Chinese Cultural Center coming to Milford
By Ginny Privitar
MILFORD — Milford will have access to Chinese culture, language, philosophy, martial arts, calligraphy and customs at the new Chinese Cultural Center at The Upper Mill.
The center's grand opening from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24, will include an introduction to the center and its offerings, along with refreshments and a group meditation.
The center will be the home of the Gui Zhen Society, which means “to return to truth, or the real.” A network of students who study, practice and teach Chinese Cultural Arts, the center aims to help people on their path to enlightenment using ancient practices. Its founder, Erik Oliva, a.k.a. Lin Ai Wei, spent many years in China, learning and teaching, and ually improving his own self-awareness through the introspection and study.
When he was 17, his dad, who was a process server in New York City, had a bad accident, and Oliva helped him with his job.
“It was nerve-wracking," he said. "People answer the door with guns-ready to rip your head off."
Yet Oliva’s father never had trouble. He tried to help the people he served by pointing out their legal rights and where they could go for help.
“Always find a way to make these people have power,” he told Erik, who learned much about people from the experience. Sometimes, there was “fear there, but how you use that fear can either hurt you or empower you.” He believes we suffer from preconceptions of the mind: of what we should have or could have done or what we’d like things to be.
Oliva afterward decided to “find a more non-obstructive way to live.” He was learning to teach meditation and a more naturalistic way to live. He began teaching after-school programs in private schools.
At 21, he found his tai chi teacher and mentor. The experience, he says, opened his mind to another world of movement.
While he was in the states, his future wife, Sara Zhang, logged onto his blog, and the two of them communicated for several months before he returned to China. He said he already had a feeling he was going to marry her, even before they met in person for the first time. The couple now has a three-year-old son, Tian Yu Zhang.
During his last trip to China, from 2011 to 2015, Olivia taught and lectured in Shanghai. There he learned calligraphy, which he practices daily.
His favorite place, foreshadowing his interest in Milford, was the small city of Huzhou, in Zhejiang province.
“I fell in love with the small town/city community feel," he said. "I connected right away with the principal of the middle school and the administration there. They offered me a job, and I took it instantly, teaching English, martial arts and lion dancing.”
Oliva says he never encountered any resistance from Chinese people resentful of a foreigner teaching Chinese subjects. Instead, he found support from the Chinese, who were re-discovering their own culture.
Oliva and his family returned to the states in July 2015. He was teaching in Staten Island when his friend Anna Mary Holmes convinced him to come to Milford.
“She has been trying to get me out there for years," he said. "When I first got there I fell in love with the place and said we’ll have to work our way over.”
He was teaching meditation at Enchanted Gifts and Books, getting to know more residents, and feeling the pull of Milford. Now he is realizing a dream with the opening of the Chinese Cultural Center.
“It wasn’t easy but I wanted it so bad,” Oliva said. “You know if you do it, you get to walk the life you always want to live.”
On Feb. 7, the eve of the Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, the public is invited to join members to make dumplings and enjoy lunch together. So that the center may purchase enough materials, email guizhenhui@gmail.com by Feb. 4 with "dumplings" in the subject line.