Top Ten Cheung Family Christmas highlights.

Greetings reader,
Let's have some audience participation. I'll write a top ten list of stories to be told about our family Christmas vacation, and you can vote on which story you would like to hear first.

1) Condoms and Lube


2) Frog Legs at Wang's House.

3) Sugar cubes and dim sum.

4) Mice!!!

5) Getting Strong Now!

6) Winter Wonderland


7) Genghis Khan and Wesley Snipes


8) Family Tree

9) Reveal yourself

10) Pho Le Lai

Here's a bonus one.


11) Portuguese alcohol and guns


Choose wisely. I'll eventually write about all of these (probably) But vote for which one you would like to take precedence.

Rational versus Irrational.

This weekend I watched a ton of movies. It seems to be the thing to do over vacation. Santa Claus, Santa Claus 3, Far North, Ashes and Diamonds, and then I went to the Harvard Film Archive and saw some vintage Christmas stuff.  It's weird looking back at what society was. I mean things haven't changed that much. It's more like how it was represented was changed.

I actually first watched the Santa Claus with my Aunt when I was "too old" to believe in Santa Claus but did anyway. But I will tell you the truth right now. I still believe in Santa Claus. I also think that when the movie came out the world was more "rational" because their were all these explanations about how magic couldn't possibly exist and you have to be rational etc.

Look at how the world's changed (sort of in a bad way.)

Nowadays the mainstream accepts devout religion much more readily. I mean Heaven and God and Jesus are really not that different than believing in Santa Claus. (I believe in all of it by the way. But I separate my poetic creative side from the literal. Duh I know that Grace bought the presents and I put them under the tree and then we unwrapped them. Does that mean that Catholic priests don't believe in the Eucharist, or better yet some other Church where they actually make their own bread? No. We all know that in one sense. It's just a different understanding. Just because something isn't literally real, doesn't make it fake.)

But now you have suicide bombers who believe in a Pardes (I mean they must right? Otherwise why not just kill people without being a suicide bomber. Or better yet rob a bank or sell drugs or something. That way you have a chance of living, You get stuff, and you make people afraid for whatever reason you are motivated to do that.) The world is so not rational right now. People totally believe in Magic and that God can stop global warming or this or that.  But what's scary is that they believe it literally.

In the Santa Claus movie they want to send a kid to the Psychiatrist because he believes in Santa. I can't imagine that being so nowadays, when politicians and world leaders totally believe in crazier things than gifts. I mean there are adults that believe the earth is flat and that evolution is a hoax.

What's bad about believing in Santa (Odin) as a poetic representational spirit of Christmas? If my kids told an elaborate story about going to the North Pole, first off, nobody would care, they would just tell him to write a book about it and capitalize on imagination. Secondly, if I had trouble at school, I would just explain that there is stuff you can tell other people and stuff you can't, because they will think you are nuts and it's just easier that way to function in society.

Well I'll cover the other movies at some other point.

Fiction: The Hello Kitty Nutcracker knockoff I-Phone 2060

Marie and Claire were twin sisters and were turning 13. Marie looked mature for her age. She was heavy and well, could be mistaken for a woman. Claire was bone thin and looked like a little girl ballerina. Both girls envied the other's appearance.
But the got a long okay other than that.


Their mother was a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur in her 20's and decided to have children in her 30's and tend to the Chinatown Community in Boston. Her boyfriend had grown up here and after he died in a motorcycle accident she decided she would raise her children them in the community where he was raised to be closer to him. Although she was a newcomer and an outsider, money talks and so did her shrewd business abilities.

 This year she had been elected CCBA president, and being uber-Christian even when she was in China she decided to throw a giant Christmas party at St. James. She wasn't Catholic, but she wasn't into denominations. To her Christmas was just about the look and the style and being good to your neighbor in general, mixed in with a belief in a Free Market and the American Dream and a conservative version of democracy that the Founding Father's had in mind.

America and Christmas and the Kingdom of God were all rolled into one fairy land in her mind as a child in China. And now that she had made it big and made it here, she decided she would try to make the thoughts in her mind a reality the best she could.


Her daughters her well known in the community and everyone was trying to give them gifts and get on their good side. When you are rich like that, more riches will just come to you. It was like they were goddesses being offered tribute.

Marie hunched over into herself trying to make herself look smaller and Claire pranced around like a ballerina.

