![]() ![]() Chang’e’s ascension to the moon happens in a faraway place in a faraway time. The stories associated with these foods have faded into the same realm in which we deposit fairy tales. We don’t know precisely why we are celebrating when we celebrate our parents have described the reasons to us at least once, maybe a couple times, but what we mostly recognize is that these are the occasions where special treats come out. Every year, Chinese New Year arrives at a different time on the Gregorian calendar. Time, for us, is not perfect and crystalline the same way it is for Bruce Lee. Time, for us mortal CHINESE, is defined by years, divided into uneven intervals by festivals and holidays. Time, for Bruce Lee, is defined by the set runtime of the movie, perfect and crystalline and the same every time the film plays. Even Bruce Lee, the omnipotent, requires time in order to function, requires time to annihilate the sign and to destroy the enemy martial artists. We still count by fours.įist of Fury is one hour and forty-eight minutes long. We still remember what it means to be CHINESE outside of China. Long after we have forgotten the words we learned in Chinese school, we still remember the weight of kung fu. We land blows on each others’ bodies because if we do not feel the gravity of Bruce Lee’s teachings pounded into our bones we might drift into the sky, weightless, or evaporate entirely. Roosevelt expounds upon the Four Freedoms that every human being is entitled to. In the 1941 State of the Union address, Franklin D. There are four canonical gospels in the Bible, four Zoas in Blake’s prophetic poetry, four suits in the Tarot, four bodily humors, four classical elements, four quarters of the sky. The universe too follows His quadripartite structure. By existing in the same space as Bruce Lee, we might kindle a splinter of His divinity. We must be livid and indignant at every turn because the instant we stop with our incandescent anger we sink back into the folds of the model minority myth: docile, pliant. The only way that we might ever be seen is through chop-socky. During snack breaks at Chinese school, all of us run to the bathroom together and throw kicks and punches at each other, emulating Bruce Lee, because this is the only way that we can ever exist outside of China. We too inherit His peculiar fierce temperament. We too inherit the quadripartite structure of His four limbs. We are made in the likeness of Bruce Lee. The tongues of us CHINESE have warped to accommodate these cosmic instruments of violence. Bruce Lee uses His four celestial limbs to inflict death. In Mandarin, the number four, 四, is unlucky because it sounds like 死, death. We also derive this universal quadripartite structure from language. ![]()
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