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.