Three Chinatown Adventures

Chapter One. The man at the gate.

I have been bringing Noah and Jonah to swim lessons at the Wang YMCA on the same day I do the little Panda class which means we have a long stretch in Chinatown. After Tai Tung Plyagorund and Moh Gooning, I bought some Ding Ho for the kids (which tastes so good now that I hardly ever eat Chinese food. I think it's actually not even that greasy as it was before and healthier is this only in my mind?) In any case, I was fasting that day so i didn't eat. I figured the best place to eat would be those tables at the Chinatown gate where old men play Chinese chess and gamble at Chau Dai Di with dimes and nickels. I think they play the chess for money too.
It's pretty cool because it's like a gambling house but the smoke dissipates because you are outside, and because it is a park, it is part of normal society, and dimes and nickels are worth more for the metal they are made with than the actual currency.

We brought our own Chinese Chess set and I played Noah. I figured he could play some old men there like he has been at the Northern Moh Goon (my name for the playground near our house which is technically in Brookline and is frequented by many Mandarin speaking Chinese. The parents of Doctors and post Docs etc.)
But nobody would play Noah. I wasn't sure if it was because they didn't know me or maybe they thought Noah might actually beat them in front of their friends. (At that point Noah wasn't that good. He still isn't... but today he managed to beat me twice in a row so maybe now a below average Chess player might actually have to fear losing. But who cares? It's chess, not Russian Roulette.)

There was a good crowd of Jook Sing types and young Chinese students too and they sat next to us. In fact I thought I might get them to play Noah but by the time we finished our food they were gone.

Suddenly out of nowhere this Fire truck pulls up into the park. That's weird, but also entertaining. It's like a plus for a kid because fire trucks are always cool, provided there isn't a fire. I wonder if someone had called because of smoking or some sort of violation of code. But the large fireman went two tables down and we were not asked to move. Noah was occupied with the chess game and I was feeding Jonah Lo Mein my fork to his mouth, and glancing at how long we had to the swim lesson.

"Does anyone speak English?" The fireman yelled.

I looked around. No Jook Sings. No young Chinese students. Just old Chinese Men, the type that grew up on the Mainland and came over too old to learn English.... and then there was me with my two kids.

I raised my hand, left all my Lo Mein trash on the table, "C'mon let's go kids follow Baba."


"You speak English?' He asked.

"yeah."

"And you speak..."

"Yeah I know Cantonese."

"Okay great. Can you ask if anyone knows his name and what happened? "

I did.

"He doesn't know how to talk now!" said one man.

"He just fainted here he doesn't even know how to move."

"We don't know what his name is."

I explained.

"Okay." the fireman said calmly. "Tell him to grab my two fingers as hard as he can.

"Okay, Can you...." shit Gum ji, is press down. What the hell his grab? Ja jiu? I closed my eyes trying to recall.

"I just want him to-"

"I know, hold on."

"Oh you can't think of the right word.. I understand."

But it was okay because the crowd could. I asked with explanation and hand motions.

"Grab his hand with strength!" they said.

"Ni siu lik ja jiu kui jek sau ah!" I repeated again in Taishanese. This could work. They couldn't speak English, I didn't have the precise vocab, but together it would work.

"It's pointless he can't do anything now he's barely conscious!" Another man said. I explained. The Fireman nodded.

"Does anyone know his name?" No body did. But one man said to get his ID card from his wallet.

Oh yeah. I guess I'm not really be useful here I thought.

Once they touched his wallet the man moved more furtively to protect that. I suppose that part of the brain is more instinct than consciousness even though your wallet isn't something our cave ancestors had.

I laughed.

"He's moving now!" the fireman said. This is not to say he was fully conscious. But it is interesting that now being able to follow simple instructions, you can still protect your wallet in a half coma.

The Id was obtained and the para-medics arrived. I looked around.

"Dai Dai!"

"He's over here." The fireman said pointing to Shao.

"No I had two."

"Oh crap."

"You can't leave!" Said another Chinese man thinking that I was, "Nobody here speaks English, only you can help us. If you leave we'll chase you to the CCBA and to Woo Ching."

"Yeah yeah okay." I said in Englsih actually and I spotted Dai Dai pointing at the wall shooting imaginary piggies with angry birds calling, "jiu jiu jiu jiuy jiu!!!!!!"

"Okay stay next to Baba."

