{"id":2956,"date":"2015-01-04T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-01-04T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2015-01-02T10:35:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T18:35:11","slug":"if-you-were-in-a-horror-movie-how-long-would-you-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/if-you-were-in-a-horror-movie-how-long-would-you-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Were in a Horror Movie, How Long Would You Survive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"CatandtheCanaryPoster\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, my oldest daughter sent me an email. The subject line read: \u201cHave you retained Daddy\u2019s training?\u201d She\u2019d taken an online fun quiz<\/a> called \u201cHow Long Would You Last in a Horror Movie?\u201d and she was proud to report that she\u2019d made it all the way to the end. \u201cYou\u2019re the Lone Survivor,\u201d the quizmaster told her.<\/p>\n

She sent the quiz to her younger sisters. One emailed back that she’d achieved the rank of \u201cLone Survivor.\u201d The other achieved the next one down: \u201cHero\u2019s Significant Other.\u201d None of them credited me for their expertise in outwitting the crazed killer in the make-believe horror flick. Nope. They all believed their ability to handle themselves in difficult situations was a direct result of their father\u2019s instructions.<\/p>\n

\"NanGrayAfraidDraculasDaughterTrailerScreenshot1936\"<\/a>Eugene, my late husband, was not a fan of horror movies. Not because he was squeamish. (Anyone who watches Hong Kong kung fu movies made for the Asian market has to have a tremendous tolerance for blood and gore.) But he could not abide the \u201cstupid women\u201d <\/em>who populate horror films. And he let his daughters know about it. After yelling at the TV and walking out ten minutes into the movie, he\u2019d invariably come back and finish up with a lecture on how not to be a victim of crime\u2014or war or anything else.<\/p>\n

Eugene was born in the middle of a brutal war. For the first seven years of his life, he lived under Japanese occupation. If he learned anything during that time, it was how to survive in the face of danger.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d seen him switch into survival mode on numerous occasions. One memorable example took place in 1972, the year after we moved to the Philippines. It started with a 5:00 am phone call. Catching it on the first ring, Eugene sat up and listened, his body tense and alert, sparking danger like a tiger about to spring. After a few minutes of whispered conversation, he hung up and jumped out of bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my secretary,\u201d he said as he pulled on a pair of pants, \u201cMarcos just declared Martial Law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marcos_Clark_Air_Base_cropped,<\/a>He spent the rest of the morning calling people who might have heard more details about the declaration and sitting on the hardwood floor listening to the radio. He instructed me and the maids to stay inside the house. Then at 11:45 am, he surprised me by suggesting we go out for lunch.<\/p>\n

So, while our daughters, ages two and four, strapped on their sandals, I instructed our cook to watch over the baby. And away we went.<\/p>\n

We could have gone somewhere in Makati for Spanish food or Chinese or American. Instead, he headed for EDSA, one of the main highways in Metro Manila and turned left toward Mandaluyong.<\/p>\n

The usually teaming highway was nearly empty. Should we really be out there driving around when most people seemed to be hiding in their houses? Oh, well. I let it go. Eugene knew more about living in Asia than I did.<\/p>\n

\"Lumpia168_lumpiabandung\"<\/a>A few minutes later he turned into Barrio Fiesta, the one restaurant guaranteed to attract hungry military men. And sure enough, as soon as we\u2019d placed our order for lumpia, kare-kare, kaldereta kamping, pancit bihon<\/em>, and leche flan<\/em>, a dozen wary, uniformed and well-armed members of the Philippine Constabulary sat down at a couple of nearby tables.<\/p>\n

So why did my normally safety conscious husband take us out that day? I suppose that, like most of us, Eugene was a tangle of contradictions. In this case, his curiosity overcame his caution.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first time. When he was a child, that same little boy who learned to bow politely to every Japanese MP he encountered, threw caution aside more than once to climb onto the roof of his house and watch dog fights between a Japanese Zero and a P-40 \u201cWarhawk.\u201d What little boy could resist such a show?<\/p>\n

We all need some curiosity and daring to go along with a healthy dose of caution.<\/p>\n

\"Touch_of_Evil-Janet_Leigh\"<\/a>I sometimes suspect my daughters fear that if I found myself in a dangerous situation, I’d behave like the \u201cstupid women\u201d in\u00a0 horror movies. I hoped I wouldn\u2019t. So I tried the online quiz, and \u2026 what do you know? I also achieved the rank of \u201cLone Survivor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try the quiz yourself. And if you do, let me know how you fared. Here\u2019s the link again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 A few weeks ago, my oldest daughter sent me an email. The subject line read: \u201cHave you retained Daddy\u2019s training?\u201d She\u2019d taken an online fun quiz called \u201cHow Long Would You Last in a Horror Movie?\u201d and she was proud to report that she\u2019d made it all the way to the end. \u201cYou\u2019re the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,155,148,436,87,437],"tags":[620,623,654,653,615,622,493,616,621,928,495,618,619,617],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-family","category-philippines","category-second-sino-japanese-war-casualties","category-war","category-wwii-in-china","tag-barrio-fiesta","tag-caution","tag-courage","tag-curiosity","tag-horror-movies","tag-lumpia","tag-martial-law","tag-online-quizes","tag-philippine-constabulary","tag-philippines","tag-president-ferdinand-marcos","tag-victim-of-crime","tag-war-in-china","tag-women-in-horror-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-LG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1090,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/discovering-a-whole-new-world-with-my-chinese-husband-a-guest-post\/","url_meta":{"origin":2956,"position":0},"title":"Discovering a Whole New World with my Chinese Husband, a guest post","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"January 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm doing a guest post on Jocelyn Eikenburg's blog, Speaking of China. It's one of my favorite blogs. Most of her articles deal with the here and now: \"Giving Gifts to your Chinese Family,\" \"The Troubling Chinese Mother-in-law Relationship,\" \"Chinese Men Are Sexy.\" She describes Speaking of China as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"painting by Nicki Chen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/kung-fu-painting-by-Nicki-Chen-1024x535.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/kung-fu-painting-by-Nicki-Chen-1024x535.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/kung-fu-painting-by-Nicki-Chen-1024x535.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5669,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/5669\/","url_meta":{"origin":2956,"position":1},"title":"December 7, 1941: “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy.”","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"December 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Seventy-five years ago today, The Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it, \"A date which will live in infamy.\" The following day, the United States declared war on Japan. Three days later, it declared war on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In an earlier post,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pearl Harbor, photo courtesy of lefatima ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/3610994085_1a6dc87a6e_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/3610994085_1a6dc87a6e_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/3610994085_1a6dc87a6e_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":716,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/culture\/the-magic-of-mothers-milk\/","url_meta":{"origin":2956,"position":2},"title":"The Magic of Mothers’ Milk","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"December 22, 2013","format":"aside","excerpt":"A Cure for Red, Itchy Eyes A few months ago my niece\u2019s eyes were driving her crazy. 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And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eugene9 001","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Eugene9-001-e1408758337467-216x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3125,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/3125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}