Minions

 This Christmas my cousin actually hand knitted two minions for Noah and Jonah. At first I didn't even realize they were handmade. But when I did I was pretty psyched about them. Not only could these stuffed plus toys be loved and cherished by being played with, thereby by gaining some power (see my Toy story posts) but they were created by a blood relative, by hand. Also they are the type of toy that can last all through growing up. When Andy (from Toy Story) is packing for College and actually considers bringing Woody, well, it's true. College is no place for that type of toy. It is obviously a child's toy. Other plush toys that can double as pillows are just too.. well girly or childish or what have you. But the thing is, minions (from Despicable Me) are cuddly but also funny enough, enough of a joke, cool enough, that in a way, they could function in a college dorm. Indeed they could even function on an office desk. That's right, if you think about it, many people have toys all through adulthood... especially executives. They are called models or other sorts of things, but they are toys.
When I mentioned this my cousin pointed out that these particular minions were actually made in a college dorm because that's where she knit them.
The kids were really into them. Throwing them around saying "fly the minion!" and cuddling them in the hotel rooms. They even designated whose was whose, and at first I didn't even know there was a difference. Noah did though. They were into those and also these knew cars my Uncle got for them. In fact Noah had to bring that to school. But I just thought it was cool that they now had toys that unlike Buzz Light Year and Woody, were not mass produced. But at the same time, they are characters from a popular movie specific to their childhood. Pretty Cool.

Sign of the Bunny

Christmas eve night at around 12am .. so I guess technically Christmas day I lay awake in the hotel room. I could hear Noah breathing. He had woken me up so he could pee and gone back to sleep but I had no such luck. The weather had been in the 70's the day before but the temperature had been dropping. Nonetheless I put on my sandals and a coat and went outside to do some Kung Fu. It was cold. I should have worn some socks. I did some Mein Lay jum, some basics, and some Sup Ji. I was stil recovering from having drank way too much Port with my cousin either one or two nights ago. It was enough to make someone who was relatively tolerant of alcohol drunk and I have no tolerance whatsoever.
I finished up my little work out, all the while thinking of a conversation I was meaning to have with another cousin of mine, who was going through some tough times. I decided at the time that it would be a good idea to just write a note (and later decided that was equally as stupid) But at the time, thinking it was a good idea I walked on the path back to the hotel, and a Bunny came up to me and looked at me and then scurried away.


Later on Grace would say she used to be freaked out when I told her about Bunnies (though she said nothing in the past) until she started watching "Long Island Medium" and how on some episode the medium tells these ladies that there departed loved one is sending signs to them. Either a flower, or whatever. A bunny.
I asked Grace what the hell she was talking about and she said the the Bunnies were my mom. I thought she was crazy until she clarified that it wasn't that the bunnies were my mom, but that maybe my mother's spirit was allowing me to see bunnies as a sign that her spirit was close by.

I hadn't thought about that but I had thought that it was significant that I saw a bunny or hare at probably exactly midnight on Christmas which is significant in European  pagan cultures where bunnies are also significant. Then Grace shot my idea down and mentioned all the times I kept talking about bunnies. Bunnies that I would see and that nobody else would see. Not that those bunnies weren't physically there. Just that they would be gone by the time anyone else would come to look, or that nobody else would quite see them quickly enough whereas they were in my full view for a long period of time.

I would see them all the time when I first brought Noah home from the Hospital and also when we first brought Jonah home. And then, slowly, Grace learned about my connection with bunnies with my mother. First of all, at the Family Philadelphia House, My grandmother's house, we would all watch bunnies from the back living room window. It was something fun to do. But slowly as we got older, there were less and less bunnies and more and more squirrels. And it was something we all lamented about.
Secondly, my favorite toy was a stuffed Bunny and pretty much every Easter for some reason, my mother would buy a stuffed Bunny for me. They wouldn't necessarily become my favorite, I'm just saying the stuffed animals from her were usually Bunnies, plus we read a lot of bunny stories over and over, and even one easter bunny story involving a green egg resulted in a polished green egg of stone as a gift too. (I guess I had to toss all these out)

Last Christmas at the Nutcracker, a woman came up to me and Jonah and, as if she had been looking for us (she had obviously been looking for a small child) gave us a stuffed bunny as a gift. They had had a bunny as one of the characters for that particular production of the Nutcracker. In any case, all of these bunny stories, in which I had not seen any significance or relationship had been freaking Grace out. She had taken them as signs but not known whether they were good or bad... until she saw that Long Island Medium episode. Like the stiffed bunnies which I had thrown away when my mother died I had enjoyed the signs, but not seen anything significant. In other words I had sort of thrown them away. At first I had felt guilty for not being more reverential during these bunny signs. The last one I knew for sure was significant, but at first the Bunny had startled me as I thought it might be a rat, and then I kind of kept plowing forward instead of stopping to enjoy its presence. The more I thought about it, the more I saw what Grace saw. Well I guess that stuffed Nutcracker bunny can be Jonah's favorite toy. Indeed when we brought it out as an ornament he began snuggling it to go to sleep, surprisingly lovingly. Noah never did anything like that. He prefers cars and just doesn't hold things like that. Well I have to find that bunny now and treat it with a little more respect I think. Now where did I last see it?

Cheung Family Christmas

Well it's been a while since I blogged because we had a a little Family Roadtrip adventure to go down and visit my side of the family. The white side that I always visited on Christmas. There really is so much to blog about I don't know where to start, so probably these memories will have to present themselves as stories later on. Grace made a fantastic trip plan where we got to stop in New York Chinatown along the way for a yummy meal of Peking Duck and jieu yeem Frog legs.

The first family stop was in Philadelphia to visit my aunt at the House that belonged to my Granfather and then my Grandmother. The house where my mother grew up for the latter end of her Childhood, and where for years the whole extended family would gather fro Christmas and for Summer vacations. I have a lot of childhood memories in that house as do many of my relatives. And for me it was the one time when Family became more than just my mom and me. That house was always a mansion to me and meant a lot in my Psyche. Still does. And it was great to see Noah and Jonah running around in it with extended family too. At one point Noah said, "Baba I don't want to go home I want to live here." And pretty much that was how I always felt when I was a small child too. It was like being part of the America Dream. The America that was on tv. White. Middle Class, many family members, a strong American Patriarch, a big Christmas Tree, manly tools in the basement used for who knows what. Medals and military pictures from WWII. That kind of thing. The America that people in foreign countries think about when they hear America from the good old days. (Well I don't know what the think now but you get my meaning.) 

The kids were being taken care of I got really drunk and that's a story too.

Then we went to Lancaster to my Uncle's House out where the Amish live. Another story.

And then on the way back we went to Flushing and met up with one of Grace's friends who is Aunty to my children as well. Another story.

Finally we are back home and it is Definitely good to be home. And I really Love Boston. But I also like the little differences different parts of America have to offer. And now to finish unpacking and all that.

The Jackie Chan Underwear and socks challenge

For whatever reason I was watching Jackie Chan interviews. Actually it was because I was watching "I'll make a man out of you" and they had a vid with Donny Osmond singing and I wanted to see a "live" version of Jackie singing, hence talk show interviews.
In any case, as on many interviews with Jackie he was asked to talk about broken bones, fears, and his washing on his underwear and socks in the shower.
Now I tried this when I was living at a Kung Fu school and it didn't work for me. A) I didn't have a shower B) we didn't really have heat.
But when I tried it yesterday it really was as easy as Jackie said. Basically because I just rinsed that stuff out and put in on top of a heater. It's dry in the house anyway. I think I'm going to try this method for a while. I'm not going to bring my kids in to my craziness, so I will still be doing many loads of laundry. But I figure anything I can do to cut down is good. I think I'm going to try this method for a while though. I had also tried it with T-shirts before, but again you have to dry it in a dry place otherwise the cloth will rot and start to smell terrible. But T-shirts are probably the biggest part of the laundry loads. I think I hadn't done this in a while because I figured, well I have to do Noah's and Jonah's laundry anyway right? But again if I can cut down on laundry this way it would make life better.
Most talk show hosts always give Jackie crap about this, saying he is too cheap or some such thing. Of course he is also cutting down on water usage and the truth is it is just a convenient way to go about being on the road. Just cause they couldn't imagine doing such a thing doesn't mean they should knock him for doing it. Wringing out the cloth also strengthens the wrists. In fact I remember a Western physical therapist telling me to wet a towel and wring it out to strengthen my wrist when I had an injury. ( I was away at school and so I had to visit them in order to prove my wrist was even injured) In any case, If you can wet cloth to wring it out for that purpose, why not get that same thing done while doing a bit of laundry?

A lunar Rainbow

Last night while bringing my kids home I saw what I think was a full moon with a rainbow circle around it. I had heard of a lunar rainbow on an anime about wolves once, but I thought it was sort of something just to be seen in an anime. And granted it was a a circle with the rainbow colors not a rainbow. But I think that the circle is even cooler. It would definitely be a sign in olden times. I told my kids to look at it and they seemed unimpressed. I called for Grace to get the camera. She couldn't find it. I brought the kids in undressed them and went looking for the camera. I was sure it didn't really matter. Someone, somewhere was taking a picture of this with a much better Camera and with much better skills than my own. But then might as well try and take my own too right?
By the time I got outside to look, all I saw was a full moon. The very light clouds that created enough mist fro the moonlight to pass through and be refracted into that spectrum were gone. It was odd that for some reason, when I looked at that rainbow circle I saw it as a permanent thing. Nothing is permanent of course but I saw it as a permanent sight for the night. As permanent as the full moon, it seemed that way, the clouds weren't moving.
The sight would not have shown up well on camera, and it's not like it would have been the most beautiful photograph ever. I have seen plenty of photographs of things that I haven't seen in real life. Those photos would have been better photos than mine. So the real beauty of what I had seen was that I had seen it myself. I got a look at it. It was enough not to regret. But it is interesting that I automatically wanted to take a picture, to capture the moment that would not have been captured anyway, instead of just looking at it myself for longer. But then with two kids you can't just go staring off into the sky. One of them might run off into the street or hurt himself on the stairs. I had a moment, a breath, of a beautiful night sky vision. I could have done without the camera hunting.

