I love Chicken Man. I’ve loved him since I first noticed and photographed him at the Temple of Heaven back in 1984. Since then I’ve seen him on many a rooftop, including in San Francisco’s Chinatown. But I’ve never known who he is. So after seeing him on hundreds of roof ridges in the Forbidden City on Tuesday, I decided to get to the bottom of this. I did a Google search of “Chinese roof ridge ornaments” and, well, he apparently doesn’t have a name. All I found was that he is serving the Emperor (in what capacity, it didn’t say) and that he’s actually riding on a phoenix. Quite disappointing. I was hoping for some impossibly cute legend about a chicken-riding superhero. Oh well. He’ll always be Chicken Man to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment