Today we’d like to introduce you to Wayland Tam.
Hi Wayland, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started when I was 11 years old with my Instructor, Ron Quan, at the patio of Alpine Recreation Center in Chinatown. My older cousins introduced me to the organization, as they had been members for over 15 years before me. My passion for lion dance and martial arts was from watching many kung fu movies in the 1980s, watching lion dancers in Chinatown, and looking up to my older cousins performing lion dancing.
I am currently the president of the organization because my instructors are looking highly upon me, my organization members respect my leadership skills, and I am exceptionally dedicated to this family. All that I do for this family is completely voluntary and not monetary compensated.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The organization did have issues along the way as performing cultural art was not looked, as cool to participate during 1990s. Gang life and gang culture was very attractive in the Chinatown community during this period. There was a lack of new dedicated students, and we had to compete hard to recruit new students. We explained and offered many incentives to recruit and retain the few students in our classes. We began our youth fishing trips, overnight camping trips, and snow mountain trips to prevent our students from getting sucked into our local street gangs.
Another recent struggle was the Covid-19 pandemic. This completely paralyzed our performances in venues and in-person workout sessions. For a period of 18 months, we followed the pandemic guidelines and did not participate in any large gatherings. Our reserve funds were running dry as we had to still pay our monthly bills.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
Wayland Tam, born and raised in Los Angeles Chinatown. Over the last 25 years, Wayland has personally taught martial arts and lion dancing to over 600 students from the Los Angeles County area without compensation. He believes that being able to teach and share this ancient cultural art is very satisfying as we can pass this tradition on. Equally as important to him is FAMILY. Wayland and the current leaders have all been emphasizing the importance of community service, kindness, discipline, camaraderie, and success during each meeting.
Our specialty is providing local low-income immigrant youths an opportunity to be part of a tight-knit organization. This organization is an alternative to street gangs, drugs, or loneliness. The leaders’ philosophy is to continue to nurture and mentor our youths and young adults until they find themselves.
What makes Wayland different is that he is known for having his students repeat their techniques many times when he teaches lion dance and martial arts. He would also randomly call upon a student to demonstrate techniques correctly to keep all his students focused at all times.
Besides teaching the classes three days a week, he plans/coordinates most of the performances, trips, scholarship processes, internship opportunities, and community service activities. Recently, Wayland has been focused on grant writing to secure more funding to expand and grow the cultural art program. In 2022, he retired as a Detective from Police Department after 25 years of service. Currently, he is an active Reserve Officer (volunteer). He also has a leadership role on the Chinatown Business Improvement Board and the Alpine Recreation Center Park Advisory Board.
Wayland is most proud of the many successful students who came from our program. Many of the low-income students are financially successful adults now and are making donations to the program to help the program grow.
We are very different from other programs as this program never ends. We have families with three generations of participants who are all actively involved. There is never a completion date like high school, college, or a drug program. We are here for you if you are 10 years old or 85 years old. We just want to continue the family bond as long as the participants want to.
What are your plans for the future?
Wayland is planning to increase the number of participants from 120 youths to 160 youths (33% increase). We recently received a Los Angeles County of Arts and Culture grant and a California Arts Council grant. These grants will allow us to hire our instructors and expand our teaching capacity.
Wayland recently came up with the idea of a Chinatown Community Cultural Center that would be free to the public and would allow people to learn about Chinatown’s history and East Wind Foundation’s history in Los Angeles. The idea is to allow people to appreciate the art and culture of Chinatown. This location will have a lot of foot traffic as it will be in Far East Plaza (same plaza as Howlin Ray’s Chicken). In order for this idea to become reality, Wayland began a fundraiser within the organization’s members. In less than three weeks, we secured over $100,000 from the members. We are planning to open the Chinatown Community Cultural Center by the end of May 2024.
In August 24, 2024, East Wind Foundation will host the 1st Annual Hungry Ghost Festival at Alpine Recreation Center in Chinatown. This will be a completely free event that will have indoor and outdoor cultural performances.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.eastwindfoundation.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastwindliondancetroupe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eastwindfoundation/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLXFBNOlnsY
Image Credits
Tony Luu
Lauren Lam
