With a devilish grin and a mouth full of baby teeth, Stanley Cheung seems like an ordinary, energetic seven-year-old at first glance. He wears khakis and a blue plaid button up shirt, and carries a massive black backpack, adorned with a single, reflective dragon keychain. His feet dangle six inches from the ground as he sits in his chair in the McDonalds on Main Street in Flushing and toys with his chicken McNuggets.
“That was a long sentence,” he said playfully to the delight of his mother, Derong Zhang, and Crystal Liu, the events coordinator for a Chinese TV station, which will broadcast Stanley's performance. The “sentence” was actually the two-hour interview Cheung and his mother completed with The Queens Courier, recounting the story of how they fled China with the clothes on their backs and how Stanley, at 7, will travel the world performing in the “Chinese New Year Spectacular!” as a monk promoting traditional values.
“The Chinese believe that if you do good things, good things will go back to you, and if you do bad things, you will get bad things in return,” Liu said, explaining in English that Zhang, 42, and her husband, Hong Kong native Fatping Cheung, 49, have always embraced the traditional stories of morality and cultural arts.
Next month, Fatping, who teaches Kung Fu and has performed the art of dragon and lion dancing for over 30 years, will perform alongside his son in the Chinese New Year performance. And for Zhang, embracing tradition sparked a deep devotion to Falun Gong, a series of meditation exercises instituted countrywide in her homeland in 1992.
Zhang, who in 1994 had been badly burned when a gas heater in her apartment exploded while she was showering, had been told by doctors that she need skin grafts for her face and arms and surgeries, which she could not afford. Instead, she took up Falun Gong, and she felt her health improve - and burns fade. Zhang attributed the effects of Falun Gong to improving her health so much so that she was able to become pregnant with Stanley.
In 1999, Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin banned Falun Gong - except in the province of Hong Kong - and afterward the estimated 70 million Chinese people who practiced the exercise faced persecution.
Zhang said that in 2003 - while Fatping was working in Hong Kong - she and Stanley were arrested and brought to a police station, where they were held separately. After one day and one night of confinement, Zhang said that she told a guard that she needed to use the bathroom and escaped into the rainy, cold night, leaving one-year-old Stanley behind.
The next day, the authorities released the baby to friends of Zhang, in an attempt to lure the mother out of hiding, Zhang said. However, the friends instead contacted Fatping, who met them in Hong Kong and brought Stanley to Tokyo. Alone Zhang managed to travel to Tokyo as well, meeting up with her husband and young son so that they could travel to New York.
“I have a home there [in China], but I can never go back,” Zhang said.
When asked what she brought with her on this trip, Zhang patted her shoulders and thighs.
“The shirt on her back,” Liu translated.
Stanley at the time was too young to understand what had happened.
“I really don't remember. My mom told me,” he said about the family's flight.
In America, the family first sublet a room within an apartment in Flushing. Fatping went to work as a dragon dancer - assembling with several other men to form the writhing head, body and tail of the mythical, good-luck creature invited to store openings and other events where storeowners feed the dragon with a head of lettuce and pay it money.
Moreover, Stanley, a second grader at P.S. 20 in Flushing, has earned a top role in the cultural performance created by the Chinese television network, New Tang Dynasty Television, (NTDTV). Although much of Stanley's role as a monk promoting moral decisions must remain secret - NTDTV wants to tell traditional Chinese stories with a new spin through its theme of “myths and legends” - Liu said that Stanley's role is pivotal.
This year, the show, which is in its fourth year and will start its tour in February, will make stops in 26 cities throughout four continents - North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Over 1,000 dancers and musicians have roles in the performance, and currently, Stanley is booked for the entire tour, the youngest cast member to travel overseas. In addition, the group will present a holiday mix of eastern and western performances from December 19 to 24 at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan.
For Stanley, the show is an opportunity to take a giant step in following in the footsteps of his father, who Stanley eagerly points out in vibrant color photos of past shows as a regal dragon dancer. Stanley has been preparing for this since he was four, when his father first began showing him the dragon dance. In a few years, he said he hopes to be able to dance as well as his father, climbing a two-story bamboo poll to the very top.
Zhang has also noticed that Stanley has become more thoughtful and well behaved since joining the show, attributing the change to the traditional Chinese morals rooted in the show.
“I feel very proud that my son can be part of the show,” Liu translated for Zhang, who imagined that had the family stayed in China, their life would be much different.
In Flushing, Zhang and her family continue to practice Chinese traditions to promote their culture - heading to Kissena Park on weekends to practice Falun Gong. Through the moral stories and cultural activities, Zhang hopes that other people will embrace their own roots and learn to choose right over wrong.
FROM CHINA WITH LOVE – Boy, 7, will perform in 26 cities throughout four continents
By Christina Santucci
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