If you think Bat Man lives in a Bat Cave in the suburbs of Gotham City, think again. The guy actually lives in Kunming. His name is Sun Yun Yi, not Bruce Wayne.

He is known as Batman 蝙蝠 侠 (this is where you can start humming the Batman theme song).

This swordsman of the bat (literal translation of 蝙蝠 侠) has caught over six-thousand thieves over the past forty-two years in Kunming, Yunnan, with this home-made spiked bat.

I guess he doesn’t have a utility belt with gadgets such as shark repellent and bat hooks for scaling walls, which I always wanted as a kid. No bat phone, either. Sun Yun Yi would take a stroll after his lunch noodles and look for thieves, which were plenty in his touristy neighborhood and BAM! WOW! WHACK! When not fighting crime, Batman is either playing cards or cutting keys at his little kiosk near Foreigner Street (Longxiang Road and Fengzhu).

一正压百邪 One justice can overpower a hundred evils.

The Bat Cave is actually a key-cutting kiosk in Kunming, near Foreigner Street

Wow. A super hero without a mask or cape. The police honored him with a plaque on his wall.

As for the rest of us without spiked bats…

I was fighting the urge to nag about how everyday heroes do wear masks, but I just lost. I am a believer in the butterfly effect, how a Swallowtail flapping its wings in Poughkeepsie can cause a tornado in Tulsa. So, when I see headlines about monks in Thailand cremating COVID victims, I cringe at headlines about the mask-less in the States. The country which has enough vaccinations for every man, woman and pronoun between, also has the highest COVID infection rates. Yes, a macho mask wearing cowboy in Montana can save the life of a little girl in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia is being hit quite hard. Visions of the Killing Fields come to mind when I read the numbers in their frosting like language:

Some say, if I get covid, God, not a masked hero, will save me. But if you were God, whose prayer would you answer first: the guy who got the vax and mask or the guy on the ventilator who did not? I don’t think God answers prayers regarding parking spaces, either. But hey, that’s just me.

WWRS? What Would Robin Say?

Holy Hole in a Doughnut!  Get a mask on already, and roll up your sleeve.

If not, we’ll be telling the fat lady she’s on in five. That’s my favorite Riddler line, by the way. You can spare the itchy tights.


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