Gathering and a call out to Tpny the Hawk

From place to place and wave to wave, shore to shore the old man braved, the wind the rain and constant strain, enough to where down on the brain. It was a winding road after he stole Macau gold, and Jade from trade past the Qinghai's threshold. All his men her brothers and yi hei was strong, but whatever could did indeed go wrong. Some got caught in the sea and some by police, and other bot to badly simply stayed where they pleaded. But this is the story of the man's journey home, coming back to the block to claim his throne. To return in shock to see. Ire than the throne gone. But the block itself but this is his song. He had spent many a year beside the snake queens throne who wanted him to help to build a new home. Perhaps it was there that he should have stayed, but fate did not wish for it to he that way. The spirits of heaven urged him  to return, except for the Dragon of the sea whom he spurned. 

Predictions

I feel like you can't really talk about politics nowadays...unless you want your friend to only be people who agree with you. Problem is...my stance is so nuanced that I don't think I agree with anyone. But luckily not that many people read my blog. Not people I know anyway. I mean they know it exists...they click on it....that's different then reading it. That's why I am rambling, so they will lose interest instead of continuing to read. 

I was somewhat troubled when Trunp did not concede at first. And even more troubled that China and Russia were kind of waiting to congratulate Biden. Like...could Trump use that to stay in power or maintain smooth other sort of power? Like what was he up to? The right thing to do...if you are part of the club...which he never was....is to concede and move on. Then I see all these articles with their predictions about what he was doing and then my little opinion clicked as to what he was doing. Did you ever have to study Politivsl Bosses in school? Like James Michael Curley? Well if the political bosses were like the local bar or mom and pop burger joint....the non President Trump (he is still President at the moment) but once he isn't...he will be a political boss on a corporate level. Like McDonalds and Starbucks. Like the most powerful poli5boss you have ever seen. The second he concedes ..he loses that. But as long as he just ignore everyone (notnholding out but just like, f you guys I'm playing golf for a month) his radical loyalists will remain loyal and will vote however he says. Crazy huh?  Some articles called it a Presidency in exile....so basically something like the Dalai Lama...and yes Trump's followers do have a religious component too. Not the ones that have now thrown out the lawn signs...the ones that are praying for his reinstatement. It will be like King Arthur or the Kennedy's. His daughter could run. And a lot could happen in the next four years. If the Centrist Democrats push out or disrespect AOC....could possibly this new group that is mostly Republican...pick up ot merge with Democratic Socialists...if not in 4 years...then in 10? And then what would that look like. Scarily...this group would have a name like the bost evil group fro. Germany...and the group that would be easy to persecute...because of Covid, would most likely be ethnic Chinese. Eerily we have been copying the last century in terms of dates, a 2020 pandemic just like the 1918 pandemic...I am hoping we do not copy everything from last century....though I think even if we do it will be different. I mean am I concerned? Actually I am pretty optimistic about America's character. I mean stuff will happen...but it will mostly look like the stuff already happening....maybe I am naive though. 

5 Tibetan Rites

Well I was increasingbthenreps if these exercises until I got to 21...and the  I skipped a day and honestly.. I realized that to do this first thing in the morning, I had to leave the reps at 3. I realized I was avoiding doing it because it was too much. And I figured I can do 21 reps later in the day...and if I miss it...then no biggie. I meditate afterwards and today I started doing some BJJ exercises but slow...like Tai Chi and mixing in some Kungfu moves and Yoga stuff too. It was a pretty good warm up and not too intense. Put some pushups in there too but more like Yoga. Just holding it. It's cool to do the BJJ stuff when you are barely awake because you go to your back. And some of those Hung Gar like external chi Gung moves actually look a lot like they were meant to be chokes using Gi like clothing...Han Fu. I added in some standing Tai Chi Esque Drunken leg holding exercises and Wushu kicks too. You know I think there are certain drills that I can totally integrate with other sparring games I have created to make push hands more fun or relatable....but all if those ideas are really for in person learning at a Moh Goon style setting. Which just isn't going to happen in the next couple of years. But its fun to dream and work through stuff in my mind. Stick fighting cab totally be done with social distance...but considering we never had much formal sparring...why am I obsessed with it? The traditional forms and  basics...they were good enough for me. And lion dance...which can totally be done socially distanced...is really the major interaction that we have done with the community whether it is Chinatown or the suburbs. 

gansfeld effect.

I did a semi failed attempt at the gansfeld effect...and will do the same tonight.the blindfold was not as instructed and I did not use head phones...and I will do the same thing tonight because now uts lare and what am I going to do. But interestingly I did have some intense dreams afterwards. I actually saw my Sifu and he taught me some Drunken fist....but what is interesting is that this encounter was not like you would imagine in a movie and if anything, is kind of a reflection of the difference between my experience of Chinese America and also China and  hinese culture or vs. What you usually see on TV or as represented by China as well. Of course everyone has a different perspective but of course my dream is probably going to reflect mybspecific Childhood and experience. Which will differ from even say...my kids....especially bow that they are living in a different place and I can't take them to Chinatown regularly and yes even Chinatown has changed.  But anyway what was weird was that we in a tiny convenient type of store...a store I have never been too, but have fantasized about owning especially once the pandemic kicked off. Yes...you will find my "fantasies" kind of...maybe depressing? Or odd? Like what I find very comforting about Chinese culture is not the antique shit that looks like it should be in a museum I would make a museum to the old Chinese restaurants of the 80's and Gambling chips and dice that were all around the apartment and the smells and cloths and looks of my father...and yet in this dream I saw my Sifu and not my father...and it wasn't flattering. We didnt practice on a mountain or some shit. We were in a dark small room on sacks of rice...probably because I thought the ultimate business would be a a small room that you could reach Kung Fu out of, but also sell rice and toilet paper and just random items that people needed. Anyway, he showed me some moves...which I kind of forgot if I'm honest...but the concept was if I could use the Gung Lik he had in his youth or maybe half of it but in that direction of training, in a drunken form....that's something nobody has even seen before, not even in a movie...so maybe I should work on that. These are all concepts I have thought if before and si ce mybSofu recently passed... basically none of this is weird or spiritual per se....and I did the Ganfeld effect on myself so of course I'm gonna have weird dreams.... nonetheless I'm gonna go ahead and give it a go again tonight ..cause why not? (And maybe partbof me is kind of thinking in a spiritual manner too) why not do it right? Ehhh....I tried but I only have time now so...it is what it is. I also spent some time drawing pictures with Dai and I took the concepts from the dream to write a little story. More Fantasy. Dragons and what not. But still the sacks ofnrice and a Moh goon which is a boat in a harbor...kind of in the Naga Realm or spirit world... ot sure why I had to make that clear...maybe I should have just made it more ambiguous. But anyway...I have always dreamt and fantasized, but my dream and fantasies are tied to my class (or perceived class) and experience. And it's annoying that uts mostly a magical.mountain or something where things get passed on on a movie. Not that I am against mountains and beautiful nature ...but actually that is so cliche. Oh...I also just so happen to live on a mountain. Maybe you spirit place has to be somewhere your not. Well let's see what the static and blind fold bring about tonight 

sirens

I have been hearing a lot of sirens recently...and every time I haircut I look out the window....and then I realize where I am...the siren sound is actually some kind of alarm they use for my kid's virtual schooling toilet them know that time is up. My son probably only knows sirens through this context as I dont think I have ever heard police sirens in the. Neighborhood we live in. I have seen police going by...sometimes very fast... through this wooded area of deer and trees. I once saw 5 cruisers...they were chasing a teen that may have attempted to enter someone's home illegally to steal something. Though if he had a good lawyer that is extremely difficult to prove. As far as I can tell no actual crime was committed. Just suspicious activity. Would you believe he got caught days later (if it was indeed the same teen?) There was video from that Amazon doorbell camera thing.   Anyway, I don't hear sirens around here but I jump everytime my son's school alarm goes off. Why not make a fun sound? Why the siren sound. Like seriously what the f? 

Rice Pot Baba

My son wrote a story making funny me...it has illustrations...and actually it's pretty awesome. I'm thinking g he should read it for our Facebook live Kung Funclass tomorrow...which will be focusing on Lion head movements. I suggested we translate it into Chinese and use that as his entry for the speech contest for Chinese school, but he wasn't having it. We'll see. Might have to hustbdrop out of that speech contest. He just got angry when I tried to get him to memorize the speech I wrote with him. And I was like wtf where is this even coming from just let's try to memorize it. But I see him write a story like that fairly easily for fun and I'm like...why should I spend so much time and emotional energy and dumb speech contest whose purpose is just to learn the Chinese. If he isn't with it then forget it. Anyway...let's see if he read the rice pot story tomorrow. 

practice?

I had promised myself to work out more...but this whole week I haven't really touched the rowing machine...nor have I done the basics and mein lei jum which was supposed to be my base...nor have I done the forms I had promised myself to do...so why do I FEEL as if I have bee. Practicing more? Weird right? Is it just because the weather is warmer? Like my circulation is better because of that. And before I had been practicing more...but it was cold...so I just didnt feel as uncomfortable, loose, relaxed, blood and circulation going well. Or is it really all just mental? I have been making the kids practice. So maybe that's what's been making me feel like I have somehow been progressing. Well...I guess I will continue to plan on practicing. I have been doing the 5 Tibetan rites every morning. Maybe because it is something new...it is helping a lot more than if I practiced something my body is sort of used to. Or maybe that's what it is period.

stress

Is anyone stressed out for no reason? Or maybe you are actually stressed out for good reason. But me...I feel that I am stressed out for no good reason. What do I do? I feel that I will be in this place of semi in betweenness for at least 10 years....or maybe...this in. Between ess is actually just life. But I feel like it is an in betweenness. It is a break...it is a vacation actually. And I have found thatboften...nothing stresses me out more than a vacation. It is a feeling as though one has no purpose. Someone will say.." then do this and this for me...do such and such a thing and I will pay you. That is what you should do." But I do feel as though I have other purposes than these things and that I would be a fool to give over all of my time to these tasks that are not my will ot my own or my path...not really. 

