-^-for posterity-^-

the lunar new year is approaching and all is hectic.

last night i was invited to go to a pre-tet celebration of the chinese-vietnamese organization here in long xuyen. i was picked up by one of my bosses.

we first went to a traditional chinese temple. the outside was decorated to the hilt. the inside was full of weathered chinese men and golden statues. all was dark and the smoke from the incense hung quietly in the air. we went to a table. sitting around it were eight old, chinese men. they all looked like sages and all had very unique faces. one face seemed to swallow up the eyes. another face had too many cheeks. one face was worn and wrinkled. another man had only one tooth on the right side of his mouth. he looked like an ancient snake that had lost one of his fangs in some sort of terrible cosmic battle.

the chinese temple was only the meeting point. we moved from there to a large hotel room. there were tables and heavy chairs. the room was thin and long with large pillars in the middle. the front of the room was decorated with signs that said, “happy new year”, and some things about this next year being the year of the goat.

there was a band. i use the term “band” loosely. they had a synthesizer, a bass, a guitar and a drum kit that was a throwback to a terrible 1980’s music video.

we listened to speeches in chinese and vietnamese. i understood some things but the only thing i really needed to do was to clap when everyone else did. there was a roving video camera with a huge floodlight. the camera man would blast this light in our direction and we would all pretend that we didn’t notice. he was like zeus hurling lightning bolts around.

some of the people had a wonderful idea. they thought i should sing. they asked if i knew any songs and, stupidly, i said i did. i asked the band if they knew any song by bob dylan. they didn’t. they said i should play guitar.

i stood in front of a silent room of over one hundred chinese people living in long xuyen. i played, “down in a willow garden”, which is an old bluegrass number. it’s sad and slow.

“down in a willow garden where me and my true love did sleep, twas there we fell a courtin’ my love fell off to sleep, i had a bottle of burgundy wine my true love did not know, and there i poisoned that dear little girl down under the banks below. i stabbed her with my dagger which was a bloody mess, i threw her in the river which quickly ended her life, my father often told me that love would set me free, the day i murdered that dear little girl whose name was rose connelly. my father stood at his cabin door watching with tear filled eyes. he watched as his only son mounted the scaffold high, my race is run benieth the sun and hell is waiting for me. all cause i murdered that dear little girl whose name was rose connelly.”

it’s quite a misogynistic and disturbing song.

so the band decided they would join me in the middle. i was standing with the guitar slung around my neck and a small, shy waitress holding the microphone. the drum kit started up. i could have been in a boy george video. the drummer wasn’t listening or didn’t care. he played some strange drum beat that belonged to a hard rock song. the bassist couldn’t follow and the synthesizer was creating chaos.

when i thought all was lost, a table in the back all stood up and started shouting and clapping. in the middle of the song they all ran to the front of the stage and surrounded me. they danced. when i was talking about, “stabbing her with my dagger which was a bloody mess” one of them men handed me a flower.

surreal. the only way to describe it.

the night came to a close and i was dragged up to the stage a few more times to dance with some old men. they were short and wrinkled and were determined to have me spin under their hands. i was the girl, they were the man. so i complied and spun around and around.

the lunar new year is approaching and i had no idea it was going to be this wonderful.