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Kung Fu workshop

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This morning I gave a Kung Fu lesson at a local Dutch college. The students were around 17/18 years old. I am glad that this school pays extra attention to sports and Martial Arts, especially allowing me to introduce Chinese Kung Fu to this group of students. Karate, Teakwondo, Judo are all familiar sports. But how about Chinese Kung Fu? Which is the father of various Martial Arts.

I asked them to describe Kung Fu in 1 word. The Dutch students in majority said 1 word : ‘Complicated’. Now I was thinking, why does it seems so complicated to these youngsters?  It might because of the rather new and unknown movements of Kung Fu. It comes from the far East, and I can say there is zero attention in the Dutch media about Chinese Kung Fu. What people get to see are the fancy kicks and people flying around in such Kung Fu movies. Which is of course not a realistic image of the Arts of Chinese Kung Fu. We start the class with the Kung Fu greeting and the experience starts. Actually, with proper explanation and guidance, the students learn very fast. The PE teacher recorded the class for evaluation. The students have to learn the theory as well and pass the test. In my opinion all schools should have Kung Fu classes once in a while, simply because of the many benefits of practicing it. (stretching, basic stances, proper body structure, tai chi, self defence) Chinese Kung Fu is a valuable Art.

When I finished teaching I wandered around in the school. It gaves me some old memories from the college time. Now looking back it was a wonderful time isn’t it?

This is what happened when the Kung Fu class starts!

I’m just kidding, the school bell rang.

Celebrate Chinese New Year with us Sunday 22nd in Utrecht

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Hello everyone,

This is the 2nd time we celebrate the Chinese New Year in Utrecht city at Rasa world cultural centre. I have been contributing to the programming and the participation of Wudao in this event. For the PR promotion of this event I made  a Teaser video in 3 days. I think this is the first cooperation between Wudao & aCreations. I believe in the near future we will produce more and more creative arts together. During the filming process a lot of people stood by and were curious what we are doing at the ‘Oudegracht’ in Utrecht city. Some were filming us and taking pictures with us.

I was totally focused on the filming part, because I didn’t had enough time to prepare and had a just a few days to deliver the video. Everybody volunteered in this project, so it was hard to count on the attendance that day. But we make the best out of it and it had a great effect. Although the cold weather we still had fun together. I was worrying whether I could finish filming before the sun goes down. The day started with a bad news, a message that the lead actor couldn’t come, he was sick. So we changed a bit of the storyline and I stepped in to play a bigger part in the film. It is stressful because you want to focus on one thing rather than 2 different things, or 3, production, filming and acting. At the end we’re all satisfied and got positive reactions. I can go with it since it was a last minute project.

Moreover

Read Article: http://kosmopolisutrecht.blog.com/2012/01/19/wu-dao-is-klaar-voor-jaar-van-de-draak/

Come and join us @ utrecht Rasa, I am in the programming of this Chinese New Year event and will be performing Kung Fu and giving a workshop that day. Kung Fu panda will be there giving out lucky money! Don’t miss it 😀
This year we focus on the younger generation of Dutch Chinese society. Artists, musicians, filmmakers will show their work at Rasa Utrecht!

Wudang Rice snack in tea leafs

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No, these are not packages of drugs. Do not misunderstand. These are Taoist rice in tea leafs. I bought them at the peak top at Wudang mountain. They are so mini and they told me I had to steam it before consuming. I didn’t tried it at Wudang mountains but took it back to Holland.

武当茶饭

Well, I’ll tell you how it tastes.. I was excited to taste the first one, is to me a really new experience of flavor, haven’t tried  it before. It is different than Hong Kong Cantonese Zongzi, also known as rice dumplings which my grandmother made before I left Hong Kong. (traditional Chinese food). It is supposedly also made of glutinous rice. It is sticky, but it is more like grinded rice. Soft like cake and there are beans mixed between the rice. Very strong tea flavor, like green tea. After the first one, I had to take another one to really taste the flavor. It is okay, but after the third one I had enough of these. I think I’m just not use to it. In China you have really lots of food and diversity coming from different regions. I mean in the north they have a different dishes than in the South, there are even so many kind of spicy flavor. I remember one time I asked for non-spicy food at the restaurant in Wudang. The waiter said that Cantonese food are tasteless in his opinion. What I know is that Cantonese food is the most popular of Chinese cuisine in Western world. People in Hubei (Wudang) eat  a lot of spicy food and completely different dishes.  this has to deal with weather circumstances and kind of geographic nature.

 

I’d like my grandmother ones . .

都是喜欢奶奶的粽子

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Lunar Party @ RASA Utrecht

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3 Feb. 2011 – How do you celebrate the Chinese New Year?

This was one of the questions they asked me on the Dutch National Radio interview. I volunteered bringing people together as a performing artist, co-organizer of this wonderful cultural celebration of Chinese New Year event at RASA, theater for World Cultures bringing them joy and happiness. Of course, Chinese New Year is less amusing then in China. But we try to make the best out of it! We should enrich culture!