Adult toys.

When children play with their toys I feel like that interaction is many cosmically more powerful prayer to an idol. It's as if those inanimate things really have gained a soul. Now our idol worshiping ancestors, or even modern day altar bowers would be pretty angry if you broke their "toys". Can you imagine pulling an Abraham on the Maximus character from Gladiator. Like going up and knocking his little idols to the ground, so small they can literally all fit in his palm. You could see that sort of thing happening to a young boy playing with toys. But try that on Maximus and I'm pretty sure he would make a blood sacrifice to his gods right than and there to the toys you just stepped on.

I suppose the reason why I didn't play with toys as long as Andy did in Toy story is because I encountered more adult toys. Like lion heads. 

I remember finishing up a performance workshop for 2nd graders. We let the kids play with  the head. And one of my students commented how of course the kids liked playing with the head because it wasn't just a toy. I used to think that too. But now I think that the head is a toy. It's just a serious toy with ritual significance that is usually in the hands of adults. In fact, in old time China children would be beaten for even touching the heads or drums. And by old time I mean like 30 years ago. 

Now a lot of people focus on various tricks to do with the head but the essence of it is to make the head look like it is alive. In other words even though everyone knows it is two guys in a giant puppet, that you do it so well that even the adults on some level accept it as a physical manifestation of a spiritual creature. Indeed, with the drums and the firecrackers, even the practitioner, in a tranced focus dance, in some way, is a lion. Not easy. Well no it is easy a child could do it.... but not everyone does it like that.

So in another way it is not easy. The same way a lot of artists paint the way a child could paint.... but adults have trouble painting like that often times.

So children playing with toys may not be as "serious" as ritualized play backed up by thousands of years of tradition.... but then children playing with toys have that essence and imaginative power backed up by millions of years of children seeing the world in that imaginative way and creating souls, worlds and magic.

Pagan Christmas

I'm reading a book of that title that talks all about the Pagan origins and ethnobiology of many Christmas customs. I knew some of the stuff, from reading about Germanic cultures and happening to stumble upon stuff that looked like it was brought into the Christmas tradition.
Surprisingly by learning about the Pagan influences I'm learning a lot more about the Christian religion and gaining a lot more respect for what the Christian religion is.
Basically the Church was against a lot of the "heathen" cultures but they couldn't get the people to stop so eventually they realized that they had to go with it and try to just change the meaning slightly to have it relate to Christ.
Despite the violent oppression of the Church or churches, or just some people writing nasty things about local cultures, the end result can be seen as a pretty awesome religion. I mean who defines a religion, the church or the people who practice it? Now of course there is a lot of people killing other people because of religion, or just using religion as an excuse. But basically the good side of the Christmas spirit is traditions that include a wide variety of traditions and cultures from around the world with the general feeling  of "Peace on Earth" and in general Jesus represents a Westernized Buddha type thinking where we will have a "Kingdom of God" on Earth, or a hope for the sun, wealth, and goodness in general.
That's a pretty good mindset, and a pretty good religion. Now is there some nasty parts of history around all these traditions? Of course. Is it good to learn about these? I say definitely. But when we celebrate  just know focus on the fact that our traditions come from all over the world and so maybe we should be open to newer and more diverse traditions coming in.
Most of the traditions have Shamanic roots, from the World Tree, to the color schemes of red and white, to flying reindeer. If all of these things can now be considered Christian. Then anything can be.
Santa has roots in St. Nicholas in the 4th century middle east, but most representations of him in Germany looked more like Odin/Wotan and apparently the Christmas holiday spread to Tibet, where they depict him as A Buddhist Shaman (still with the same outfit and beard and face.
Jesus took on meanings and roles of older Sun deities. And why not?
A lot of stuff will go around facebook showing these pagan origins in a negative light.
Why not just enjoy the celebration and learn about the pagan origins, and we have developed enough as a society where we can filter good from bad. Worshiping trees I think is good. Human sacrifice on those trees.. obviously bad. Decorating them with lights... I would say good right?

Toys and idols

Continuing from the last post...
I realized that it would be nice to have something, a toy, to pass on from generation to generation. Like, this was your great great great grandfather's toy. People do this sort of thing with family statues and pictures they pray to. In fact, the statues of Guan Yin and the Happy Buddha that we lit incense too, I could not even think of throwing away, like you just can't do that. But those were just social pressures, and honestly your not supposed to neglect those statues in the attic either, which is what I have done. But nor are you supposedly supposed to set up an altar, and a position of an altar has to be changed, and even the Feng Shui people will suggest a way to avoid being cursed is to simply never set up an altar.
It would also be inconceivable to take those statues and play with them like Buzz Light Year and Woody.
Though if you had statues that weren't supposed to be "real" statues I guess at least those statues could work as dolls. And when you think about it, when kids are playing tea, is that so much different than adults putting food on the altar (or if you want to go back really far, sacrificing people to certain gods?) I mean not in morality. I mean that essentially you are playing at a game of imaginary feeding. Even if you believe in those gods you have to admit that the statues do not "eat" the food, nor do your dead ancestors come out of the grave like zombies and chow down on some Fay yuk with you. If that did happen, I bet the most pious pagan/folk religion practitioners would shit there pants. Not only is that not expected, it's just not supposed to happen. There is a belief that because something has happened in the physical world, that we translate into something being received in the spiritual world. And what is the spiritual world made of? Souls, spirits, thoughts, pretend?

In a way though, my Rabbit was more real to me than the statues. The statues were over there, while I actually slept with my Bunny. And the amount that Andy played with his toys and for how long and until how old... in a way they became real. You could say things take on some sort of spirit from being used.

This isn't just me making this up. In Japan, they have temples to Kitchen gods where chefs will place their unusable knives. Because they don't believe that they can simply discard a knife they have used for so long.

So toys, in a way gain souls because they have been played with. Again you may think I'm crazy but can you prove that anyone has a soul?

Still not done on this subject.

Toy Story and Religion

Yesterday there was a Marathon of the toy story movies. I noticed that when we got to 3 the movie was really more for me than the kids. In fact it was a little too scary for them. We had to go upstairs before the ending, which though I had seen before, I really wanted to watch again.
When I was a kid I did have one favorite stuffed Rabbit. But I don't recall playing with said rabbit when I was as old as Andy was in the first movie. Not that I didn't still like cute stuffed animals etc. I just realized it wasn't accepted that I liked them and something so big would not be able to be hidden in a bag or a pocket or something like that. When my mother died I think I threw my favorite rabbit in the garbage. So if I were to really think of the toys as they were in Toy story, as having souls, I would be one guilty man. Accept that I didn't, and I guess I don't. But it got me think of how Toy Story's ideas work vs. other notions of idolatry.

First of all let's explain why we shouldn't just say "it's just a kids movie."
For instance if a cheap plastic Toy made in Taiwan (as Buzz lightyear is) or the U.S. (as I assume Woody is, shouldn't be mourned, if it is incinerated let's think about other things we would get up in arms over if we destroyed them. Various statues like the Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Liberty, other monuments. We would definitely go to war and take a lot of lives for those things made of metal and stone, if they were destroyed or defaced right? Some people would say these are forms of idolatry (and I am not at all against idolatry btw) but let's look at the Abrahamic religions that are supposedly against idolatry too. They would also get up in arms about a Holy Book, or place being destroyed or defaced, and those books are ultimately just paper, often times printed by machine. But even if it was copied by hand, is it more important than a life?

Do things have souls?

Well the truth is you can't really prove that people even have souls. A soul is something that we culturally attribute to flesh and bone, which might as well be a type or organic robot. (a complicated robot but still)
And so things can have souls as much as people have souls because in the end, a soul may very well be an imaginary thing. (And just because something is imaginary doesn't make it unimportant or even in some way "real")

Well more on this later.

Shopping at the mall

I bought something at one of those kiosk type things at the mall today, and I filled out some info for a warranty and then realized what the hell do I need a warranty for? and Why am I giving all my info out like address e-mail date of birth. Shit I probably am just getting scammed right here. Worse part about it is I paid with my credit card too. But then I didn't feel like just taking that little slip of paper with me and crumpling it up. There is a feeling like, oh this is the mall everyone else is doing it. It's legit. But that's the perfect scam right there. Get people to buy your stupid shit and in return, rob them blind by stealing their identity.
Well, I hope that didn't just happen to me. Cause then it will end up being the most expensive thing I ever bought. I should have just paid for the damn thing in cash, but I don't like to carry cash around like that... ironically, because I don't want to lose it.

I mean I gave the same info to the Dentists office but, I guess I trust them. They are Tufts and all. Once you trust someone to cut you open and rip things out of you, I guess some personal information is really not a big deal.