I have been thinking that I need to spend more time on meditation, and mybKung Fu oractice... which many people have always scoffed at, as pointless....as if other things are so full if meaning and "point"

How can whole.gentes of movies be made about a thing and a practice that is pointless...and whybis itbthat my particular goals are pointless.

Perhaps I am just using these practice as a meditation to find out what such a point is. 

In any case, I will be trying to do more of this and finding my way on a  balanced middle path.

diu

You mo gau lun hai Chau. Yee ga ga jai hai mm lun Seng dooku shu. Jing do ngau ho lun Mah fan. But go ngau seeing jee...lee gau Mun tai hai mm hai kui ga main Tai wah jri hai ngau dei ga tai faht. Kui mm serng John dee Gung fau...mm Gum hoi gau gau camera...you MRI Ah Mun tai? Kui do Jong Hok gun yeah je. Gum Mun Tai hai mm hai ngau dei you fong song but ha...mo gum gun jerng...king do kui gun jerng? Mm jee. Ke sut kui yongblee gau Fong faht dooku shu...hai ho hau Moh. Wun wait kei ta gau dee hol sang jong gau gun kui. Kung jong hai to kei ta hok sang king gun gai....ho day mo. Gum yee gau kui jun hai fail sai Lee but leen....you do gok dark do mm.hai Mun Tai. Ho gau kui mm jo. Hai mm hai seen? Gau sai jai moh mut Mun tai...kei gwai....

safety net

I think I am forming a new idea for a political platform....not to say it won't get tweaked...and not to say that it might have holes in its logic but here goes.

And yeah people will probably think its nuts at first.

1) The Federal Bank

I remember learning about this in highschool as what Andrew Jackson would call "the Hydra Headed Monster"...but Jackson was wrong about a lot of things...like genocide...

We all have social security numbers if we are citizens. And banks have been bailed out constantly for bad behavior...and can even be owned by foreign entities buy bailed out by our government...so wtf?

Now if I really ran saying to create a national bank to replace all of the banks in existence people will think that is crazy. And maybe it is true that it might be like adding too much cold water to a fishbowl.

But just because that is my platform doesn't mean that that5 what happens. We all have to sit down and figure out a balanced way to make it work. So yeah...that is my platform, let's argue and discuss until we come up with the middle ground...but that's what I think we should do. Not FDIC to back up these monstrosities, but cutting out the middle man...which brings me to my next platform point

2) UBI

Yes if we all belong to a federal bank then it's easier to push a button and give everyone 1K a month after they are 18 years old. The money comes from where Andrew Yang said it would...the data freedom thing...no I don't fully understand it...and yes, everyone gets it even if you are a billionaire. No it's not about earning it or fairness. It's about running a country and  building a society. And unlike what Yang said.. I DO want this to replace welfare, foodstamps, and other programs. Because its easier. Yes there are problems with that. But their are problems with the system now. Why are we afraid of problems? 

3) Universal Public Housing

I grew up in the projects. ButI feel that there should actually be a less co.fortable more communistic feeling public housing...for everyone. That's right...now homeless people. But that doesn't mean everyone gets an apartment. Part of the housing will involve so e kind of work to keep it...weird right? Since I said there is UBI. And why is it for everyone...including the rich? Yes...a billionaire cab gst this public housing too. Which is not really a home or a house...but shelters in strange places on the side of the road. People who get work cutting lawns or whatever and stay in them one. Ight and move on. Maybe it should be REQUIRED for everyone to serve 2 years where you live in this housing...and maybe some sort of police/social work is part of the assignment. Maybe it is part of your highschool education and maybe it is funded with our military budget. 16-18 are good years. But also if you run into hard times you can return to this system until you get back on your feet...and maybe many elderly choose to retire into this system. The system we have now has people locking up other people when both of these people should really be doing a completely different job. Maybe partbifnthis training is medical training

4) Universal education 

Just freaking use Khan academy as a base, more trade school, bring in the private sector to pay for some stuff, get kids working earlier but in a reasonable way, doing tasks for society. Maybe even medical work. Maybe even police work. Yes I said kids....with the way AI is progressing, it might be possible...probably already is possible. 

5) Universal.Healthcare

But as a base line treatment. Like yes...rich people can still pay for the better stuff. That's not fair....but that's what gets those fancy drugs funding to be created. So don't touch that aspect of health care. Just add in a baseline. So it doesn't cost a ridiculous amount to get stitches. Train kids to stitch  up animals or something. Train everyone to be a medic. That's not crazy. I wouldn't want to be the first one... but why not test on animals then? Is that cruel? If you eat meat then you can't complain. If you know you WILL have to treat someone at some point when you are age 16-18 or 16-24 even...then you will do it.

6) Democratize the judicial system and supplement with artificial intelligence 

Yeah...you guys will hate this one...but a written law, since Hamurabi...has bern a form of artificial intelligence. A way to take the pressure away from the person dealing out justice by having a non human thing to refer to.. a code...a law. And there were societies in the hemisphere that did things differently and arguably better. Justice should not mean revenge and punishment. Just because we have been doing something for a long time...doesn't necessarily mean it is the best way. We cab draw from other systems and countries that are further along than we are. This also means no more privatized prisons...which we are moving away from anyway. Also fined are easier to enforce...(because of UBI and Federal Bank) and Fines are not as deadly to certain groups because of UBI and Universal housing. Also there is that young group of 16-24 year olds living in Universal housing and other Universal housing people who can be in charge of guiding society as teacher/police/social worker/medic types. Not to say we replace the private sectors version of those professions. In fact the one can be training for the other. 

Again...people will say this is nuts butbsonis our system now frankly...and so is the platform's of the people in power now. And my opinion isn't written in stone...I'm just tired of hearing politicians and media argue about nothing. Here are 6 solutions to almost ALL the problems. Just haven't mentioned how it solves all the problems yet...and it virtually leaves most of society as it is to be honest. It's only some internal redecorating and reorganizing. 

Shoot I didn't even mention race because if you think about it...a decade or more of this and how much you wanna bet the 16-24 year olds all mix anyway and race will be a thing of the past? 

I didn't mention Police reform because how much you wanna bet that 16-24 year old group helps buffer and solve all of that organically.

I didn't mention foreign policy...because actually this list has nothing to do with that. 

Environment 

Yes the environment is important and as with anything should be given an important place in any decision. 

Taxes...I didn't mention it because actually this has less to do with creating new programs as with rearranging the programs we already have in place. 

The biggest one is that Federal Bank and that will meet the most resistance. Fine...just work around it like I said, platform doesn't mean final outcome. 

sword

Well our Kung Fu practice started out okay

 Dai dai doesn't have to participate today because he has dance. Shao chose our wali g path. I was almost going to let him get away with just bringing the baseball bat on the walk and swinging it around and having him do his sword form once...and thatbwould be it. But he didn't bring the bat. Usually the bat is actually an incentive to get him to walk.  He chose a more dangerous path to walk in terms of having to watch out for cars. I'm not sure why he did this but I allowed him to chose because it was just me and him...and because I didn't know any better. There is more traffic than there was and we won't be doing that again.  We got back and did some sword fencing drills with old canes that I was supposed to throw away. Ut instead, left leaning again trees. We moved on to free style sword fighting with the canes and he swung wildly at my to the point where I was nervous he would let go and hit our windows despite the fact that we were outside. I tried to explain to him.why he shouldn't do that, but I didn't force him to stop. But after a while it was simply testing fate and I said to love o  to doing the two man form...which we did once and he didn't seem to want to do ut more times in order to get better at it. So I moved on to his form that he usually performs...which looked particularly terrible, but it might have been because of the weight of the cane. So I switched with the nice looking prop sword we have. It looked better but I had a correction on how to get it better by using more ding lik. He used the sword as a cane, ruining the point, and complained and whined.....and basically is refusing to do the form one more time. On the up side...he is playing outside with rocks and that is better than screens. So despite the fact that he has homework to do, I am going to let him "win" and get away with it because he is playing outside, using his imagination as opposed to sneaking of and playing screens like an addict.....oops he just came in. Guess it's time to start homework.

