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.

Lions of Bamboo Bridge Chapter one: Petals in the Stream

We arrived at the high school dressed in silky Han style uniforms. We could have stepped off of the set of a Kung Fu movie. Only we would have been playing some rebel group hiding out in the mountains because the clothing, once crisp and clean, had become somewhat ratty and ill fitting. Wrinkled, buttons falling off, a little short in the sleeves, and with mismatched belts....we looked fine, until another team in bright laser graphics of dragons came idly walking in. I tried saying hi to them but they kept walking like I owed them money. Their Dragon was new. Their drum was expensive looking. They said they didn't understand English... and then seemed not to understand my accent, and then the kids that were born here just shrugged and didn't want to talk. Theybdid their routine quite well. They paused at all the right moments, holding for applause. You could tell they had rehearsed often with a strict teacher giving instructions and corrections. There was a crispness to it. ....at the same time it was very much a folk dance choreographed routine. They had a drum, but loud music was piped in and the dance was timed to the recording with the drum trying it's best to sync up with it. It was off because it is extremely difficult not to be, and there is a reason why that is  not how its traditionally done. But if your audience doesn't know any better...

And then it was our turn.

Our drum did not look expensive.

Our lion heads were nice enough, but they were children's heads. And when people see cute... they don't necessarily acknowledge skill.

I started off speaking in Cantonese which shocked some of the Chinese members of the audience. Did I mention I look white? I am half Chinese and Nara my daughter looks Asian as does my more or less fully Asian wife. (Though she never spit in a vile for a DNA test the way I did so who really knows?) And my younger one Jinn, my son, is as Asian as his older sister....by he also looks white. The go figure.

One could say NJ one of this matters.....unless you are doing a traditional Chinese dance. This is why Joyce my wife told me to do an intro in Cantonese even though most of the audience was white. We had to look like we knew what we were doing before we started. So I made a big show as if I just stepped off the set of a TVB period piece, with hand gestures and a booming Wuxia male voice... cause why not?

 Our baby lion heads were little Liu Bei Lions, and ironically had white hair. They had been gifts from another Sifu in Boston whose students had grown into men and women. I had used them at many a library, school, and children's performance around Boston's Chinatown and other Boston Neighborhoods. Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Downtown, Copley, and the Common. Nara actually had pretty could head movements. 

The tails were short. Like short short. Slew had another red lion head that we had used that had seen better days, and we had made the tail to that one longer by seeing some cloth from IKEA which had happened to have the 喜喜  wedding pattern all over it.

Anyway, I pulled that off the red head, which I still used for classes and teaching and put it onto the little Liu Bei head so that Nara and Jinn could do a proper lion dance with the tail a decent distance away from the head without falling out or being cramped.

Joyce played the other head with nobody as her tail. It was short enough so that but didnt hit the ground. We looked fine. If you hadn't expected a real lion dance team we looked great. The problem I guess was that we WERE a real lion dance team. But this is what we had and who we had. Our family and volunteers from the audience which I would teaching right now. Not minutes before I went on stage, but as part of the show...after I went on stage. In fact, as you may recall, I was on stage right at this moment. 

We had the drum propped on a wooden box like structure. It was actually a base to some sort of statue. You see, we had left Boston because of work/school/money.  Yeah that's it. In theory we had also moved to be closer to Joyce's parents in their old age. But what actually happened was they kind of fled when we moved in, like we kicked them out of their house. But that is a different story isn't it?

The house was filled with many treasures and creatures from across the world. But all of them like second rate treasures. Oh were you looking for the holy Grail to give you eternal life? No we don't have that. But we have the Grail of bitter mouth wash that will make your teeth actually have more plaque...but for up to three days tou will be able to strike an enemy (or friend  if you weren't careful) dead with a single blow from your left hand.

Oh were you searching for the questing beast? Well here are a pair of Nian monsters that fit I to the palm of your hand. (These were good actually because they ate compost and dust and seemed to be happy with that. They didnt take much maintenance. In fact we didn't even realize they were living with us. Once I reopened an altar they came to pray by the incense and started living properly. Joyce's mother had neglected these spiritual creatures really, and failed to realize they could actually guard the house small as they were.

Oh were you looking for the wordless book from Heaven? Well...we have a wordless crumpled up note pad that various deities use to give us "prophecies" mostly they are jokes. I mean some of them are pretty funny, and I guess if I were a deity, I would want someone to communicate with that could just appreciate my sense of humor too instead asking for all this nonsense. I mean the well meaning prayers are the most difficult of all. Peace on earth and good health for everyone... that's even harder than asking for a new car if you think k about it. For a new car you can just encourage them to work for it and it is a real possible goal you know?

Anyway. That's what I mean by second rate treasures. I mean they were one of a kind...but also kind of worthless to an thief or something. Even potentially dangerous. So there were Ll these knick knock andnstuff too. Statues all over the house. Not displayed nicely but dumped next to cans of bamboo shoots leftover from before the Cultural Revolution, and soap and toothpaste and records from some other neighbor who hoarded too, and then died. 

