Alexander Hing
Alex’s Mother, Bertha Hing Alex’s Father, Ah Hing
Alex was born on January 8, 1946 in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He went to Francisco Jr. High and Galileo High School before attending City College of San Francisco and UC Berkeley. His father, Ah Hing was a stage magician and his mother, Bertha Lew was a chorus line dancer. They opened the Forbidden City nightclub, upon which the musical “Flowerdrum Song” was based. When they married, Bertha became Ah’s assistant.
In his youth, Alex hung out with the rebellious crowd who eventually formed Leways, a youth service organization centered around a pool hall on Jackson Street. Alex left college to become a part of the Sixties youth movement, participating in the anti-war, civil rights and counter culture movements. In Chinatown, he helped form the Red Guard Party, becoming its Minister of Education. He was also a member of an influential improvisational theater group, The Pitschell Players.
Ah Hing taught Alex to cook when he was very young because someone in the family had to prepare the family meal when Ah went to the club early and Bertha rested after her day job in the Financial District.
Known among his peers as a tough fighter, Alex took up shorin ryu karate under Sensei Richard Kim at the Chinese YMCA. He also started working in hotels, first as a dishwasher and janitor and later as a waiter and, eventually cook.
In the hotels, Alex was active in his union, eventually moving to New York City where he became a sous chef and a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. He also trained in yang style tai chi chuan under Grandmaster William C C Chen, and teaches that style in several venues in New York City.
Alex is married to fashion designer, Heike Jarick, https://www.heike-ny.com/ and has two sons, Van Troi Pang who is an accupuncturist in New York and Michael Hing who is a civil rights attorney at the Dept. of Justice and lives in Virginia.