Sock hands

Today it's pretty cold. Cold enough that I have to wear gloves. And if I wear gloves, I guess I have to put gloves or mittens on my kids too. Grace has bought lots of great looking gloves and mittens for the kids. They look great, they are well insulated etc. But not only do they get misplaced, they have a tendency to come off. Even the mittens that are too big for Jonah but more for Noah, will come off Jonahs arms, even though you can zip it so tight that it can't fall off by accident, because a child doesn't like to the feeling that their hands have disappeared or become less there hands and more these clumpy things. Now you would thing the same would be true of wearing a sock. Not so. Although you can't see your hand, wearing an adult sock a child can still feel all of their fingers, even against each other, and they understand that their hands are basically just wearing some blankets, or a sleeping bag. As it turns out I had a bunch of socks that had holes in the heel and were no longer functional as socks. So today, my kids had sock hands on the way to school. At school... well their not going to go out today I'm pretty sure, and when they do go out, it's warm enough or for a short enough period of time that he'll be okay. Of course even with sock hands it was pretty cold. I was thinking of doubling them up, but as I'm writing this I realize I have woolen socks that can serve the same puropse. Why not mittens? Because the sock can go all the way up the forearm over the coat. Why not little strappy things to go inside the jacket so they don't loose the mittens?
That's not going to work in the morning. And the beauty of using the worn out socks, is if they get lost, they get lost. No bog deal. That's way different then special mittens.
When they are old enough to put on their own mittens, and to put those mittens in their pocket, and keep track of them and all that. Then we put on the fancy mittens (that will still probably end up lost somewhere on the ground, wet dirty and lonely.)
For now it's sock hands to the rescue.

What's a book worth.

I passed by a whole collection of Agatha Christie's books on the street by Tufts Medical Center, just laying there like garbage. There were other Handy man books and such too and at first it looked like all the books were the same book because they were all bound with black leather like hymn books or something. I actually wanted to read the Agatha Christie Novels, but even at first I was just going to leave them there because I know that if I ever wanted to read such I book I could borrow it from the library, and where I might have taken one book, who wants a whole series? Too heavy, it takes up too much space. And if I were to stereotype, in Chinatown there are probably mainly two types of readers. There are the type of readers that read books on a fancy new electronic device, and the type that would jump at free books on the street, probably do not read English. Maybe there are some Lo wah kew who are both cheap and like to read Agatha Christie, but just at first glance the books don't look inviting. Plus, just like me, they know that if ever you wanted a book, you can just borrow it from the library. But if it were say Louis Cha's collection, in Chinese, leather bound, probably it would not have ended up on the street.

Basically a book is worthless. If I was homeless I suppose I could take the books down the street and sell them for 50 cents each in a manner that would be half begging half selling. Like "Spare change for a book."
and then in that context people may stop and look at the books and decide that it is worth 50 cents, or that it's not worth anything but I'll give this guy a dollar since I am actually getting something out f it too. But then I bet they may just make more money begging alone, without the work of lugging the books up to downtown or Boston Common.
So I was going to take just one, but then as I thought of it, I thought f the waste and how I could at least donate them to the library where they would then sell them for 50 cents (that is after I've read them) And so I felt obligated to take what I could. I walked away with half of them. I'll go back for the second half this afternoon. And if someone else took them, great. I only really took them because I don't think anybody else will, and they will end up turning to mush in the rain and snow.

Making your own chess board

I started teaching Noah how to play chess. Not for the usual parental reasons. I'm actually not that great a player myself. I just noticed he has started to take an interest in games like candy land and pieces that move, and chess is really cool because it has a bunch of pieces that move in different ways etc etc.
But I didn't have a board. So first I made one out of paper, but I had forgotten the dimensions of a chess board. This was last night and we were done with computers for the day. Either that or Noah was using it for PBS kids or whatever. And I can't believe this but I forgot that the board was a square, so I made an 8 x 12 board and the pieces were made from folded pieces of paper with the figures drawn on it roughly. The night was just horse in Chinese, because why create a pictograph when one has been around for so long.
Well today I made a real board with Chinese ink on a box (instead of crayon on paper) the box being nice because it can hold the pieces. Also I started making the base out of wet molded paper for some fancier chess pieces. But I noticed today, while playing with Noah, that I really like my little rough pieces, more than I would like a cheap chess set mainly because I made them. The molding of bases took much longer than I thought it would, but even that wasn't a waste of time because Jonah had fun playing with the wet paper in water. It was a very stimulating and sensory activity.
Tonight when I let Noah win he didn't like it though. He wanted a game where we could both win. For instance even when he wins at Candy Land, he can then come and bring me into the Castle. So we both win. In Chess there is clearly a loser. I mean, one guy dies basically or surrenders or is captured. I noticed that I just used the Chinese "eat" instead of captured though when playing with Noah.
I was thinking I'd make another board where the two of us can travel through a world of other bad guys and obstacles, like a video game, and I could just make a few pieces of paper that I pick up and reuse as we continue to move along. And that way, he will learn how the different pieces move, but we will both be able to win. Kind of like a two player version of Mario Bros.  (wait they didn't have the two characters on the same screen did they? But you know what I mean.) Well that instead of say a Street Fighter where one guy is defeated and twitching on the ground. Which is what chess really is.

Honoring Santa

Yesterday after Jonah was taking his nap I suddenly heard really loud Christmas music from what sounded like a large vehicle. I glanced outside to see a train of trolleys going down the street and I knew it was Menino's and Macy's Santa Trolley tour going down to Hyde Square.
"Noah do you want to go see Santa Claus?"
We quickly got dressed and decided together to use the stroller, so as to get there faster, and I actually ran, despite the stitches in my gums pulsing, all the way there.
While getting dressed Noah had some questions.
"How old is Santa?"
"Very old, thousands of years old."
Why do they call him Santa?"
"That's just what they call him recently."
"What did they call him before?"
"Odin.... but Santa's way better than Odin anyway, Santa is always good. Odin wasn't. Put your shoes on."

 I parked the stroller, they had blocked off the street and there were police there to enforce that (thank God) and we got in line to see some guy in a beard.
No.
The truth is, anytime someone dresses up as Santa, they really do become Santa. Because what is Santa or any god or Saint or religion but a collection of thoughts prayers and belief. And anyone wearing the costume is an embodiment of all of that belief. So that's why we waited there in a "line" which was a crowd of pushing people at first, to quickly give Santa a hi five. Some people took pictures, and honestly there were a lot of adults taking pictures with Santa too. We got a candy cane and a goft bag. And then there was a line for another toy. But Santa was packing up.
One kid got there with his family (which looked just like older brothers and sisters) just in tie to see Santa pack up and take off. He started bawling. I felt so sad. And the road blocks were coming up and he almost walked into the street. I almost gave him our toy, but then there was a "line" for another toy. There was much shouting in Spanish about getting in line and if adults could be helpful etc. You could hear the irritation in the voice. (I understand enough Spanish to hear clear and slow directions) That family made their way over there and the child seemed appeased.
We did not line up for the extra toy. We already had plenty of toys so the real point is to say hi to Santa, and we even got something already anyway, so we headed back to the house and I told Noah he had to share his loot with Jonah. Luckily Noah doesn't understand Spanish so he didn't even know what was going on with that other crowd. Or maybe, like me, he wouldn't have cared anyway.

Pool Noodle Sparring

Today we did pool noodle sparring, and I was out of breath at the end of one of the sessions with  a seven or eight year old boy. So that means I am out of shape, and also that again. working with the noodles is good for me as a way to get in shape. What is also good is that it is extremely fun for the kids too.
Of course just because it is foam does not mean that it is completely safe. If you brought in more of the close fighting elements where hands and feet became a factor, then it would be as dangerous as regular hand and feet sparring, but also kind of unrealistic because you might continue to charge in with a foot or hand even after your foot or hand was hit. It wouldn't hurt with foam, but if it were wood or sharpened steel, that would be the end of you limb.
There were a good five times or so when the 8 year old student got me on the leg. A few times I was able to jump it, but obviously it is something I need to work on more.

Now, from the Martial Arts literature I have read, they usually talk about honing in ones aggression or trying to focus someone in on a drill, or learning through pain, by being hit with a kendo stick in the arm or whatever. I think that makes sense for an adult who has already fought a lot, and needs to be brought in or broken down and built back up. But there is absolutely no reason I can see for breaking a child down. They should only be built up. I can imagine someone lecturing me about false sense of confidence and all that. But what child doesn't have a false sense of confidence? And in fact, from what I see, all the successful people are the ones that seem to have never lost that false sense of confidence. If you get hit with a pool noddle you know it. One of the three year old students got hit in the face by the eight year old and was upset about it. It does hurt a little bit but it doesn't injure. I think his feelings were hurt more than anything, but what has to come next is learning how to not get hit in the face (as often) or if it is not for you, not to do that particular drill with someone who is that much better than you. But these things are difficult to explain to a three year old.

As for the eight year old, the base way to improve I suppose would be focusing on the moves that worked for him. I.e. the hit to the leg that he got me with really clearly. Working on speed and power, and then follow up. He was open to attacks a bunch of times, but I think in a real situation, it will just be who gets there first and so the best is to focus on getting there first and hard and with his best move... being a one trick pony is not bad in these situations. There was a famous pirate who used a move and strategy similar to the one I was hit with today, and he was successful for a long time (until he was defeated.)

I think some of the parents were looking for fancy disarms and that sort of thing. Not that I couldn't do that to an eight year old with a foam stick. But it wouldn't be good for him I don't think, or me for that matter. Because just because you can overpower an eight year old with a foam stick, does not mean you can do that to an adult, or even a large twelve year old, with a stick, or a machete. Frankly the way we worked out today was more realistic than drills. And it was also more natural. Lions and wolves train their young in a similar way. I think some lectures or explanation would go along well with the playtime, but then lions and wolves seem to do fine without lectures don't they? And if a kid wanted a lecture, I think they would ask a question. And if they don't want a lecture, it will go in one ear and out the other.

