Wandering into a Night Market in Cleveland's AsiaTown is like Falling into Ancient Poem
By Greg Evans
I am not sure what I was looking for when I stepped out of the car onto East 32d Street. The moon had not yet risen. I could hear music and laughter in the direction of Payne. Maybe it was just to take in the sounds and smells and energy; maybe for a steaming zhēnglóng of har gow, xiaolongbao, or lotus seed buns alongside an extra spicy chaoshou. Maybe I just felt like drifting back into time, falling into a poem, eating my way through history until I was too full to move? The thaumaturgic nainais with handfuls of herbs and spices, capturing my senses and steering me astray. Take me. I sit and sip the lǜchá pàomò from the whisked green tea prepared through the diancha method, sitting in a small family-run establishment, watching the crowds of revelers mill by with ease and curiosity. This is where I belong, on this night, in this moment.
Stepping into a Cleveland AsiaTown Night Market, whatever festival that might be, is dripping with nostalgia, like floating through a Li Bai poem. I can get away with saying “a Li Bai poem” since he was writing during the Tang Dynasty (China's golden age of poetry), which is when the Night Markets really started, even though they didn't become the legendary magical romantic lantern festivals until the Song Dynasty, and finally the immortal fête they are today, here, under clear crisp midwestern skies.
Night markets originated during the Tang Dynasty (613-907 AD), the golden age of poetry, though curfews were enacted, (beginning in 836 AD, thanks to Emperor Wenzong of Tang who was, in all effect, a legendary bore), impacting the Night Markets’ ability to grow and flourish which put unnecessary constraints on commerce and people’s ability to wander, explore, socialize, and have an all around good time. It wasn't until the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) that night markets truly flourished after lifting the fuggy Tang Dynasty-imposed curfews and other restrictions.
Writers and poets, for centuries, spoke of the lively atmosphere of Night Markets, and the arrays of exotic foods, goods, and entertainment sold at individual stalls and storefronts. The ancient records read like the festivals (Night Markets) in AsiaTown today, a pulsating emanation, yanhuogi (smoke, fire, and steam), vibrant glowing lights and lanterns twinkling like a thousand stars from a distant hillside or building rooftop. Specialty shops, regional cuisine, seasonal delicacies, entertainment venues, and artisan stalls.
Xin Qui (1140-1207 AD), a poet from the Song Dynasty, well-known for the ci form of poetry, wrote a verse considered to be one of the gems that alluded to the atmosphere of a Night Market, and the nocturnal life, highlighting the lanterns and the moonlight, and the contrast between the busy city and quiet countryside.
In search of her, I have traveled for miles in the crowd.
But when I turned around, she was there, right where the lights were few and dim.
If you aren’t moved by that poem while sitting beneath the glowing lanterns, the smells of Asia swirling with the smoke from cooking fires, the sounds of distant dialects and languages, then there is something severely wrong with you.
It might appear to some that Night Markets are a thing of the past. But don’t buy into the cynicism of our time, where traditions are viewed as an inconvenient and old-fashioned nuisance. Go out and find it for yourself. Engage. Participate. Come out to the Mid-Autumn Festival which begins on September 27th at the AsianTown pop-up park.
Mark your calendars also for Chūnjié (The Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival), Tết (Celebrating the arrival of Spring in the Vietnamese culture), Seollal (Korean holiday celebrating the first day of the Korean lunisolar calendar) festivals, celebrated with food, festivities, firecrackers and the lion and dragon dances to help the rice wine chase away the Nian.
There is the Cleveland Asian Festival honoring Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and you know the food is not to be missed. I am getting ahead of myself here. Don’t miss the Mid-Autumn Festival. For now, it is about digesting all this exotic food so I can get up and wander around for a while, maybe buy a pretty girl a sakura, just because.