Bruce: the CEO of International Swimming Hall Of fame
He will not stop pushing the fully loaded “one wheel cart”
until he can push no more
We call Bruce” hall boss”, which is a Beijing style term. It
comes naturally from the linguistic economy that Chinese are famous for, to
reduce every words to two syllables, or if possible, further to one.( For
instance the word “food “ is corrupted to”foo”,economically drop “d”. China born Chinese (cbc) mistress will
happily tell you she can cook Chinfo, Amerifo, Italifo, Mesifo, and so if you
eat their” foo”, make sure you don’t remain one (fool).Mr. Bruce’s name sounds
like three syllables, so it is naturally reduced to Lao Bu, two syllables. This
seems to have reduced the space, as well as historical distance of Chinese
culture and American culture. The institutionalized system of inducting people
into the Hall of fame remains me the ancient tradition in China to divine their
emperors at TaiShan (the Tai mountain, supposedly to be the holy place for the
first Chinese emperor ChinShihuang ). During the Han Dynasty, the great
historian Si Maqian’s father lamented missing the chance to follow the Han emperor
to Taishan for the ceremony. The father dictated to Si Maqian that he must
become a historian in the royal court. The son promised his father “absolutely,
absolutely, and absolutely”. Si Maqian
later suffered punishment of castration and dedicated all of his life to
compile history. In his encyclopedia work, he included “divination” to his 8 volume
book. In the classical book “Pilgrim To the West”, the monkey king and his
three buddies escorted the Monk Tang to Indian and after returned to China, was
inducted into the Hall of Fame as the “victory Buddha”. It bears out the common
thread in both Chinese and American psychological buildup, that is the Hero
worship. To institutionalize Hero
Worship is to provide the younger generation with role models and the youngster
will be able to have some body to look up, imitate, and carry the tradition
forward. When striking early as a kid,
one is able to focus and be fruitful in his/her pursuit in later years. Middle age brings lot accomplishments and in
sunset years, the old horse still wants to run, the old beauty still wants to
shine. It is just being human. This is what Mr. Bruce, the Hall Boss is doing.
Chinese has a long history of hero induction, but for the swimmers from China
this year, they are on a higher stage, and into the bigger international family
of aquatic sports. International Swimming Hall of Fame is truly the biggest
family, with most comprehensive collections of the world. LaoBu’s exhibition Hall is full of
collections from all over the world. LaoBu is very sensitive to history, he
goes everywhere with the mind of collection historical records, photos and memorabilia’s.
He also writes profoundly on the history of aquatic sports. He confesses that
the exhibit of Chinese history of aquatic sports has been the most challenging
thing among all the projects he has ever handled. As soon as the project of
Chinese Weekend started, he plunged himself into day and night grinding,
spending many sleepless nights either working or worrying. To beat the deadlines,
he worked long hours, burning midnight oil. It took him 5 months to swim from
the first Chinese emperor hero who became legendary for controlling flood: the
big fish, to 2012 London Olympic. He “collected every drop of water“， missing nothing in compiling and
editing, struggling his way through Chinese literature and dedicated his entire
attention to putting out this exhibition for the China weekend. It “shakes the
egg York in the brain”just thinking of such a formidable task. It involves
collecting, laying out, translation, going through articles of articles that
the google translator help to create more mess than intelligence. LaoBu is not
to be stopped. He is the tireless, resolute, Nothing No CanDo boss for this,
and his dedication attracted and moved the Chinese volunteers and many of his
Hall citizens to rally around him. He reminds us the Canadian doctor who went
to China during the anti-japanese war period, who saved many Chinese soldiers’
lives and died of blood poisoning during his operation. Chairman Mao in his eulogy said of this
Canadian doctor that he came afar and dedicated his life to the Chinese
liberation cause.’ LaoBu is also such an international figure that thousands of
miles away in Fort Lauderdale had fell in love with the little known history of
the Chinese legacy. What spirit is this? (quote Mao), this the international
spirits. This is the spirits of the Hall of Fame. Lousie, the Granny Lotus, was touched by his
spirits and switched from Never work for him to Work for him anytime.
Volunteers joined in one after another, a team of dedicated free lancers day
and night, work hard, work the walk. Now LaoBu’s two syllable Chinese name has
three more syllables added to it. Lao Bu Dang Bu Zhu
-the tireless, never stop Bruce。He
started his story telling from the Big Fish, all the way running up to
the last dynasty, and then to the Republic. He continues swimming all the way
to New China and met bigger bumps, old boss met new issues (a set Chinese
cultural revolution jargon). About this period of history, he could be said of
knowing nothing, which is not an overstatement.