Remembering Mandela

I've just been skimming through the Wikipedia article on Mandela. Mainly because I don't know all that much about him. I saw a few documentaries about him, I remember when he cam to Boston and My mom took me into the crowd near the Charles river and we actually had to get out of there because a crowd that big is no place for a child.
I wanted to write a poem about him or something but I've decided it's better that someone else do that.
Mainly I just saw that most of the television snippets I watched show him as an old man, and I figured, now that he has passed, that wouldn't it be nice to show more pictures of him as a young man? Yes he didn't become President and basically a world leader until he was an old man, but if he wasn't the young man that he was, he wouldn't have become the old man that he was.
He is one of the only people who was a young man like he was, a leader like he was, and who did not end up shot, or being forgotten. Instead, after being freed from prison, he went on to rule South Africa.
The more I glanced at the article (I don't have the attention to actually read everything. There's just too much) The crazier it seems that he was able to do what he did. Glance through it yourself.

I guess as Americans we are afraid of Young Mandela, and comfortable with honoring Old Mandela. Young Mandela was about violent revolution. He was a real warrior, preparing for guerilla warfare getting money from China, from the Communists. Americans are uncomfortable not only with that, but with the fact that doing those things was the right thing to do in his situation. That things could be so bad that a man in his position (well educated from pretty good family background) would choose that path. Which makes us, as Americans, uncomfortable with who we are, and what we have done in our own country.
When you think of Mandela to South Africa, the quickest American equivalent is perhaps Paul Robeson. A man who Americans are so uncomfortable with, that he has very nearly been edited out of our history books except for that he was a singer and sang "Ol' Man River" Of course Paul Robeson never became President (though if there was not a Red Scare or there were no such thing as a Soviet Union he was popular enough with white people during his time that it is conceivable that he could have been elected.

Some people might think of Martin Luther King. Except most Northern whites were very comfortable with what he said.... until he started talking about Vietnam... and that is when Martin Luther King died and was turned into a god/prophet/cultural icon.. most of the last part of his message, the part we as a country were uncomfortable with, being edited out of our nations meta-narrative.

But Nelson Mandela was perhaps to important to mysteriously die in prison, and able to really bring that nation together as President. And perhaps that is when other White Nations breathed a sigh of relief and became comfortable with having Nelson Mandela as an international leader and I guess that's why the news stations are focusing on that part. The Morgan Freeman with Matt Damon sort of story. Heart warming. Comfortable. Safe.

But apparently there is a movie out with Idris Elba playing Mandela, and I will definitely have to check that out. Perhaps something everyone should check out.

Swords with pool noodles

I cut a pool noodle in half and have started adding this sword play into my kung fu classes for children. It worked out pretty good with Noah and some of the other Saturday kids. They really went at it with each other. But At the Kung Fu Panda group, even even the stronger kids treat the noodles like the foam that they are, instead of using them like swords or sticks. What I mean by that is they kind of just wriggle them around and poke each other instead of really hacking or thrusting. It's like when being allowed to actually commit violence to each other in a safe way, they suddenly decide they don't want to. But that doesn't stop them from tripping each other or doing Kung Fu moves too close to each other's faces when they should be all facing the same direction. I've noticed that children are far more interested in hurting each other by accident than on purpose.
Anyway, this past Saturday the class was just me and my kids, which meant that I worked on some of my own stuff. I had the dragon stick with me and the pool noodles. I chose to do some of my sword forms with the pool noodles on the off chance that my children ran next to me and I didn't see them, even though there is only two of them.
I have done sword forms with sticks and swords of various weight. Obviously there is something to be said for using something very heavy. It really builds up strength. But just to make sure you don't injure yourself you should probably go slow.

But it is also interesting that even with something like a foam pool noodle, you can still get a workout. In other words, you can still really work that technique and deep stance and put a ton of energy into that foam noodle as if it were made of steel, and really get something out of it. You could say you might as well just pretend you were holding a sword and hold nothing. I have done that before too, especially indoors, but it's not as easy as you think. It's nice to know where that sword would be, so the foam noodle is a good tool. Plus you are much less likely to injure yourself because the weight hyper-extended something, or by hitting yourself. You would think then that it is a good tool for a beginner. But like I said earlier, it seems that someone who has never held a real sword or heavier stick, will not even get down or treat the foam as if it were a real stick. So in order to really get what you need out of the foam stick, it's almost like you have to be somewhat advanced mentally, if not physically, or at least exposed to metal swords and heavier sticks.

Tooth Fairies and Vicodin

So my oral surgery hurts a lot more than I thought it would. Maybe I'm just a wuss but the pitying looks from the dental students and the warning of "You are going to feel sore." tells me I'm not that much of a wuss. I thought I wasn't going to take the vicodin and just stick with the ibuprofin but once the novacane starting wearing off I was like, "sore" and "slight discomfort" my ass. This shit hurts. Drug me up. I guess it was that they had to shave off a small part of my jaw in order to pull out my tooth. There was much drilling involved (which of course I didn't feel) but as for yanking it out, I did feel part of that.

I figure my tooth is a pretty big gift for the Tooth Fairy, I didn't get to keep it. I kind of forgot to ask. But I went and bought two lottery tickets.

I jhad some interesting dreams on vicodin. I dreamt we went to a Kung Fu School in China (only China looked remarkably like Tai Tung) and the Sifu's whole deal was that the school was filled with all sorts of equipment he made out of plie wood and tires, so the school looked more like Home Depot. And all the equipment was hooked up to pulleys and playground like a equipment, so that everyone was practicing Kung Fu more like it was a playground. And the teacher also babied each student, so that even out of shape middle age women were able to get the feel of doing a flying spin kick, in slow motion thanks to the equipment she hung onto and the teacher kind of guiding the motion. Pretty much all of the students never progressed because the class was more about playing and doing each move for fun, slowly and taking rests, rather than working out. Of course there were two students that were all about fighting and anger and the teacher had to tell those guys to calm down so that they wouldn't hurt themselves too badly while hitting tires.

Then Bo Sim Mark had like three schools in the area too and me and Jing were drinking tea there talking about it. Her schools had various people following along to a video of her when she was younger doing Tai Chi sword.

Then somehow I ended up in an American Mix Martial Arts gym and then I was just watching various fight nights which were semi-real semi-contrived.

Then I woke up thinking it was morning and noting that the pain was not that bad. Then it starting getting worse. It turned out I only woke up because it was 6 hours from when I had taken the vicodin and right on the dot it was starting to wear off. So at 1am I took another pill, and I woke up again at 6:45 for the same reason. Thank you Vicodin. I would hate to have this experience without you.

Movie and a vote

Yesterday me and Noah went to watch Toy Story at the Library. I guess that Wreck it Ralph is still Noah's favorite of all the movies that we have seen there. But I'm sure he liked this one too. I mean, he didn't ask many questions or make much noise. I watched Toy Story in the Theaters too, probably after I was "too old" to watch such a movie, with my Aunt Dotsy. Who is actually my Great Aunt and godmother.
I thought of how a lot of the stiff that I wanted to did as a kid, I have been able to do for my children for way cheaper, if not completely free.Thank Boston Public Library.

After that little adventure we went to Chinatown where I went to vote for neighborhood council. I ran into a little resistance at first. You are supposed to be a Chinatown Resident or Asian in order to vote. So the first question was "Where do you live?" Luckily Felix Liu was there and assisting with running the election I think and vouched for my Asianess. Though in retrospect my I.D. has my name (last name Cheung) and still has the old address when I used to live in Chinatown (the Kung Fu school) But I'm not going to lie just to vote for such a thing. I mean, if I wasn't Asian I really wouldn't give a crap about such an election. And irocincally I am pretty sure almost everyone on the ballot were not Chinatown residents. But I understand why the rules are the way they are. Chinatown is disappearing and I'm pretty sure most non Asians still want a Chinatown to exist, whether or not you want to live there. Just the same way I want the North End to exist, or frankly wished there were more neighborhoods that, upon walking through them, you are able to see a culture other than your own. Why would you want everywhere to be the same and completely bland?

Well today I'm going to get to see  dentist hopefully thanks to Tufts Dental School. I don't have insurance until January, but I'm not sure I can hold out until then with this tooth. I guess I'm just a wuss. What I've relearned from this little experience that anyone in any kind of pain, however minor, or major (like most old people) have a short temper and probably have very little problem inflicting pain on others, since they are already in pain.  That's why you shouldn't mess with the elderly. Not just because it isn't right, but because if this organ or that joint is giving them constant pain they will shoot you and have no moral qualms about it. Just another reason to respect your elders.

Impacted Tooth

Recently my tooth started hurting. Actually it is the root of a tooth that is no longer there. I had it pulled a while back when I didn't have dental insurance. I paid in cash and it was a reasonable price. The ghost tooth hurts now because My wisdom tooth is now pushing against the root. At least that's what I think.
I put this idea together not just by pulling it out of thin air or off the internet, it's just snippets of stuff I remember from dentist visits. "You'll have to take all your wisdom teeth out for" (insert a a very high number for a high school student here. My mom was alive for that visit and looked worried when they told her what "could" happen.
"Just leave it, that's all bullshit" I told her when she got that "somehow I'll get the money" look.
What seemed like an entire lifetime later, I had pain in college, and when I was living at a Kung Fu school. S friend of a friend told me about a Dental office in Chinatown that was reasonable for patients without insurance. Except I can't even remember where it was. He told me something about extracting those Wisdom teeth too but the price was so high, and a root canal,  and he said he could just pull the tooth for today for a cheaper price.

Then just recently I got a free cleaning in JP and they told me that all my wisdom teeth were in (yay) and then something about how one was impacted and that if it started to hurt it would have to be removed.

I brushed off that last comment thinking, "whatever pain is in the mind." Well my mind can't seem to block it out too well, so I guess I'll have to take care of this now.