Suddenly Mother recognized someone. It was Uncle Wo Tan. The man had a Chinese name but a very distinctively western look about him. He had introduced her to Church as a child and her family had invited him over all the time. He had given her the connections and inspiration for a lot of her business ideas. He wasn't a blood Uncle, but mother considered him family. They embraced.

Uncle Wo Tan went over to Marie and Claire and gave them each a smart phone. They loved them. They had matching cases with a Hello Kitty like cat dressed as Nutcrackers. There was something about even the cases themselves that caught the eye, and the feel of the phone in the hands had a feeling of classiness and high quality. They looked in a way like any other smartphone. But the girls knew they were somehow better.

They hugged Uncle Wo Tan. One boy tried to take Claire's phone away at some point but Marie stepped forward and punched the boy in the nose. Marie was quite heavy and she had gotten her body weight behind the punch. The boy fell on his butt and had a bloody nose. His father took him away quietly which made Mother, who had witnessed the whole thing kind of nervous. She knew the boy and the father. They were not trouble makers politically. But she knew the father, was the type not to complain, but also was not to be trifled with. She ran over to the father and asked if the boy was okay. He was not the type to sue. But he was the type to hold grudges and take revenge.

She scolded Marie but the father said that she had acted right in defense of her sister.

****



Later that night the girls went to sleep putting their phones on the dresser in between their beds. Mother was a billionaire, but she saw no reason to live in a mansion. They lived in Chinatown Tower in a small apartment. She owned the building of course, and they made money off ..

Fiction: Hong Dao Chan: behind the curtain.

"Where are we?" We Wei called out to a Hong.
"This is behind the curtain. You know that, you come here all the time."
"In my sleep?"
Hong nodded and it came back to her and to Michael Jai and to Chun. They knew where they were. They were home in a way. In their own world, but it overlapped with each others.

"Hong is flying by sir!" screamed someone from a ship below.

"Fire at will." said Captain Napin nonchalantly

Bulltes whizzed passed and cannon fire and shells. A whole fleet opened fire on the children.

Hong circled and sliced through the air. His flaming sword made a mark through the sky that slowed down the bullets (but did not stop them.

"Nia get them to the Water Margin!" called out Hong. Nia the blue bird glowed brighter and brighter until the blue ball enveloped the children and Wei Wei. The energy helped the children fly faster (although Nia was slower and used more energy.)

Hong stayed behind and flew on the other side of the fleet where he cursed and spit at them.

"You filthy drug dealers. Cowards all of you. Come and fight you punks!"

The truth was that Hong knew a great deal of these smugglers. A good deal of Hong's playmates boys would join up with them and began to grow up. They had mixed loyalties. The ships provided a way back into the real world, and money, and fantasies not available on the island. And Hong didn't blame them individually. Most of the gun fire missed by a wide margin because these guys didn't actually want to hit Hong.

But there were others who had never known Hong and just followed orders. Captain Napin, hated Hong but being a gentleman, never picked up a rifle himself.

Eventually Nia got the children and Wei Wei to the beach. They were a long way off from the mountains they were headed too but Nia was worn out. All of them were. To go fast they used up all their energy somehow. The way they flew was like swimming, flowing through the air this way and that. It wasn't efficient. It wasn't steady. An so they decided to walk tup the beach and through the forest. That way at least they couldn't be so easily spotted by the ships. But the ships were distracted by Hong at the moment anyway.

"That was so cool!" squealed Chun "I want a sword just like Hong."

"I want a gun so I can shoot back at those jerks."

Wei Wei wondered what she had gotten herself into. Was this the dream world? What did Hong mean by behind the curtain? Wei Wei wondered if her thoughts could be controlled. She knew she was in this world, which isn't always the case when you are asleep. Was there a way to make herself more powerful? To control her surroundings? Was this just like one of the stories she told the children where she was the author of her fate? Or did she have less control? If a bullet hit her.. would she die? She was suddenly mad at Hong for putting them in danger like this. The thought froze her to the ground and the world swirled around her strangely.

"Don't do that." Nia looked at her.

Wei Wei paused and looked at Nia again. The bird glimmered and blurred until she was a beautiful young woman. Wei Wei stared at her. Nia looked familiar and strange. Simultaneously a bird and a woman and a fairy. Simultaneously ravishingly young, and anciently wise.

"Enjoy the moment where you are. Just be where you are. on the beach. The boys know that naturally. You'll ruin yourself, thinking the way you are. We're going into the woods now." And Nia flitted ahead with the boys.

