By Kathy Kressman
Twirling a nine-section steel whip.Graig Gee performs a frenzied acrobatic ballet, a combination of traditional kung fu and stage opera which forms the national sport of China, Wushu.
Gee perfected his talent in China last year, studying with the masters and passing their rigid tests to become one of the few Americans sanctioned to promote Wushu in this country.
The opportunity to train in China was “a dream come true”, said Gee, a physical education major at the university.
But, by practicing in a gym and living in a house patrolled by armed guards. Gee’s education on the grace of Wushu became interlaced with the realities of life in a communist country.
He discovered that in China no one is allowed to leave a city without a pass, and all facts about one's life and one’s family are on record. “It felt like a Chinese version of 1984,” Gee said, “The government gives you a job and a place to live and you stay there, using stamps for food in govenment restaurants.
“American teenagers don’t realize the freedom we have to go partying, dating, to say what we want,” Gee said. “You can’t date there until you’re 24 years
old and then you have to go through a matchmaker who first talks it over with your parents,” he continued.
Perhaps this is an effort to restrict population growth in China. Gee speculated. “Families with more than one child are given a pay cut and families with more than two children are asked to leave.”
The population problem in Shanghai is so bad that “it took 20 minutes to cross the street; in buses you are packed too tight to move and if you go to dinner people stand by your table burping to get a seat. There are just so many people!”
The isolation of the national gym protects the athletes from such inconveniences of everyday life. Gaining entrance is the dream of many in China but the requirements are strict.
“You see the beggars in the street versus the better food and salaries of the athletes,’’ Gee said. “It is the place you want to be — like a movie star or something in America.”
The privileged allowed to train at the gym are chosen every two years by government scouts who search the grammar schools in China for graceful children with long arms and legs. Eventually six boys and six girls are chosen to live in the gym. They leave
their families, and from the age of 10 practice an average of eight hours every day working to make the national team, while they attend the university school.
If a person is a member of the team “he is set for life,” Gee said. “The athletes in China are equal to the politicians in terms of salaries and living conditions.”
A good Wushu artist performs on the team from the age of 18 to 26, then retires to coach. He is taken care of by the government and honored as a hero until death. Gee said. At least that is the plan, but Wushu has only achieved its place of honor in the last decade, and most of the coaches are the originators of the present style.
Gee was allowed to perform at the first university graduation ceremony to take place since the cultural revolutin in 1974. “I made a page of history in China as a member of the first (American) group to do this.”
Having mastered the art of Wushu, Gee hopes to “someday work teaching fat, overworked, stressed business executives how to get in shape.” He believes that through Wushu one develops “strength, endurance, balance and power.”
(Continued on page 3)
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BARD BUFFS — The California Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park is hosting an exhibition entitled “Shakespeare: The Globe and the World". The museum is filled with rare books, manuscripts, sculpture, costumes, paintings, prints and other items from the era of the Bard and Queen Elizabeth I. The exhibit is highlighted by rare
Shakespearean artifacts on loan from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. This historical flashback is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Jan. 31 and admission is free. See photographic essay on page 5.
Elderly get cheese at community center
By Chris Navarro
Staff Writer
To discourage ineligible senior citizens from waiting unnessarily, the Community Service Center, located on campus, posted a sign on its doors: “Cheese will be arriving on Thurs. at 10:00 a.m.. only for sign-ups. No more sign ups!!”
An estimated 200 senior citizens who had signed up last month picked up their share of the surplus cheese being distributed by the federal government.
President Reagan ordered the nationwide allocation cf 30 million pounds of cheese to the poor after hearing appeals from California officials and organizations representing the poor Consumers Union.
Three million pounds of American cheese was allotted to California.
The cheese surplus is a result of the government’s price support system for the dairy industry. The system is designed to rid the market of commodities that are overproduced by farmers. The abundant product, cheese in this instance, is purchased by the government.
The center on campus distributed 204 pounds of the cheese contained in 34 cases, each with six, 5-pound packages.
The distribution went smoothly, in stark contrast to the North Hollywood allocation in which several disruptions occurred.
“The longest line we had this morning was about 40 people," Williams said. “It was very orderly. We had geared up for the worst.” She said several people became angry when they were denied cheese because they had not signed up.
“We had one lady call and say she was going to call David Horowitz because she had apparently watched TV last night and she saw the scene in North Hollywood. She said they were giving away three packages of cheese to each person but she didn't get any from us. She didn't sign up,” Williams said.
(Continued on page 10)
trojan
Volume XCI Number 9
University of Southern California
Friday, January 22, 1982
Hoover redevelopment causes relocation for area residents
By Eric Onstad
Staff Writer
City officials unveiled redevelopment plans that could dramatically alter much of the neighborhood surrounding the university at a tension-filled meeting Wednesday night.
At the meeting, three areas were proposed as additions to the Hoover Redevelopment Project. The project, passed by the city council in 1966. added 60 acres to the university’s campus and provided for the development of the areas now occupied by University Village and the University Hilton.
If approved, the additional areas, which include neighborhoods to the north and south of campus, would provide for rehabilitation of existing structures as well as development.
At the packed meeting attended by property owners, landlords and suspicious tenants and residents, councilman Robert Farrell lamented a
“missed opportunity to piggyback community improvements” on expenditures for the Olympic games.
He explained that the city council chose not to use any public funds for the games. Those funds could have provided for community redevelopment.
The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will attempt to provide for that redevelopment by working with a citizens panel to create a plan to be submitted to the city council in December.
The CRA is responsible for 21 projects stretching from San Pedro to North Hollywood, including the Bunker Hill and California Center projects located downtown.
One of three areas being considered for redevelopment is the neighborhood located from the northern perimeter of the university to Adams Boulevard and from Hoover Street to the Harbor
(Continued on page 7)
Athlete studies national sport of China with masters
Opportunity to train in Wushu a ‘dream come true’
Staff photo by Andrew Innerarlty Staff Photos by Jon Soo Hoo