Bye bye Gong Gong and A-mah

Well the grandparents have left, tearing up road no doubt after family dim sum like escaped prisoners, A-mah asking Noah one last time if he wouldn't like to come and live in New Jersey with her, and of course very specific instructions were given me regarding various items left, various items taken, Various items (toys mostly) she was curious about and perhaps wished she was taking, and of course, how we were to eat our meals and in what order and where various food was eaten.

Now it is time to get into the Christmas spirit by hanging stuff on the tree. We can hang up our Santas village ornament we got this summer. Time to put the playlist on the speakers and play Christmas music throughout the house and quickly because the children are now screaming for attention now that they are having grandparent withdrawal.

Cheung Family Thanksgiving

We just had our first round of Thanksgiving dinner today. Soy Sauce Chicken, Roast Duck, some veggies, some soup, a half a squash stuck into the microwave with butter and sugar and Grace made Sticky rice. I made them take a picture of the family (well most of it) and the food (well most of it. Then we all (well most of us) said the Our father, and part of what they said for grace at Groton for a prayer, holding hands and heads bowed, because it's not really a holiday if there isn't an Awkward prayer that makes at least part of the family slightly uncomfortable. And I was always uncomfortable with those moments as a kid, not knowing if I was Buddhist or something else, and that Awkwardness is something important to pass on to the next generation. We only had 5 minutes of hectic confusion, and yelling instead of probably what would have been a whole day of that, had we tried to cook a Turkey. And really only in those five minutes of rushing and chopping and screaming did I get a sense of the true essence of what a Holiday feels like. Because that little adrenaline rush and chaotic rushing of plates, food, and cutlery (Chopsticks in our case) is the same feeling I had at my Gandmother's and Grandfather's House at Christmas, except sustained over days, and with that feeling came the feelings that went with it, of togetherness, playing with lots of cousins and meeting Aunts and Uncles and all of that Family sort of thing. But it makes sense too that our family has the five minute version in this day and age.
Well we are to watch a movie soon and then on to the second round of Thanksgiving dinner I think.

Thanksgiving Party

Today was walking through the rain, a Kung Fu Panda Class, a trip to and empty Kung Fu School, a trip to dim sum in Chinatown which Jonah thoroughly enjoyed, and then off to the Thankgiving party at BCNC.
The children all sat there quite nicely eating a very healthy Thanksgiving lunch. There was Turkey, salad, corn, pizza in little children slices, fruits, and a pasta salad that tasted like it had Tuna fish on it. It was a pretty healthy "American" style meal. I didn't have that overstuffed feeling I usually have, because there weren't potatoes and stuffing and that sort of thing. Noah wanted to leave along with Gong Gong and A-Mah who also came to the little party, and of course that isn't Jonah's school. But since there was only one car seat it meant that I had to carry Jonah on my shoulders through the rain again, sheltered by coat and umbrella.. where h eat some point fell asleep, and almost stayed asleep in the house, but then decided he was too excited and wanted to see Gong Gong and Noah.
Then he started acting irrationally so I tried for an hour to put him to sleep again to Dai sai gwa and other children's songs in Chinese with no success. Now he just fell asleep leaning against Noah as they watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow the food planned is a soy sauce chicken and half a duck from Chinatown Cafe. Some veggies and that's it I think. We are still a small group so no need to over do it. None of us are crazy about Turkey anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods and White Behavior

I've been reading a whole bunch of Neil Gaiman's children's books and just started American Gods which is not at all for children. But it is very much a like a modern fairy tale for adults. It will really help you get into the Christmas Spirit in a more adult way, as Odin features heavily in this book, though there are gods from other cultures as well.
Why do I say Christmas spirit? Because Santa Claus is Odin, and also around this time of year I think everyone starts feeling a little more Nordic. Find a non Nordic person (i.e. Hispanic/Black/Asian) and as the weather gets cold here in Boston, they will begin to behave more Nordically, hanging up trees and wreaths. Christmassy stuff.

A lot of nonwhite people, both in America and indeed people from former colonies, tend to be very confused about White behavior, even today. Especially the nonwhites that emulate white culture. They think that being good Christians means putting away the Kwan Gung altars of heathen idolatry and hanging up pictures of Odin's incarnate (Santa). They tend to see all the human sacrifice and backward superstitious and horrid aspects of their own culture and be embarrassed by it. They are happy that whites brought Christianity and saved them from their backward ways. Though of course they are angry about the atrocities carried out by greedy business men who must have not followed the Christian way or true European ideals (which they take to be either Enlightened Atheism or bland Christianity that ignores the old testament)

Or

If they are first and foremost upset about the White Power structure when they complain about whites and their behavior, or satyrize the depiction of non-whites on Upworthy showing some whites rioting and saying that you can't focus on "the bad apples" to portray a population... but they kind of miss  the mark on white behavior. They believe that "racist whites" are a different species and culture from Nordic culture or white culture or white American culture. They think that whites rioting is hypocritical, or that types of white savagery is a momentary lapse, something that is not part of real European Culture, or something that White people left behind long ago before they rose up to conquer the world with ships, guns, steel...

Jamaica Kincaid wrote something in "A small place" about the white tourist believing that the world is as it should because his ancestors were smarter or more ruthless... And I am going to stop there because ruthless is the world I am looking for. A lot of non-whites do not understand that most aware whites do not really believe they are more civilized or that it was civilization that got them ahead of the game. It was ruthlessness.

The reason why this is confusing is because modern white culture constantly represents itself through Greece, Rome, and Jesus, and then the Enlightenment. They write stuff in Latin and they harken back to ancestors in Rome. But if they did have Roman ancestors it was only through raping Soldiers, and through that same method, most Whites in America, and England and Ireland, and therefore the Whites that went out and colonized Hong Kong and America are more related to another group of people. Vikings. And culturally that's really who the mysterious "white man" is.

Basically if you are white of that mixture and you always felt the meta-narrative fed you about Greece being the cradle of Western Civilization (which implies culture) and didn't quite feel like that matched your culture, or if the Jesus meta-narrative (the greco-fied version meant to convert Romans) of love thy neighbor and handing over your stuff to strangers and living like a hippie never seemed to quite add up to what your parents taught you of how to behave outside of Church or indeed how any man taught you to act or, admire in other men.. then take a look at the Norse myths.

If you are non-white and have been confused at times by how White people taught one set of values in school but seemed to have a different way of thinking (a way of thinking perhaps closer to your non white culture) and you were confused by this or no angered by it's hypocrisy.... take a look at the Norse myths.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods is a nice little novel blending not only traditional values of many cultures, but also the newer things Americans worship as a society. And that's a nice entertaining starting point too I think.

Don't dry your hands on Strangers!

So yesterday me and Noah went to the Central branch Library to learn origami even though it was ridiculously cold and the wind almost blew us over. It was actually pretty crowded there. We finished up and I took Noah to the children's room where he went to the bathroom and like Daniel Tiger, flushed and washed and we were on our way. He even dried his hands at the hand dryer. But I guess in the moment my eyes left him, something interesting happened.
"Excuse me sir?" said a woman, a mother, older than me, but I'm not sure by how much, "I just wanted to let you know that as your son was coming out he dried his hands..." and she gestured wiping her own hands on herself and so I assumed that the rest of the sentence was that he wiped his hands on his pants. Which is something I might often do, you know, to save paper towels and the environment and all that.
"Okay." I said, now looking for my son with my eyes.
"I'm not sure if that's something he does but if it was a behavior my child did I would want to know about it and that's why I'm telling you." Her face was very serious. More serious than one would expect for someone who had just seen a kid wipe his hands on his pants so I started to think maybe I was missing something.
"Wait what?"
"Your son.."
"Okay."
"Was coming out of the bathroom.."
"uh huh."
"and he wiped his hands.."
I nodded.
"On me." She said
I sort of laughed but maybe that's not appropriate but what does one say in a situation like that.
"Sorry."
Now I had to find Noah and ask him why he did that. He does wipe his hands on me... but that's different. i'm not a stranger. And can you imagine doing that as an older kid? His only response to why he did this was, "I don't know." And then embarrassment and trying to change the subject.

Meditating Children

This morning I walked into the living room to see Grace and the two children.  the two children were sitting crossed legged hands folded in meditation position. The weren't exactly meditating. Their eyes were squinched up like they were trying to meditate really really hard. Both that they were trying hard and trying to meditate hard. It was pretty funny.
Believe it or not I actually have a sort of meditation chi gung breathing exercise I do for the preschool class. For the kids it's more a way to center their attention, and calm them down by making them sit. For me.. I actually need to warm up.

I remember the first time I saw someone from Woo Ching White crane do some serious chi gung meditation. He was shaking really hard, and I didn't know what to make of it. I actually wanted to laugh. Most kids, upon seeing someone shake in this way (including when they see me shake) will laugh. Sifu would always tell them not to laugh and to take it seriously. Because of this confusion and disruption to class, in the past I have tried simply nt to shake when meditating in front of kids. Technically they shouldn't see me shake if their eyes are closed, but what kid really follows that rule? Also, if as a teacher, you close your eyes to a room full of kids you are really just asking for it.


Recently I have actually gone in a completely different direction. I just start with the breathing exercise that comes after the meditation and if my body shakes, I let it shakes. And the children always laugh and try to copy the shaking.

If your goal is to teach a student the proper way to meditate and to know why you are shaking and teach them the secrets of Kung Fu, then my Sifu's way of telling them to take it seriously, and not to copy the shaking but to let it happen on its own, and a bunch of lectures and explanations combined with years of practice is appropriate. But even in the traditional school setting, kids and even adults are not necessarily interested in all that. Even the ones that ask questions might only be mildly interested.

