The Year of the Cock (雄鳥)

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雄鳥 = rooster in Japanese. 

I don't believe in the 12 Chinese zodiac signs much, but it's a big deal in Asian societies: Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. The Hilton resort at big island in Hawaii certainly makes a big deal out of it: amidst a Disneyland-like cornucopia of onsite goodies like a waterfall, tram between hotel buildings, water slides, an artifact exhibit in the lobby befitting an art museum,  they have all 12 statues of the Chinese zodiac surrounding their pool area, a little creepy at night.

I'm not a superstitious guy, but sometimes good mojo, good juju, fengshui, vibes, whatever you want to call it, flows together. This year, the year of the rooster/ cock (whatever you wanna call it), just flows together. Last year, 2016, just was a perfect alignment of all things baseball in that the Cubs finally won the World Series while I finally returned home to Chicago for an extended stint. I've taken up the rooster as the "sigil of my house" or more importantly to my identity, my fantasy baseball team name. Someone has to take up the cocks, right? I guess in the U.S. a select few times go with the Chicken as their team mascot like the South Carolina Gamecocks or Toledo Mud Hens, but it's far and few between compared to the Dogs, Tigers, Dragons, and more ferocious animals. 

In Hawaii, roosters go around everywhere, and apparently they can fly! (Those wings aren't just for eating!) Like deer in the Japanese city of Nara, these roosters just walk around the Hawaiian islands like they own the place, in public, not a worry in the world for any of them. There seems to be no fear of some plain citizen just going up and stealing one right from under someone's nose, neither.

My parents have blackmail pictures of myself as a 3 year old kid in China trying to capture a chicken in a backyard (which subsequently was used as dinner, so not so happy ending), me waddling unsteadily trying to capture a cock that was waddling around unsteadily, probably an amusing site for most parents. Probably since then, I've always held a somewhat comradely feeling for cocks, despite how ugly they may be. I've tried to take up eating more eggs than chicken, with limited success due to the abundance of chicken and more attractive price as compared to any other meat ( I guess there is a lot of cocks in this world).


Fantasize on,

Robert Yan