Faces of Berkeley: 'Happy Man' Bearer of Less-Than-Happy Tidings

It's hard not to be happy when you're around J.J. Chin, better known as Berkeley's own Happy Happy Happy Man.

The 66-year old Berkeley resident, who can be spotted atop his bucket and stool near Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union, is famous in campus circles as the man who tirelessly chants, "Happy happy happy," and denounces President George W. Bush as "666," or the devil incarnate.

Chin, a native of southern Taiwan, is never without his posters filled with detailed translations of what he calls "God's message." He says he can expound on topics ranging from Poland to the Falun Gong and, most recently, Hurricane Katrina.

"I talk about everything," he says in Mandarin, adding that he only uses his 'happy happy happy' catch phrase to attract attention. "Taiwan, Japan, the Dalai Lama, everything ... whatever is going on in the world."

Other than reflecting on current events, Chin says the main reason he spends up to eight hours a day hawking and hoisting signs is to spread God's message.

"I decode God," he says. "He talks and gives me wisdom to decode his message."

Chin says he has a sublime connection with God and has premonitions, noting a time right before the 1989 San Francisco earthquake when a bystander gave him a hard time and God responded by causing the earthquake to destroy parts of San Francisco and Oakland.

"It wasn't my power that did it, it was God's power," he says. "God is always over me, watching."

Chin, who says Tiananmen Square jump-started his mission of public education, left Taiwan in 1964 to attend the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and briefly lived in San Francisco and Sausalito before settling down at his current home near the Albany border.

Chin says his house has been ransacked and his signs destroyed, and also believes the U.S. government is keeping a watchful eye on him.

Chin, who has no children, says his wife "ran away," leaving him to live alone. He says he now resides in a rundown home with mice and a leaky rooftop, devoting his energies to preaching.

"I never sleep, so I guess I look older (than 66)," he says.

When he first moved to Berkeley in 1972, Chin sold Chinese food, falafels and pita bread from two carts he named "Stand of America" and "Stand of China."

He has since traveled around the Bay Area, making visits to San Francisco's Chinatown and occasional appearances at San Francisco State University and Stanford University, where he says the students are "too arrogant."

Conversely, Chin says the students at UC Berkeley have always been eager to see him.

"They're very happy I'm here," he says. "When I'm in Chinatown, they always ask me, 'When are you coming back to Berkeley?'"

Indeed, Chin's reputation among UC Berkeley students precedes him.

"You hear about him before you come to Berkeley," says UC Berkeley sophomore Malin Kimoto. "My brother and his friends were like, 'You're going to meet the Happy, Happy, Happy Man' before I even got here."

Chin says his message will be part of his life for a long time. But when asked how long he plans to continue his vigil, Chin says, "Only God knows."

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