Wild imaginings over, oo la la, bamboo chicks!

I decided to send out this teaser text message to some people: Bamboo chicks... what can you say?

Here are most of the replies:

This one trick question, right?
No clue.
I really don't know, haha.
Huh? Is it some sex thing?
Nickname for very skinny girls [this one was clueless; just bullshitting].
Skinny chio boo (Hokkien slang for pretty girls) [another bullshitter].
Oriental floozies?
Sorry, does not ring a belle with me.
Babelicious types from behind the Bamboo Curtain [hey man, Cold War's over!].
Making a wild guess... do they refer to prostitutes?
No idea what bamboo chicken is? Some sort of reptile? [I said chick, not chicken!].
Sorry, don't know.  :-(
Hmm, no idea. Bamboo worms I know.

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Those were the clueless ones. These four knew what bamboo chicks are/were...

* Bamboo chicks: blinds made of bamboo.

* When chicks were chic; I remembered they were put up in front of shophouses... they had bright green or blue lacquer paint to waterproof them and deflect sunlight.

* Gone the way of the dodo... My recollection is that it is the earlier version of our Venetian blinds or awnings to keep out the sun.. It consisted of thin strips of bamboo threaded into an elongated 'mat' which is rolled up and suspended above a window or above the five-foot way. A pulley system is used to roll up or release the chicks to a certain height to keep out the sun or light as required.

* Famously used to adorn black and white bungalows of colonial masters.

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So, what started me on this walk down memory lane? Indeed, as a toddler, I did grow up in one of those colonial-type black and white bungalows in Pulau Bukom -- complete with bamboo chicks -- after Shell made my dad one of its early Asian executives.

The memory trigger was these ads...

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So, no, bamboo chicks are not chio boo aka pretty women, or prostitutes (although they are admittedly of the shady ilk).

But, yes, from the ads above, this traditional blast from the past is not a vanishing tradecraft. Bamboo chicks are "alive and well"! So, I went a-looking around my area. Here's Exhibit A (contemporary bamboo chicks)...

And here's Exhibit B (traditional type)...

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I had now to figure out the curve-ball thrown at me: Bamboo worms. I had no idea what are these!

As they say, a picture tells a thousand words:

Not squeamish? To find out more, here's a link:

http://insectsarefood.com/faq.html

(Scroll down to the section, "What is a bamboo worm").

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Finally, this is a really old, old, song, House of Bamboo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moiv9UBlND8