Kung Fu Writing

My older son has trouble writing...or right now...schooling in general... and even Kung Fu ing. I told him I wanted him to start journaling. I dont even care what he writes about. The point is he had to get used to gathering his thoughts on paper without fear and anxiety. I noticed he even got stuck when being asked to draw something. But drawing was not a problem for him before. Interestingly, if he just does freestyle Kung Fu by himself, not in front of an audience, he will not be at a loss for moves. His moves may get repetitive, but he can play and play and duck and swing and cut with his weapon of choice, the baseball bat. But in terms ofnwritingbor even speaking, he tends to be more repetitive. He will want to repeat what he has heard online or read somewhere, randomly actually. But when I try to get him to drill in Kung Fu, to do the same thing over and over, to develop skill and strength, he finds this extremely boring and won't do it. Weird huh? I guess journaling is. Form of repetitive freestyle. For whatever reason

..he just doesn't want to do it. But I am going to have to start getting on him to do this simple task in addition to his school work. Because I know that after he has written more the writing will just come. He will he able to respond immediately to simple written questions. 

a three hour tour

So yesterday we went for a nice little Sunfay hike. There were different trails. The white box trail was the easiest one. It was a mile hike or so.....but then suddenly we were following yellow squares and the number of squares did not really seem to have a meaning and we continued and then there was an Pope pine clearing and aha...white squares again...only these squares looked more like...well white the original white squares should have looked like. "Are we almost there?" Dai dai asked. I guess some mommy's or daddy's would say, "just a little but longer honey" but seriously why lie, "I have no idea you just have to keep walking so we can get out of here." Was my answer because it was the truth and really you shouldn't lie to kids..or adults for that matter. It just confuses everything. And if the path is just one option....then don't question it...just do it until we get out. People reassured us that indeed we were going the right way and finally we came to be passing old people with canes and young children and we knew that it could6be that much longer. "WE'RE NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN MOMMY!" said Shao. Then we came to the pipe line clearing and gravel and the parking lot. "Shao...we're here" he laughed all the way to the car and laughed the whole time he ate the Royal Farms fried chicken, "I'm so happy I can't stop laughing"

I think we all had nightmares that night. So in a way it was like an haunted house...or haunted woods...which I assume are cancelled this year because of Covid...so you know...two birds with one stone.

Nam On Long hui Tai Tung Chuen

The title of this post is an idea for a form I am creating. A work in process that will basically be a Kung Fu form trying to encapsulate my Sifu's story. An intro? A trailer...bot that detailed. The form is not going to be super long. I have a separate one that will be more about certain fighting techniques. The title...needs work. And I think I will make the form on my own first and then show it to my Si Hing when  I have time and see what he thinks....but it's more for me...I plan to practice these forms every day as a way to remember and basically by doing so....I know this is sort of crazy and old school but it's what I am going to do. The more I thought about it... the more I realized that because of the events of his life....there will be some pretty emotionally heavy aspexrsbto this form. So the question is...should these forms be secret? But actually that's ki d of dumb. Most people will not understand that form anyway.....so it will be a lot like a traditional form. In other words....practiced often with secret meanings but yes also performed publicly. 

Sifu's passing

I'm going to start writing my blog again...because I really have no excuse not to. I was working on a book, butbI keep starting and stalling and part of it was I wanted to keep the rough drafts more current...but to tell the truth I will probably just start all over. My Sifu, Woo Ching, recently past away recently and that has been occupying much of my thoughts recently...with regards to my Kung Fu and also with regards to my writing. The most famous martial arts masters...like say Wong Fei Hung...or Musashi...are famous mostly because if literature. Writing, stories, movies. And so I do think it is important to write that book about my Sifu. I had collected stories and they are scattered around on this and other blogs. But maybe it is important to collect something that is specifically for the school. There should be an English and Chinese part to it...but honestly....those do not have to be translations of each other...just separate versions of a story collected into one book that gets passed on to students... maybe even a "secret book" and interestingly...for me...this book would actually not be a collection of techniques as most people would assume....but of stories. In fact, I had always felt that the techniques associated with stories were stronger in terms of being able to teach something and pass it down quickly. Our art contains such stories from times past that so far as to he foreign.. but also events more recent where my Sifu or a Si Hing was just recounting something that happened to them...and the story has a physical technique as well as a life lesson to go with it. That kind of stuff is important for the next generation to have access too. 

The Concrete Temple Intro: The Golden Ring

When I first came here from ROD (Realm of Dragons or Nagas depending on your preference) I was in poverty financially. That is to say I had no money. I didnt think anything of it because I had magic powers like every other Ming Wang Buddha. So what did I need money for? 

I was a lonely beggar looking type of fellow for a while. One day I was walking g through Boston's Chinatown. Now it's not that Chinatowns are the only place I can eall. I can go wherever I want, I walk in the woods, on the sea, in the deepest of oceans, I can go to the moon quite easily if I wish and often do. But as it so happens, I prefer Chinatown, and especially Boston's Chinatown. That's my spot, as it were.

Crossing through the gate over to Hei La Moon I saw a short man from a distance. But immediately I recognized his aura....it was Shun M Hong. Or Sun Wu Kong as people say in Mandarin, and Hanuman as they call him in India. So many stories have been told about him and he can be in more places than once...he often confuses people saying he has a twin brother....but others say it is just him cloning himself and messing with people.

But as I have said, I'm an MWB....when I see him, I see him with the eyes of the Naga realm and I know who he is, and he knew who I was...but could not remember my name.

"Hey!" He called out.."Her.....Her....MWB! What's up man what are you doing HERE!" M Hong said embracing me. 

I'm eating Dim Sum with a friend of mine...he's real connected around here. You know Odin? Usually we know him for that nonsense he tried to pull with the Tao Pong rebellion...oh...the old Christmas guy, Sing Dan Lo Yun....that's him too....he's like me...he likes messing with people...I know you like "teaching" people as well haha..." then M Hong leaned in a littel closer whispering conspiratorially....he can be a little more mean spirited....like how I used to be...but I mean....just be on guard but I do hang out with him.. there's not a lot of people like us you know and sometimes it's good to just remind yourself you know...

We walked into Hei La Moon. And Monkey pulled me back for a second, "Hold on you look like a bum" and he waved his hands to make me look more cleaned up and stylish...a little bit more. He stepped back , "Haha you should hold that look."

And we stepped through Hei La Moon's doors. 

The old man with the wide brimmed hat and blondish white beard was already sitting there drinking tea. He looked up at us and smiled and nodded to M Hong who sat to his right. 

The old wanderer took of his hat and threw it on the chair on his left as I sat next to M Hong.

He pointed at me laughing and then pausing, "Mahn fut Ji...10,000 Buddhas...in the New Territories." He saw the surprise on my face at him knowing where I had studied and come through into this realm and said, "Recognized you right away. I love Hong Kong....especially now...but I thrive on chaos....heh heh so your a friend of the Monkey King huh?"

"How many?" Looking back and forth from me to M Hong

It wasn't until I was talking to the God of the Tai Ping (Monkey King Sun Wu Kong is a mutual friend) and he was like,

"Look, powers or not, you need money in this day and age."

"But money is made up...I mean it's not even gold any more. Incense smoke is more real." I argued like the little upstart deity that I was.

Odin spread his hands....(oh you didn't know the Blond bearded wide brimmed hat wearing trickster that the Tai Ping were frothing at the mouth about was Odin? Yeah it was. And yeah he was just messing around for fun to see how many people he good get to kill each other and maybe have a whole country to himself again. Don't judge me he's Monkey King's friend.)

So anyway Tai Ping Odin  was like, "Look young Buddha, I see potential in you. And I dont mean that you'll rise "above" being a wrathful deity, I mean you won't and me and Wu Kong will have someone to live vicariously through and hang out with...but will also keep us in check from going too far. Money is fake than incense? Awesome. All the more reason to play with it." He slipped a golden ring from his wrist, "I have 5 of these.. .just like the Christmas song. The story goes that they increase every night and that's why I'm generous. That's an idea. I dont create matter. But these rings each draw money in their own elemental way. This one draws money through fire...heroic service...and that's just not my thing." Monkey King laughed at that...we were eating Dim Sum at Hei La Moon on a cold winter's day and Monkey was just sort of looking out the window at people passing by. He didn't say that much. I would find out later he had a lot on his mind, but that's another story.

Tai Ping Odin took my hand and slipped the ring on to my wrist.

"The way it works is you rub it and the Jinns or fire dragons as you call them bring you gold...or money nowadays. If you believe that sort of thing. But it's not free. You would call it Karma. For me it comes with a price. For you.. it comes with a service. I think it will give you something to do in this world. Cause you can't be doing magic tricks for baos or bowls of rice. Not in this country. 

I wore it for a while without rubbing it, because the things is....I actually dont need to eat or sleep. I mean I just lie to one side for a minute or two and then the other side and I'm good. I can photosynthesize too. I'm not human. But man Tai Ping Odin and Monkey King were right. That's just not how this country works and I felt like I was just an observer standing to the side. I wasnt human and I didn't feel human so I had to try this money thing out. I rubbed the ring.

Now I'm not sure the full connection but this ring is the same as Aladdin's ring from the story. Except in of a finger ring, the real one is like those teeth sing kuen rings.in fact the whole wearing of the teeth sing kuen rings is derived from some connection to the ROD where Tai Ping Odin and Monkey King frequent as well as other magical types, and the physical world. Except with Teet Sing Kuen...your basically giving power to ROD. This thing works the other way and the Jinns work their magic invisibly. When I first got here and first rubbed that ring I could still see them. They didn't grant me wishes. They just helped bring me money and I didn't get to choose how. Now when I rub the Ting I know they are working for me, but I can't see them any more.

I rubbed it and Bam! This fire Jinns tell me to follow them. They fabricate all this back leg work with computers and set me up for a job interview as a private investigator right up the street. They tell me.what to say and I say it and they mesmerize everyone for about a week, fake it till you make it type of thing...and I worked hard because like I said...I don't require food or sleep. So that's how the ring works. Bot sure how the other 4 things work...but I cab see why Tai Ping Odin gave me this one. I mean looking back it wasn't exactly a favor or a gift...but it was what I needed. 