Let’s say he knows some but far from desirable .We encouraged him by not
pushing this button and he just pushes the cart on. He dared himself jump into
this open water of so much currents, swimming against the tide, a long march in
the water. In the history of aquatic sports.
He is CEO, researcher, editor, writer, movie producer, host, he pushes
the cart and it has not tipped over yet.
With LaoBu as our Task Master, the volunteers are touch and moved “as
Mao said, the God is moved”. As a team, we gladly and willingly joined in. WE
are in the same “pirate boat:, and there is nothing we care, but row ,rock and
roll.”. Old photos came through the web, China’s water dragons are stirred,
they came out of nap or cozy grandma and grandpa’s routine, to search their
memories, and contribute. We write our own history, we write collectively as a
team with LaoBu as our captain, tireless and farsighted, dedicated and warm,
not to be deterred by anything. Ups and downs, just like floating in the water,
he just pushes the cart. He was fascinated about the stories of Chinese mermaid
and Wu Chuanyu, totally touched. He followed every lead and found Chen
Gongcheng, Wu’s native friend Huang Hongjiu, and personally picked up the phone
and talked to Huang, inviting him to the event.
LaoBu brought his beautiful wife and with flowers, met Huang at the
airport . LaoBu also interviewed Huang
again before seeing Huang off to Holland. He was amazed with details about the
history of Chinese aquatic sports. To
change a heart with a heart, he was able to put out a first class exhibit with
its blue background that offset the precious photos and collectables. When
entering the exhibit hall, Chinese participants were moved to tears by this
heartfelt presentation. This is the most wonderful cooperation between LaoBu
and his loyal Chinese team members. This a history for us, by us, and it is a
dream coming true. It has been 60 years since the Chinese swimming team was
organized in 1953. We have dreamed our way to Fort Lauderdale, and it is no
longer a dream. When Mu had to bite his finger to see if it is a dream or
reality, we all share such euphoria. We have worked our butts off for months.
Now, we will meet, will see each other for the first time. We knew so well the
speech, the voice, the tones and the style of all our volunteers, now we are
going to look at each others’ faces. It is almost overwhelming. Many times we
asked ourselves, now is our time, now the time is here. Is it true? Is it real? Four days flew away in a blink of
eye. I remembered one middle night, LaoBu asked me to help “put out some fire”.
I entered his office for the first time. It was nothing like a CEO’s office,
more like a wareroom, with things scattered everywhere. He does not have expensive “boss suite. No
marble desk top, no leather armchair. In his creative chaos, I pushed away
piling clothes and dug a hole to land my butt in. He was doing the editing of
the movie, a short form, and we discussed how we could do something really make
everybody happy. He had a heavy heart when someone was not happy. He keyed in
the subtitles and made copies and wrote in long hands letter of good will. I had
worked with many Bosses, and CEOs. He has been the most hands-on boss, a
handyman, a driver。He opened
boxes, carried boxes on his shoulder, nailed in flyers, streamers, tried mic
and DJed. When in emergency, he kept his cool. Almost 10 minutes before the big
night ceremony, the translator still did not show up and we just had to go
ahead, and we saved the night. He was on all the details. For non profit organization, I used to have not
so favorable comments. But LaoBu showed me how he worked and I saw it with my
own eyes. He does not have the CEO
“fashion or style”. He did not surround him with “high-ended-ness”, Stuff
spilled over the floor and table. Posters hung on the wall, an English
translation of an old Japanese poem. His clothes hung on the long table, one
sock looked lonely and tie lazy and tired. Middle nights, three kids were still
working and came to talk to him. If he
was not a model himself, how he can have others follow his way? It is his
personality and charming drive that had others willingly follow. LaoBu has been
the chief designer, chief writer, chief in hosting, logistic support. He has
worked as a tailor, a very skillful one with great taste, in bringing out the
most beautiful artwork in this exhibit. 4 days flew away, 5 months flew away,
40 years flew away, 60 years flew away.
We could not blink fast enough to catch time, but the exhibit has frozen
the most beautiful moment for us in the frame of May Fort Lauderdale, 2013.
LaoBu. Bruce, you push your cart as far and as fast as you wish,
and we are on the sideline now, give a buzz, you find us.