My goal, when teaching preschoolers, or any children, is to entertain. Oh right, and expose them to Kung Fu and traditional training methods and culture and all that. But really first and foremost, to keep their attention. (If you lose their attention you have lost everything.) And that means entertaining them even if it means jumping through hoops and bending over backwards.

Luckily Shaking during meditation is not only very entertaining, it is easy. It is easier to let it happen then to prevent it from happening, and Since I'm actually doing a bunch of Kung Fu that they will be half doing, I need that little mocha shot of chi as the only little warm up that I'm going to get.

If they laugh and copy.... great! They aren't going to "jau fau yup mau" from shaking a little bit for less than a minute once a week. If they tried to imitate the shaking seriously for 6 hours a day straight without proper guidance.... yeah they could get into trouble... but they won't. They can't. And if you play candy crush for 6 hours straight. you will also run into trouble so meditating "wrong" or by "forcing it" is not the worst thing out there. Running wrong, or sitting at a desk wrong is probably more dangerous nowadays. "jau fau yup mau" is really only a real hazard for monks on Shaolin Temple who are trying to achieve certain Chi Gung things they learned from a book but no longer have the master's with the oral history part of it. And since they've been around since the 70's they might have even had enough monks that went through these problems that they have now figured out what they were doing wrong and reinvented some safe guards.

Besides there are other forms of warm ups for kids in music classes where they sing and "shake, shake, shake their wiggles out." So essentially we are doing the same thing. They are warming up with a game. I am warming up with chi gung. And in the process, they are introduced to the idea of chi gung and meditation.

Mulan Phobia

We have the movie Mulan and we've watched it before. But for some reason, when the movie was on TV tonight, Noah started freaking out and turning off the tv saying he was scared of it. It was right at the beginning where Mulan is doing the "You'll bring honor to us all..." song where they all have painted faces and what not. As I'm writing this I just realized that most likely Noah has a fear of Asian women with painted faces. Actually it was seeing Grace with green night cream on her face that sparked his fear of the Hulk and green people (like the Statue of liberty) in the first place.
I have to say I'm not too much of a fan of the Disney Mulan movie. I mean I'll watch it and I guess enjoy it, and I suppose every other movie they've made about other cultures is glaring with stuff that might rub the wrong way, and actually most Asians I talk to like Mulan..... but still, why are ALL the ancestors like New York Jewish people? Why is the old lady more like Yentl the matchmaker? What's the relation there? am I missing a joke? I guess I could say the same thing about Aladdin, and I never thought about that much as a kid... but at least that movie was supposed to take place in the Middle East.. sort of. (The traditional story took place in China. Aladdin was a Chinese Muslim.)

Also the Huns are people too. I guess they would be most related to modern day Mongolians. Why are they represented like monsters.

Plus you have to admit that the overall movie is just not as good as the Lion King or Disney's other movies. Maybe because in the end, Mulan is a war movie, with troops and battles, historical events. It's hard to get that down into a kids movie. But it was much better than the movie they were going to make. (China Doll, according to Wikipedia) Kung Fu Panda was much more culturally Chinese, in terms of the food, the songs, and how they added in Chinese words and Chinese places into the lingo. But I guess without a Mulan, there wouldn't have been Kung Fu Panda.


So not that anyone cares but here are some things that I remembered about the Mulan as represented by my KKCS textbook and a HK cartoon about her. She was the raised as a boy, which meant she knew how to ride shoot bow and arrow, and was trained in all manner of weaponry and hand to hand fighting. So basically she wasn't timid and afraid. If her war buddies could make t-shirts, they would have made T-shirts with Chuck Norris slogans, except they would be Mulan slogans. (come to think of it maybe some should start making Mulan T-shirts like that.)

She was never outed as a female in battle. She was outed when her war buddies came to look for her/him. They found her and didn't recognize her and actually started flirting with her. She then invited them in and kicked there asses then they recognized her bad assery and they laughed about it and started drinking and what not. Anyway that's the story. But if the Mulan in the movie was all beefy I guess it would be harder to sell little princess dolls. (Btw even though the actresses in China and the tastes in the cities tend toward the skinny model types like Hong Kong, a lot of country guys tend to be more attracted to stronger women, who look like they can do farm work, and can bear children more easily.)

If you read Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the Water Margin stories, or just watch the movies, the women that are "manly" i.e. fight and do Kung Fu, are seen as sexually attractive, but are not portrayed as skinny and petite. Nor are their personalities demure and quiet the way the "you'll bring honor to us all" song in Mulan suggests that Mulan was being forced to be. There are cultural norms, but that doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions. I'm sure if Mulan's father trained his daughter (and the fact that a general would have only one wife let alone only one daughter is somewhat exceptional in itself) in the arts of war, means that he probably had other thing sin mind for her besides what the Disney movie suggests.

Sam Hui

I've Been watching Sam Hui's movie, The Private Eyes, while Jonah sleeps. Even though Sam Hui is more famous as a singer than say, a martial artist, his moves are good enough. I've noticed that actors that can act and do a little bit of martial arts, usually ends up making a better movie than martial artists in a movie, who don't particularly know how to act. This movie is a comedy from the 70's, and it's just great. When you watch the big budget HK /mainland Chinese movies nowadays, they have a lot of great actors, who are really experienced, but the movie itself usually is something you have to just meet them half way on. The plots won't make sense, it seems like they just couldn't edit out parts that they should have. All in all the modern Chinese movies are almost like a film student got a hold of a big budget and made a movie, and was kind of lazy about it. I'm not saying all the movies from the 70's were good. A lot of them were terrible too, but those usually weren't high budget. Anyway, back to watching my movie.

Playground hawk

After a pretty fulfilling little panda indoor kung fu class, or as I like to call it, Kung Fu panda class, Jonah and I hopped on th orange line back to  JP. At the playground, there was a big Hawk just hanging out by the spider web climbing structure. It saw us. Eventually Jonah saw it. It took a while because when I told him to look, he kept looking up, where the bird of prey should be, He didn't seem to startled to see us there. We didn't walk right up to it, but still, we were pretty close. Since it was as pretty close in height to Jonah I was wondering what would happen if Jonah ran neat it and the bird took him as a threat. I have heard from mothers that the geese do bite kids. I heard this as Jonah was running towards one and the mother mentioned a goose had nipped her son.
Having seen that old Kirk Douglas Viking movie where the Hawk actually claws out his eye, I kept oblivious Jonah on the other side of the playground.
When we left, the Hawk was still just chilling there on the fence.

Another time in Chinatown th playground by the round church actually, I saw a Hawk try to catch a rat as the rat ran right under the play structure. Simultaneously, some other small bird kept trying to dive bomb into the hawk until it left it's territory. I saw a similar interaction between probably the same species of small bird and a hawk by Jamaica Pond also. I never saw many Hawks growing up, but they seem to be all around now. Lounging around playgrounds and what not. Or maybe as a child I was just as oblivious as Jonah.

Childish Tastes

I'm noticing that my tastes in what I read, and watch is no longer, "adult" I looked for a bunch of titles at the library and found that they were listed as Juvenile, or teen fiction. Which makes sense since I'm also starting to read more comic books, and even the movies I want to watch have to be sort of magical and light. Anyway I got a bunch of stuff by Neil Gaiman and I think it's what I've been looking for. I'm not sure if this is because I have children and am craving something only slightly more adult then they are, but not quite adult.
It's strange because when I was the age when I was to read teen fiction, I was reading Hemingway and Michael Crichton. But even science fiction with swear words in it is to adult for me now.
I suppose this is how, when a teenager and a grandparent are watching tv that the grandparent can be the one to say, "Oh this is too violent." or inappropriate, or sexual or whatever, even though when the grandparent was younger they watched and did all of those things perhaps to more extreme measures than even fictional tv shows show. But after going through raising a few children and being indoctrinated by various children's programming, after stopping late night outings and what not, that stuff becomes a little too much.
Maybe I should read those Hemingway books again, sometime, but then again they are a little depressing. Just like Mishima's books really in that you can kind of see by reading about all the death in those books, that yes the author would eventually kill himself. I probably shouldn't have been reading that kind of stuff in middle school. It probably made me all cynical and depressed. I also read the Hitchhiker's guide in middle school though and loved it and had no idea that that was Neil Gaiman who wrote that, and that all these new books out that people are raving about had to do with him. Oh well, off to plunge into a fantasy world while Jonah sleeps. If I can only reach the book without moving the elbow he is resting his head on right now.

Stick workout

Yesterday and the day before that I decided to do a new workout. (I've noticed I constantly have a new gimmick that I'm doing but at least they are my own gimmicks, and at least there all related to Kung Fu. So I guess I just need to keep changing things slightly in order to keep practicing everyday. But at least I practice everyday)
The new idea was working out with a stick, a rather heavy branch. I wanted a way to work out my forearms I guess because my arms are starting to look particularly skinny.
I basically stumbled out of the house in layers and in flip flops (so as not to have to put on socks) and did slow free style movements with the stick branch. For a stick it is heavy, but for a weight it is light. It was freestyle because I don't have a lot of space in front of my house to be swinging a stick, or doing a whole form in order. So I just did Mein lay jum (tai chi -ish moves) Then after I was bored of that I planted my self far enough away from anything so the stick (which is around a baseball bat weight I guess) wouldn't break our own property and swung it in horse stance in a sort of a punch out, except a stick out. Then the next day I did the same thing even though my forearms were sore. I mean my forearms were sore and so was a lot of my upper body, but it's not like I was lifting weights right? The stick is light. I mean heavy for what I'm doing I suppose. Anyway this morning I thought I would warm up by doing the mein lay jum form and then only do the mein lay jum stick, not fast stuff. But I decided to skip the stick after all. I guess I should have done day on and day off, even though it is a light stick and even though I didn't not really workout for that long of a time. My body just isn't used to it and needs to adjust and rest. I'll try to keep it up though because it was really good for the forearms and kind of fun too. Plus it's probably good prep for when I have to start shoveling snow in the same out door area.

