WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.075 align:middle line:90%


00:00:15.075 --> 00:00:15.575 align:middle line:90%
"Fuchi."

00:00:15.575 --> 00:00:21.560 align:middle line:90%


00:00:21.560 --> 00:00:27.050 align:middle line:84%
Fuchi, when we passed the
stockyard or city incinerator

00:00:27.050 --> 00:00:29.240 align:middle line:90%
"Who threw a fart?"

00:00:29.240 --> 00:00:31.040 align:middle line:90%
Nana would ask

00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:35.810 align:middle line:84%
As if the offense were
a grenade or a football.

00:00:35.810 --> 00:00:38.840 align:middle line:84%
I didn't know the
origins of her phrase,

00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:44.660 align:middle line:84%
Its hand off, until I learned
tirar in Spanish class.

00:00:44.660 --> 00:00:47.760 align:middle line:84%
I've read of toxins in
electronics plants--

00:00:47.760 --> 00:00:51.630 align:middle line:84%
Chemicals that
poison, cause cancers,

00:00:51.630 --> 00:00:55.940 align:middle line:84%
Numb the senses
of smell and taste

00:00:55.940 --> 00:01:00.500 align:middle line:84%
With odors in
so-called clean rooms.

00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:04.310 align:middle line:90%
Did the smells elicit a fuchi?

00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:07.830 align:middle line:84%
Fool, please, I
hear in the word.

00:01:07.830 --> 00:01:09.380 align:middle line:90%
I hear Chinese, too.

00:01:09.380 --> 00:01:11.930 align:middle line:90%
Think of those moves in qigong--

00:01:11.930 --> 00:01:13.980 align:middle line:90%
Part the horse's mane,

00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:15.830 align:middle line:90%
Strum the lute,

00:01:15.830 --> 00:01:18.920 align:middle line:90%
Grasp the sparrow's tail.

00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:23.240 align:middle line:84%
Could they ward off
cancer, release toxins,

00:01:23.240 --> 00:01:28.190 align:middle line:84%
Repair one's chi
after one's shift?

00:01:28.190 --> 00:01:31.010 align:middle line:84%
I remember watching
Chi Chi Rodríguez

00:01:31.010 --> 00:01:33.170 align:middle line:90%
Parry his putter

00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:35.360 align:middle line:84%
With a flourish
after sinking a putt

00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:38.210 align:middle line:84%
Then sheath the club
at his waist in a make

00:01:38.210 --> 00:01:40.880 align:middle line:90%
believe scabbard.

00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:45.590 align:middle line:84%
In grad school, I learned
of Kristeva's abject,

00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:49.340 align:middle line:84%
Those liminal spaces
between what we reject

00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:52.310 align:middle line:90%
and what we obsess.

00:01:52.310 --> 00:01:55.760 align:middle line:84%
Growing up Chino, the question
I was most often asked

00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:58.340 align:middle line:90%
Besides, "What are you?"

00:01:58.340 --> 00:01:59.605 align:middle line:90%
Was, "Do you know kung fu?"

00:01:59.605 --> 00:02:02.660 align:middle line:90%


00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:06.060 align:middle line:84%
Kung, I looked up,
means skillful work,

00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:09.440 align:middle line:90%
Hard training, or endeavor.

00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:12.860 align:middle line:90%
Fu means time spent.

00:02:12.860 --> 00:02:16.020 align:middle line:84%
I asked my Nana about
her time in the factory.

00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:18.540 align:middle line:90%
"I worked the scopes," she says,

00:02:18.540 --> 00:02:20.630 align:middle line:90%
"Looking for marks.

00:02:20.630 --> 00:02:24.440 align:middle line:84%
If the wafer was
scratched, I threw it out."

00:02:24.440 --> 00:02:26.390 align:middle line:90%
What is it we keep?

00:02:26.390 --> 00:02:29.840 align:middle line:90%
What is obsolete?

00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.470 align:middle line:84%
"That's when I think my
eyes started to go bad."

00:02:33.470 --> 00:02:38.180 align:middle line:84%
What kind of seeing is
hardwired in our circuitry?

00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:40.440 align:middle line:84%
"They were like
tiny little maps,"

00:02:40.440 --> 00:02:43.900 align:middle line:90%
She tells me, "of the city."

00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:46.000 align:middle line:90%