Yellow Furry Lullaby
(Sound in - #1. walking on a leafy forest-30 sec)
TI (Slow)
We're going on a bear hunt
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared
YC (Middle speed)
We're going on a bear hunt
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared
TI (Hurried)
We're going on a bear hunt
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared
(Sound out - 10 sec)
YC: Let us tell a story of how bears signalled the beginning of human history. According to Korean legend, about 5000 years ago, a tiger and a bear wished to be human, so they prayed. Finally, a god of the mountain advised them: ‘if you eat only garlic and mugwort in a dark cave, without seeing any light for 21 days, you will become a woman’. They started a journey of transformation together. The tiger gave up soon after. But the bear managed to endure, and walked out of the cave as a woman. Not only that. The son of God, who came to the earth to build his holy kingdom, was attracted to this bear woman. Between this heavenly spirit and the bear woman, the first king was born.
(YC pour the dandelion liquor 1)
TI: Well, that’s the story we grew up with. Yes, we are the descendants of this hybrid. We have been holding the future since the very beginning. However, we also have our suspicion - why did the bear woman not become the first queen of the nation? She's the one who endured God's horrible test, not her hybrid son. Where is her glory? The story of the human king continues, but we don’t know much about what happened to the bear woman. She seemed to exist only to be the bearer of a great man. Giving birth to a holy manchild, and her story ends there! This feels like unfinished business.
WE ARE GOING TO FIND HER!!
(TI pour the dandelion liquor 2)
(Sound in - #1. walking on a leafy forest)
TI
We're going on a bear hunt
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared
Uh-uh! A forest!
A big dark forest.
We can't go over it
We can't go under it
We've got to go through it!
(Sound out)
YC: As soon as I gave birth, holy spirits and humans took my child away from me, saying I am still a bear in a human body. They dismissed me as primitive, uneducated and inferior, and expelled me from their kingdom. I was deeply despondent. Yet I was excited about going back to the forest I had missed so much. You know, we bears are a true nomad after all - we know where to find delicious fruits and mushrooms. But the forest was no longer there. Instead, an unbearable horror was waiting. All the trees were cut down. My fellow bears had been hunted down for their skins, gallbladder and feet, or just for the thrill of hunting down a beast. My life depended on escape. I became an exile.
(YC pour the dandelion liqour 3)
(Soung in - #2. underwater sound)
YC (change the tone)
We're going on a bear hunt
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared
Uh-uh! A river!
A deep cold river!
We can't go over it
We can't go under it
We've got to go through it!
TI: I arrived in the land of dreams and opportunities. Looking down on me, people in uniform said, "Tawny skin, thick dark hair, you must be a bear in a human body!" But they didn't expel me. They saw how useful my resilience and patience could be for their empire-building. They gave me a loan and contract. The deal was written in black and white.
(TI: pour the dandelion liquor 4)
YC: Sailing down the river and across the ocean, I travelled to all the continents. First, to the gold mines in South Africa. I was one of the 64,000 Chinese indentured labourers, called coolies. We could not leave the mines without permission, we could not interact with local people. The government considered us to be criminals if found outside the mining camps. It reminded me of the dark cave I endured. But worse. Instead of 21 days, we were locked in for 8 years and another 8 years for many. I heard the most dangerous destinations were the guano mines on the islands, off Peru, where toxins burned the eyes, throat and lungs. Very few ever returned to home.
(YC: pour the dandelion liquor 5)
TI: Then I went off to the sugar plantations in Cuba, Hawai'i and Mauritius. In Cuba, about 6,000 Chinese workers arrived every year. We were sold for between $100 and $500 per head. We were chained without committing any crime. We were humiliated by being stoned on the street. We had no choice but to work day and night, day and night, and day and night. At the farm, at the railroad, we built the cities and bridges. For many of us, this hard-working life and public despair simply continued all the way to the 21st century.
(TI: pour the dandelion liquor 6)
YC
We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.
Uh-uh! A tide!
A fast fierce tide.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
We've got to go through it!
