Asian Mannequin Challenge Goes Viral: An Interview with Co-Producer Michael Tow

I had the great pleasure today of getting to know Michael Tow more, after having seen his stage performance a few weeks ago. You may know him from his role in Warrior Class, that just debuted at Lyric Stage Company in Boston. Or maybe you've seen him in his film East of Hollywood. His acting style and accolades as an Asian in the media and theater are aspects to aspire to, certainly. However, I would like to call to attention his latest accomplishment, and a most powerful one at that.

Tow educated me on a bit of background. Having grown up in Brookline in a mostly white community at the time, he gave me some insight to some of his experiences dealing with identity and racial issues. We unpacked in detail some of the depths of this in his own Mannequin Challenge video to the Asian community, which he co-produced with Teja Arboleda:

Tow expresses and reacts with great purpose to some of the recent incidents the media has aimed at us as Asians, armed with hate and carele…

Ode to Big Mike

I saw recently on facebook that Mike Lowney passed away. Here is a link to the Go Fund Me that his son's Kung Fu brother set up. This will be a hard time for the family financially as well as emotionally. Please take some time to read and donate on the Go Fund me.

Big Mike was a major part of the Kung Fu world in Chinatown. He told me that he actually was studying Karate together with Bob Rosen, and that it was Mike that got Bob Rosen (who would later become the head of the Boston Wah Lum School) into Kung Fu in the first place.

Mike had recently shared a story with me about the old days in Chinatown regarding the Firecrackers blowing out the windows of a supermarket.. and why they started holding the fircracker lines further out from the stores. (That story went up on the blog and I will add a link later.)

But to me, Big Mike was mostly a person who came by the school to visit my Sifu, a white guy who spoke Cantonese and Taishanese and had studied countless types of Kung Fu bot…

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