Wei Wei walked slowly, and then skipped along more joyfully into the woods. Yes Nia was right. This was much better. The woods were magical. The trees, the mushrooms, the animals, butterflies. It was magical as anything you could imagine and more so, because it was as magical as everyone else could imagine too. The minds of everyone joined here, the beautiful and the awesome. The light shone glowing so brightly because the shadows were so dark and mysteries, and all of it was wonderful and beautiful and filled her heart with awe.

Poems: Karate

Dojo sweatshirt, jeans

 Market Karate easy

Gifts, I wear, for dream.

Poems: The Means

Wise one's say the journey not the goal
is what Life's answers are really all about.
For sure, the end ain't guaranteed at all.
But the present journey? Bam! Right here. No doubt.

Success then, might not be as good,
As the road to that success. The road itself.
If you don't care HOW you get there, then you should.
The MEANS are guaranteed. The ends? Who can tell?

"Silence" By Thich Nhat Hanh

Every time I read something by Thich Nhat Hanh I feel better during it and after I'm done. The first book I ever read by him was a gift from Madame Stanton, a French teacher and advisor to the Alliance for Student Harmony, a diversity club at a New England boarding school. Yes, believe it or not, I went to a New England boarding prep school.

I found the parts about life experience helpful, like doing the dishes mindfully, etc. But the chanting while meditating.. I wasn't into that. Actually I am still not. I even skip those parts. But, whereas when I was a teenager I found them fake, and gimmicky, now I just feel like it's something genuine and helpful for someone... just not for me.

I felt a pang of regret that I didn't, after reading that book, suddenly take every opportunity to do Thich Nhat Hanh type stuff. For instance there was a retreat at the College I went to. Why didn't I go to that? Because I was so into my own way of thinking and following my Sifu. It was a sort of loyalty that in a way was too much. Then again, because of that I have a very strong base when it comes to Kung Fu instead of being sort of this and sort of that. I am completely and totally me.


The parts of Hanh's writing that I still tend to skim and skip are the chanting parts.

The closest thing I've come to chanting recently are various songs or "OM" and I notice whatever I am reading... I always end up doing it my own way. Not that my own way is better. It's just better for me.


In "Silence" though, Hanh talks about the harmony of a family. Having a meditation corner, having a little meditation bell with a cushion on it... and I realized that this was the sort of thing I was looking for. I love Christmas and the traditions I grew up with. But Church hasn't worked so far... and neither have Our Father's or Hail Mary's. The kids liked them... but the bell thing. It's so much simpler. Just ring a bell and everyone smiles for three breaths. So simple and so great.

When Hanh talked about his experience making friends with a French soldier it also was sort of a reality check. The Buddhism I practice (if you can even call it Buddhism) is more like a Buddhist flavoring that remained in the Kung Fu after it left Tibet and Shaolin and developed in the secular world Chinese villages, families, bandit groups, pirate groups, rebels, gangs, and American Kung Fu schools and cultural clubs.

We meditate, but we don't chant. We bow to Buddhist monks, because they are our lineage, and we would bow to them whether they were enlightened or not. And we Bow to Kwan Yu, because that's something Chinese people tend to do. Bowing and honoring has similarities to praying. But there are also differences.

But in a way we are still Buddhist, at least philosophically.


So when Hanh writes about the monks at the temple meditating when the French crash around and search for rebels it impresses me. Part of the philosophy of Kung Fu is to find that balance. The origins of our system are in Buddhist Philosophy. And yet the movements can be used for violence. But the violence is and antiquated sort. What if you are faced with the bombs and guns and anthrax that have been around for 100 years already?

That's why Hanh's experience is so valuable. He is a monk in the middle of war. In some of his other writing he talks about how temples he set up were even persecuted recently in Vietnam and that during the Vietnam war, when he set up a hospital, they were suspected by both sides.

So in Silence when he talks about making friends with a French soldier, and telling him about another friend who is fighting french soldiers.. it's really something. And then you compare that with what is going on in the Middle East now.

Some of Thich Nhat Hanh's friends had set themselves on fire in protest. It is interesting to compare and contrast that act with that of a suicide bomber.

I don't agree with everything Thich Nhat Hanh talks about. He mentions Buddha converting a serial killer. Not only that, the Sangha actually protects this horrible serial killer. And that killer becomes a devout practitioner of Buddhism. But.. would that fly even in Massachusetts for say someone like Zohar Tsarnaev who did a horrible thing. But from the story, the serial killer that Buddha saved is worse.

