Pow Wing Chung!

Rock-Paper-Scissors.  It's a hand game two people play for the same outcome similar to coin flipping, drawing straws, or throwing dice.

When I was growing up in Bangkok, Thailand back in the 1960s, my first experience with what I later learned was Rock-Paper-Scissors was in the first school I ever attended called, at that time, Holy Redeemer School located off of Soi Ruam Rudee which was then a small extension off of Wireless Road or Thanon Witthayu.  Holy Redeemer School, now called Ruamrudee International School, was then a Catholic school which accepted English-speaking as well as Thai-speaking students.  The English speaking students had a separate area for learning from the Thais.  But when it came to physical education and games, and recess and lunch periods, we were all basically thrown together.  And being kids, we all got a long.

Being now part of the Thai culture and being as young as I was, I naturally learned the ways of the Thais, and eventually picked up some Thai expressions.  One of these expressions came in the form of preliminary choosing of sides in certain games at school or with the neighborhood Thai kids.  If there were more than two people in a game that needed side choosing, we all gathered around in a circle -- three or more of us Thai and English-speaking alike, and facing each other, would place our right hand inside the circle along with the hands of everyone else participating.  We'd then begin frantically waving them back and forth all chanting, "TEE Toe Pah TOO KAI Shy Auk!"  At the moment the word "Auk" was uttered our hands would either turned down or turn up.  This was how we chose sides. 

If there were only two of us, we'd play the Rock-Paper-Scissors game; only, we didn't call out "Rock, Paper, Scissors", we called out "Pow Wing CHUNG!"  Chung would be the word that would bring our choice of hand gestures out in the form of the tight fist, the two pointed fingers, or the entire outstretched palm, which, of course, look like a rock, a pair of scissors, or a piece of paper. 

My sister, Mary, and I grew up together in this culture, and for the first four years of my schooling at the Holy Redeemer School, we immersed ourselves in the Thai ways.  And for these first four years at the school, I played these two Thai side choosing games.  It was the most natural thing to do along with playing with the Thai neighborhood kids.

In 1964, I was pulled out of Holy Redeemer School and was placed in the International School of Bangkok, then located on 36 Sukumvit Soi 15.  This International School of Bangkok, or ISB, catered primarily to English speaking students, mostly American.  Thai citizens were not eligible to register at ISB.  Suddenly, there was no more Pow Wing Chung or Tee Toe Pah Too Kai Shy Auk. I felt like something had been taken away from me.  But I also felt like I had somehow come home.  This would become my first real indoctrination into the American culture in a foreign country. 

I learned fast to stop these expressions at this school.  Kids can be cruel.  But they have stayed with me until today.

When I see someone calling, "Rock, Paper Scissors", I still hear "Pow Wing Chung!"