Last Friday, the Chinese Students Association (CSA) hosted its annual Chinese Lunar Year Banquet celebrates the Chinese Lunar New Year by offering the student body free Chinese food and performances related to Chinese culture.
Performances included a lion dance by the Johns Hopkins Lion Dance Troupe and a comedic skit by the Johns Hopkins Kung Fu club.
This year, the banquet had a turn-out of a little over 100 people. The co-president of CSA, Shida Li, expressed hopes for a larger attendance.
“We wanted more people to come this year, but because of space we only had room for about 100 people,” Li said.
CSA originally wanted the banquet in the Glass Pavilion to accommodate more people but they couldn’t find out if the space was reserved until after the Lunar New Year had passed.
There also was a problem with catering this year. Szechuan House, CSA’s usual caterer for the banquet was charging them $200 more this year than last year for an unknown reason.
Thus this year’s food was catered by King Wok. Despite the different caterer, people were commenting on how good the food was this year. It is not certain whether CSA will stick with this caterer for next year.
Despite the obstacles faced this year, Li felt that overall the event was a success. “I think the banquet went nicely. It was successful,” Li said.
Among one of the highlights of the banquet was the Kung Fu club’s performance. Hopkins Kung Fu performed a comedic skit of two competing martial arts instructors trying to find students while parodying martial arts stereotypes.
In the end, the masters lose all their students due to their increasing workloads, which is true for the club here at Hopkins. Ironically, the skit did not reflect the actual style of the club. Kong Kong Liu, the secretary of the club said that the skit was mainly to entertain and promote the club.
Although the club sometimes performs during on-campus events such as the Lunar Year Banquet and the Inter-Asian Council Formal, they do not travel much. Liu said that the club normally just trains. Liu adds, “But we are thinking of trying to expand.”
According to the Hopkins Kung Fu website, the club was started by Dr. Shin Lin (chair of the Hopkins Biophysics department) and sifu John Clayton in 1988.
The main style they practice is Wing Chun, a style mainly based on self-defense, in contrast with other styles like Taekwondo and Wushu which fight for sport.
The object of this martial art is to stop the fight as soon as possible. The art focuses on making sure that the opponent doesn’t have the ability to fight back. Despite the art focusing mainly on self-defense, it also teaches efficient ways to be on the offense.
“The cool thing about the art is it works on using both hands; on being ambidextrous.
You don’t just block, you block and attack at same time,” Liu said.
Liu further described Wing Chun as more of an art form than simply a way of self-defense, blending a philosophy of non-violence and the capabiity of handling a confrontational situation.
“I feel like it’s a really beautiful art. It’s very useful in terms of actual practical self-defense. You’re learning a skill that on the one hand in a critical situation might actually save your life, but on the other hand, you hopefully won’t ever have to face that situation,” Liu said.
In addition to learning Wing Chun, the club also learns Silat, an Indonesian martial art. This martial art form is similar to Wing Chun but includes weapons training, such as knife and stick techniques.
While club members are prepared to fend off physical attacks, the club itself faces some other challenges.
Due to a new Hopkins policy that all coaches must have insurance and first-aid training, the club just lost its official Wing Chun teacher a couple weeks ago. A budget cut of 25 percent also contributed to the instructor opting to leave. The club’s original budget was $2500-3000, but now is only $1000.
More experienced members like Liu and Andy Wong, president of the club, have stepped up and taken over the class to teach newcomers the basics. The official Wing Chun instructor still offers free lessons to the public off-campus at a church and the club still has its official Silat instructor.
Even with these challenges, there are many people involved with the club with varying levels of commitment.
There are about eight regular Silat students and five to ten regular Wing Chun students. There is a wide range of skill levels, but most are beginners.
Wing Chun is not just about fighting and self-defense either. “It’s almost like a way of life. You’re training more than your body; you’re training your mind too. You’re learning about a way of life that’s been going on for a couple hundred of years so to me that’s really special,” Liu said.
Wong and Liu said that the club requires little commitment, but to become a skilled martial artist, it takes years.
No experience is required to join and the club is open to everyone, including staff, graduate students and even non-Hopkins affiliates. They meet on the 3rd floor of the Rec Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 p.m. — 10:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 4 p.m. — 6 p.m.
