Exhibition of the
Engineers without Borders Hong Kong
Date: 2 to 4 January 2009
Time: 10am to 9pm
Venue: Covered Piazza, Times Square, Causeway Bay
Openning Ceremony: 12pm, 2 January 2009
P.S. I will be there during day time on 2 Jan. Should you be around, please drop by and say hi.
(記載何山阿p二人12月23號到灣仔警署的奇遇經過)
片: 德國藉影像作家格勒戈爾.森武沙(Gregor Samsa)
曲: 阿p + 何山
詞: 阿p
編: 何山
十二月廿三號去見差人
佢哋問嗰個柴可夫斯基有d乜嘢人
我一路忍住笑一路聽佢哋繼續問
關於聖誕半裸派對會點進行
因為見到報紙登左呢單新聞
寫我哋係搞半裸派對嘅網民
我哋逐步遂步解答佢哋嘅疑問
最後相信我哋係搞創作嘅人
然後佢話我哋個場地無攞license
我話次次indie show都係咁進行
佢話今次唔同因為上左新聞
警方有機會被插到遍體傷痕
所以強烈勸籲我地返去諗諗
唔係就會觸犯第一百七十二章條文
最後嗰句覺得佢係有d口痕
佢話唔好覺得俾緊壓力你兩個人
警察掃黃可接受手淫
微型音樂會卻是罪行
簡化報導傳媒有什麼責任
半裸派對就萬萬不能
警察卻有權全裸搜身
傳媒警方聯手讓音樂不能發生
有沒有聽過 My Little Airport？有沒有聽過 Pixel Toy？
最近，My Little Airport 的 P 和 Pixel Toy 的何山組成「永遠懷念塔可夫斯基」，其中一首歌就叫《聖誕半裸派對》，音樂會原名也是叫《聖誕半裸音樂會》。
結果是，經過傳媒炒作之後，何山被邀請到警署協助調查。
再結果是，音樂會延期及改名為「健康道德聖誕樂融融音樂會」。
再再結果是，「永遠懷念塔可夫斯基」寫了一首叫《灣仔差館奇遇記》的歌，其中幾句歌詞大約為「警察掃黃接受手淫，微型音樂會卻是罪行／半裸音樂會萬萬不能，警察卻可全裸搜身」。
幽默感，香港人從來都欠奉。
A summer dress for two friends' baby girl when she's two years old.
P.S. The little princess is due in Feb 2009.
... as the economy goes downhill, the scale of Christmas decorations at shopping malls also go down.
Note: Picture taken last Saturday.
This is the outside.
This is part of the inside.
The bulk print had arrived on Friday, and will arrive your mailbox in another month :)
P.S. I'd showed Dad and Aunt 9 the trial copy. Even my dad is very excited about it.
See at the Post-its? They are all typos in the trial copy.
After sending an email to Swiss Post to check out the whereabout of the book, the trial print of the Facts and the Myths of the Tse Family has finally arrived today!
I will let you see one of the pages:
The book is much smaller than I expected, although I had taken out a ruler several times trying to figure out how big is 7" x 7". (Don't blame me for that. You guys voted for it!) Quality of the pictures really depends on the quality of the "raw photos". The one of our Cho Uk is real good, but not for the old pictures.
Anyway, I will take a look and send it out for bulk print soon. Make sure you drop me your mailing address!
P.S. In case someone will say I am 自戀狂, the alphabets were there to hold the book or it couldn't open itself.
P.P.S. Quality of the camera of my new phone doesn't seem very good. Very disappointed.
The cartoon can hardly tell how strong is Typhoon Hagupit. When I was at the door downstairs from my apartment, the wind blew me away just like the cartoon!
I hope everyone is safe.
15.09.2008 17:50
北京殘奧會，田徑男子T36級200米跑決賽，港隊的蘇樺偉，以破世界紀錄的24秒65，取得金牌。
***** *****
15.09.2008 19:19
港隊今日在殘奧會奪得一金一銀一銅。其中蘇樺偉就在男子200米T36級決賽，刷新世界紀錄，取得金牌。他對自己的成績表示高興，但承認賽前有點緊張，幸好起跑後即專心作賽。而余翠怡和范珮珊，分別在輪椅劍擊女子A級重劍奪得一銀一銅，上屆金牌得主余翠怡，在決賽面對國家隊的張春翠，輸5比13，只能奪得一面銀牌。余翠怡賽後表示，落敗並非受網球肘影響，認同對手發揮比較自己優勝。而范珮珊就在銅牌賽以15比14險勝匈牙利選手。在北京的民政事務局長曾德成祝賀本港選手奪標。
***** *****
Hong Kong's track and field athlete with disability So Wah-wai won a gold medal at the 200m T35 race at the BJ Paralympic this evening by breaking his own world record. My mom and sis would say it's because they were there to cheer for So :P
By now, HK has won two gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Paralympic. Still a big gap from last time, but it doesn't really matter.