Several side conversations picked up as I stood around being useless because at this point the Paramedics didn't need to ask questions, they just hooked the man up to things and laid him on a stretcher. Besides, he was as unresponsive to Chinese questions as to English ones.

"So that guy is part of a Kung Fu school?" they said about me.

"Yeah he's Woo Ching's disciple, and taught at Kwong Kow." and my whole resume was listed. Perhaps if certain other people had been there me and my father's and mother's resume would have been listed right there. So fast, all in one sentence. Some true, some just legend.

"Hey that was (blanks) husband." someone said of the man who fainted. "Someone should call her right?"

They tried to look at the ID in the fireman's hand.

"Relax!" said the fireman.

I didn't intervene there because the man would be taken to the hospital and they would get an interpreter and they would call his wife or family members in a proper procedural way.

"Thank You." said the Fireman as he shook my hand. I realized this had been taxing for him because although he was trained for this, it wasn't firefighting.


"Thank you." said a bunch of other people probably of no relation to the man who had fainted and who somehow thought that I had actually done something. I guess if anything, I made everyone feel a little more comfortable. Like if the guy was suddenly able to speak, his words would be known.

He hung around for a while longer, played a couple more games of Chinese Chess and then it was off to our swim lesson.


Chapter two: The bleeding Baby

Sunday August 2nd was a big convention for the Yee's Association of North America. The Federation (which is Wong Keurng and Woo Ching White Crane Combined) and Wah Lum (which is pretty big all by itself) were doing a total of two dragons and four lions. Pretty cool. I wanted the kids to see it. We got into Chinatown, played at the BCNC playground, played sword fighting with pool noodles I had brought for that purpose,  ate a packed lunch at the garden across from it. Then Jonah threw his lunch up because he would stop jumping around. This might have been because I was doing Kung Fu while they ate. Just slow freestyle internal type stuff. Well enough of that. Let's head to Moh Goon. It's hot and they have AC and we didn't bring Chinese Chess so we'll use there's.

Standing at the cross walk, having strapped Jonah into the stroller (he's old for that but he might get tired.) I was a woman carrying here child. He looked too old to be carried. He was crying and she was sort of jogging with sandals on. Now why is she doing that? She was across the street coming toward me and I was just waiting for the cross signal. She ran across the street and seemed to have a sort of desperate look on her face. As she got closer, I noticed the child was bleeding from his finger and not wearing shoes.

The woman looked at me with desperate eyes.

"Are you going to the hospital?" I asked in Chinese. Because otherwise she would not know.

"Yes can you help me go to the hospital?"

"It's this way."  I started too walk with  her pushing Dai Dai in the stroller because someone had to. There was an old Chinese man there and she asked him in ENGLISH, "Excuse me sir!"
and then turned to me, "Excuse me Sir!" and then she started crying and the boy was crying and I realized in a second that she had run here carrying him from far away and had used her breath and probably other parts of sanity to keep calm this whole way and now she was flipping out and losing strength.
"I'll help you." I said in Chinese and I took the boy in my arms. She tried to hand him to me but she was out of strength.
"You push my son!" I said nodding with my head in the direction of the stroller, "C'mon Shao you have to run on your own."

This all happen in less then a second it just takes longer to say it all.

It was just that up until then I had been slowly processing what seemed to be a strange scene and now I realized it was an emergency and she needed my help even though I had two kids with me.

The boy cried and I ran while patting him, "You don't need to cry, MM sai hahm." I said calmly. I ran in horse stance so it's not like I ran wildly and was bucking up and down. It was a smooth  ride for him. I used to do with while Noah slept as a work out, so actually something that was difficult for her because she was skinny, I had actually unknowingly trained for.

She spun Jonah around and pushed him running behind me. Noah was hopping up and down like he had to pee only of a more urgent type. "C'mon let's go!" he said to the woman or Dai Dai, or maybe nobody in particular. But I knew we were all on the same page following the same plan even though few words had been said. I ran into the Ambulance entrance cause that was closest. Everyone looked at me.

"uhhhhh. I have an ermergency here." I said as calm and steady as I could because I had run a little.
"Okay cal down." said the nurses and the officer got up to tell someone something.
"The mother is on her way."
And I looked back to see her and my family and they were there shortly after me.

"Okay stop. Relax." they said.