Part of me enjoys the gods that dish out cruel justice themselves to teach a lesson. But I respect Hanh's and the Buddha's stories and teachings because actually they lived in a much more violent environment than I can even imagine.


Long story short. Silence, by Thich Nhat Hanh is worth a read.

Poems: Confused Aprentice

Angry Birds are stirring round the roof,
While cowering spirits of baby sparrows slain
by sharp beaked grackles slick and free from proof
peek out from where the dollhouse tombstones lay.

You will find no green buffoonish piggies here
and colorful birds are few and far between
That they remain at all is queer this time of year
ominous as the warm winter wind stirring...

A KNOCK on the window.
The Wizard invites me in
Time to go.
But first a quick lesson in sorcery.

Back links and Hashtags ring the bells of St. James
Likes subscribe tweets I now profess in my name
Will you seek wealth or will you seek truth?
The babe slain by grackles and you have no PROOF.

Poems: Drinking

Drinking Ginger, Drinking Gall
I haven't got the guts at all.


Pour me Whiskey, Pour more beer,
No tolerance for those I fear.

Gulping likes and chasing wealth
Spilt foam, old vomit of the self.

Take a breath and sober up
Am I the contents or the cup?

Frankenstein Chronicles with Sean Bean.

If you are a Sean Bean fan, like the type of Sean Bean fan that's watched Sharpe's Eagle and Rifles and all that, you are going to love this show. Grace Never saw those and she watches this with me. It's not so much that she doesn't like it. She thinks it's creepy and doesn't understand all of it. It's true that it feels pretty British. It's got me singing, "Orange and Lemons ring the bells of St. Clemens... You owe me five farthings ring the Bells of St. Martin.."
It's a nice little children's song, but in the context of the story it is creepy as hell. But to me, all the creepiness is a smart creepiness that I don't mind. It's not like the violence porn of Into the Badlands or the stupid type action of Legends. No this series has a whole cast of great actors and actresses and a smart plot and it really is talking about some important issues.

Frankenstein and Galvanism is featured... but now that the only episode I have to watch is the finale, I realize this show is totally about themes like Healthcare, rape laws, and policy.

For instance, there is a date rape in the show that happens off screen. It's just talked about. But the perpetrator, a gentleman (you have to watch Brit shows to understand that a gentleman can and often is the scum of the earth and is still a gentleman. It has to do with birth manners. Sounds crazy but you''l get it if you watch the Sharpe's series. After all, a plantation owner in the states is a "gentleman" right?"

Anyway, the guy is shouting, "Is there a law against what I've done?"

Having taken a few law courses in college I thought back to the original Commonwealth law for rape.  It was some crazy shit. In order for it to be rape the victim had to kick and scream... the WHOLE time. Like if she said no in the beginning and then gave up because she got tired or just passed out, back then, that wasn't rape... by law.

But that's a side story.

The main story is about the Anatomy act and body snatchers and killing people to cut them up and stitch them back together again.. like Frankenstein's monster. There is the modern medicine calling herbal medicine quackery. An herbal medicine for Syphilis is scoffed. Surgey is the new answer to everything. (Remember though this is 1825 but he says a whole lot about the way we do things today, as many people are reaching back to herbal and holistic remedies. I found this argument particularly interesting since for Kung Fu I did all the Teet Da stuff and heard people scoff and treatment, opting for surgery instead. I've been scoffed at myself. So I was glad when the herbal doctor guy got to say what he was about and ended up being much more modern in OUR view when it came to surgery, washing your damn hands, and abortion.

There is also a ton of Sharpe's references that technically make no sense in terms of the plot taking place in 1825, but make total sense in terms of what the viewer is thinking. I mean it's like Sean Bean is an interactive movie star. He says, what you think. Like you know he was Sharpe and you're watching some guy ask him if he was in the military and you think "Wouldn't that be funny if he said 95 th rifles..." and then he bloody says 95 th rifles. It's awesome.

One guy talks about how William Blake was a traitor speaking up for Bonaparte and is really jabbing at Sharpe's err. Mr. Marlot's intellect saying he doesn't know much. And of course your thinking. This guy is Sharpe he fought Napolean man, tell that little shit who he's talking to!

And he does!Even though it has no place in the story. It's awesome.

I guess it's going to come out in the States on A and E. I saw it on Daily motion. It's pretty awesome. And I don't feel like I've wasted my time after watching it.

Fiction: Hong Dao Chan, Wei Wei's last night telling stories.

