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[NQV] SF visit: 8/30/96 (2)


Friday 8/30/96

(continued)

The general consensus was to take Phuc and me to Club Asia, which was
held only once every two weeks as an alternative gathering place for
Asians (and their admirers, to a much lesser extent than club N'Touch).
We stopped by Giap's place (where Brian had arranged for Phuc and me
to stay with a few other out-of-town guests to the SF events) for Phuc
to change (and adorn himself) before going out!  After quite a drive
towards the outskirts of town, in a warehouse-like area, we arrived
at Club Asia a bit before 1 AM and the crowd was still in full swing,
as testament to the vibrantly late nite life in SF.  Alas, after all
that grooming, Phuc couldn't get in even with a fake ID to cover for
his age, so Kevin and a few IRC friends of Phuc decided to keep him
company outside and urged me to follow Brian in to take a quick look
just to know what the place was like since it wasn't an everyday thing.
Club Asia was indeed converted from a warehouse of sort, it's quite
spacious and airy, with a huge dance floor in the middle, flanked on
various corners (and right in the middle) with a few raised platforms
for go-go dancers to perform (it was pointed out to me later that a
few of these go-go dancers were Vietnamese too!).  We entered to the
right -- bumping first into Yen, a Viet lesbian "sister" of Brian from
Sacramento, and a "straight" female friend of hers, so we sent them out
to keep Phuc's company -- then went up to the balcony area overlooking
around the main dance floor.  I held my breath for a moment (not so
much because of the cigarette smoke) before the sight of hundreds of
Asians (close to 1000 of them, making for an overwhelming majority
over the spotty non-Asian faces standing rather quietly mostly to
the side) dancing and milling about in a hall upward of 500 meter
squares (which seemed to me about 50% larger than the main dance
floor at club Avalon/Axis in Boston).  The decor seemed ecclectic
(if not mismatched) with a huge red vermillion Japanese ceremonial
gate on the platform to one side (to the left of the entrance) and
a series of Chinese operatic masks (to take after the hit movie
"Farewell to my Concubine"?) on the wall on the otherwise.  The
other two walls (on the sides where there were staircases leading
up to the balcony) were decorated by projected light images of a
sawtooth-shaped dragon in side profile (of the kind one sometimes
see on paper lanterns).  There were a few potted plants around --
even banana trees, I noticed!

The first person to whom Brian introduced me was Viet -- who turned
out to be no other than the UCB grad whose thesis on local gay Viet
groups I had long sought to read -- since we had talked on the phone
before, Viet immediately recognized me and hastened to promise (rather
apologetically) to bring me a copy of his thesis the following day at
the conference. :-)  Then there were quite a few others whose fleeting
names/faces just flew by me as we made our way to the outreach table
of the Living Well project which was attended by Rolland and Li~nh.
I had heard of both of them before through mutual friends but hadn't
known either one in person (even though Alex, perhaps unaware of
Brian's housing arrangements for me and Phuc, had arranged for the
GVA people to stay at Linh's and had wanted to squeeze me in there
too for a better chance to talk and network).  Rolland struck me as
quite younger than my previous expectation (and as it turned out,
he's indeed quite younger too!)  His bubbly flair (tinged with a
bit of melodrama and glibness?) contrasted rather strikingly with
a dour-faced Linh whose somber expression and sleepy eyes gave the
easily mistaken impression of either boredom or detachment.  The
club music was rather loud so we didn't talk much, and I looked
around at the display banners/posters (most prominent among which
was a bus-stop-size black-and-white photo of an Asian couple --
one of whom is a rather well-known gay Viet model), and a collage
of photos from the SF Pride March a few months ago, showing the
Queer American Vietnamese Association (QAVA) contingent.  I also
picked up a few fliers about the Queer Viet conference and Golden
Summer Night fund-raiser (too bad, I couldn't find any of the big
colored posters for it).  Then all of a sudden, a rather tall,
rugged, lightly bearded, pony-tailed and black-attired character
descended on the scene and Brian introduced me to him and -- having
been forwarned of his quirks -- I paid my respects to "Ma^~u ha^.u"
(the "Queen Mother"), who didn't seem to take notice of my presence
as he went on with a litany of grievances to anything and everything
imaginable, but nothing out of the ordinary that might terrorize the
faint-hearted.  Anh Hong -- make-up artist extraordinaire at Asia
music production center -- didn't strike me as all that queeny (at
least not particularly in appearance), and his notorious temper and
tart tongue to which I had been forewarned seemed to be in check
that evening.    Before heading out to rejoing Phuc and company,
Brian grabbed hold of a few loadfuls of, ahem, free condoms/lubes
and what not, telling me to keep them and give them out (esp. the
coin-shaped ones) as "li` xi`" treats for good luck!  (Needless to
say, I still have a whole bunch of them intact -- anybody want them
for lucky charms to see if your luck is better than mine? :-))

Kevin dropped us off at Brian's place well after 2 AM.  And since it
was rather late, Phuc was persuaded to stay the night there instead
of disturbing Giap's night with a late return.  We still sat up and
chatted for a while on all sorts of things related to gay Viets --
politics, history, culture, personalities, gossips (and especially
with regards to music/singers, which was greatly to Phuc's interest).
It was past 3 AM (which would be 6 AM EST) that I got to change and
take a shower before bed.  Phuc and I shared the futon-sofa, he dozed
off quickly and I was a rather light-sleeper to fall asleep so fast
(and away from my bed too!) and so I lay there listless for a while,
letting all the novelties and excitement of this first night back in
SF slowly sink into me as I gradually drifted away into tired slumber
to the lullabies of Brian and Phuc's softly concertizing snores. :-)


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