Chinese New Year is the most spectacular day of the year. Everybody in China is celebrating it, fireworks, a lot of good food and traditional dishes, snacks and more. The sphere is really nice. Married couples give red envelope with brand new notes inside, known as Hong Bao in Mandarin and Lai See in Cantonese, to unmarried, most of whom are children. A gift which is given during holidays or special occasions. The red color symbolizes good luck and ward off evil, known in Eastern countries. A lot of happiness and joy, family and friends come together and have dinner.

This morning I took Dark Angel to the car-wash. She was dirty, so I took her to a shower. While driving through the wash lane another TV programmer called me. The situation made it quite funny.

Now she’s clean & shiny I immediately drove to a college in Alkmaar, which is about an hour driving from Utrecht. There I had to give a Kungfu workshop to the VWO pupils. They had a China theme and different Chinese cultural workshops.

This college offers the subject; Chinese language. There should be more of these schools in Holland. This is a great opportunity for the new generation. When I was in college I didn’t had this wonderful offer!

Here are some pictures, there were 55 teenagers! Wow, this is amazing. I didn’t had a microphone but still it went really good and they were all enthusiast about this art. I’m happy that I also emphasized on the philosophy and culture of Chinese Kungfu, instead of the physical movements.

It is important that the youth learn to know their body. Balancing the body without errors. That, what is out of balance, is dangerous. This is the same in life. Overdoing or not living in harmony with nature, is risky.

Learning Kungfu keeps them fit and healthy. Purifying the mind, and to be aware of the surroundings by forgetting them. It is an art that comes with a deep philosophy.

First of all, the pupils are all stiff, and not flexible. Except for some girls in the group, but they need strength.

You have to loosen your muscle to relax and adjust to the flow of the movement. If you want to eat, you have to open your mouth right?

It was amazing to see such a big group of Western students practicing Chinese Kungfu, it gives me self-satisfaction. I am proud of you guys!

After this class I had to rush back to Utrecht. The weather was fine, so I enjoyed driving. In Utrecht I had to go to the RASA Theater for the Wu Dao Dragons performance  in the evening. This event was organized by Kosmopolis Utrecht, Rasa, ACSU, Wu Dao Dragons, Stichting Lai Yin and local entrepreneurs. But we had to do the rehearsal and technical stuff. I didn’t had lot of sleep, because I was editing the Music Video for the performance till deep in the night. Everything was a bit in a hurry, but it was a good show. I really appreciated the warm support and enjoyed the sphere.

It was definitely different backstage, but that is the perspective of the performing artist. Although the technical problems and preparation, I have to say Congratulations Wu Dao Dragons! It was really good to see people enjoying the show. If the our music video worked well on the background, it would be even better! You know what, it is always the technical problems,  it is not the first time. Last year with the China Festivals the music also went down when Koon hit the floor. Guess what, this is the second time! And we changed the sequence, but what a coincidence he had problems with the music when he was doing his solo. Yup, I just find it really sad for him but appreciate his professional spirit and persistence. To me it was quite stressful fixing the technical problems with the technician, because you want to concentrate on the performance. It needs a lot of focus. I’m happy to have Leon and Weije here as our presenters, both good friends of mine. In the back of this picture you see Bas as the DJ. We all know each other and that is so beautiful about it when we combine our strength we can make something together, which we should be proud of ourselves.

Later that eve, we had another performance. This was for the club party at the same location.

Finally at 22.30 we can change clothes and have a drink and a chitchat with our friends in the club party. Pack in and time for some pictures 😉 So this was my Lunar year instead of having dinner with family. Stressful but exciting and self satisfying. When I hear the applause and the smiles I’ll forget all the hard work.


I would like to thank everybody who came to see us, our performance and participated the Chinese NY event. The sphere was really great. I love it! Special thanks to my sister & Ck for the help.

It was a heavy day, fully planned, workshop and two performances.. and all the other organisational things and problems between. There are times that I am so stressed by the pressure, but I never had given up for the things I did.

During hectic and stressful times, I’d like to relax my self by taking a hot tube, I try to stay under the water as long as I can hold my breath. This will loosen me completely. This is the way I relax & recharge myself. Another good help is a nice massage. Burn a home scent and put on relaxing music. That will calm you down by feeling, smelling and hearing it. Maybe it will work for you too.

I get my inspiration from the daily life and I’ll think about it when I go to bed. In my sleep, it’s processing the memories and fantasy.

ACSSNL – Chinese Lunar Festival

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It was way too early this morning! But it was nice to see how a group of Chinese exchange students from all different cities in Holland set up a big show in Theater De Muze in Noordwijk to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The Chinese Embassy and local news were present. Unfortunately, I don’t have any video recorded, cuz the person overslept and then the other technician guy who promised me to do it forgot to record our Wu Dao Dragons show!! Nooooo, hopefully there will be some video footage online soon, there were lots of people filming and taking pictures.