Wei Wei told Michael and Chin stories and then waited for them to fall asleep. It was like playing house. She had felt like an only child for so long when she was in China, and felt so lonely, that when the family moved to the States and had her mom had her brothers, she was actually really excited at being the older sister... she kind of felt like she was a mother. Except she only did the fun parts.

In some ways she was very responsible because she helped out around the house like this. But it's true what her father said about school. She wasn't stupid. She was actually pretty smart. So she got average grades just by showing up (most of the time).

In fact she spent hours at school scribbling in her notebook. It's just that her scribbling had very little to do with what was going on in class. She would write short stories. Fairy tales. Romance for teens. She had submitted one to a contest. She hadn't won, but she had got 1.3 million subscribers. That turned her father's head. But then she didn't follow through with it.

She didn't do that well in English class, because her writing wasn't fancy. And she didn't have a lot of friends to hang out with. She had friends, but they were starting to get into boyfriends  and hanging out late... or maybe they were getting really into academics or sports. It didn't seem like Wei Wei was really into anything at all on the outside. Because what she was into was stories. Not for grades not for money... just for the stories themselves.


She thought about this as she lay awake staring at the ceiling. The boys were breathing deeply already. She started to silently cry because  she knew, that at 16, she had to grow up. That is move past this stage of childhood. People saw her as a young woman. She was a young woman. People saw her taking care of the children as motherly... but that's not why she did it. She wanted to crawl into a small ball and shrink her body up to be little again and skip and be silly and roll in the mud. Nothing was stopping her from doing all these things except people looking at her strangely.... but for her that was enough to stop that behavior dead.


Suddenly there was a tap at the window.

Wei Wei shook with fright and peered over to see a young boy looking in. He must have been 8 years old, and up so high! He pulled out a knife, no bigger than a knife, but not quite a sword. The blade glowed and flickered like a flame. He cut the window do that it bent. It was almost as if he cut the space between the window's atoms and bent it back so that he could step through. A blue bird that glowed like a hot flame came through as well. And then the eight year old boy closed the space between the window folding it back and sealing it with the sword. It was like zipping up a coat. And like that he was in the room.

Wei Wei tried not to move. Maybe if she didn't move he would go away. She wasn't quite afraid of him. She felt like she knew him had played with him when she was smaller than he was and then when she was the same size, and now he was half her size and age, but she knew he was the same person. A playmate from her dreams.

He reached for something and then knocked over a stack of textbooks. He tried to put those back and then knocked over a chair. Then he started going through Wei Wei's drawers. Her private things were in there!

Things a young boy had no business touching. Wei Wei's 16 year old self was awakened with annoyance and she stood up to become that towering angry older sister that visited Michael and Chun every so often like a crochety second aunt.

"What the hell are you doing!" Wei Wei whispered angrily.

"What's it to you?" Hong waved her off. Ignored her. Ignoring HER in her own room. The nerve! But Hong was full of nerve. He filled whole centuries with it.


"I lost my ghost shadow."

"What's a ghost shadow?"

"It's like a shadow... but I sent it to do something, away from my body. I sent it on an errand. And now I need to find it."

"Why.. How would you do that."

"My ghost shadow doesn't hold my face and can change shape. So it can do things that are bad and I won't get in trouble. That way I can play in the other worlds while my ghost shadow earns a living here."

"What does you shadow do?"

"Mostly sells drugs."

"What?'

"Just certain kinds though. Like fly agaric mushrooms. He picks them himself. That way he doesn't have to deal with gangsters. Just sells directly to people. And that way, whenever I come to Chinatown, I have plenty of money to spend. But now my ghost shadow says it's no fair. That I'm abusing him But he's my ghost shadow."


Wei Wei thought for a moment. "That does sound like your using him."

"He's a shadow!"

"Here, let's sit down together." Hong, and Wei Wei now knew that's exactly who he was, suddenly listened to Wei Wei like a good little eight year old.

They sat together cross legged and held hands.

"What's going on?" whispered Michael. Chun was up to.


"Okay everyone get into a circle." Wei Wei said, making up this exercise as she went along, "We're all in a circle now and we're going to do three magic breaths." They did. "Now let's do three more." Wei Wei said. "And then three more for good measure." WHen they were finished Hong opened his eyes. Michael and Chun burst out laughing rolling on the floor for no apparent reason. But Hong moved his legs and realized that his shadow wasn't a ghost shadow anymore, but was attached like a normal shadow again.

"Hey that was pretty cool How'd you do that?" Hong asked.