After working in the field for a couple of years, I opened up my own office, the Concrete Temple. People hire me.for all kinds of stuff. Sometimes just to talk. And business is always booming when I want it to be...because of the Ring. In fact...I am charging you right now and you should know that before we continue. And maybe you want to tell me what I can do for you instead of asking me about the name I decided to put on the wall. I do Tarot, Kau Cheem, Private Investigation, Exorcisms, Marriages, Lion Dance, Dragon Dance, Guided meditation, Real Estate, and a few other services. The part I told you about the ring I will erase from your memory, not that you believe me anyway, and I actually need to go meet some friends for dim sum so you cab either come with or reschedule. It's a $99 dollar deposit just to talk to me...that was what you paid through We Chat at the door. If you dont6hire me, that's still mine, if you do, it will go towards your bill. 

chapter 20: Fancy Flight

About a week later an eagle came bearing a message I couldn't read. Zhang Fei happened to be there and was able to decipher it. It was instructions on how to get to a magical town on the West coast that would hold a big festival every year for a  water Goddess. They had a ton of Man Tous and other great food. All the lions and dragons and kei luns and other creatures would gather their too from the Bamboo Bridge. Joyce said I should go but that she wasn't interested and that the children wouldn't want her to leave them again. The Children indeed were started to get very bit picky about enforcing rules. Saying that we should be more responsible and get better jobs.

Chapter 21: Lion dance IN chinatown

Chapter 22: The Lantern Inn

Chapter 23: A Temple and a Town 

Chapter 24: The Ring

Chapter 25: Return

Chapter 26: Hibernation

Zhang Fei said he would fly me over and so he did. In the air I met with the Monk who was flying the Metal dragon..."How do you like it? I am borrowing it for our trip!" The mouth opened and Zhang Fei Flew in. The Dragon had been redone so instead of looking like a maze of scary iron it was a flying ship that had the decor of an old school Kung Fu movie. We flew over the Rockies and landed in Yut Fau.

Chapter 19: Inside the metal Dragon

I woke up to the sound of metal banging and the smell of steel and blood. I had a headache and I was in a long hallway that shifted and moved and slid like I was on a long cross town bus or a subway. Their was screeching of metal against metal too. I realized I was all alone and freaked out sprinting along down the hallway finding that I was in a maze of hallways. 

I ran and ran and slowly came across Joyce. 

"What's going on?" she yelled. 

I was freaking out earlier... but her freaking out kind of annoyed me into pretending I was calm and that it was no big deal... so I shrugged my shoulders. Now instead of running we walked and stumbled. 

We saw some animals and insects pass by as well as people who we tried to talk to but they just ignored us. Eventually we ran into  the Monk, Wolf and his crew, as well as other people we recognized from the performance. 

"What's going on?" People shrugged. Some people were afraid. Some people were not afraid at all but just kind of oblivious to what was even going on... whatever it was. 

Finally we passed through a few doors.  and came to an opening which looked like a giant mouth with teeth. Outside  we saw  the giant statue... only now he was way bigger than two stories, Wold made eye contact and suddenly seemed to go into a trance and started dancing certain moves which the statue copied... and in this way the thing we were riding was brought down from the air until we landed in the ocean. We all jumped out and got on top of what turned out to be a giant metal Dragon. 

We started swimming around and sort of forgot that this could potentially be a problem. We were relaxed because the giant statue seemed to be in control of Wolf and the scales of the dragon were actually packages of food. It had fruits, baos, soy milk... all in little plant like containers and seemingly anything you could think of. 

From a distance we saw Zhang Fei, our lion swim closer and riding him was Nara and Jinn.

"Where were you guys! it's been a whole week! you left us! we had to pretend at school that our grandparents were watching us. Luckily Zhang Fei can take human form and played along!"

"You can take human form?" I asked Zhang Fei... who simply licked his paws. "Are you sure?" I asked Nara.

"Oh you are going to pretend I am making up stories... like I am a child and you are an adult after we are rescuing you? We should just leave you here!"  Nara said. But we climbed onto Zhang Fei and  waved goodbye to Wolf and the monk and everyone else. They appeared to be working out how to get control of the Dragon itself, which was now a floating kingdom of its own, and we also saw the Lion Statue that we had brought to life. 

"I had something else to tell you about... I will send an Eagle to you with a message. Look out for it." Said the monk. 

Our family went home and we allowed the kids to do whatever they wanted for three weeks since they had "saved our lives" on the ocean and since they had functioned just fine on their own anyway. 

chapter 18: Hoi Gong

We briefly talked to each other to decide how to proceed. Joyce and I would be head, the Monk would play the Buddha and the Wolf would drum with a  fellow brother and another master he had picked up in NYC. 

The Wolf quickly taught me some of his system so that we would be able to sync up... but when in doubt, he would just watch and follow. But at least I now knew the signals to give and  cadence to be familiar with.

And with that  a giant lion was rolled out. 

The King of the small NJ kingdom, which had influence all of the world whispered, "We needed to make the lion really wake up, to help protect us."

Protect us from what? Was what I thought at first, and then I thought, could Zhang Fei protect ys...  iij instead of wandering all around doing who knows what with my old hand in his belly? Not that I cared. The Sun Wu Kong hand I had now had special powers, and would create a terrific ritual.

"Yut deem Jing!" I spoke in a voice that echoed off the high ceiling. Sun Wu Kong' hand helped me make the my voice shake the lungs of people listening, and even those who were not.

YUT DEEN TEEN DEI SUN!

I painted the red cinnabar the monk had brought into one eye which blinked even though we were outside the head.

YEE DEEM JING! Yee deem.yut yet ming!

JONG DEEM Jing. JONG DEEM GWAI SUN GING!

TEET CHIU WAHNG CHING GWAU!

TEEN LING LING DEI LING LING SUN LONG FU HOK SAM HUP YIY YING!

I breathed the power of the dragon tiger and crane into the creature  and then Joyce and I seized it... jumping under the tail and taking control of its body.

We performed a dance of might and power...  as well as comedy. The monk poured wine everlasting from a jug that had no bottom and afterwards we feasted their, the entire kingdom becoming drunk. 

We forgot all about Nara and Jinn and were caught in the reveries for a whole week. Until Nara and Jinn had to ride Zhang Fei to get us.

chapter 17 The Tattoo and the statue

We arrived early and waited for the k to meet us with the rest of the crew whom we had never met before. 

"I'm going to go and check in first." Said Joyce.

"No we have to wait."

"Why should we wait our here they have a lobby. That's what that's for."

"We have to look like one cohesive team."

"Okay but Inhave to go to the bathroom."

Eventually we all did meet up and we checked in, signed several security measures and then started walking down to where we would perform.with the equipment.

We passed by a giant statue that looked like a Japanese statue of an Indian God that you might see in anime. It stood over two stories high indoors and overlooked a reflecting pool.

Wolf snapped a picture and we continued on to where we would perform... where we changed into the monks uniforms. Wolf changed shirts openlynshowing his tatoos.

"Hey," said the monk, "your tattoo looks just like the statue."

"That's weird, it didn't look like that before. Take a picture. I guess we'll worry about Tatoos suddenly changing form later.

Right now we have to figure out how we are performing.

..

Chapter 16: Gathering forces.

Wolf walked down the street caught a cigarette smoked it passed by a mah Jong table jumped in won, slid over to a take out place where he ordered a sam bo fahn. Someone across the street tried to rib an old lady so Wolf flicked his cigarette into the would be robbers eye with out looking then ran upstairs to give his some kids he was watching his sam bo fahn before coaching his lion dance team.

Later he got a text from the Drunken Monk that there was a special gig in the middle of New Jersey. 

"Jersey Really? So what I have to pick up some.other guys and you meet us there with the equipment? Two other guys from New York and then a couple people from Jersey? They can do head? So what we just drum? You paying? Yeah sure we'll do it. I got time during the work week as long as it's okay just a couple ofnus...  yeah I can pick another guy up."

"HAHA... yeah okay see you there then."

BBB Chapter 15: The rainbow bridge

After returning from those lion dances we got a message via Eagle from the Monk who had sold us the pink heads. There was a mother lion dance at the end of a rainbow bridge that he could help lead us to if we could muster the people. We checked which among our team was free that day because it was during the work week and sure enough, we had enough for a team. We gathered at the bamboo bridge where we did see a rainbow and with the help of the monk we were able to tread across to a golden palace. 

We brought two heads. The monk would drum, our students would do one head, and I did the other head with our neighbor and friend whom I had taught lion dance too while waiting for the bus.I will have to go back and tell you about that yet another time... 

The Golden palace was in change of a big chunk of the money that passed through New Jersey. It only dealt with the gold elves that had kingdoms of their own, and large kingdoms at that. 

There was a tiny town that remi6me if Chinatown inside the Palace, there was an arcade for people.to play the ancient games of the 1980's and several stores that sold hipster foods. We lion danced bowing at each store as if they had put out Chiangs...mainly to give our students the feeling of going store to store because New Jersey was not set up for that and we thought that one day... we may have to do that. After our parade around, the heads stopped and we performed Kung Fu.

Here I had my kids perform a three man fighting form that I had trained them to do for our Plum Village's Chinese New Year performance. We finished up, took our way back home crossing the rainbow and the bamboo bridge and continued onto another lion dance that Joyce had set up. 

After this one we stopped to eat at a Malaysian restaurant where we ordered a lavish meal. Thr6restaurant was quite empty because it was a week night. We had called ahead and had Pai Teep to another branch of the restaurant.... and even though this crowd was not super enthusiastic at first about our doing lion dance, they had also given us permission to do it. 

When we started suddenly mist of the staff did get pretty excited about it, pulling out phones and an elderly woman giving tye5head extra Hong baos. We did several rounds which the chefs interpreted as a second collection which cause them to stare straight into their rice bowls and homemade Chinese food that they had cooked for themselves. A lot of bitter melon and cooling foods to counter act the yeet hei of working in a kitchen all day.

