My personal story about Chinese culture

In the beginning:

I was born in San Francisco, not far from Chinatown, in August of 1955. Living nearby in South San Francisco, I grew up being familiar with great TV shows, pop radio, toys and collecting of baseball cards, stamps, coins; a typical American boy. Stamps taught me a lot about the world, countries, and leaders. My mother was a wonderful seamstress, and also a great cook. My Father worked for Fuller Paint Co. for over 30 years. Sometimes my father would surprise my mom and buy take-out Chinese food. He would come home with the little white cartons that contained a variety of dishes, like Chow-Mien, Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Pork, Fried Shrimp.

When dinner was finished I got excited about the "fortune cookies"; a western creation of a Chinese tradition, for after the meal. Inside of each fortune cookie was a tiny slip of paper that told you your fortune or destiny. Some fortune cookies would quote Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher. The fortune cookie looks similar to a folded dumpling, or Jiaozi. It was an auspicious end to a delicious meal.

As a youngster, I recall interesting toys, like the Chinese ball and cup (a small cup with a ball on a string that is supposed to be caught in the small cup), the Chinese finger-trap (a small woven tube of reed material that would lock your fingers together, when inserted).

As I got a little older, TV and movie theaters got into the act, around 1965, when Chinese Martial Arts became the biggest sensation ever. Bruce Lee (李小龍) brought us Chinese Kung Fu and boxing, while other films showed us a face of China filled with mystery and beautiful women in Chinese styled dramas that catered to the western audience. The Chinese Cheongsam was clearly a Chinese cultural mainstay in my American memory.