9/11/11

I am willfully ignoring the 9/11 anniversary hoo-ha --what can I say really?-- by focusing more on the Chinese mid-autumn festival. It is the full moon!  It's that time again, I am eating White Rabbits (although no-one has given me any mooncakes) and practicing painting the Four Gentlemen: bamboo, orchids, chrysanthemums and plum flowers.

 I don't really enjoy doing these: it is exercise. (And actually, I did not do any orchids; they bore me.)

But I discover truth in something a qigong teacher told me in Wudang. The move you don't initially like or find difficult will become the one you are most proficient at if you practice.  I have begun to enjoy the plum blossoms!  Combining the wisdom of my Chinese master and my new Korean teacher, I painted some plum blossoms that I actually liked.

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Have begun another Chinese TV series, from 2007, Wing Chun (aka Yong Chun) with the hot commodity, Nicholas Tse, very pretty with flirtatious mannerisms (and an unusual hawkish nose) that lead some to say he's not a very good actor.  In any case, the series (so far) really belongs to Yuen Biao, in a role with a dignified but powerful demeanor that makes me think of a Chinese Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore. (Ling ling qi?) And who else appears?  Sammo Hung, and Gordon Liu in a cameo.  The young Mr. Tse is adorable, as is Sammo Hung's son, Sammy, but this series is making me really appreciate the old guys.  Seasoned tofu, as my friend says.  Speaking of which, two of the characters, children of a noodle/tea shop owner, are actually named Bun (Xiao Mantou) and Tofu.  Bun is in love with Nicholas, Sammy is in love with Bun, Nicholas is in love with some ballet dancer who goes off to Hong Kong.  Nicholas and Sammy are inadvertent circumstantial enemies; perhaps it will work out. Nicholas's father, Yuen Biao, was the target of someone pulling Gordon Liu's strings, but they had a rapprochement in the middle of a serious fist fest. Perhaps Nic and Sammy will work it out too.  Seems to me Bun holds all the cards.

In the meantime, I contemplate the cover of the DVD set.  Nicholas Tse appears to be fending off a giant cucumber. I know nothing of deadly cucumber fist. (But I think I could paint a cucumber.) I have 30 episodes of 40 to go.  Anything could happen.  Bun could give everyone mooncakes.