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."