Two episodes of a new ABC sitcom called “Fresh off the Boat” aired Wednesday night and here is how the network describes the show: “It’s the ’90s and 12-year-old, hip-hop loving Eddie just moved to suburban Orlando, Fla., from D.C.’s Chinatown with his parents. It’s culture shock for his immigrant family in this comedy about pursuing the American Dream.”
The American Dream: what a concept, what an increasingly elusive goal.
But the night before that, in a large room in the basement of Malcolm X College on the West Side, a group of such dreamers — children, teens and adults — were gathered to dance.
Some of them were born here. Some of them were born in China and arrived here held tightly in the arms of adoptive parents. They had come to Malcolm X on this night, in the snow, from Hyde Park and Oak Park and places in between. For most of the year they do this once a week, dressed casually, but recently they have been here twice weekly dressed in colorful costumes to rehearse for upcoming performances to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
They do this because “it is so much fun,” as more than one of them said Tuesday night, but also because it puts them in touch with ancient movements and rhythms and music that is their heritage, that touches a past that goes back some 5,000 years. They dance under the tutelage of teacher/choreographer Qiu Yue Jin, a nationally ranked dance performer and master teacher in China who came here in 1994 and also teaches at four suburban locations.
“She is a force of nature and remarkable teacher” said John Abbott, a lecturer in history at UIC, who was there with his wife, Jeanine Pedersen, an office manager at a medical technology company, and their adopted daughter/dancer, 12-year-old Cecily Abbott. Another daughter adopted from China, 10-year-old Gwen, is a veteran of these classes but was on this night in a gymnastics class. “(Jin) has this extraordinary creative vision and it’s always a thrill watching her work with our kids in realizing that vision in such beautifully choreographed ways. At first our daughters went to dance class because we insisted on it. Now they go to class because they insist on it. It’s been a great ride for them for both cultural and social reasons. For me it’s a privilege to be a small part of it.”
Another person in the room was Julie Tiao Ma. Proudly Chinese-American, she was born here to immigrant parents, graduated from MIT and worked in the information technology business until a few years ago, when she devoted herself full time to being president of the Chinese Fine Arts Society, which was founded by her mother, the late Barbara Tiao.
As she talked about her mother and the past, Ma kept very much in the present watching her two daughters, 8-year-old Sophie and 10-year-old Chloe, dance.
“They started dancing when they were 4, and when it comes time to wear the costumes and prepare for the shows, the level of excitement really rises,” said Ma, who is married to graphic designer Anthony Ma and lives in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. “And there is something so deep, so important (about seeing) traditional art forms passed on to the next generations.”
She stopped talking for a moment and watched the girls dance.
“These girls represent a diverse swath of the Chinese community,” she said. “They attend different schools, live in different neighborhoods. They bond and make lifelong friends here. Previous generations of dancers grow up and go to college, but many come back for recitals, just to help out. I hope that we will be able to keep this special tradition going.”
Julie Ma’s mother was born in China and moved here in 1982 when her husband, George, a professor of statistics, took a job teaching at the University of Chicago. She was a piano teacher and, sensing a void in the city, decided to spread the word about Chinese music and art.
Thus was the CFAS born in 1984 and it has gone about the business of letting Chicago see and experience the depth and beauty of Chinese culture, most prominently through concerts and other exhibitions and programs.
“My mother (who died 2008) was really a pioneer in making our culture accessible to people outside the Asian community and giving it to Chicago,” said Ma. “It was another kind of love story, but she was so in love with this place.”
This place was not always hospitable to people of Chinese descent (or a lot of other immigrant groups, for that matter) when they began to arrive in the 1870s, settling mostly on Clark Street, between Van Buren and Harrison streets. Anti-Chinese prejudice, violence and rent-gouging by white landowners forced businesses and people to move to the Near South Side, and that is where Chinatown is today. Some 10,000 of the area’s 68,000 Chinese live there.
Perhaps all you know about Chinese culture is what you learned on a visit to Chinatown. Have dinner at the Moon Palace, did you? Drop in on a parade and see drums and dancing dragons? Shop at one of the cute stores with their cute shoes and dolls? That’s the way it goes. When we visit most neighborhoods not our own, we do so on the fly. Our time there might be rewarding but it is mostly superficial.
The Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 19. It is the Year of the Sheep (or Goat or Ram) and the CFAS has all manner of events scheduled to embellish that day.
“It is our aim to enlighten people about the depth of our culture,” says Ma. “There is a chance to see a lot of Chinese events all across the area at this time of year. That is wonderful, more every year and we are a part of that. We try to do this on many levels, from colorful, flashy events featuring children to concerts with professionals.”
There will be “Sounds of China: A Chinese New Year Celebration” at 3 p.m. Feb. 15 at Chicago Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave. It will feature traditional and contemporary works by both Chinese and Chinese-American composers, as well as 26 members of the National Chinese Traditional Orchestra performing on traditional instruments.
The Tuesday night dancers will be joined by dozens more at a “New Year’s Day Celebration” at noon on Feb. 19 in Preston Bradley Hall in the Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., and at noon on March 1 a “Chinese New Year Lantern Celebration” in the Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier.
There are other activities too, by the CFAS and other organizations (see chinesefinearts.org and chicagochinatown.org/events).
It was all coming up, and so the children danced and smiled. They would soon be off toward home and homework.
The TV version of the Chinese-American lifestyle will settle into its regular 7 p.m. Tuesday time slot. “Fresh off the Boat” is, rather startlingly, the first network show to predominantly feature Asian Americans in 20 years, since Margaret Cho starred in “All-American Girl” in 1994-95.
Ma and some of the other parents and children said they were mildly curious about it. A few said they might watch. But they were, at the moment, understandably consumed by the dancing going on in this basement room, a dance meant to represent not only, as Ma explained, “Lotus flowers surrounding a sacred wading pool,” but also a cluster of ongoing American dreams as the celebration of new year, 4713, loomed.
“After Hours With Rick Kogan,” with guest Julie Ma, airs 9-11 p.m. Sunday on WGN-AM 720.
Twitter @rickkogan
