The Binondo Club started because we were all poor university students trying to pass the accounting exams and we thought Manila’s Chinatown could give us some luck. We all wanted to get out of Manila and UST told us we could go the finance track or the nursing rack. We already prayed every day to the Virgin Mary like everyone else did at a Catholic university like UST. We needed some Chinese magic. And so, one week before exams, we ended up in Binondo on the hunt for study charms. We figured we needed all the luck we could get.
We didn’t all know each other but we were in all in Section A-2; all on the track for accounting. Debbi invited Ruby-Ann. Ruby-Ann invited Margo and Juan Carlos (Jaycee) who were dating. I invited Princess too.
The first day of Chinese New Year fell on the same day as our first exam. And so, the streets of Binondo were so crowded. We were shoulder to shoulder with titas and titos scrambling for a roast duck, or elbowing each other for the most beautiful bag of oranges.
Princess ended up being the only person who spoke Hokkien.Not like that helped much. One store owner with a gravelly voice swung out his “jade” amulet for 10,000 Philippine pesos ($200 USD?!). Another owner unveiled a pagoda tower that lit up when you plug it in. Apparently, that would help us focus our minds during the test? (That’s why they have Adderall, no? said Jaycee). At the last store, an older lady tried to convince us to buy empty ang pao to us. “The emptiness means that you will have lots of extra money,” the grumpy lady said, slouching into her seat and fanning herself with a wooden fan. Ruby-Ann was pissed. She tossed back her curly hair and yelled at the storeowner in the only Hokkien curse-phrase she knew: “Lanjiao bin, li jia sai!” We scurried out and ducked into a bakery.
We ended up at Hopia King. We didn’t study. We had no amulets. But here were we together, munching on steaming hot siopao, laughing loudly, and sharing tsismis. One week before Chinese New Year in 2003: that marked the first day of the Binondo Club.
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Lucky charm or not, we all ended up passing the accounting exams. Debbi, that know-it-all, made into top 20 high scores; one of five UST students to make it. Margo and Juan Carlos got married. We are everywhere now and it’s so hard to get together. Tulsa. Valletta. Manila. Dubai. Singapore. London.
On the rare occasion that I actually do catch a flight back to Manila around my birthday, I know where to find everyone one week before Chinese New Year. We don’t see each other much, but when we do, the friendships are not stale because of the distance; they’re just as fresh and steaming as the siopao and tsismis.
Musings from Joe Flynn 