Xiangqi in the Square, 2019

Although I still have quite a lot of photos of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden to share, I thought today I would take a break and offer up something different. Just the other day Google Photos reminded me that in mid August 2019 I took a stroll through Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown. My opening image is one of the photos from that visit, and it’s still one of my absolute favorites — I shot it with my Android phone, so I wasn’t expecting too much, but something about the composition and the play of light and shadow just really makes me feel good whenever I look at it.

This summer, I went back to Portsmouth Square hoping to find a similar scene, and I found what I was looking for. The game is Xiangqi, also known as Chinese Chess or Elephant Chess. I don’t know if I could ever master this strategy game, but it sounds intriguing — and it’s clearly very popular. In fact, it’s been around since the Song Dynasty and is popular not only in China but other parts of Asia.

Use cannons and more to defeat the enemy General in his Palace across the River.

As well as Xianqi, I saw groups of people all over the square playing card games, sometimes slapping the cards down rather dramatically, as in the image below; but no matter what the game, plenty of spectators crowded around the players, looking on with great interest. As someone who normally tends to avoid crowded places, I felt strangely relaxed and cheerful just wandering around Portsmouth Square; and while I really don’t feel like I was able to improve on my original image, but at least I had fun trying!

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