Wei Wei shrugged and smiled.

"Okay since you helped me, I'll help you. He pulled out his fire knife and cut through the air in the room. A slit in space time opened up and they looked out into a magical sunny paradise. A garden and jungle and beach all in one. Hong grabbed Wei Wei's hand, "C'mon, let's have some fun!"

"What about my brothers?"

"Bring them too there's plenty of room... oh yeah wait Nia, spary them.

Nia, the little blue bird, flapped her wings and the blue air that touched them made them feel lighter.

Wei Wei suddenly felt nervous. "Everyone hold hands." They did and they stepped through the cut which Hong sealed back as he stepped through with his fire knife again. He did so cockily like a child painting. The cut closed but totally not all the way. Wei Wei wondered if that was important. But then she noticed they were running effortlessly over the air. Michael and Chun giggled and let go of hands even though they knew they shouldn't, and they all sped ahead toward the mountains as fast as their minds would carry them.

Fiction: Hong Dao Chan: growing up

Michael and Jessica lived in the penthouse of the Metropolitan building with their three children. Michael was Chinese. Like from China, and loaded. He met Jessica in Chinatown. She was your blond haired blue eyed beauty that was really into Chinese culture. They hit it off, moved to China for a while, until they couldn't take it anymore (you get used to things in the states, like clean air, and drivers who didn't back up and try to purposefully run over your kid to kill them if they accidentally hit them the first time.)

Wei Wei, the oldest daughter, now 16, still had dreams about this young boy she had seen, a corpse in the street. At first they had been nightmares, but later they were not unpleasant.

"He's in a better place now," her mother had eased her. And now Wei Wei did believe he was in a better place. In fact she saw him in that better place with her all the time and even came up with a name for the boy.

"Hong Dao Chan."

"Like red bean?" asked Jessica. And little Wei Wei nodded.

Even after they moved to the states, and she had two younger siblings, Michael, and Chun, two boys, Wei Wei continued to tell stories about Hong Dao Chan and his magical adventures. Funny thing about Michael, he looked like his father, which meant that he looked the most Asian out of the children, and yet he was the only one without a Chinese name. He once asked his father Michael senior about this.

"Michael is a Christian name." was Michael's reply. Their family was super Christian when they were in China. But when they got back to Boston they got over it .

In fact, Wei Wei's stories about Hong Dao Chan became the scriptire of the household, with Wei Wei telling stories every single night before bed time, with drawings and short stories written out and the younger two asking questions.

"Hong is an immortal" Wei Wei said, "And he stays like a child forever.

"He doesn't die?" asked Michael

"Or get old?" asked Chun.

"Well, whenever a child dies, like he gets run over by a car, or is shot, or even a fetus is aborted, Hong goes almost all the way with them."

"So he dies too?" asked Chun.

"Almost all the way but not all the way." said Wei Wei.

"What if more than one kids dies at the same time?"

"So that's the thing." Said Wei Wei, "Hong can be in all those places at once, and he suffers with all these children. So he dies, almost but not quite, over and over, and that's why he can stay like a little boy forever. He looks like he is 8 years old."

And so Wei Wei would tell these stories to the boys every night. Michael Senior thought it was an obsession. He was worried.
"She should be thinking about a career."

"She could be a writer." Said Jessica. "This is a good thing. This is what you are worried about, that your 16 year old is writing too many stories and drawing too many pictures? She could be pregnant or on drugs."

Michael covered his ears and ran away off to work to make a million or so buying and selling whatever it was he bought or sold.

Wei Wei told stories about Hong Dao Chan traveling through Chinatown at night with Jin people that could live in the mirrors or anything that reflected light. There were snake people in the pipes that lead to their snake people kingdom if you activated the proper doorways to other dimensions.

There were bird people that could turn into sparrows and pigeons and even Phoenixes.

"Okay I like that you write stories. Your mother is right. You could make a career out of that. I should be encouraging you. But I want you to move into your own room now. I don't want you to keep spending the night with Michael and Chun. You don't do any of your homework or hang out with any people your age. It's great that you take cre of the boys like that so that me and mommy don't have to.... But  I just feel like it's not good for you. Most fathers would think I am crazy for wanting you to grow up... but I just feel it's better if you move into your own room. Just use the guest room."

"Tonight?"

"Why not?'

"Can I spend one more night with them telling them stories and everything?"

"Okay one more night." Father allowed.

