Chinese Yo-Yo Rules BU

Brian Chin (SMG’12) takes top prize in BU’s Got Talent

By Amy Laskowski

Click on the video above to see BU's Got Talent winner Brian Chin (SMG'12).

At least one race is over. The votes have been tallied and a winner has been chosen in the BU Today competition BU’s Got Talent: Brian Chin (SMG’12), master of the Chinese yo-yo.

Chin beat 24 contestants in the competition, which was open to all BU students, faculty, and staff. He was among four semifinalists; the others were Keyboard Pirate Josh Friedman (CAS’12), Alex “Boogaloo” Kao (CAS’09), and Jon “Body Beatbox” Pak (CAS’12).

Pak came in second, Friedman took third, and Kao was in fourth place. Chin won a $300 Apple gift card, and all of the finalists took home a prize.

Chin has performed the Chinese yo-yo since the seventh grade, when a friend introduced him to the art. “I watched YouTube to learn more tricks and then started uploading my own tricks to the site,” he says. The Chinese yo-yo, also called the diabolo, consists of two equal-sized discs connected by an axle. The user keeps the yo-yo spinning on a string tied to two sticks.

The video that Chin submitted to BU Today was filmed while he was in high school. He regularly performs in senior centers and other talent competitions; in high school, the New Jersey native won a state Chinese yo-yo competition, sponsored by the American Chinese Association.

“Before a big competition, I practice every day for two hours for two to three weeks,” says Chin. “I pick music and choreograph to the beat of the music.” Despite all his practice, the hardest part is not dropping the yo-yo, he says.

Chin says one of the reasons he entered BU’s Got Talent was to introduce the University community to the Chinese yo-yo. Now he is thinking about starting a club next year.

Chin will perform at the Chinese Students Association’s Sensasian Culture Show on Saturday, November 15, at 7 p.m. at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave.

Amy Laskowski can be reached at amlaskow@bu.edu.

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