The mother came in and they told her to relax too. It's true, to them this was no big deal. But the boy definitely had to go to the hospital probably especially since it was so close and anyway that's what the mother had decided. Besides, when Dai Dai cut his foot I was freaked out too.

"So where should he go."

"Just lie him down on this gurney over there." a nurse said

"Thank you." said the mother. I think in English. I can't remember. She was still sort of crying.

Then a nurse started pushing Dai Dai in the stroller.

"Uhh no this one is actually mine."

"Oh you mean you're not all the same family?"

"No."

She started laughing.

A different nurse came up, "Okay and are you just a good Samaritan?"

Yeah. and we parted ways.

"Wow that was the scariest thing I ever saw." said Noah.

Jonah later told the story to Mommy as, "Mommy today we saw a bleeding baby and he was running..." and Dai Dai motioned with his hand through the air.

I'm glad that's the scariest thing Noah ever saw because that's a good sign.

We crossed the street and then crossed back to retrieve our pool noodles which we had strewn on the sidewalk, and I noticed there was blood all over my arm and my Kung Fu Federation Shirt.

Chapter 3. Fun Firecracker Lion Dance in the summer and  a Feast and Play time.

We made it to Moh Goon. people were looking at my bloody shirt and avoiding eye contact. Great. Making people think I just murdered someone. Should I clean just my arms or my shirt too? It's only a little blood. But then I got paranoid. What if there was a fight somewhere and then police saw blood on my shirt while chasing someone else. My story sounded far fetched. I better watch it off. It took more water than I would have thought. In other words, my shirt was soaked. But it was sunny so it would dry fast. The thing is I was shirtless at moh goon when the AC was blasting. I didn't think I would get sick, But I had to put my kids in the hallway and I was walking around and all these prepubescent dulcimer girls as well as mothers with their daughters going to Chinese Folk dance were around and looking at me like who is this creep with no shirt on. Actually they recognized me so it was like, "look at this creep that I know with no shirt on." So I hid in Moh Goon. I mean if there had been No AC I would have an excuse, but the AC was blasting.

At any rate the shirt had fallen down and didn't dry in time. I felt the feng sup go into my lungs. I should have just left the blood there.

Soon it was time to Lion Dance  for the Yee's Association, A's mother helped me watch Noah and Jonah. Interestingly, under her care, they were such good little children. We did Lion Dance and blew up Firecrackers outside. It was awesome, except that I had no earplugs. But to smell the gun powder and play while in the summer heat was a good feeling, like we were in China, or San Francisco, because when do we get to do this except in the bitter cold?

We took a group picture saying cheese an dthen someone clever said, "say YEE!"

"YEEEEEE!"

Then we paraded to the Hyatt. I carried Jonah for that and fed them oranges that had been discarded after the dance, having served their purpose as offerings given by the lion to the VIPs of the Yee's Association.

Mommy drove by and picked up Jonah but Noah wanted to stay.

We did another Lion Dance and then ate a feast at Jade Garden.

Scallops and Conch, Beef and Brocolli, Jiu yeem squid and pork, shrimp chips and chicken, sweet and sour pork, vegetables and mushrooms, and more. Fried rice too. Noah ate a normal amount. I stuffed my self. I haven't had good Chinese food like that in a while. I just couldn't stop. I even had a ton of rice so it wasn't like I was only eating soong, or dishes. Finished up with Tong siu. Grace would have liked this meal. But hey, she wasn't here and I wasn't going to feel guilty.

Back at Moh Goon, a newer  member, who brought his son and helped us drum during Chinese New Year, having learned as a child now taught his son how to drum as Noah played noodle fighting, then stick fighting, then noodle fighting with me. Then we started drumming too.

This newer member, who is about ten year's older than me, and I had befriended earlier (I think he is also a Cheung, though spelled Zhang.)

Mr. Zhang, I realized is really intense about his drumming. He always leaned way forward when he drummed. and I realized that immediately the second he starts drumming, the beats he plays are very personal. When he is playing it's as if he is unloading his soul into it and he physically looks like he is doing that leaning over the drum pouring his breath and blood into the sound of the drum. I tried to describe this to him in Chinese and he said, "Yup sun" or going into spirit and then "yup sum" going into the heart.

At some point I looked at the clock and it was 8:00pm. Almost bed time. We had to go We had been in Chinatown for almost ten hours. By folks. And we took the train to the 39. I actually left our lunch box and pool noodles by accident. I'll have to go get those.