Dear Trump, I want a train for Christmas

You know, wouldn't it be cool if there was a crazy billionaire out there who was talking about fixing the country in a really business like way, without the xenophobia, wouldn't that be cool.

Let's look at this idea, high speed trains. The kind China has, and the kind you sort of saw in the polar express with the elves going faster than you can fly because of the vacuum tube. I read somewhere they were gonna build these in Cali. Yeah but someone has to pay for it right?


Okay, so with all the Obama care bashing, and wanting to put people back to work and geo political issues, and ideas about building a wall to keep Mexicans (or central Americans coming in from Mexico) here's an idea... build a train.

Chinese Companies would do it. We ain't gonna fight a war with a country if they are helping us build a high speed train.

Blue Collar guys, a lot of angry white guys who are out of work... maybe even me, will build it. Okay non white guys too, but the point is, there is employment.

Instead of building a wall, might as well have the train go right down to Mexico. Why? Jobs in Mexico. Maybe you'll even have white guys jumping the border in reverse to build the train in Mexico. Works better than a wall. Plus a train is easier to police and monitor than a highway. In the future, maybe you can have a worker from Mexico go straight to Maine by train, with his workers Visa, in like 2 hours. And then he can go back to his family in Mexico where the cost of living is cheaper when the work is done. I'm over simplifying, but saying you're going to build a wall is also oversimplifying.


You need tickets to get on trains. You can search trains easier. It's easier to monitor trains for terrorism because you can control the cars and the tracks more easily. Right?

Obamacare.

So you say, you want to get rid of Obamacare and instead, people will have insurance because they will be working on this train.


Plus this kind of infra-structure should pay off in the future right? Why doesn't some rich billionaire (I don't know... Bill Gates) run for President on JUST this issue. I mean if Trump would shut up with the quotes that make him sound like a Weimar Republic Hitler maybe I would be a supporter.
Maybe he is just saying that stuff because it's what a lot of people believe....
but he is ACTUALLY saying it, before getting elected. It's scary.
And honestly he's probably going to win.
We saw what happened to Germany under that kind of thinking.

Instead of focusing on all this nasty stuff that reminds us of fallen megalomaniac villain losers, why don't we focus on something that could actually make our country a winner, something to show off. Maybe it will even be a failure. But what's worse, a failed wall or a failed train? A failed war? Or a failed train? What is a failed train? As long as you get the thing built, it will serve some purpose for the country. At the very least in won't create more enemies. I think even Rand Paul, would agree with building a train inside the country.

Who ever said they wanted a wall for Christmas?

 Fast trains are cool and potentially more useful.

The Holy Grail and the needle

So I am referencing the Holy Grail with the cup. I'm comparing religion (what is calle dthe opiate of the masses by atheists) to an actual opiate. My point is that, religion can be a good way to get off drugs, and isn't all that bad. But with terrorism you could actually argue that drugs are less destructive, or you could argue that they are similar in that they are both destructive and both can be sued as medicine. For me, I like a little bit of religion now and then or even a lot. You just have to be careful how you use it. I gave my kid children's Tylenol the other day... but in this meme I guess my intent is to point out that the second the needle is used, it is discarded (hopefully) The picture is from when I was sweeping in Chinatown.

Lai Chan pic

Here is an old picture Shao helped me scan. It's of me at Acorn getting ready for my birthday. My mother must have taken the picture. Lai Chan is helping to put on the candles. Lai Chan also taught Shao later. The picture was scanned crookedly because that was Shao's work. But you know what? That's like his finger print on the image. So these images will now be graced by 3 generations. So I'm going to leave it crooked.

This was taken inside the old Acorn building. There was a fight about whether it would be a parking lot or not (I believe that it was called parcel C) and then it got bulldozed and community centers were put in the new building that was constructed. The Metropolitan has community space, but also expensive condos. A blend. The mural was saved through digital imaging and displayed inside BCNC.

Memes?

This is a Meme right? I'm actually not sure but I'm trying my hand at it. I guess you could call this shameless self promotion. Shamelessness is my new thing actually. Anything bad for me.. less. Anything good for me, like Hope, pride (that's different than arrogance), joy, I would say more of that. I'm thinking, at the end of the quote should I put a little "-Adam Cheung" or is that too much?

Showa Festival

Sunday was the Showa festival. 

Today is Pearl Harbor remembrance day... so I considered not posting this today. However, I think it is important to see the changes in America and Japan's relationships over the years. Especially given today's wars and conflicts. 

Well enough of that let's look at some pictures. 

This Statue is at the entrance.

