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Mr. Chow runs a small 'exotics' apothecary/pharmacy/novelty shop. He is a normal adult human. Most people in town probably know him as James or Jimmy Chow, or “Old Mr. Chow” to the young of Pleasantdale.

(“James Chow” is his legal American name, but this is an Anglicization of his proper name, which is 超 金 武, best transliterated as Chao Jin-Wu. When he reached San Francisco in 1949, immigration authorities heard 'Jin' as 'Jim', and wrote down James Chow.)

His PB is Kenneth Tsang.

Height: 5' 05“ - Weight: 190 lbs - Eyes: Dark brown - Hair: Black

Age: Mid-fifties

Life Points: 32 (26+6 HTK)

Drama Points: 22

Experience Points: 4

Banked XP: 1 pt doctor

Citizenship: 2

Strength: 2

Dexterity: 3

Constitution: 2

Intelligence: 3 + 1 (Coat) = 4

Perception: 3

Willpower: 2

Coat 3

Eidetic Memory 2

HTK 2

Good Luck 3

Minority -2

Addiction -1

Honorable -1

Recurring Nightmares -1

Prejudice -1 (Anti-Japanese)

Acrobatics: 0

Art: 1

Computers: 0

Crime: 0

Doctor: 4 + 1 [Coat] = 5

Driving: 1

Getting Medieval: 1

Gun Fu: 3

Influence: 1

Knowledge: 4

Kung Fu: 1

Languages: 3 (Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese)

Mr. Fix-It: 2

Notice: 2

Occultism: 1

Science: 2 + 1 [Coat] = 3

Sports: 0

Chao Jin-Wu was born in Nanking, China around the turn of the century, growing up in an age of turmoil and unrest, as China was in the midst of a great struggle between the forces of modernization and nationalism and the old ways of tradition and imperial power. He was born into a family of moderate wealth. The elder Chao desired that his son pursue the traditional path of the civil service exams and entrance into Imperial service, but the revolution of 1912 put an end to this as a possible career path.

In the political chaos enveloping the country after 1916, the family deemed the safest place for Chao was in British-held Hong Kong, where he could attend a college in the Western model and perhaps learn the manners of the West, that the family might be able to keep up with the changing face of China. At the University of Hong Kong, Chao studied Western medicine and became involved with some of the radical student politics of the era. He supported modernization and increased trade with the West.

When he graduated, he joined the Kuomintang army of Chiang Kai-Shek in their conflicts against Mao Zedong and the burgeoning Communist party. Chao served primarily as a medic but also saw combat action a few times. He served for a decade, the army providing him and his family a measure of stability that many common people no longer had as the country reeled from both internal conflicts and external invasion by the Japanese.

The revolution he had dreamed of in youth was becoming increasingly bloody and idealism harder to maintain, but until 1937 Chao Jin-Wu remained a loyal medic and soldier, achieving the eventual rank of corporal. In 1937, however, the Japanese took Shanghai and then Nanking, Chao Jin-Wu's home, in a display of the worst excesses of war. The KMT and Chiang Kai-Shek had acknowledged the battle for Nanking would be hopeless and had withdrawn, effectively ceding the city to their enemies– the city, and the city's enormous civilian population, among them Chao Jin-Wu's mother, father, and wife.

The Nanking Massacre claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians. To the best of Chao's knowledge, all of his family in the city of Nanking were lost.

Heartbroken and disgusted with both war and the KMT's decision to let Nanking fall, Chao Jun decided he had enough of the military. He deserted, and fled back to the Hong Kong of his student years. Still held by the British, Hong Kong was, at the time, still peaceful, as the Japanese were loathe to declare outright war on the British. This would all change in 1941, when the Japanese took the city. Chao Jin-Wu joined in the guerilla fighting and resistance against the Japanese– fueled by his knowledge of the atrocities of Nanking– but after a year he found himself fleeing again, back to the mainland, and spent the remainder of WW2 trying to stay away from direct combat between any of the conflicting forces, moving from small village to small village.

In 1949, when Communists seized control of mainland China, Chao Jin-Wu decided to leave China entirely and took passage to America– there were some living cousins in New York, he believed, and he longed for a fresh start in a country less touched by decades of war.

The America of his youth had seemed some magical land of progress and equality. Chao Jin-Wu has learned, however, that it is a lot more equal for white people– despite his extensive medical experience, no American board will recognize him as a practicing doctor. Unable to find work using his real skill set, Chao has wound up in Pleasantdale, where he scrapes by a living as the owner of a small shop of 'Chinese medicine' – various herbs (most of which he grows himself), as well as tacky 'imports' like teapots and fans. He also sells soda and ice cream, which makes his shop popular with the teenagers, at least.

Due to his heritage, Chao is rather isolated from Pleasantdale at large. At best he's regarded as 'funny old Mr. Chow' by the kids who come to his shop for soda (or cigarettes); at worst, many suspect him of being a Communist, since he's one of them Red Chinese! The irony of this when he spent decades fighting the Communists is not lost on Chao, who finds it bitterly amusing.

Chao is a grump. He's in his fifties, alone, with no family left, after a lifetime of loss and disappointments. He wishes nothing but to be left to run his shop in peace, make enough money to get by, and to not be actively persecuted by his American neighbors. He wouldn't mind finding a nice younger woman to marry and to ease his declining years, but she must, of course, be Chinese, and the Chinese population in Pleasantdale is limited to say the least.

He returns the distrust and wariness he gets from his American neighbors in spades. He has some grudging fondness for a few of the youth who visit his shop, but doesn't express this often.

While he harbors an outright hatred for the Japanese, Chao has a low-level background disdain for just about everyone who is not Chinese (and the Right type of Chinese at that). He will not, as a rule, express this aloud since he's well aware he's a minority in America, but it's there. Sadly, xenophobia and prejudice are not limited to white people alone.

Chao sells calligraphy scrolls which he does himself, as one of his few hobbies. He smokes a lot, and he has made the acquaintance of a stray cat which he feeds and which provides him some companionship.

He's interested in American baseball despite himself, and if there is a game on it will usually be playing on the radio in his shop– another draw to some of the young of Pleasantdale.

Chao Jin-Wu speaks good-but-accented English, but talks as little as possible with Pleasantdalians– tending towards monosyllabic, terse answers when he must– so many in town may believe his English is awful as a result.

Chao lives in a one-room apartment above his shop.

The shop itself, of course: 'Chow's Emporium', a crammed room that sells quite a few things: tea, fans, little dragon statuettes, numerous herbs, postcards, aspirin, cigarettes, ice cream… It's basically a small drugstore with a selection of “exotic Chinese goods”, most of which are somewhat tacky.

Aside from these, Chao has the possessions in his apartment, of course: a bed, clothes, a kitchen and cooking equipment, calligraphy materials, and a leather doctor's bag with the tools of a traveling doctor inside. He also has his service weapon from his military days: the rather odd C96 Mauser, along with some ammo for it.

He has a record player and some prized records of Chinese opera– hard to come by, in the United States– and a battered-but-reliable bicycle, which is his primary method for getting around town.

The cat, which, with great imagination, he calls Me-Me.

A second cat, picked up at the abandoned gas station.

Extra ammo for his unusual gun A .22 hand-gun as well