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Bayaskhalan Dabain talked with Victor Yao-Fung-Tang about the roots, homeland, creative vocation and family brainchild – the first children’s modern dance studio in Buryatia Dance Hall
Dance Dad Victor Yao-Fung-Tang: how the grandson of a gold digger from Shanghai successfully builds a business and does good
Gilded light in the window. Music quietly flows in the Dance Hall dance studio and an unusual lesson begins, more like a frank conversation between a teacher and children. I am walking around my native city, scrolling in my head a conversation with a person who is moving towards his goals, confidently stands on his feet and builds his own destiny. No matter what. This is a native Ulan-Ude resident, dance teacher Victor Yao-Fung-Tang. A man with an unusually bright appearance and an unusual surname for our city, whom one of his colleagues figuratively called the “dancing father of many children” because of the huge number of his students. Victor’s paternal roots stretch from the Celestial Empire. Family legends of the interlocutor of Buryatia say that his grandfather was born in China.
Responsible for your students
– My grandfather is from Shanghai – in 1918 he crossed the border with his brother. They, like other Chinese, came here to wash gold. Approximately in 1923 they panned for gold and were about to go back. Then the Soviet Republic was already formed, and they were detained on the border of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. They had a choice – either execution with confiscation, or confiscation, and my grandfather and uncle were to become citizens of the USSR. Their choice was obvious and simple – my grandfather stayed here. He then married the daughter of an acquaintance, a girl named Pana, who was 24 years younger than him. She was half Chinese, half Russian. My father Alexander Vasilyevich was born and raised in Baunt, on the island of Busani, – says Victor.
Busani is a backwater in the north of the Baunt District. In this godforsaken village, where exiled seekers of yellow metal and representatives of the Evenki people lived – the Orochen, the childhood of the son of a Chinese free prospector, the father of the hero of our story, passed. Alexander studied well at school, he had to go to the Artek All-Union Camp twice. But at that time, due to the well-known events on Damansky Island, relations between the USSR and China escalated, so the boy with Chinese roots was not allowed into Artek twice. And after that, a capable young man, so as not to run into a glass ceiling from time to time, chose his own path in life – a truly labor one. After the seventh grade, he went to work with the peasants at a fish factory – on a par with adults, a 13-year-old boy pounded ice and fished. So Victor Yao-Fung-Tang inherited from his grandfather and father the most important qualities that helped him succeed in life – a natural mind, exceptional diligence and the ability not to succumb to difficulties.
“My grandmother is from Karym,” Victor continues the story. – Mom is considered family. She was born in the village of Bilyuta, Bichursky district. On the maternal line, my ancestor is family. He was exile, worked for a rich Buryat. And this Buryat gave his daughter for his old worker. Thus, Buryat blood also flows in my veins.
When asked who he is by nationality, Victor Yao-Fun-Tan replies that he is a Russian.
“I was born in Russia, I live in Buryatia,” says a successful dance teacher and an entrepreneur, a real patriot of the republic with Lake Baikal.
He was repeatedly offered to move to other regions and cities, for example, to St. Petersburg. But the guy from our city remained in his native Ulan-Ude.
“Over time, I realized why you need to stay in our republic,” says Yao-Fun-Tan. – I was still a student, and after the third year my wife and I created my own dance school. After graduating from the institute – we had about a hundred students then – Zoya and I realized that we would not go anywhere and would never throw our pupils: we are still responsible for our wards – boys and girls.
Dance Hall – Big Family
After these words, he turns to his students Christine and Svetlana, who were present during the interview.
“Zoe and I could not throw our students to the mercy of the fate,” says Victor. – For example, Christina is studying at BSU. She is working as an administrator with us in her free time from study. And this is Sveta, also my student, is now studying in Moscow in RUDN. It is difficult to quit what has been developed for years. Our school will be 12 years old this year.
“Money in business, especially when you work with children, is not the main thing,” the successful entrepreneur is sure. – Money is a tool to achieve the goal. We have a goal-to do something so that then it remains for centuries, so that something remains after you and you remember you. Therefore, it is pointless to put yourself on money and remain alone.
I ask my interlocutor, founder of the Dance Hall dance school, about when he became interested in dancing. It all started in childhood, which was in the dashing nineties. Then Victor was engaged in basketball, but on one of the training he “knocked out a finger,” and he “cooled to basketball”. After that, dances appeared in his life, at first ballroom: he began to study, and dragged on.
“If it weren’t for the dancing, most likely, would be engaged in jurisprudence or political science,” Victor admitted. – At school, history and social studies were very well given to me.
“Pure humanitarium” Yao -Fun -Tan explained that the motto of their studio is “Dance Hall dance School – more than dancing”.
“Many schools are taught dancing narrowly,” says Victor. – In addition, we are trying to instill in the children and other things – at least the ability to communicate. We teach that they are more open, so that they would not be clamped, so that the children can confidently step into adulthood and calmly get a job in another city. Together with dancing, we are trying to reveal each child from all sides.And I am sure for my graduates who have passed through our school (there are more than three thousand of them) that they will treat the elderly with respect and will not use foul language in their presence.
Towards the end of the conversation, I ask Victor, perhaps, the main question in the interview: “Can his students easily come up to him and share their secrets, talk about their problems, because Dance Hall is a big and friendly family. Answering the question, Yao-Fung-Tang first turns to his pupils Svetlana and Christina, they say, can they turn to him and talk heart to heart with him. The girls nod their heads in the affirmative.
– That’s the answer – says more than just a dance teacher, and adds. – In our school I work not alone – we have a whole team. And children can share the most intimate with any of our teachers.
From an interview with Victor Yao-Fung-Tang
– Do you have friends you can rely on, with whom you can safely go into battle and reconnaissance?
– Of course have. If there are no such people, then life is scary and difficult. I can be alone with myself, but I will never be alone: I have a wife, children. I have friends – even at a distance I still feel connected to them. Friends are wealth.
How has the pandemic affected your business and life? What has the coronavirus situation taught you?
We didn’t work for about nine months. But last year we were allowed to open with all the restrictions and compliance with temperature standards, plus the state helped: there were payments for the purchase of antiseptics, a recirculator. I want to say a big thank you to those who remain by our side during this difficult time, first of all, to the parents of the students, our landlord, who went to meet us halfway. The pandemic has taught me that there is no need to relax. We need to look ahead more, we should not rely on one direction, on one type of activity, that is, do not keep “all eggs in one basket”. We started making comfortable casual clothes under the Molecula brand. During the pandemic, God himself told me to continue my passion for video filming.
– In the coming year of the Tiger, what would you wish to the residents of Buryatia, in particular, to young people who have to decide on the choice of their life path?
– I would wish everyone to listen to themselves, to be not someone, but themselves, because, apart from ourselves, no one knows us better. And when we admit to ourselves our fears, mistakes, or, conversely, our strengths, we can do introspection. Then many things are perceived easier and more understandable, and life becomes easier. We ourselves influence our lives. Be happy! First of all, take care of your health: if some things can be bought, then health and time cannot just be taken and turned back. Smile more often and spend more time with loved ones.
Victor Yao-Fung-Tang was born on January 2, 1989 in Ulan-Ude, graduated from the Belarusian Academy of Arts and Sciences with a degree in modern and ballroom choreography performer and teacher, and ESSUTU with a degree in public relations.He and his wife Zoya are the founders of the Republic’s first children’s modern dance studio Dance Hall.
