Possible last thought of Wan Biao: 'if these were real Triads they would have at least put some fucking rocks in this suitcase.'
So much for Original Gangstas. Actually I'm just a bit too sad about this to say anything else right now.
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Kept seeing mobs of unplaceable Chinese people on Courtney Place over the weekend. They didn't look like international students. Nor 1.5 Invaders, business migrants, or Southeast Asians. Who the hell were these Chinese people with their nondescriptly tasteful dress-sense and quiet conversational style?
Then it struck me. This was Wellington. They were O.Gs, gathering for the sport and cultural events of the Easter Tourney. That's right, Chinese people who like sport. When I first read about these Old Generation Chinese in Dragons on the Long White Cloud, which asserted how much Chinese people like sport I snorted in laughter and promptly forgot this impossible assertion.
Easter Monday and Jet bar was packed with O.G. yoof types. I chatted with Jason Moon as the event was winding up that evening. He had definitely enjoyed playing his character in Sione's wedding, "I got to play a real dick! I was a Chigger, man!" He added that it was a damn sight better than playing a takeaway deliveryman.
Too much of a FOB perhaps for the O.G. Jet Bar party, and true to my stripes, I ended up at Rain - the closest Wellington has to Margaritas. Not so much the 'most' Asian bar than, I think, the only Asian bar.
Perhaps it was because it was the only dance club open on Easter Monday, or perhaps because there just aren't as many east-Asian students in Wellington than in Auckland, but the crowd was in fact an interesting mix of say 50-60% East, Southeast and South Asians, with the rest whitish, and a boothful of Samoans who were laughing at all of us - a lot. They came round though. It's possible that Asians who can dance have the same status as Chinese people who like sport - no-one really believes they exist until you see them for yourself.
Funnily enough, I noticed this poster outside Jet the next day:
They should have given Jason a few of these lines in Sione's Wedding:
anyone with two cents would know
I'm a hardcore player from the streets
Rappin' bout hardcore topics
Over hardcore drum beats
a little different than the average though
Jet you thru the fast lane
Drop ya on death row
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Thanks for a lovely week Wellington. Keith and I met up with Che Tibby for the duck-into-face challenge at HK BBQ Cafe that Che has been going on about for ages in his blog. The food wasn't bad - although Keith displayed symptoms of clinical depression when faced with their version of 'Hong Kong style tea.' It is true however that no-one can really fuck up a lemon coke. I made Cha my permanent home as usual - the mala bean-thread noodle salad is soul food to me. The counterpart for that dish in Auckland can be found at my favourite little mainland joint, Huangs BBQ and Bakery (neither a BBQ place nor a bakery) at Lims Supermarket complex in Mt Albert, where it is done more mainland style, much hotter, with fat-ass rice noodles. Auckland doesn't seem to have a nice Taiwanese diner anywhere in the central city, although I assume there must be a few out Eastside - any tips people?
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Yeah. Hardcore topics.