Dim Sum Fall out

As the carts passed by there was a new item, little green balls that had caught Jonah's eye. They turned out to be durian filled pastries and believe or not the kids like them fine. The problem came when Noah and Jonah started talking about where they came from. (Noah did not come to Friday Dim Sum because he had school.)
"I got this from yum cha!" siad Jonah happily.
"Noooooo!" said Noah with the o's going down then up in a sing song voice that come to think of if is specific to Cantonese. "You got them from the box!"
"I got them from the yum cha!" said Jonah again smiling and walking away. Noah just looked at him like he was a fool. How could he possibly have gotten them from dim sum when I Noah wasn't also there at dim sum? I just saw you get it out of the take out box. (never mind where the take out box itself came from)
What did I say? Of course I said nothing and snarfed my breakfast of last nights leftovers. Eventually the durian pastries would be eaten and the problem would be solved. Let's all get ready to go to Kung Fu Park children! Moving On!

Friday Dim Sum

Today Grace took the day off work, which meant that that after we dropped off Noah, we got to go to Dim Sum with Jonah. Of course we couldn't talk about this in Front of Noah. I'm sure he would be very upset if he found out. Jonah was really happy. Hei La Moon was practically empty and calm. Immediately Jonah started asking for food (even though he had eaten breakfast at home and I had given him a Bao left over from BCNC's open house.. also this morning) The carts were moving very slowly though. probably because they didn't yet see the point. Most of the customers were old people who looked like they'd already been there a while and were all set.
The thing about dim sum, is that during crowded times, it seems very difficult to have children. Hot carts moving around, hot tea, hot dishes.... but when it is quieter it is literally a tea party. We always get the Chrysanthemum tea so that Jonah can actually drink it. And there are a bunch of different dishes that have many colors, textures, and flavors... all very exciting for a two year old. Plus you can teach them the different names of the dishes like its a little game. If we have both kids together, it is usually pretty difficult, but Jonah seemed so happy today to have the attention of both parents, and to be able to Yum Cha.

Where's Jonah?

Last night we were all doing puzzles before bed time when I suddenly exclaimed, "Where's Jonah?" at that moment he came in with goop all over his fingers and face.
"What is that?"
"I don't know what that is." said Grace.
It turned out to be Grace's very expensive face lotion/nightcream/moisturizer or whatever you would call it. Jonah was actually using it just as he was supposed to. He even replaced the cap on the little jar. It's just that he used so much of it. So we all started taking it off of him and putting it on Noah's face as well as our own faces and hands legs and arms so as not to waste it.
Lesson is don't leave expensive face cream out I guess.

Inside vs. Outside

This morning was pretty cold, so I prepared to do the little Panda class inside. This meant that I brought the drum gong and cymbals. It was nice, being able to do it inside. I got a good stretch. But the toys in the room were a little bit distracting, and the space was more limited. I mainly did it inside because I thought that was the responsible thing to do. I would be fine, and my son would be fine, because he had snow pants on. But not all of the other kids had that type of gear I don't think. But then the little kids still ended up going to the playground to play. I think I heard some of the teachers wondering aloud, "Why didn't we go outside for Kung Fu?" But my mandarin isn't so hot so it could have just as easily have been, "No wonder we didn't go outside for Kung Fu." The truth is, by the time they went out it had warmed up a bit, and at that point, yes it would have made sense to hold the class outside, but the class was already over.
I have noticed too that sometimes when it is too cold, the kids actually move around less and seem not as in to it. That's sort of counter intuitive because if they moved around more, they would be warmer, but they are small children. Actually maybe it's just Noah that does that. In any case, last night our little playground Kung Fu class was so disappointing that I took him home and told him he would have another chance to earn his graham crackers by practicing Kung Fu art home. But as it stood right then he wasn't getting any. There was much crying involved and he claimed he wanted to stay at the playground. (I don't see why, he wasn't doing anything there) But at home he did do a good job performing Kung Fu by himself while I accompanied him with drum. So he ended up getting his graham crackers.
The little Panda class did not do as well inside as I would have thought. I think it has to do with the fact that we usually aren't inside and so they aren't socialized to the inside format. When space is limited, lining up matters more. Sitting to the side so the person doing Kung Fu matters more. Not crowding the teacher matters more, and individual performance is a larger part of the class. Nobody really felt that comfortable doing Kung Fu by themselves. Some kids did eventually warm up to it but they were much less mobile than I would have thought. Mainly they just did punches while standing there. I was surprised. But everyone wanted to play gong and cymbals so it wasn't like they weren't interested. I now make it so that, in order to play gong or cymbals, you first have to do Kung Fu, and I just make to people do Kung Fu at once.

Kung Fu Shoes

For the past two days in the afternoons I have gone to pick up Noah while wearing Kung Fu shoes. Not athletic Kung Fu shoes with laces. Not Wu lik, or the new types with rubbery soles, but the old hard soled ones that nobody can really believe were ever meant to be more than slippers. Why? My feet are very wide and when I do Kung Fu in any type of fancy cross trainers it is only a matter of time before my foot's shape, and the movements that my feet are doing (especially sweepy type movements) destroy that shoe. So At first I was like, "If I'm going to destroy a pair of shoes, let's destroy a cheap pair." And then more optimistically I thought, "Maybe the slipperiness of the shoes will be a good thing for sweeps and such."
It is.
In fact there's nothing wrong with practicing with said shoe except that they might fall off and are slippery, but that can be seen as a bonus since it makes you be careful of your footing. The real issue is walking a long distance in them while pushing a stroller. The last time I walked a long distance in that type of shoe was a double ten parade when I was in the 1st or second grade of Kwong Kow. I remember my feet hurting and thinking that maybe children were not meant to march in parades wearing that type of shoe. I've worn other types of Kung Fu shoes around, with rubber soles, and laces, and the more popular wui lik. I bought this pair of cheap ones planning to use them Mr. Rogers Style, changing into them for practice only, and then changing back into normal shoes for walking.
I actually found that walking in them is not that bad. You just have to walk on your toes. The real question is how long will they last?

When I was not taking care of kids, I would never wear those shoes because I would feel unstable and vulnerable. It is difficult to run in them and I would imagine you would be at a disadvantage in a fight because of the lack of traction. However the Wui Lik shoes were great for running, kicking, and fighting if necessary. So oddly, I am now comfortable wearing slippery shoes because I don't really plan on getting into a fight while pushing a stroller. Their not nearly as uncomfortable as some of the shoes women wear to work. In fact there is a comforting feeling of wearing something that feels like a slipper outside when it is cold. Like you are secretly at home, while everyone else is outside, and nobody knows it but you. It is odd though, that they are called Kung Fu Shoes, when the only reason I can wear them now is because I don't plan on fighting. Well I guess Kung Fu is more about the practicing part isn't it? And they are fine for that.

Light training and the middle path

The weather is starting to confuse me and I'm starting to doubt my t-shirt and shorts method of training. Anyway, today at the playground I decided that instead of not training at all, I would just do light training. Lighat and more internal, but I still use the most practical self defense moves. This is not so much because I believe in only practicing what I would probably use in a "street fight" which I don't plan on getting into anyway. It is because those moves are the easiest to do while helicopter parenting and watching my son. If I tried to get really into some of the more advanced mein lay jum moves, or tried to do the full technique or study the technique or work out all the little details in the footwork, or even tried to do be more ture to the form, I find that my son has now left me behind and is climbing something dangerous, or is simply asking me various questions about whatever.
So why train at all?
No I just train very lightly to get some light exercise in, moving slow enough that I won't hurt nearby children if they happen to run near me unexpectedly, and I keep a pace, where yes I can talk. So I'm not exactly "wun hei" they I would if I were really focusing on certain types of breathing. But even when talking I still do the dan tian thing and work on circulating chi and all that. So it's not at the same level if I was completely focused on that alone. But that doesn't mean don't do it. I guess at this point I am training for health, and I am still below my 45 minutes of cardio a day goal I suppose. But doing some light training is better than just not training.
After the playground at Green st, we went to the tot lot and I hit (okay more like massaged) the tree there when Jonah wasn't moving around too much. Hitting them like a punching back like I might if I were by myself before I had kids is a) probably not a good idea necessarily and b) scary and perhaps inappropriate while young children are watching so closely nearby. But again, since I have to stand here and watch Jonah anyway, might as well do it as a sort of meditative exercise.  Some people might think spending hours a day developing iron palm is both difficult and stupid when it is so easy to pick up a knife or a gun. But if the option is between standing there and doing nothing, and developing just a little bit of iron palm with no pain involved, or boredom and again, it is done sort of as a mental calming exercise more than a stressed and intense need to fulfill a real iron palm goal... I don't see the big deal.
Just because you may not have time to do train like Shaolin Monks do, doesn't mean you shouldn't do a little. After all, Hung Hei Goon, didn't have all the time in the world to train after he was out of Shaolin Temple. He was on the run, and had children, and was trying to train an army. I doubt he stopped training. He had to fit it into his life somehow. Nor did he have a lot of space or a nice training facility with squeaky clean floors. He was on cramped boat most of the time right?
Which actually reminds me, just because you are moving slowly doesn't mean you aren't training hard. You can focus on Gung instead But I wasn't feeling that type of training this morning. But I'll do that for my little afternoon session with my kids at the playground.

Who wants to start the water?