So among these things, we found a little box to put our little boyish drum on. It looked good for display honestly. The box was a nice color, the drum was a nice color, it sat at a good height to play the drum so long as you got into a front stance first. All was well. Well... sort of. Ehh you'll see.

"The drum is the beginning. When you hear the beat of your mother's heart when you are first conceived and coming unto existence it is this beat. Dudum du dumb dududm. And from their you get that basic lion dance beat. But to do our lion dance we will need more than that. We will need the crashing of the cymbals and the playing of the gong. Let's clap it first. CHAHNG chahng Chahng. Pause! CHAHNG chang Chang. 123 123. Yes good now stop."

I had the whole audience clapping and then repeating the drum beats. Duc doo g chahng duc doing chahng.

Then they would sing it back.

Duc doing Chang chahng chahng

And they repeated

You know its very interesting. None Chinese will always jump right in and do this. As will Chinese Americans raised by immigrant parents from the South, those that speak English as a second language, if at all. In fact most of them already sing these words. But the second English becomes their first language, it is as if speaking with those tones has somehow become taboo. Not just foreign, but forbidden. Something to be ashamed of and not repeated especially if you are immersed in white culture. 

Well anyway the whole gym of mostly non Asians was booming these words at my instruction at the moment, as was the case every single time I did this.

I found people who could play cymbals and gongs. Actually I went through several rounds giving people volunteers from the audience a turn. Honestly, if we stayed on this section of the performance and never even did lion dance their might not even be any complaints. If I had nobody with me and made the audience dance with the head the only complaint would be that they didn't get a turn, or two turns, or three turns on the lion head. Really we could just stand on the precipice of lion dance without actually doing it for three hours and the children would think the event was great. I guess the real reason we did the lion dance was because I wanted to do it. 

After a few rounds of drum playing I began to tell the story of the Lion Dance.

Gu Doi yee cheen
Yau yiew gwai giew lean.
But long but fu yau si jee mean
Leen leen do lei
sic yeh sai lei
di yan lee mai san serng bei yut bei.
Yau yut yut hai teen lock lei
do hai giew leen
Bo wu ngau dei
Leen leen yee hau
Jing fahn see tau
Da lau gu ehrng siew jerng pau
Leen moh gung
moh duc sahng mahng dee
Bai mun hou hing jook sun leen
Sahng uee hing long
Sun tai geen hong

現在鼓ooooogle Translate My song...

(Then I played the drum in a more hip hop inspired beat. some people didn't like this. But... this was my drum and my show.)

In Kingdom 月 there was a village

That the Nian monster would come and pillage.

He came every year

and out of fear

People hid up in the mountains crying tears

Until One day, Came a new Nian

Becoming the village guardian. 

Later, Paper, Bamboo and paint, Cloth body tail sculpted into the shape, 

of a head of a fierce horned lion with flames, walk on divine light, like a white crane! Ramming Horn Strikes! Twisting Waist Might! The lion's roar is ready to fight! A paper Mache moving meditation, The drum sings the heartbeat of a nation! Grasping the Sky from the earth to Rise, the sun and moon have Organized...

Groundshaking firecrackers exploding red paper and smoke, spring couplets penned by old folk. 

Now don't blink an eye and watch what we do, when we dance the lion dance Hei Gu!!!

And then we were lion dancing.

I played that little drum... which wasn't all that little. It didn't look like a toy, but compared to the nicely finished drum of the Dragon team before us, which looked like it was one solid piece if wood hollowed out instead of a barrel of several pieces glued together... well the drum didn't really compare. But the main difference was, I knew how to drum... not just play some beats on the leather but to really create the sound and the atmosphere. I wasn't a student, I was a Sifu.

Embarrassingly, the drum fell from the makeshift stand. It wasn't even a stand but a pedestal. I had used a stronger more stable dolly at home. But that didn't look as good. Now I was stuck trying to fix my drum with one hand and continue the beat. So much for being a Sifu. Now I looked like a clown. 

This is what I have become 

This is freaking pathetic. 

The high school kids who had volunteered to gong and cymbal looked on in horrified sympathy. 

"Should we start over?"

But no... you can't. It's not like a piano recital. Lion dance is more than that. Or should be. At least when it is done right and with the right equipment.

The drum found its balanced point and now the beats carried through that gym. You couldn't tell the drum was so small. To be honest... be cause I hit the center of the drum and because I struck with purpose and as a leader of the gong and cymbals instead if trying to sync with a Karaoke machine....this tiny drum was louder than the one that had played for the dragon.

The lions did their dance. Nara finished up quickly and both heads bowed three times.

I gave  a speech about how we were new to the state of New Jersey and how we were teaching at Plum Blossom Chinese School and how we would be better as our team grew.

I met with some people who inquired about classes and even possibly future performances....really? After that? But it's true we had shown skill despite failure and embarrassment. We needed more people. And to get more people I would have to train more people.