The truth is that the first round was our newer students, and then Joyce did a second round because we knew that being recorded, we had to show that we had the Gung Lik and skilled experience of a seasoned team even if some of our members were new. Thi king back.... I realize that actually this dance had happened ed before our store to store...two days before to be exact.and that there was one more additional dance before the store to store I had forgotten to mention as well as Plum Mountain's Chinese New Year award show... whichwas the most stressful of them all.

But more important to the story would be the next to lion dances led by the monk where he would assemble a super team of lion dancers and where the truth adventures would begin.

BBB Chpater 14: The Palace.

Our final stop was the Palace, our go to restaurant fornanlong time and it had been our final stop last year as well. They had expanded this year too. We were late...  which ended up having good and bad aspects to it. The bad aspect was people had been expecting us at a certain time and a lot of people had to leave and didnt get a chance to see us. As we arrived some people that were leaving whinindedd did look like they were related to the people we saw working there regularly told us that a lot of people had been waiting for us. We got our stuff together and started drumming to warm up and also to stall while all of our member arrived. Now here is the thing, last time we had come earlier and this was before the restaurant had expanded .. so it was filled to the brim. This was good in a way. But then owners and the staff had to deal with the crowd and us. This time the only tables left in the restaurant were Jee Geiger yun. Their own people. I think the group that had just left was also relatives. But then main point of this was the traffic had slowed, they could relax... and the lion dance ended up being totally different than last year. We bowed to several altars, the kitchen, the life sized statue of Guan Yu at the door. The staff was eating at the same time as we were so we got to have a more relaxed and conversational feel. And as we did the last Choi c Chiang outside... the owner paused at the pink head saying, "let's see.... it's been over 20 years...." and got in! I quick started playing the drum again. It turns out, all of them had done lion dance in their youth and were from Hok San Village.... the Hok San, as in Hok San style heads... often referred to as competition style heads. The beaked faced lion heads popular in their use on the poles. 

The other staff people eating were from Taishan... and we put the pink head on display for people to take pictures with, which people lined up to do.

"Where is the black head from last year?" The manager asked. I explained that we got new heads for a new year and left that one home.

"Do you know what the black head is for? In my village our black head was very powerful. Whenever we went near another teams the other heads had to go down otherwise the black head would go over and hit them. The black head represents Zhang Fei." He told more stories of his youth and lion dance and how he saw the heads being made by his neighbors to be shipped out across the world. 

The funny thing was I had no idea he knew how to lion dance and had we come on time there really wouldn't have been time to talk or to now to Guan Yi gau again...which, having done this for the third place that day...made me want to reconnect with my own personal relationship with the saint. Although I have three altars in the house to him, theybfeel like they are less connected than the o e which held the central place at the Kung Fu school where I had learned  these skills. 

BBB Chapter 13: Here is the Big One

We went back to the first dim sum place. Right off the bat before we even started doing lion dance, we had put the heads down to get settled and this huge body builder guy walked by taking pictures smiling with his phone, "Wow we just came from flushing and they dont have nice stuff like you guys!" I knew then that Joyce's choice in lion dance color was truly powerful. It wasn't just that she picked a pink head. She had asked for a Modern Malaysian style pattern on a traditional Fut San structured head. It wasn't altered greatly but there was something different about it that was just slightly more eye catching. For our team to not only be compared with but to be praised over the Flushing parade, who had prided themselves on spending the most on the best when it came to costumes etc was saying something.

We started off drumming and then pretty quickly after that what had started as a little introduction snowballed into a full on dance. We had two heads and in truth, again, I could still see that our team was a beginner team in that we were not the most Sing Mook, but this was to be expected. After doing the Chiang I could see the owner asking for the link to bow to Gwan Yi gau...you will see him in every restuarant. They say the police bow to Guan Yu for Justiace, the gangs fir loyalty, and the Kung Fu schools for a little of both.

Interestingly, before Guan Yu became a general... he sold green beans, as Liu Bei sold bamboo crafted belts and shoes and Zhang Fei was a butcher who was actually the wealthiest of the three when they had first met. The point is, Guan Yi was a small business owner, and that's what we would have remained if the Han Dynsaty wasn't  collapsing and he hadn't hooked up with Liu Bei. 

It is interesting, I thought as I passed the drum sticks to Nara, rushed unto the lion head telling him to go back on the head and cymbals... and tried to get Nara's attention to follow me for the bow. Because she was just drumming her own beat and not looking at me at all. 

What I thought was interesting because it was rare nowadays that I heard Cantonese and even rarer that I heard Guan Yu's name....was that in an American movie about Chinese people bowing to an altar... even if the movie wasn't calling is heathens but trying to be respectful.... the bowing would be over exaggerated in a strange way and he would probably be called, "Lord Guan" in almost Sci Fi Cosplay esque version of a ritual. 

But although I used to light incense at the Kung Fu school for Guan Yu twice a day and did indeed see people. Ot part of the school, older women asking for recovery in health, actually Kow Tow before our altar....what I found more true to my version of Guan Yu was how he was now called. Guan Yi Gau.... older brother Guan yu...not Lord, not king, not general... but older brother. And I guess you have to go sometime without hearing something.... before you really listen to it 

In fact Liu Bei was king but we bow to Guan Yu. Zhang Fei, was powerful as well and there are altars to him in some places of China, but you can buy Guan Yu's altar and statue at any supermarket easily. He is the common man's saint or god. And he is so approachable that we call him brother.... not even Uncle.

The only other deity called older brother like that is Jesus... and think that partially has to do with the Young and Dangerous series.

All the lion dancenpmayers were given Hung Baos and smiles were passed around everywhere... and finally the owner, dressed to a T... approached me and fed through the lion's mouth whispering, "And this is the big one." I felt a connection... a re connection to the lion dance and that Chinese male family luke energy that I had been separated from... which to be honest....I grew up separated from and only got a hint of now and then... often through lion dance or the smell of cigar smoke and the rattle of dice and tiles in my earliest childhood memories.

Thos success wiped out our rejections we had felt and made us focus on the positives of the day... and behind schedule, we drove to our last stop.

BBB Chapter 12: store to store

I had said earlier that it was year of the monkey... but that was just for me because of my Sun Wu Kong hand... of course the truth was that it was the year of the metal rat that was coming up. As we went around that year there was again some stores that gave a flat refusal over the phone... which to be honest was better than those that did not respond and "led us on" so that we showed up making an extra time wasting stop when in fact they did not want a lion dance. Then again, there were other stores that at first were not ready because they thought we weren't serious who later ended up being really into it. 

Dim Sum: the first place we went to do lion dance was a new restaurant. We had eaten dim sum there a couple of times and had dropped off the teep after one of our dim sum sessions. I don't really go to Church... and I think the closest thing to Church I really have is Dim Sum. Which means that I suppose the closest thing I have tona religion is Cantonese Food and restaurants. Indeed since my father was a chef... I am much a non practicing follower of the American Chinese Restaurant as I am a non practicing Catholic. 

But I digress. The first restaurant we went to actually wasnt ready for us, and only after we showed up called the owner. They said if we came back it would be better because there would be more audience to give us red envelopes. We explained that we were on a schedule and to be honest, it was ok if there was no money which got a stunned reaction. There was more phone call co conversation and they said the owner was actually really into lion dance and that he would really like to see it and wouldn't be around until later because he was in a meeting elsewhere.  

Well in that case we would come back...so off to our other stops and a reshuffle of schedules.

The next stop was a supermarket which we had also done the year before. As we approached we saw that a giant balloon Choi Sun God or Saint of fortune was outside the door. This really was an event! There was a crowd, some of who we knew but didn't realize they would be showing up...We started up with drumming. I side there were six stations and to be honest.... we did ok but moving from station to station proved difficult for us. We had Joyce's pink head and had a reawakened head that one of our students had refurbished ( I suppose I should go back and talk about that lion dance as well.)

At one point, the Fish market guy had to help us gong and after we had done the six stations a produce guy jumped on the drum which was exciting...finally we did the Chiang outside and then it was over.  But it really was incredible and it was great that we had  been able to connect with the workers and even perform together. Imagine being away from your home country but at least getting to see some lion dance from tour childhood. Even some of the non Chinese in the audience who knew us mentioned that they had often gone to NYC every year but had been unable to this year... but had at least gotten to see us.

The next stop was another supermarket... who honestly hid from us and weren't ready. Led us on etc. But I will mention that even that early, people at that supermarket were already starting to wear facemasks....

The next few were failures. A couple of restaurants had already said no but were next to a  take out place run by elderly people. Granted I assumed the red envelope.would not be big... but didnt want to say we were coming and not show....what happened instead was the old woman who had been smiling before screamed at us to get out and tried tr o throw a Hung bao at us just to leave. We didn't accept it of course and said we would even just do the dance as practice. In the end we left.

Then we went on to a Biba place that was actually managed by non Chinese. There was not an audience.... but we still did the dance and were treated very nicely and we bought boba after.

The final stop was incredible and really needs a chapter unto itself.

BBB Chapter 11: protocol

Pai Teep. Before you do a lion dance, you have to Pai Teep. You give out a little card wishing the business ornhousehold happy new Year and let them mnow5that hou will be coming around with a lion dance crew on such and such a date. This gives them time to be ready. They may want to set up something special or at least have some money allocated to put in a red envelope for the lion head...si here is the thing. When you do lion dance like this.. ie you are asking them if they want a lion dance, it feels like cold calling or begging. Technically you aren't asking for any money. You are asking for a Chiang which usually includes money... and if you are asking a business that is not run by Chinese or a household that isn't Chinese... then you might have to explain that... which makes it feel even more like begging.