Last night Jonah got some time alone with mommy because Noah had passed out on the floor. As soon as Jonah realized that Noah was out he started prancing around and playing with trains and blocks excitedly. Then Grace suggested that perhaps Jonah would like to take a bath. At first Jonah didn't want to. But the thing is, every night, in order to get the children upstairs we hold a contest. It is called, "Who wants to start the water?" The answer is both of them racing up the stairs shouting, "Me! I want to start the water! I want to start the water!!!!" Usually Noah wins. But no matter who wins, both children end up protesting and crying because they wanted to start the water. Why do both children protest? Because the child that did not start the water will turn the water off and then turn it back on. Thus starting the water as well. But the restarter will still cry because even though they have restarted the water they under stand that it is not as good as starting it for real. Furthermore, the child that did start it for real, feels that their starting of the water has been unstarted by the other child turning it off and starting it again. He will then want to unstart it again and restarted. This is a nightly occurrence that usually involves pushing and fighting until they realize that I am trying to undress them for a bath, at which point they decide that running in circles to avoid me is a prefferred activity.

At any rate Last night Jonah knew that since Noah was asleep he was bound to make it to the water first. So he did and he started the water.. uncontested. He then realized that victory was not as sweet without a competitor. Apparently while Grace was giving him a bath, Noah woke up and called out for me (Baba was at a lion dance), but he didn't really wake up, just sort of. Grace asked Jonah to call out to Noah and ask him to come upstairs. Jonah then  mouthed the words exageratedly as if he was yelling but instead whispered the words, "Come upstairs Noah!!!"
"Louder." said Grace.
Then he simply mouthed it without saying anything. Why would he want Noah to come upstairs when he had mommy all to himself?

A Wedding Lion Dance

Today I performed in the usual wedding lion dance. There were only two unusual things about it. The first was that the groom was the brother of one of my Si Hing's. The second was the bride and groom did a cool, synchronized dance routine to a medley of different songs. Okay and really the main reason why it was different for me is that I haven't actually done a regular Chinese Wedding Lion Dance in a long time. Most of the ones I've been to recently are rather strange requests by people interested in Lion Dance as a representation of Chinese culture. Chinese culture being a culture either other than their own, or the traditions being something that they are less familiar with. At this wedding we actually knew the people we were dancing for, and it was down the street in Chinatown.
I played a secondary role. The leadership roles being taken over by kids that I taught when they were children. Still I was involved in the dance as head and tail, and we did combos, but instead of giving cues, I was taking them.
It kind of reminded me of some of my first lion dances. I could feel the pace of everything through a sort of beginners lens. Except it was much easier physically. I mean this is actually what we train for, so it was easy, even though practicing with my teammates consisted of a brief warm up at the restaurant. There were some curve balls (for me), as to how the order of the combos actually happened, or maybe just a misunderstanding. But our system of safety procedures (i.e.) always checking before you do a combo and various signals, meant that it all went smoothly without a hitch. I was going to bring Noah to this one, but he fell asleep in the car. In hind sight, it would have been really difficult if he had come, but since he didn't, it was incredibly easy.

Oishinbo

Yesterday I talked about a bunch of Manga I can't read with my kid. Oishinbo is one that Noah really likes. I was disapointed that he couldn't care less about Calvin and Hobbes. But he would sit there for this Manga and have me read it all the way through. Oishinbo is basically like an Anthony Bourdain version of Manga. Except I think it predates Bourdain's fame. It's about a food critic, with cooking skills of his own, who is working on the Ultimate Menu for a newspaper. But it still has all the clan rivalry, challenges and that sort of thing because he is at odds with his father, who is writing for the Supreme Menu for another newspaper. It's pretty awesome.
Did I mention that Noah loves cooking?
Noah always plays at cooking when Grace is cooking. When I cook I will actually give them the ends of vegetables to cut up with a butter knife. I've just found it to be easier.
Noah had all these questions about how to cut the fish, why the guy is cutting the fish, etc etc.
I guess I should try to borrow the rest of these Oishinbo Mangas. I might even try and buy a couple, but something tells me they are expensive.

Noah has also recently been carrying around this book that came with a toy. It's basically one of those advertisement type things you throw away. It's the size of a card and he calls it his book card. It fits in his pocket. What is actually written on it is quotes from various children that are funny. But it has become his imagination book. He has been reading recipes from it much the same way Grace reads recipes off the internet while cooking. Maybe I should make a little book with him of teh same size. Maybe a manga of our own. It will probably involve cooking. It's nice that it fits right into his pocket too. He even slept with it last night and brought it to school today. Well that's a little project for this weekend. I guess I can cut some thing cardboard, like from a cereal box, for the cover, and then out some pages in there and then we can draw some stuff and write some words on it. Shouldn't be to hard. If I can find the scissors.

Manga

I have just recently gotten into "Path of the Assassin" by the creator of "Lone Wolf and Cub" I also read one of his other ones called, "Samurai Executioner." SE is a lot like Law and Order, except in old Edo (Tokyo). One of the most interesting aspects of this particular Manga, is the stories about the executioner are like the detective story, except it starts with the execution of the criminal. You are never introduced to the characters surrounding the crime. Instead the criminal has some last words or wishes and then this executioner tries his best to carry that out, however strange, so that he can understand the person whose head he cuts off at the beginning of the story. That's really an interesting concept. So much more insightful than Criminal Minds.
Path of the Assassin is semi historical and has lots of martial arts and strategic applications, but since it is linear I am afraid of reading it out of order. In fact I haven't read the first one, I started on number 2. I guess I should have borrowed a ton of them, but for some reason I thought I would only be mildly interested. When reading these things, I didn't realize that they were kind of old, because they seemed so.. timeless I guess is the word. It wasn't until I youtubed Lone Wolf and Cub while Jonah was sleeping that I realized it was actually a show in the 70's. So that manga was a contemporary of Bruce Lee, Westerns, and Kung Fu the series. I tried to find and English dub but actually couldn't stop watching the episode in Japanese (without subtitles. Every time I wanted to switch it looked like something bad ass was about to happen. Low and behold, the main character is approached on a bridge by some thugs while he is pushing his little cart (stroller) with his child inside. As soon as they get within range and start to draw swords he cuts them all down. The little cub has to duck. Watching as a parent I'm thinking all these things like, "Cub is not really developing much language skills like this."
But in truth I guess I shouldn't be watching this show. It might give me wrong ideas.  I already want to make the theme song my ringtone, and honestly I thought of that cart idea before I saw it on the show. I swear. Think about it, my kids don't really need to be strapped in. Plus they can like play with toys while sitting.. and if they have blankets, maybe even fall asleep lying down. It would be good for Chinese New year. But then it's kind of bulky for the subway... stop see what I mean. I shouldn't be allowed to watch this show.

Plus I was tempted to watch it with Jonah when he woke up. Then there was a punch of shooting and killing. I guess it's not a good idea. I read a couple of the mangas a while ago, and I think I'll do that again.

Chinese Children's songs

I recently stopped playing the rr cherry pie videos before Jonah's nap and have replaced them with Children's songs. He knows the whole genre of Chinese children's songs as Dai Sai Gwa. And from there I discovered other ones. There is the pin wheel song (guk fa yuen) which is in spoken Cantonese. I had a very strong reaction to this song the first time I heard it. Maybe it's because the title of the video is Dai Sai Gwa which is deceiving and has a black and white picture of Chinese kids on a playground in the 70's. I can only guess it is Hong Kong (where else would it be?) I simultaneously loved and hated this song at the same time. Loved it because of the melody and because I could understand the words. Hated it because the lyrics were not all that, and the style and the photograph reminded me of my childhood and stories of my mom and dad in Chinatown. I know that before I would have thought of all that very nostalgically and with a wish to return...but I guess my life is just so much better now that what I used to love I've come to find depressing.
But getting the song stuck in my head, I have already sung it in front of both kids and they seemed to like it and want more. So now it is favored again.
There is a bunch of groups like Timi Zhou, Four Golden Princesses, these weird cartoon squirrels from China. And they sing a lot of the same songs. There's the mushroom girl. Selling Tang Yuan (I like that one) and some pro education song that I recognized from Wong Jing's Fong Sai Yuk movies. Some of the songs seem to put the Four Golden Princesses (all little girls, and then in some later vids they are pre teens) in somewhat, well....Let's just say I'm pretty sure women's Lib people would have a lot to say about those videos. Myself, I have a lot to say about most of the cute little girls dancing routines I've seen in general. I never got why that art was more popular with mothers than Kung Fu. When Kung Fu and folksy dances can be just as beautiful and flexy bendy, and the girls can be pretty without being.... suggestive? But I guess it's because I'm not a woman or a mother. If it were up to me all the girls would be doing Kung Fu dances instead. And I think Disney agrees with me. The last few heroines were way more tough and had clothes that were less suggestive than the Disney movies I watched. Just compare the new Snow White with the old one.
Merida and Rapunzel are both princesses. But they have training sequences as part of their montage introduction songs.

Mai Tang Yuan (selling Tang Yuan) comes close. The scene is one of those side of the road hawker places in what could be anything in the Ming Dynasty and before. Those places so common in Wuxia movies. There's no Kung Fu, but the place is familiar. The girls are dressed in those loose fitting clothes playing adults both male and female and the trained performance gestures are all about selling Tang Yuan so Crystal Ong is doing big masculine like movements, and its cute. But the mud doll song (I like the melody) and some nurses song... It's kind of like toddlers in Tiaras. But Jonah doesn't seem to care. His favorite is still Dai Sai Gwa though.

 I wish they had a whole bunch of Kung Fu songs by little kids, where the simple movements that they do as a dance, are Kung Fu moves instead.  I guess I'll just have to make these videos myself. Only Wheels on the Bus, is not really a Chinese song. I guess I'll just steal all the melodies I happen to like and dedicate each song to a particular style or animal. But then that sounds like a lot of work and my video editing skills are not so hot.