New York Jianghu

A feature documentary about the legacy of kung fu in New York City, from Hollywood to anti-Asian hate.

For backstory, go to Once Upon a Time in Chinatown.

Summary

New York Jianghu is a feature documentary about the kung fu community of the five boroughs, and the long-overlooked figures that have formed the mythos of kung fu films. Kung fu has meant something different for each generation since it left China and entered the streets of Chinatown. It was a means of making money on the side, entertainment via Bruce Lee and the Wu-Tang Clan, and now combating anti-Asian hate in a rapidly-gentrifying New York.

Director’s Statement

I am a journalist and managing editor at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York. I have produced stories from the Sápara Nation of the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador and helped organize the production of Netflix’s Who Killed Malcolm X? docu-series. New York Jianghu will be my feature debut.

I am also a martial artist who grew up training at the Shaolin Temple Overseas Headquarters in Flushing, Queens, the largest Asian metropolitan in New York City. My school moved twice, each time to a smaller space. As our numbers shrank with the space, I felt the loss of community.

The reality of gentrification in Chinese enclaves set in. I sought out the different styles of not just Flushing, but Chinatown and Brooklyn’s enclaves.

The jianghu of New York is deeper and richer than I thought.

Films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon present the romanticized version of the jianghu. While their glory, prejudices, and personal struggles are true to real-life jianghu, they are portrayed in mystical, bygone era.

Most kung fu films are made with consultation from members of the modern jianghu. But my DP and I have been part of it for years, giving our subjects—our teachers—time and space to decide how they want to present themselves. This documentary gets its name from its creators—we are the “New York Jianghu.”

What will it look like?

Do you like Shaw Brothers? Do you like Bruce Lee?

The documentary will be half in a vérité style, capturing candid, unexpected moments as the masters interact with students and peers in their day-to-day training. We will also use footage of the masters recounting the past as they walk their old stomping grounds in the city, much like in the YouTube docu-series “HoodVlogs.”

The other half will use a new media style where we will present footage and old photographs that give you a glimpse into the old New York, visualizing what contemporary retellings cannot. We will use graphics for a seamless appearance, similar to this Goldthread mini-documentary.

Why now?

Kung fu has time and again been intangible with the Chinese community.

The story started as one about the effects of gentrification: With the rents rising and the people who hold the most authentic parts of our culture being pushed out, how will we pass them down?

Then it became one about creating a community in the slums of New York: In the 1950s and 1980s, the kung fu masters who immigrated from China would open schools in their studio apartments to make money. These schools became a place where people from all backgrounds could share in the culture. Without these schools, how would we have such multicultural legends such as Wu-Tang Clan?

Now it’s about gentrification again, but it’s also about anti-Asian hate: Kung fu became a flashy mainstay of action movies, but it wasn’t considered “real” fighting like MMA. But as anti-Asian hate crimes rose in 2020, there sparked a renewed interest in learning the many styles of kung fu, which were invented exactly for the purpose of self-defense. Could kung fu have a future where it empowers the community on the streets as well as the movie screen?