By the end of 2022, the cold wave had started to batter San Francisco.
However, Chinatown was indeed cheerful, with many areas covered in red, a color the Chinese like to use for celebrations.
This was because Chinatown was finally accessible by subway and the new station, Chinatown Rose Pak Station, was being inaugurated.
Among them, a group of yellow-clad people were particularly conspicuous, with hats with taiji icons on their heads and mahogany swords and compasses in their hands.
They are Daoshi, Taoist priests, a mystical religion that originated in China. With hundreds of years of immigration history, some of the most secretive Taoist legends have quietly taken root across the ocean in the United States.
They were invited by leaders of the Chinese community to perform a special Taoist inauguration ceremony -- Kaiguang Dianyan, or a number of Buddhists call this BuddhÄbhiᚣeka.
This is a traditional oriental religious practice, especially when something new is to be revealed, as it is today. The ritual consists of reciting various mantras, sutras, or auspicious words, and in some cases, cinnabar pencils are used to light the statue or artwork.
Taoism is the practice of inviting spirits to enter the statue or religious artwork with their spiritual power through specific rituals, usually performed by Daoshi.
Wong, the youngest of the group, is lighting up a Fulu, which you can interpret as a kind of spell. Fulu is a nomenclature for Taoist incantations and magical symbols, written or drawn by Taoist practitioners as charms or spiritual talismans.
The other Daoshi gathered around, and together they began to recite various mantras, and auspicious words. The sound of their chanting filled the station and echoed off the walls, creating a mystical and otherworldly atmosphere.
Wong grew up as a Daoshi in San Francisco with his master, who controlled the last Taoist temple in San Francisco. The Taoist culture is practically extinct, and Wong grew up not being understood by his peers, including the Chinese students. When in high school, while other students were listening to the rap of Atlanta and smoking weeds, Wong was always doing something that extremely weird.
As a result, he is often bullied as well. However, he believed in the tenets of Taoism and did not argue with his classmates, but kept quietly cultivating himself.
Today is his first time to participate in a more formal ceremony, it is inevitable that he will be a little nervous.
With an incantation, he threw the burning fulu into a Chinese bowl, and then the host excitedly announced the official opening of the Chinatown Rose Pak Station.
"Phew," he breathed a long sigh of relief.
Finally, I didn't mess up my debut show.