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. 

stress slacking

I feel like what I was doing the first week is completely different then what I am doing now. I am working from home... but I have been slacking on my creative endeavors. I haven't even been doing much TV watching. I guess I have been focusing on working out more than anything. I have also re established KungbFu class. Meditation Mondays, Tai Chi Tuesdays, Wang Wednesdays ( Christie Wang's work out session on the Hydrow. The kids will hurt themselves if they use the machine. Other kids can do it but my kids are bot ready for that) Thursdays are a regular external class.... Training Thursdays. Fun Fridays. ( we are gonna do energy guns and Ninja stars.  I need to get protective eye wear. Slacker Saturdays ( ie nothing for now...or maybe we can do Silly Saturdays or something like that. ) and then Salute to Sun Sundays. Just do the Yoga Salute to Sun a bunch of times... that's kind of Churchy right?    Today every time I sit down or try to have my own thought the kids are doing something. I mean they were good when I was working but.... well we'll see. It looks like I have to schedule my blog entries and reading time and writing the movie script I had an idea for. In fact I had said they were gonna help me with that....we'll see. 

disconnect

Does anyone else feel like there is a real disconnect between what I am experiencing in life, basically as a frog at the bottom of the well, and what I am seeing on the news? The news comes from New York which is not that far away. And even local news.... I mean I feel like... okay we are almost good. It could be time to go outside now....but then I read. Ot only about deaths buy the way in which it happens and I am like, hell no.  We are not leaving the house.  Even if we somehow catch it, then we will handle it all here live or die. Because it really doesn't look like there is much they can do for you anyway. In China they had Hazmat suits on... but the doctors and nurses in NY are wearing a flimsy looking mask and no goggles...almostbas if nobody in this country was following the South China Morning post or countless other online media covering China... which had video and subtitles. Maybe they could be considered unreliable I don't know, but better than  nothing. It was in English too btw. I am realizing that no...even if we open up... I might have to put my foot down and really say that no we are going to be the "crazy ones" and just not leave the house. I am also seeing that what I called social distancing is what others would have called quarantine. And what they call social distancing....I think I would have considered to be just normal life.

ye jook

Before when I heard about eating ye jook meaning that you practiced real kung fu I thought it meant you were so bad ass that you practiced all day and all night. But now it means something ih ngbdifgerent. Yes I had time to practice King Fu earlier in the day when my kids were asking me questions and I was doing other things and washing dishes and eating and all that. I had time...  but did I have focus? Even though right now in the middle of the noght6I am not practicing particularly hard... I feel that I am at least actually able to practice. Now granted, I could have played caked with my kids and worked some sort of play time into training the way I so often did on the playground when they were smaller. Even though that practice isnt as focused it may even be better because it would be dealing with another person and be more dynamic. It may even be better than practicing alone in the dark and not ne6trying that hard and being limited by the space and all that. But practicing in the dark when everyone else is asleep has a different mental feeling. I mean just compare this little writing session with the two sentences I tried to string together earlier in day light when I "had time."

Goals

I told myself I was going to practice Kung Fu several times a day. To tell the truth now that I have more time, I am definitely doing less. I am even doing less than I was doing when we first starting staying in the house. It is like it takes an effort to be someone that is staying in the house all day... well sort of. At any rate, I am actually going to do more reading and practicing today and not rely as much on Facebook or other devices, (this is what I say as I blog) But I feel like it is important for me to write down my thoughts everyday, just as I told my children to do. Mostly I have been talking with my family which I guess is a good thing, and that is why I haven't "gotten as much done"

I need to write even if it is about nothing, just to remember that I know how to do it I suppose. I am looking at this and seeing that I have not even filed a page. Mostly because I was interupted several times while writing. So maybe I have to choose another time  to do this in the day. I have written all this and said very little so perhaps for today, I am done with this and will talk to my wife instead.

rabbit Ram head

I did the first coat of paper mache over this creature I made. It has a horn like a Kei Lun and Nian. But it also has bunny ears and ram horns. It kind if looks evil and a. It like a fertility pagan demon with sharp teeth. A little like Seshomaru actually. I didnt want to use flour for paper mache because in this time of social distance quarantine flour is very valuable. We use it to make bread. Instead I used some wood glue which I had bought to patch up the drum I had which had cracked a bit. I may have made the mixture too watery... but I'm getting better at it and am confident the next head I make with paper mache wont have a paper mache problem. Here are the next two projects I am planning after this head is done. I want to make a lion head. Real sized. But I need more bamboo. I don't want to have to get cheap with the bamboo strips. But also.... I want to make the whole head entirely out of bamboo. That is to say, it will be a fram that is so reinforced that it won't require paper mache. This just means putting more strips and weaving them into the frame. I also want to heat some bamboo poles to bend them to be the main parts of the frame in addition to thinner bamboo strips. I am sure this will all be more difficult than I imagine but I hope it will like cool and be freaking strong.

My Kung Fu digital Neighborhood

I just finished watching A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood with Tom Hanks. It makes me want to watch all the old episodes of Mr. Roger's neighborhood and also read the article the movie is based on with Noah and Jonah. I think it would be cool to do Kung Fu from a Mt. Rogers's experience. I had thought of the idea before when changing from my regular shoes at the old Moh Goon into Kung Fu shoes. But back then I thought of it more as a joke. I feel like I could do an approximation of such a show at my house where instead of Trolley and that sort of thing I have lion heads and drums. Now in my kind it would also be cool to stop by places and have people that stop by who speak Taishanese and want to share their stories etc. You know, people that used to stop by Moh Goon. Even drug addicts. Actually in Boston, there were many types of people who would stop by from homeless and robbers and thieves and politicians to Scientists, Professors and entrepreneurs. Jamaica Plain also had very interesting people at the playground. I also have an idea for a screen play ok n my mind that I think I really should put effort into now. To finish it and craft it and sharpen it.