When we are a baby team with a baby head and a baby drum in Jamaica Plain... we did do lion dance in the neighborhood for fun and cookies or even pretend money was completely acceptable and I made that known. What was really cool and a learning moment was when we got different currencies. My kids got to learn what Indian money looked like. Another neighbor that joined our team made popcirn5bags for everyone with Happy New Year written on the bags in Kanji ( which is the same as Chinese actually) the truth is the money or red envelope in the ritual is not really payment unless you consider a coin you toss into a wishing well to be payment. It is a ritual sacrifice of sorts to bring good luck to the person that is producing it. Oranges lettuce and all that... they all mean something. And of course....it is also kind of like trick or treating..  and it is also partially like payment as well. But on that day... you will get the cheapest lion dance ever because it is by donation where as if you called up our team, (yes even our team) and need us to take off work and drive to a location to perform a lion dance... well it is highly unlikely that we would do that for baked cookies. I mean we might... but it is highly unlikely.

The first year in NJ we didnt seek out any lion dances. We only did the ones that sought us out and after all, we were a little baby team.

The second year we only called some places. We didn't have a little card to pass out because honestly in NJ everything is really spread out. Usually we sought out places that we ate at. So technically we had already spent money at the business. I mean..  where we are there isn't a. Chinatown or a real culture of doing store to store... so instead of continuing a tradition we were building one. And if we wanted to build one we had to support the businesses otherwise they wouldn't be around. 

The second year was pretty fun, withnthe black lion. But we did get a lot of people hanging up on us when we called. We also realized it was not that easy to do a bunch of stores in one day. I mean we wanted to have fun not break our backs with a new team and 6 vehicles driving from place to place... and we wanted to take our time and do a real dance each time. So if you think you do a 10 minute dance and you take 10 minutes to drive to each store... if you do 5 stores... that's two hours. And the truth is... 10 minutes is not what we were doing. 

But regardless the second year with the  lack head was a success and people accepted that Zhang Fei haead. We had fun, we ate dinner after... and we had done it. We had done a lion dance in the traditional format in NJ.

The Third year... I may have lost my own true left hand...  or rather it was in the belly of the black head... but Joyce had bought a brand new custom made pink head. Last year had been about me. But this year would be about her and her team. And so one of our students created a teep to pai..a card with a picture and information. And this year we would indeed go in person to different stores and explain what we were doing. We skipped the ones that had refused last year and picked some new businesses we had seen pop up.

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter 10 Year of the Monkey

Joyce and I had renewed vigor in our training and our lion dance performances after I got my Monkey King hand and the new heads. We had a much large ream now and students that were quite enthusiastic. When I say a much larger team I meant that instead of one student we had three. But our old students were willing to participate, we had our kids, our students had friends, and we were becoming a crew. This was fun and I was putting the centipede demon and whatever Mo Yung was behind me.

Bit surprisingly, Sun Wu Kong's hand had great power in it and even though it was supposed  to be a clone's hand I felt its power circulating from the had through my whole body. Ut began to change me and give me confidence a d enable me to see new things. 

I created a statue of Sun Wu Kong out of a plastic soda bottle and paper mache and began burning incense to it. My beliefs and rituals are not the orthodox Chinese Folk religion, uf there really is such a thing. I mix and match as many people do to be honest. 

But my relationship with any altar us sort if strange. It is more of anecternal expression of something going on inside my mind to me. And so the altar was a way for me to think about Sun Wu Kong nd the had that was now attached to me... as well as the hand that was now in my Zhang Fei Lion's belly. 

We created a "Journey of the West" as we called it. It was the year of the monkey this Chinese New Year and people welcomed our idea to travel around to different businesses to do lion dance for them. Some businesses rejected us... but over all we got a pretty good response for what was possible for out team. 

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter Nine: Double Dragon comes out of the Ocean

I was depressed after having my hand eaten and felt that I looked at the Zhang Fei Head differently. Granted, had he not eaten my hand I would have been poisoned to death. He grea to a great size and nownthatbhe was a real lion roaming around we could not use him for lion dances or even show him to people. He continued to live with us sitting in the corner like a statue, especially when people visited our house. 

Sometimes I cursed him for not eating Kai and Mo Yung and in Statue form tears would come down his cheeks. I would feel bad and offer him incense, water, fruit and other things. Sometimes I believe he went hunting in the woods and also flew down to Philadelphia or over to New York City. I saw him on a few posts on Social Media and suspected he could take many forms including the form of a human.

I suppose that was all cool but I wanted my hand back.... plus if we were to continue with our lion dance adventures we needed new heads. 

We returned to the Bamboo bridge and found the monk we had been looking for.

This time instead of disappearing he did the double le dragon comes out of the ocean move while calling out the name, "Serng Long Chut Hoi!"  And wouldn't you believe it a doible6headed Dragon appeared out of the water. A huge one. And we entered its mouth. Narra and Jinn were with us  and had a blast running around the inside of the Dragon, which was as giant as a cavern and where many lion heads and drums we re stored.

"I noticed that you are missing a hand." The monk said and I recounted my story to him. He paused for a moment and then walked to a back room and returned.

"This hand is not the actual hand of Sun Wu Kong. It is the hand of one of his clones though. Try it." He said and handed me the monkey paw. As I brought but to my stub if an arm it attached immediately and I felt a power I had never felt before. 

Maybe not the true hand of Sun Wu King but indeed a hand of Sun Wu Kong great sage equal to heaven... clone or not.

"I'll give that one to you...along with the other stuff you are buying from me." Which was a new Pink Lion head, a new drum, a new drum cart, and some other items. It was going to be a new year and we had new equipment. I had mourned the loss of my drumming group and my hand but now I had more than I could have hoped for.

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter eight: A hand lost.

That Chinese New Year we had many adventures. Plum Mountain received two new southern style heads and a hand me down drum and new members who had studied Kung Fu in the past. The picked up Lion dance eay enougha and by grasping at water collecting here and there we were able to go out ad a large enough team. Though we were unable to parade in Brooklyn. I explained that though many would travel around NJ, Brooklyn was another matter.

So unfortunately we didnt do that. But the woman who had been interested in that parade, who we began to call Tough Beauty, asked that we perform at her business opening in the spring. Joyce ended up doing that one without me as I had promised to take Nara on a trip just the two of us.

That Chinese New Year we had so many dances that we even sent out two teams at a time, which was amazing because to look at any of our classes we barely had a team. It was because I gathered and forced people to practice at odd times even at the bus stop. I even pulled of a dance in New York City at a big company going with two people and recruiting from the Audience.

All of these stories really need to be told on their own so I will list them and tell them to you as short stories here.

BENSON Hurst

Acrobats and lions jilted

Drowned out by a recording 

Many stores

School of Gong

Thanksgiving Freeze

But if all the people that showed up, the group that I was teaching in my basement came to none of them and I had foreshadowing that I should not be helping these people. A second Chinese New Year season had come and gone and Kai' s texts became strange and controlling. When he purchased the drums... suddenly a partner ship seemed to transform into a relationship where he somehow thought I was taking orders from him.

I told him we would separate and I would take a drum as payment. He refused and in the end Kai Polk and Mo Yung Tai and I stood before Athena drum and heads, sticks and knives laid out before her.

"He is just a teacher! If he wants to quit let him quit!" Kai Polk said

Mo Yung said also, "This person has no right to anything the drums belong to 4C"

Athena spoke, "Let Kai and Tai have the drums so that they may use them. And let Peter have the heads so he can use them."

Kai grabbed the drum and spit on the black lion. Understanding that heads could be interpreted in more than one way I grabbed the two butcher knives and hacked away at Kai. It was like cutting through smoke and as his head vanished a centipede twice as long as a man jumped out and stung my left hand before encircling Mo Yung Tai who laughed. The Black lion came to live and bit my hand off before the poison could get to my heart as Tai and Kai in his true form walked away with the drums.

Athena took my knife and put it in the fire place and then sealed my wound.

"To achieve something requires sacrifice, and to be betrayed to to gain new insight to people's souls. You will gain another hand. I will see to it. And for now you have gained immortal eyes. For though you only saw Kai's true form, you cab infer that Mo Yung is no ordinary man either."

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter Seven: The Shaman Crane

Near the Peak there had been a small patch of Bamboo. That patch started to grow and grow until it invaded the neighbors yard. On social media people cursed the owners of the property and bamboo in general because they said it was am invasive species. The put up sighs that read "Boo!!! Bamboo!!!" And various soccer moms and bake sales were set up to organize against people growing bamboo in New Jersey.

Nonetheless the bamboo grew and grew until it was a bamboo forest and the group mind if the bamboo forest connected with the bamboo bridge.

The portal to the bamboo bridge became a bamboo hut and in the bamboo hut lived the Crane Shaman, who also went by Kong Ming. This just didn't look like much but it was so powerful that pretty much everyone could see it and it attracted a lot of attention. Kong Ming taught fortune telling, Feng shui, and swordsmanship while his wife taught Tai Chi and Jiu Jitsu. All sorts of people began to study at this bamboo hut.

In fact the Kung Fu teachers that had taught at Plum Mountain had originally come out of this school. Of all the things that they taught, lion dance was not one of them. And so after a while, someone reached out to me about teaching lion dance at the Bamboo hut.

Joyce was excited about this, especially now that we had the Black Lion, and wanted to recapture here early days of lion dance with a sisterhood of Asian female lion dancers... and me drumming. 

