Remember what I said yesterday about people being friendly here? Well this neighbor of mine thought it was a gesture of welcoming us by offering his first kill of this turkey hunting season to us. It was really a great offer, but I knew too well to accept this giant turkey. You know why? Because I'm Chinese.
I'm assuming anyone reading this blog is waiting impatiently for a more "logical" explanation. Beware, the next paragraph contains gory details of massacring chickens.
If you must know, Chinese used to love to give each other live chickens on Chinese New Year as valuable gifts (before the whole bird flu thing). Why live chickens you ask? Well we always strive for freshness when it comes to food. To the Chinese food connoisseurs, frozen or refrigerated meat is nothing in comparison to freshly killed meat. That is why you still see fish tanks in Chinese grocery stores. Same goes for chickens, ducks, snakes and frogs in Hong Kong.
Photo credits to Margaret W. Miyake
When you buy chickens at the store live, they often ask whether you want it killed, dressed (gutting the chicken), or dressed and split into pieces. Unlike what you think, having it live is most expensive because the vendor cannot salvage anything to be made into other things like BBQ chicken livers and hearts, or pickled chicken legs. So giving people a live chicken means you're no cheapo when it comes to gifting.Well when Chinese New Year comes, guess what you may end up with? A WHOLE LOT OF CHICKENS. At least that was the case for my grandparents. Although my grandmother did not like to deal with the chickens at all, she had to keep the population down in the backyard. Even with years of experience, she still had to chase around to hunt for the weakest link. There she would hold the chicken by the wings (as demonstrated by the butcher in the picture), place the chicken's neck right on the rim of the garbage can, and whack off the head with a meat cleaver. Head would roll into the garbage can and blood will all pour into the garbage.
All went well UNTIL that one day. That one day that she missed. That chicken with the dangling head played dead before she saw that small window of chance and took it. She struggled free and flew all over the kitchen spraying blood everywhere. The end result was my grandma looking like Carrie with pig blood poured over her and feathered standing in a CIS massacre crime scene. Never again would she accept live chickens as gifts (and you wonder why I could eat while I watch "Hannibal"?).
As I have mentioned earlier, that turkey seemed quite dead. But was it totally dead or just playing dead? I did not want to find out and I sure did not want to end up chasing after my puppy chasing after the bloody turkey flying all over the kitchen splattering blood everywhere. So I politely declined his nice offer telling him we couldn't eat that much food. Instead of being offended, he offered to do all the dirty work and split us some of the meat, and announced he better run home to deal with the turkey before it would be too darn hard to dress the dead thing. There I missed my chance to capture my moment. I definitely need a camera on hand AT ALL TIMES!
When I sat back down in my chair and flipped on YouTube, that Dove real beauty sketches commercial popped up . Over this week, I already heard so many people mentioning about it and was repelling it the whole time (just because I tend to be wary of things that go viral all the sudden). Since I had the turkey experience already, I asked myself what else would hurt?
Interesting...
Oh what am I kiddin'? It is friggin' brilliant and moving. I think that everyone's heart got a massive tuck one way or another as they watch this commercial. It really hits my weak spot when one woman comments on her having a round face. When I was young, people would comment how cute and round my face was. But as I grew older, it became fat face. During my training at acting school, to watch myself on videos constantly was torturing as it made my face appear even rounder. My Mom and my sister who are aware of my worries and were being supportive asked whether I wanted to shave off my cheek bones. Having a nasty experience when I contemplated about breasts reduction surgery in my teenage years, I immediately repelled the idea. Besides, at best, I would look like all the pointy face Asian girls you see online everywhere. I rather accept that I have a round face and it is my face. I know there will always be people who are going to tell me that I have super fat face, but I know one thing for sure. I know that there is at least one person who adores my round face. My Bunny.
I don't know how to tell you but these two events trigger this deja-vu moments. Sketching. Round face. Turkey. Bam! I suddenly remember a comic drawing I made of myself and Bunny some time ago. Can I say how eloquently does this picture capture the moment?
If you are wondering who's who in this picture, I'm the Native girl, Bunny is the turkey, and that cute little dog is my parents' Cocker Spaniel who will be 4 this coming May 1.
