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.