Madison Park: Building community through Tai Chi in Chinatown

By Priscilla Yuki Wilson

The Madison Park area is again facing redevelopment.  What will happen to the seniors who’ve created a haven of Tai Chi in the public square?  

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PRISCILLA YUKI WILSON: Ed and Evelynn Loo have been married for 42 years. On this chilly grey morning, they’re wearing matching yellow raincoats. They’ve been done with their Tai Chi sets for about an hour. Now, at 9 a.m., they’re relaxing and talking with friends.

This is the scene in Madison Square Park every morning from about 7 to 10 a.m. Ed and Evelynn know everyone. That’s not surprising—they’ve been practicing Tai Chi for the past thirteen years. They were also responsible for making this park what it is today.

ED LOO: What you see here, the black top, the asphalt, that’s all new. This used to be rolling mounds and grassy mounds.

That’s Ed Loo. He and his wife used to practice at the BART plaza next door. But in 2006, BART decided it needed to demolish a building that was on that site.

ED LOO: BART made a decision that the building was not strong enough to withstand a major, major earthquake.

Demolishing the building would take three years. Evelyn Loo says that meant no more tai chi on the plaza.

EVELYNN LOO: Someone came up to us and said, in Chinese, “There’s a Chinese letter that says we will not have a park anymore.”

ED LOO: And they just say we have to go away, and that was just kind of unacceptable to us.

So the Loos started a project that would last for the next two and half years.

EVELYNN LOO: So we met a person who said, “All you need is a petition, go out and get 1,000 signatures.”

And that’s just what they did.

EVELYNN LOO: Then we went to Chinatown and we knocked on all the doors and asked churches, restaurants, anybody who would help us out.

Turns out a lot of people wanted to help find a new place for the group to practice Tai Chi. Ed and Evelynn began a campaign to highlight the fact that the city was throwing the seniors out.

EVELYNN LOO: And we went out and got 1,000 signatures in several days.

The Loos had never done organizing like this before. But Tai Chi had a special place in their heart. Evelynn says it started with a drive to Chinatown for breakfast.

EVELYNN LOO: We were looking for Dim sum, and we happened to pass BART plaza, and these people were going “heee, chiii” and we said, “What is that? That’s Chi gong!”

So they started showing up for the morning ritual—and they liked it. So much so that they kept it up for the next 13 years. And it’s not just about exercise.

Every day, the Loos see friends here—like Helen. She doesn’t speak English, but she does sing it:

HELEN: Tonight, tonight. The world began tonight.

That’s “Tonight” from West Side Story. Ed Loo taught her the song about a year ago. That kind of friendship symbolizes what this park is about to Helen.

ED LOO: What she says is that, she thinks that for Chinatown this park is most important to the immigrants. It offers them a chance to come out and talk to people and get assimilated into the American culture more quickly. It’s so helpful to have this place.

But the park wouldn’t be the gathering space that it is, if it weren’t for Ed and Evelynn Loo. Their signature campaign was a success. They convinced the city to help them move a block to the West of BART plaza, into Madison Square Park. At the time, it wasn’t much to look at. 

ED LOO: It’s a park that’s been ignored and occupied by a lot of homeless people, and, as a consequence, it was pretty filthy at the time.

Because of their campaign, the city agreed to clean up Madison Square and add a half court basketball area, a small play set for children, and flat open space for seniors to do Tai Chi and dancing. The Loos see this as a big accomplishment, but Ed says some people feel there’s still more to be done.

ED LOO: There’s an old adage that goes something like, you know, all good deeds will not go unpunished. No matter what you do always people will not be quite satisfied.

There are still no permanent bathrooms in the park and there’s no shelter to protect visitors from the summer heat. Maybe because of those problems, or maybe because the park still has a reputation for high crime, fewer people practice Tai Chi in the new location—a few dozen less than before. Although that not may not seem like a lot, for a close-knit community such as this one, the change is noticeable. However, on this chilly morning, roughly two hundred people have shown up, and at 10 a.m. some are still practicing.

There’s a group doing sword dancing in the basketball court. On the end of each sword is a different colored tassel: red, blue, and yellow. As the dancers sway their swords from side to side, in and out, up and down, the tassels follow each movement. It’s a mesmerizing dance.

ED LOO: They’re also into line dancing. Usually in any given day there are about at least two, three, four groups of people doing line dancing at different times.

On this day one of those groups is doing the electric slide while Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” plays on a boom box. Just a few feet away, an 85 year-old Tai Chi master from China is leading a group in slow, fluid movements. They all have smiles on their faces. Evelynn Loo says that joy makes her optimistic about the future.

EVELYNN LOO: Our hope for Madison Park is that it will keep growing. We use it in the morning and we’d like to see that it be used more.

One way or another, the area will be changing. Three city blocks, including Madison Square Park, are slated for redevelopment yet again. The city is organizing numerous community meetings and studies to decide how to best utilize the space for the future. These seniors are hoping those plans will include a space for them.

In Oakland, I’m Priscilla Yuki Wilson for Crosscurrents.

This story originally aired on June 17, 2010 as part of a series on Oakland's Chinatown.