Music filled the front lobby. 

and beautiful decorations.

This garden is always beautiful. 

This been bag game was similar to jacks. 

An old woman demonstrated. I bet the students being so young, probably never even played this game. Just like I have never actually played marbles. 

This exhibit was about Sumo wrestling. 

Honestly Dai Dai could have stayed here all day.  We have to make one of these Kami Sumo (zumo?) things at home.)

You could get you stage name written before you went to play Kami Sumo. 

All this stuff is made with paper. 

And Dai Dai challenged this student to standing Sumo. It's like push hands. Except you can't move your feet. 

And you can't stand in Dan Been ma either. Shao didn't understand. They just let him win anyway.

This was about Princess Kaguya. She is the Japanese Moon Lady. The story is completely different than the Chinese one about Chang E'. Basically a farmer found Princess Kaguya in s bamboo shoot. So she's sort of a plant/human hybrid. In three months she became a 'beautiful maiden.' Everyone wanted to marry her. In the middle of the night she escaped and flew up to the moon. 

Find princess Kaguya.

Fish for Origami stuff. 

Throw stuff through the holes to get points. (I tried this and failed miserably.)

Look at that. We should decorate a corner of the house like this. 

And you get a picture with Prnicess Kaguya.

Shao too. 

This was about different places in Japan. 

Here is an igloo or Kamakura. The Ainu on Hokaido used to live in these. I saw a pretty extensive piece on this on Anthony Bourdain. The first time I heard about this though was from my mom. She lived in Japan for a long time. 

These reminded me of Lions. Their something else though. 

This was to see what items went from Portugal to Japan and vice versa. Honestly I didn't get a chance to read everything because I was watching the kids. 

This was funny. This was some kind of board game. The students asked Shao a question. When he didn't know they answer they whispered it to him. But... Shao understood exactly 0% of what they were saying and just stood there looking weird. If I couldn't get my point across I would use hand motions and just move them. But the students are so polite that they wouldn't do something like that. At the same time Shao was too embarrassed to ask them to repeat the question. So everyone just stood there, Shao looking to me for help. But I refused to interfere. Eventually we went on to the next exhibit.

Ahh this was the Tea Ceremony. 

You could dress up. The kids didn't want to. 

This sectin was put together by a student from Framingham State. 

She is American but went to study at Showa Japan over the summer. I didn't take a picture of her and I realize posting this that that was stupid. 

I took pictures of people in traditional dress. But actually the student from Framingham state was dressed in a sort of Modern fashion that has a name. Hajuko? I forget. That was foolish of me too.

Totoro!

I have to show this cartoon to the kids. 

Dai Dai didn't mind being a girl Shao refused. 

But he did try on a backpack. 

This exhibit was about Post War Japan. 

I actually learned a lot here. There was a Showa period of Japan because the Emperor's name was Showa. He was the emperor during World War 2 and remained Emperor until the 80's when he died. I didn't know that. Damn when you surrender to the States you get a whole lot of benefits.

There was a class schedule which I didn't take a picture of. 

In Japan there is a part of the class schedule weekly where the whole class discusses what they are going to do for some kind of event. (kind of likes this Showa event.) I thought that was interesting. In the states that meeting would be for teachers or admin people only. The class would have nothing to do with it.  

Gods and Demons

This woman could here the voice of God (they kind of waited for me to act strangely to this, but dude in the States almost every tenth person says they hear the voice of God.) And she led the kingdom.... but she was never seen in public. So basically her brother was really leading the Kingdom. They got support from China. I pointed out that China was three kingdoms at this time. "Yes!" they were surprised that I knew this. It was the southern Kingdom. I never heard this story before and I would like to read more about it. 

There was also the story of the Japanese Sun God, who is female. I didn't know that. Kind of like Norse Freyja. 

Here are the seven lucky gods. A lot of them are Chinese/Indian in origin. What I don't get is why there are always 8 Chinese immortals but 7 Japanese lucky gods. 

Here I am as a devil. 

And Christmas is big in Japan... and Fried Chicken (KFC particularly)  is a "traditional" Japanese Christmas food. 

Dai Dai almost knocked this bridge down.

This was about Mount Fuji. But the kids were done. I had to tackle Dai Dai and haul him out of there. 

All done! I thought this was pretty cool, and I think it is sort of inspiring what people can do with time and paper. I always feel like we should have more stations like this at the Chinatown Festivals. I mean they really don't cost anything to set up do they? (they don't make any money either though. Something to think about.