Lisa Chan
Biography
Lisa Chan (Lu Xia Chan; born December 18, 1924 in Guangzhou) is a petite Chinese woman with long, straight black hair and gray eyes. She typically dresses casually, her fashion sense informed by the popular R&B artists of the day. She is pretty and has maintained a youthful appearance despite her age.
Lisa was born into a rice farming family. Her parents were remarkably well-traveled for simple farmers, and schooled her from a young age in the ways of the occult. She showed an aptitude for such teachings that her older brothers did not possess. They were taught to run the farm, and she was taught the family secrets.
During the Japanese occupation of China, as unrest and violence were rising throughout the Guangdong provice , Lisa's parents gradually raised enough money to send her to America at a very young age, to live with one of her mother's uncles, a man named Wei. He lived in San Francisco and owned a Chinese herb shop in Chinatown. Under Wei she learned English, and continued her studies, incorporating Wing Chun kung-fu into her learning, among other skills related to her craft. She proved an adept student. She worked in Wei's shop cleaning, labeling containers and making signs to earn her keep. She has not had any contact with her family in China since she left, and she does not know whether they are even alive or dead
One day, sometime after her 26th birthday, Lisa was at a Chinese market in Oakland buying assorted supplies for Wei. While she was shopping, several bikers with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club entered the establishment and opened fire. She used her quick thinking and kung-fu to help resolve the situation, disarming two men and incapacitating another. Unbeknownst to her, the store was a Tong front, and the Hells Angels were warring with the Tongs over heroin distribution. The Hells Angels she disarmed and incapacitated were executed by the Tongs with automatic weapons. The surviving Hells Angels made note of her, passing her description along to their fellows, and have assumed she is with the Tongs ever since. Following this incident, she moved to Los Angeles and changed her name to Lisa.
In Los Angeles she hoped to teach Chinese to American foreign service personnel and college students, but learned to her dismay that they were mostly only interested in Mandarin. She managed to find a handful of private students in the area, and also secured a place teaching Chinese calligraphy one night a week at Santa Monica Community College. She supplements this with parttime housekeeping work in motels and homes, but she has struggled financially ever since moving to Los Angeles some 14 years ago.
Lisa lives in West Hollywood, in a tiny efficiency apartment on Doheny and Wilshire. In a recent stoned encounter with a counterculture friend, Jim Morrow, she revealed some of her history with the occult and mysticism to him. Jim, as it happens, is a student of parapsychology with a grant from the Promethean Foundation. He put her in touch with one of his sponsors, which is how she became involved with the Foundation, where she signed on covertly as a special investigator.