But at first none of the women would sign up. Some were interested but didn't have time. Some had time, but openly said to Joyce that lion dance was unwomanly. 

So we extended the class to all Asians.

A lit of Asians said they already knew lion dance and that they were already part of 4 C lions with Kai and Mo Yung...and that there was a co conflict of interest. Others said that lion dancing was for children. Othe world asked who was teaching the class. Then they said openly in Mandarin what a woman and a white guy knew about lion dance? I responded that I was half Chinese. And they laughed that that was not possible.

Finally one woman and one man did join. The woman was Chinese and we spoke in Chinese which was difficult for Joyce. During the first class we used a practice head that had been a hand me down.

"Do you have a black head?" Asked the woman.

"Yes... actually we do."

"Would you be willing to bring the black head to do a lion dance for me in Brooklyn? I have a business there. And I know a lot if the business owners on our street."

I had a long excited conversation with her.

The man was a white man who was so interested in Chinese culture that he took every class at the bamboo hut.

Eventually the woman dropped out saying she was too sore after the first class and was concerned that lion dance might make her look too bulky, but that she would help set up an lion dance for us on Brooklyn.

" We will need to gather a team of at least 10" Joyce said. "Doing this rag tag stuff in NJ was one thing. But I don't want to embarrass ourselves in front of people that actually know what lion dance is. Then we could never eat dim sum or go shopping there again.

We began to teach and train our team of one. He was tall and had a lot of potential but picking up the moves was difficult for him. Because of his height, people often thought he was the leader of our group, which I found funny but Joyce did not. But teaching Jack... we began to call him Jack of all trades because he studied all of the classes at Bamboo Hut...meant that Joyce and Jack could be in the Black Lion, I could drum... and my children could play gong and cymbals. In other words... we had a team. An adult team with am adult head. 

Kong Ming set up a bunch of lion dances dor us and this Chinese New Year we had a schedule. It was a schedule so packed that we wouldn't even be able to travel back to Boston. Kong Ming had connections to all these companies and Schools on the Bamboo Bridge. A section of the bridge we had never even walked before. Granted, they didnt really know about lion dance or what to feed the lion but at least we were an actual team.

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter 6: The Three Warrior Merchants

If you have never walked the Bamboo bridge, it is a bridge of the group mind. A connection like Social media or yogic meditation where one can purchase the mystical, for a price. The truth is there are many places to buy drums and masks and costumes. But to gain access to a true head... you must walk the Bamboo Bridge.

Joyce and I brought the children and walked to a place where their was a whole city of people selling things from their boats. We hopped from boat to boat buying Tong Sui, Baos, Boba Tea, Dim Sum, and all sorts of treats that were the spirit essence of people who walked the Bamboo Bridge.

Nara and Jinn were getting bored of the boat city so we promised them we would stop at only one more boat... then we would go back to the bridge. You see children can walk the bridge... but after too much time over the waters on which the bridge goes over they will start to become water and fish food.

We came  to a boat where there was an old man fishing.

"I'm looking to get a lion head. Do you know where I can get one?"

"I have a ton of lion heads.... but right now I am fishing. I will be done in an hour.... you want to check out the boat City first?"

Unfortunately  we had to go... and so we did not buy a lion head from the first Warrior Merchant. For that was what anyone who had a boat along the bamboo bridge had to be. A warrior to defend from sharks and sea monsters and a merchant to make a living.

We walk along the Bamboo bridge again, which is a maze that always magically leads s you home when it is time. 

We saw a drunken sage balancing  on a rope that was tied with one end on the bridge and the other on a far pier. 

We called out to him. But then a fog came and we lost sight of him. We continued to walk and talked loudly about wanting to buy a lion head when it just so happened that there in front of us stood an actual lion. A horned lion, a Zhang Fei lion.

"You want a Zhang Fei Lion head like me?"

Yes I answered. Though Joyce was as yet unsure what a Zhang Fei Lion was.

"I am left over from another time and I am getting old. If you pay me. I can come to your house with a drum and an old style Kei Lun Gong as well. It would be a one time deal."

With that we paid and returned home.

Soon enough one morning a black lion head lay on our doorstep. No longer alive as a full lion. For lions cannot live in our world as they do on the Bamboo bridge before they have been awakened. 

But now we had the lion head we needed to do real dances during the next Chinese New Year season.

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter Five: Eighth Avenue

We got a chance to go into Brooklyn and believe it or not, we even caught some lion dance there. It wasn't their main parade day and we new that this was the same day as Super Saturday in Manhattan's Chinatown. We saw some people just finishing up on poles and we saw what appeared to be younger members of well established teams. If I were to guess what was going on, I would imagine that the Manhattan teams trained their JV team by sending them to parade in Brooklyn first. Then if they could handle that, then they would be good to go in Manhattan next year. In fact, I talked to some of the older women who gave me a soccer mom vibe and indeed these teams parading in Brooklyn were based out of Manhattan. They had a lot of people... but so didnt Plum Village Chinese School. And with a whole group of drummers that I was training for double ten next year with Kai and Mo Yung....I would have enough people to do Brooklyn. The sidewalks were wider.... it appeared that you didnt really need to send in an application the way you had to in Manhattan. Don't get me wrong I had done Manhattan as a teenager with one of the family associations and was itching to do it again.... but maybe Brooklyn was a good start. We would be able to raise the people...if only we would be able to get some sort of connection with this community.

The next week we did finally the way back up to Boston to participate in our old team's parading.... even if we only got to stay for a couple of if hours before heading home. There is a difference between watching and actually participating. And there is a difference between participating with a rag tag team and a real team that was your family growing up.

And then the season was over. February became March.  We watched a St. Patrick's day parade... spring became summer...and we started training the drumming group at our house. Before long it grew into a pretty large group. I realized that although you could only teach so many people Kung Fu in a small space...and that people would say they didnt have space to do kicks or forms in their living room....drumming took up virtually no space at all. Kai and Mo Yung tried to get everyone to purchase expensive drum pads but I nipped that in the bud. 

"Let's save our money for the equipment" I said. I had created a whole system. Instead of belts the way the Japanese systems had, the ranking system would be by the type of drums sticks you had. Starting out you had your own rolled up newspapers. Then you had cheaper wooden sticks..then more expensive wooden sticks...and then the butcher knives often used in a Cantonese Restaurant. The highest level would be the Wu deep do..  butterfly knives....but I had to buy those online and I saw that they were actually quite expensive.

You see. The way of the drum would be a martial art after all. But for now... it was just drumming.

Slowly a restaurant themed  team began to form in my head. We e went to Brooklyn almost every weekend in the summer and began to reconnect with our culture a bit.

"You know," said Joyce" we can't bring those ratty heads to Brooklyn. "And that drum just doesn't sound right. We need to get our own stuff. And we need to start our own team."

"We have our own team in the basement."

"If you think those parents are gonna let their kids to lion dance in Brooklyn you are in for a surprise. That group is just for double ten and then you'll see, even though you gave them all your time they want follow you anywhere. They'll make excuse after excuse. I bet you they won't even buy any equipment for you like they said they would."

I asked Kai about purchasing heads in Taiwan but noticed he was often silent when I asked for something, and was absent for all the rehearsals at my house. But I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he would out uo the equipment. He had collected the money already for the year.

Eventually I half gave up on that little basket with eggs and began to look for a new one.

"Okay so where do we buy a head?" I asked Joyce.

" We go to Brooklyn every week, doesn't anyone their sell heads?" 

The Bamboo Bridge Chapter Four: Northern Heads

I took a deep breath as I looked at the old dusty Northern style heads. Now to be fair, these were cool. And could I teach these kids something? Sure. But was it my specialty? No not really. Not only that I quickly realized that the Kung Fu teacher was still going to be here for another month and I was just going to have to make something up on the side with two of the assistant instructors with heads I was not used to using. In fact this was sort of like an interview if sorts and nobody really thought I knew what I was doing. They saw a white guy. Which to tell the truth, is probably not as bad if I had been a straight up full blooded Cantonese guy because I am damn sure my Sifu would have taken on look at these Nothern heads and said, "Can't help you."

Instead I went over to the drum first and started playing Northern Chinese beats I had learned from my Chinese Dulcimer teacher. In fact, I had always wanted to use these beats somehow in l IP on dance. In fact, hadn't I talked to my Sifu about what we could do visually for these beats that didn't match the Southern style lion dance? Maybe this curveballs was a blessing in disguise.

I drummed.

And people over in shock.

I could feel it. Now that they had heard me drum... even though they didnt know the difference between drum styles or lion heads from this region or that. They knew that I knew what the hell I was doing.

I showed these kids basic head movements but respected the Kung Fu theybhad already learned. I showed them some jumps rolls and spins but allowed them to freestyle as well. This was the first of three classes. A crash course to be sure. But as long as I was the one that was drumming, it would he okay. 

Gau Duk hui.

Good enough.

The Chinese New Year performance day came and everyone commented on the lion dance. 

"That was incredible" people would say to the performers. "We didnt know you knew lion dance. And who was that white guy? How did he learn to drum like that? Is he in a rock and roll band?"

I should tell you about my children's performance and Joyce's performance in the show... but to he honest, we arrived at Plum Blossom Chinese School and just went out separate ways. When I was there I was a teacher and couldn't care about whatever activity they were doing at all.... which to be honest... turned out being what they preferred. They were happy to get me off of their back.

After the show was over and people were preparing for the dinner portion if the evening I saw Athena walking towards me fla led by two men. They introduced themselves...trying to assert themselves as more important than Athena. Which I sensed was not the case. Not only this, but Athena was not annoyed by this or submissive about this but simply seemed to be watching... amused.

