A major tragedy in their hometown won’t stop these martial arts students in Monterey Park from practicing kata, or their forms.
With every kick, swing and punch, these students at the Siu Lum Pai Kung Fu Association are learning forms of self-defense, rooted in traditional Chinese martial arts. In the school, students are taught the values of respect, tranquility under pressure, purpose through movement.
“It teaches confidence, humility, courage, focus, discipline,” said Eileen Greenberg, an assistant instructor with the traditional Chinese martial arts school. “We’re not training bullies, but to step up if you see someone who needs help, and defend your community.”
Each week for over eight years, kids and adults were practicing kung fu and lion dancing at the Star Dance Ballroom Studio in Monterey Park. In between the studio’s regular ballroom lessons, music classes and social dances, students of all ages came for Chinese martial arts lessons and lion dance rehearsals, led by instructors at the Siu Lum Pai Kung Fu school.
In the days leading up to Chinese Lunar New Year, students were at the Monterey Park ballroom studio practicing for an upcoming lion dance performance. But later that weekend, on Jan. 21, what was once a safe, beloved space for the community became the site of a shooting massacre, where a gunman killed 11 dancers — all Asian seniors — inside.
Head instructor Kevin Leung said, in the days following, he felt “numb, like a zombie.” He had known several of the victims, including Star Dance studio owner Ming Wei Ma.
“When we first started the kung fu school here (in 2015), we called around different places. Mr. Ma was the one who picked up the phone and said he would take us in; didn’t charge us a lot of money,” recalled Leung, a nurse and Monterey Park resident. “From then, Mr. Ma saw us grow from like five kids, to now a huge school with student competitors. He was always smiling, always very proud of us.”
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