Shark Fin Soup
Everything I ever learned I learned from show tunes, so from “Grant Avenue” (Flower Drum Song, 1958, based on a book by C.Y. Lee and revised by Hwang in 2002), I have the following cultural awareness of our Chinese Community in SF:
You can eat if you are in the mood.
Shark fin soup. Bean cake fish.
The girl who serves you all your food
Is another tasty dish!
So I had the speaking and listening students sing it yesterday in honor of the Chinese New Year parade tomorrow—billed as the biggest Chinese celebration outside of Asia—but we sang
“Not shark find soup but bean cake fish”
Because as even some of the students knew (I say even because when I was a college student, I was much too busy to read anything but the funny pages), there’s a shark fin ban, and they understand why.
Of course, we left the 1950s sexist "girl/tasty dish" line.
Tonight is the Chinese New Year Parade, which Bob Irwin says guarantees rain. I'm taking Javier, Vilma, and Bill to dinner at the Millennium, so the only part of the parade we'll witness is the difficulty parking.
Then on Tuesday at noon, I'll join the sing-along for the 50th anniversary of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" for Valentine's Day--before Javier comes by later on his way to class.
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