… you accidentally enter the wrong bathroom. While in Chinatown, before my group and I were getting ready to watch a free performance, I needed to use the restroom and remember being confused about which bathroom to enter since both of the doors were wide open and you couldn’t see the front side of either door. I just randomly chose the door on the right and went in and saw nobody. When I come out, I see my group laughing hysterically and think, “What’s so funny?” Then I realize that a guy just came out of the bathroom on the other side – OOPS!! It’s not my fault I can’t read the Chinese words which were on top of the bathrooms which I saw afterwards.
Anyways, aside from this little anecdote, going to Chinatown in downtown Manhattan was in some ways familiar to me while in others, very different. When I think of Chinatown, what comes to mind first would have to be all the very cheap food restaurants and the street vendors. All this, I most definitely saw when I went to Chinatown but I also an artwork, a statue of Confucius which we decided to make our piece of artwork to focus on in Chinatown. We decided to make the statue of Confucius the piece of art we were going to focus on because Confucius is such a central figure in the lives of Chinese people because of all the principles he has set for Chinese people to follow. The statue of Confucius is art because it represents the cultural and moral values of a whole nation.
On our vast expeditions of Chinatown, Rui Yan happened to show us a place where we could enjoy live Chinese performance for free. Unfortunately, when we got to the performance, I didn’t really enjoy it at all. Even though I thought that the costumes for the performance were decent (I keep reminding myself that I need to get a pink suit), I just found the performance to be really boring. All I saw were two emotionless people on stage, who were just singing and nothing else. They didn’t seem engaged with the audience and I couldn’t understand a word they were saying because it was all in Chinese – maybe that’s why they call it “Chinatown”. Before the performance, when Rui Yan and Jodi asked to interview the director of the play, we were sadly turned down because she was busy preparing all the singers. Although we did not get to interview the director, we still did manage to fit in three interviews.
We saw two people just waiting on the corner of the street waiting for somebody so we went up to them and asked them for an interview. Like us, they were also relatively new to Chinatown and they didn’t seem to know too much about it but they did give us some information about the Confucius statue and Columbus Park. After hearing more about Columbus Park, it quickly became our next destination. From a couple blocks away from Columbus Park, we could already hear the wonderful tradition music being played. Without a doubt, Columbus Park is the most eventful place in Chinatown. Within, you would find many older Chinese people just sitting around and playing music which is where we found our next victim. Although our next interviewee was speaking in Chinese, I could tell that he was really knowledgeable about Chinatown and he has been there for a long time. He gave us some insight into his daily life, saying that Chinatown is his life and on a daily basis, he comes to Columbus Park with his little music group, playing their traditional Chinese instruments. After all this, we were all craving (especially me) for some dim-sum which I have always wanted to try so we went to a restaurant that Jodi had suggested. We luckily found a table right away, in which we found our next victims. When asked about the artwork in Chinatown, they were timid in their answers but when asked why do they even come to Chinatown, they had a more direct answer. They were primarily here for grocery shopping and for the very cheap food which I have to say was delicious.
All in all, Chinatown, is not really a place filled with tourist attractions and artwork, but a place filled with street vendors and restaurants. While looking at the statue of Confucius, I realized that we were really the only ones looking at the statue which made me believe that people don’t really come here for the art. In the end, I did come out with a enjoyable experience. I got the chance to listen to traditional Chinese music at Columbus Park, eat dim-sum for the first time in my life, and watch a live Chinese performance. Out of all this, there is most definitely one thing that I will remember the next time I go to Chinatown, always make sure to look above the bathroom and to read all the signs, whether it be in Chinese or English. Hopefully next time I won’t make the same mistake.
haha, it’s hilarious… and I don’t think you want to go to chinatown again………