TI: My back was about to break from long hours of harvesting cockles. In Morecambe Bay, cockles are called the shells of gold. I had to collect 25kg to get paid £5. Still, this was better than getting paid 18 pence a day for working in extremely dangerous mining pits, in my hometown Fujian on Southeast Coast of China. I thought of the family I left there and worked through the dark, cold and misty winter night in February. I was too tired to notice the incoming of the eight-metre tide. Local fishermen warned me the low tide is turning, so I must escape. But they were not my boss. The overwhelmingly fast high tide swallowed me up and washed me away. I tried to run, but the tides were faster. I still remember all the shells of gold I picked that night and how they all scattered through the water bubbles and foam. They looked shinier than ever.
A few days later, the Chinese embassy in the UK announced a warning message. The statement claimed that there had been an incident, involving a group of Chinese tourists. They went to the seaside to watch the sunrise and drowned by miscalculating the time of the rising tide. Allegedly, there is no longer poverty in China, so I became a tourist in the official news. No country for the poor. The poor belongs nowhere in this world.
(Sound zoom out)
(TI: pour the dandelion liquor 7)
TI
We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.
Uh-uh! A snowstorm!
A swirling whirling snowstorm.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
We've got to go through it!
(fierce bell ringing)
[silence]
YC: Bang! Bang! Bang! We were just a bunch of hard-working women who were doing our best to survive and support our loved ones. Then, came this man with a lot of anger. He pulled out a pistol. The rain of bullets... He claimed my Asian body induced him to a dirty desire. In his eyes, I was a slut, I was an evil who should be eliminated for keeping his Christian body white clean. Bang! Bang! Bang! The gunfire carried on. The police officer announced it was not a racially motivated attack. The poor boy had a really bad day, the poor boy is a sex addict. Bang! Bang! Bang! The gunfire gets louder and closer. Agony, screaming, so much blood and loss of love. It reminded me of the horror in my home forest where my family and friends were hunted down for their skin, gallbladder and feet, or just for the thrill of hunting. The massage parlours in Atlanta looked exactly like that.
(TAKE A MOMENT)
(pour the dandelion liquor 8)
YC:
We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.
Uh-uh! A cave!
A narrow gloomy cave.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
We've got to go through it!
TI:
WHAT’S THAT!
One shiny wet nose! Two big furry ears!
Two big googly eyes! IT’S A BEAR!
YC:
Quick!
Back through the cave!
Back through the snowstorm!
Back through the tide!
Back through the river!
Back through the forest!
Get to our front door. Open the door.
Up the stairs. Oh no! We forgot to shut the door.
Back down stairs. Back upstairs.
Into the bedroom
Into the bed
Under the covers
We are not going on a bear hunt again.
TI:
I became an exile and wandered the world to find out what it means to be a human. It was a journey of fear and despair. Yet, I endured all the tears and sweat. My back and shoulders are aching from excessive labour and full of scars from my master's whipping. My breath is intoxicated. My hands are rough and dirty. My bones are broken into pieces by fierce high tidal waves. My stomach is bleeding heavily from gunshots. And I am, I am really tired... It all started here in this cave with my dream to become a human. Was it worth it? I don't know. I just endured. And I am walking out of the cave again.
(Sound in - #3. the forest sound) - 3 mins long, till the end.
This time, I don't dream to be a human. Instead, I will follow the gentle smell of old spring. There, can you see? The bright yellow dandelions are swaying and waving at me.
(Singing Korean lullaby)
TI:
우리아기 착한아기 소록소록 잠들라
하늘나라 아기별도 엄마품에 잠든다
둥둥아기 잠자거라 예쁜아기 자장
YC:
우리아기 금동아기 고요고요 잠든다
바둑이도 짓지마라 곱실아기 잠깰라
오색꿈을 담뿍안고 아침까지 자장
(Give away the glasses filled with the dandelion liquor and raise the glass with the audience)
Cheers! Happy Lunar New Year!
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Reference
* Linné, Carl von. A General System of Nature: Through the Three Grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals .... United Kingdom, Lackington, Allen, and Company, 1806.
* Tawada, Yoko. Memoirs of a Polar Bear. United Kingdom, Granta Publications, 2016.