"I am Kai. Kai Polk." Said an older man that reminded me of a bank manager that had once been my supervisor in Chinatown. He was a man I only sort of got along with but had respsected, "This is Mo Yung Tai.... so you know the lion dance"

I shook hands and was nodding while being bombarded by questions.

"We are from Central Chinese Community Center. I have eight lion heads and the drum. The other kind. You know how to.play the other kind? And the head too wr have the new kind. You know that one? Ok good. Can you teach our school instead? We have the better equipment."

"Uhhh. My kids already enrolled here in Plum Mountain and they are paying me" I glanced over at Athena who gave a slight nod, "In fact they are paying very well" Athena smiled at me as I continued, "and I'm not trying to run around all crazy to teach lion dance all over New Jersey. But you guys cab join my class if you like and then go to Central and teach your kids."

"Oh no... haha I don't... I'm too old. But we have a lion dance teacher... but nobody to teach drum. Our teacher is volunteer. For society and for culture heritage. We want to have a drumming for Taiwan National only Day for Virgin performance. If you teach then I can collect the fee and get the drums buy in Taiwan. "

I wanted to say no.... but then...I thought about that lame performance I had done a month ago. A year from now I wanted to have a real team of teens performing in Manhattan's Chinatown the way I had once done as a teenager. Maybe these guys had ties to the some organizations there who could sponsor us.

"If I teach can we go to Chinatown and do the parade?"

"As long as Double Ten they can do it then any other performance as long as the parents have time that is up to you. You provide the teaching and I will organize to collect fees and provide the equipment."

We shook hands.

Lions of Bamboo Bridge: Chapter Three. Athena Chu

Lac and Sakura, though seemingly not overly impressed with my children's lion head... the head or the skills, had talked to people I would later find out. 

I got a phone call which I first thought was some sort of scam. 

"Where did you get this number?" I asked trying to sound as nice as I could say in the words. You know where I'd you get this number.....out of curiosity. Not where did you get this number...cause I hate you and wish you would die. 

"Oh I am a friend of Athena's. Athena Chu...she mentioned she had had a friend of a friend that knew lion dance.. and lived on The Peak..."

Well did live on The Peak and I did know Lion Dance... but how would anyone know that. The woman in the phone didn't know  Lac or Sakura either. She knew Athena... whom I had never met.... but whatever I decided I would just go with it.

And that brings us back to the ending of my little lion dance where I ended with a speech and an Kung 5 lakes 4 oceans salute which didn't mean anything to anyone in the audience except that they too had watched Kung Fu Panda. And left as quick as possible  to reward my children with the food that was promised them if they just listened to me throughout the performance ( which they had)

Somehow a woman in the audience, out of all the people in the audience, caught my eye. Not the way a pretty woman catches your eye. But the way that someone who has a gravitational pull of spirit catches your eye and you are pulled to their gaze whether you like it or not. 

She stopped me as I was walking out.

"Athena Chu" she said with a firmness thatvwas also soft, offering her hand to shake.

"Peter Zhang" I spat out out of breath and sweating profusely.

"Can you teach as well?".

"I can."

"You seem to be good with children."

"I am better with children that aren't my own."

Joyce was gesturing violently for me to hurry along. In fact, later in the night she would be frustrated to the point with the children and spilling of lo mein and misplacing of equipment that scolding became a beating on the side of the road. 

Which made all of us never want to do another lion dance ever again in New Jersey, to burn our heads and drums and take up softball or whatever the hell it was that people in New Jersey did. 

But that was ten to twenty minutes after meeting with Athena. At this moment, sweaty as I was I appeared to be somewhat in control of a lion dance team. Even if it was a team with baby heads and ratty outfits. 

"I'll contact you shortly... are you teaching at Plum Blossom Chinese school? You are friends of Lac and Sakura right? I have children that study there as well. We will be in touch." She smiled which ended the conversation with out a doubt and was back in her seat on the bleachers almost instantaneously.

The next time I went to Plum Blossom I was presented with two Northern Style Lion heads and Northern Style drum. 

Lions of Bamboo Bridge Chapter Two: The Peak

I think I should take a few steps back for a moment. You see its not as if I had a lion dance fall out of the sky at me the second I moved to New Jersey. First of all, my family moved to New Jersey first. Joyce and the two kids. And I was in Boston having various adventures on my own. Parents will say how they truly kiss their children and I thought I would too. But the truth is, once they were out if sight, they were out if mind. I had been away from true traditional lion dance in the old ritualistic sense for almost as long as my children were alive. You see left to my own devices, I was off creating my own heads and creating my own rituals, mixing magic and religion and self affirmation. Joyce thought I had absolutely gone insane. In fact watching my children play and imagine and worship childhood creatures in the moving altar of a screen had also made me question and unpack rituals. When Nara was very young, we had made her brush  her teeth in the bath tub, and out of convenience, gross or not, Joyce had used the bath water to wet the tooth brush, tapping the bottom of the tub. Later when Nara could brush her teeth on her own, she had started to tap the floor outside of the tub in some sort of ritual and was fanatically upset when we tried to explain to her she had misunderstood the original purpose behind the tapping of the brush on the tubs bottom ( to wet it). To her it was doctrine and cursed be those who would dare to interfere with this sacred tradition passed done to her by her parents. Even it was those self same parents. 

Needless to say I began thinking of when I first learned lion dance in Boston's Chinatown. When first ordering a head from a paper catalogue I had pointed at a black Kei Lun.

"You like that one? That's not a lion head it's a kei lun...we don't play those ones." My Si Hing had explained. And also gone on to explain how the Zhang Fei Head, the black head with the beard cut short. Was a problematic lion to have. It wasn't really useful for weddings and store openings as most people would not want it. And on New Year's it was a fighting head. The point of this digression is that I had always wanted a black lion head. In facemt even before all this my first memory of lion dance is ducking under a table with my mother believing that a Zhang Fei head travelling to the kitchen of a bakery was there to eat me. (You see, some business owners did like, ir atleast accepted, the Zhang Fei head.)

Fast forward to New Jersey... I was part of no school and had baby heads that had been given to me by a friend from another school whose students had outgrown them for ten years I had travelled around Boston with my kids like a one man circus telling stories and entertaining small children with my own version of lion dance.

We had moved because there were better jobs for us in New Jersey and better schools and Joyce's childhood home on The Peak. A neighborhood named after the prestigious Hong Kong district. Except since it was New Jersey the houses were bigger and cheaper. It wasnt all HK people. Madoff's Liuetenant had owned a house down the street one way, and an Italian Mob Boss had owned the house a few blocks down on the other side. 

The first year I had to walk to our bus stop, which was annoying because the street did  not have a sidewalk. I tried to practice Kung Fu all day. But mostly I avoided Joyce's mother until they actually moved out, and the. I would watch Netflix all day. I felt isolated. I would then pick up the kids and walk them home where they would play in the yard. It was one day while in tha basement on a sunny day with the children laughing outside that I had the sudden urge to blow my brains out. Except of course I did not own a gun. But I could feel the deep sinking feeling and indeed have been the outlet for many a wandering soul as a meditation and Kung fu teacher, I knew what it was, this darkness. And so immediately texted a friend, who ended up putting me in touch with someone she knew in NJ. Her name was Athena Chu.

I was introduced to her as someone who knew lion dance and she told me that she would like to talk to me at some point, as she had a school that might be looking for a Kung Fu and lion dance teacher in a few months.

That doesn't exactly sound like a support system. But it was something to look forward too.

The next day walking back from the bus, I noticed that there was a bus stop that passed our house, and the man waiting at the stop looked Asian. As did the child getting off the bus.

"Nara who is that?" 

Jinn answered, "Oh that's Miroku. I think he's Japanese. We play soccer together."

I noticed the man waving at me and we walked over.  In talking he mentioned Jie Jie getting off the bus soon.

"Are you guys Cantonese?" 

"Oh actually yes I am."

"Jinn, why did you say they were Japanese?"

"Oh actually, my wife is half Japanese  and half.... well white and I am Cantonese... but my family is from Vietnam. Confusing I know." 

Actually I wasn't confused at all but I just smiled and nodded. 

"My name is Lac" he added.

"Peter" I said. "Peter Zhang."

"Oh? I thought you were white... but now that you mention it."

I continued to smile and nod.

I guess I should add here, albeit randomly that yes the Zhang fei of the Zhang fei black lion head is indeed the same as my family name... another reason. Perhaps for my obsession.

Lac saw my baby lion heads and saw me try and get the kids interested in them. And Helen...the Jie Jie older sister mentioned earlier came.over for this children's party, called a play date in neighborhoods like these, as did Sakura, Lac's wife. 

Sakurs spoke very quickly. And you wouldn't really know she was Japanese by looking at her. She looked more Mediterranean. And she suddenly bowled me over with questions. 

"So do you guys speak Chinese at home then?" Sakura asked. "Because we send our kids to Plum Blossom. Actually it started off as a Chinese school but they decided to expand. The text books are just an app on the phone and it's more about getting together, talking in whatever the target language is. They a couple of us that try and learn Japanese too. We just watch anime and read Manga. That one is adults and we aren't that serious.  Ut they are looking for someone to teach Kung Fu because the teacher they have now is going to China."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah would it be okay if I gave them your number?"

And pretty soon after that Joyce and I were gad enrolled our children in Plum Blossom. Joyce even signed up for Tai Chi class and I had begun teaching children Kung Fu. They had mentioned that at some point they may have lion heads that would be available for me to use as well as a couple  of teenagers to learn it for their Chinese New Year Gala.