Here's an interview of So by Andy Lau, who has been supporting athletes with disability since 1996 and employer of So:
Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights --
Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:
(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;
(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;
(c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.
Situation in HK: Only half of the 60 seats in the Legislative Council are returned by universal suffarage, while the other half and the Chief Executive are returned by an elite class of people.
Your action: To vote and to express yourself is your basic right. Regardless who you are going to vote, don't forget to cast your vote before 10:30pm today.
My Olympic souvenirs, fresh from Beijing!
Fu Niu LeLe (mascot of the BJ Paralympic) phone strip. It will go nicely with the pink LG KC550 I am going to get. I hope LeLe will get along well with Elmo.
A 4G JingJing USB. The pink strip comes with LeLe though. Don't know what to do with it yet as I have several smaller USB drives, but combining them all together might not be good from the security angel.
Broken branches in Heng Fa Chuen. The first picture is the same view as taken from my bedroom window, although it's taken on the street. And more importantly, the first picture is not "out of focus" as in most of my other pictures. It's so windy yesterday noon that I couldn't really stand up right.
So we have been talking about Grandma and Grandpa. Have you ever thought of how they got married?
The Marriage
I think you won't reckon they met each other naturally, dated, married and had kids. This is a version from my mom, who claims that she heard about it from Grandpa when she's just married (or even before she's married).
Grandpa had school in HK. When someone's decided to have Grandma married Grandpa, they sent someone to HK to ask Grandpa to return to Kaiping and get married. However, Grandpa refused. He said he had to finish school first. Hence, Great-Great Grandma (Grandma of Grandpa!) pretended she's sick and sent someone to ask Grandpa back to visit her. When Grandpa's back, everything (including the wedding banquet) was there waiting for him!
So here we are. Grandpa said before they were married, he had secretly gone to Grandma's school to have a peek of her :)
When Grandma was married, I think she's only 17, and she still didn't know how to wash her hair. Hence her grandma told her to find an excuse to return to the maiden home when she wanted to wash her hair, so that Great-great Grandma could wash her hair for her.
The Relocation
Grandpa used to be a truck driver. When the Community Party came into power in 1949, Grandpa was working in HK. Later one day when Grandma received the info that she could join Grandpa in HK, she bought train tickets and left with Goo-ma, Uncles 3, 4 and 5 immediately without bringing any luggage nor telling anyone in the neighbourhood. It's only later that Great Grandma, Dad and Uncle 2 stowed away to HK to join them. Aunts 7, 8, 9 and Uncle 10 were born in HK.
Quiz 8
We haven't had a quiz for a while. This time, again, can you figure out who's who in the two pictures? The first one is pretty easy, but there're some controversies in the second one. May be we will need to ask those MIGHT be in the picture.
***** *****
This should be the last post for the hard copy of the Facts and the Myths of the Tse Family, or I won't be able to send you the books before Christmas. However, the on-line version will continue provided I am not running out of topics.
By taping all the glass doors and windows :)
Typhoon NURI is expected to be the strongest typhoon this year, and hit HK head-on. With only the Typhoon Signal No.1 on, I could barely open the door down stair when I was back home this evening.
We have made different contingency plans in the office today, in case we are stuck home tomorrow. This includes packing stuffs to work at home tomorrow.
One of the many ways that HK joins in the BJ Olympic manic is to set up big TVs, both indoor and outdoor, to show the live broadcast so that people can cheer together.
We have one in Heng Fa Chuen too. Even in the morning, there are lots of people. Beside the TV area, there's a small Italian grocery store, selling also gelato (kids' favourites here). I hope they can make a little fortune these two weeks.
I myself is trying my best not to watch any, to avoid the sub-standard narrators and the rather irrational nationalism.
Now, the Tse's are (or will be) scattered around different part of Australia, Canada and China. Our hometown, however, is in Kaiping (開平), a county-level city in the Guangdong province of Southern China.
Kaiping
Kaiping has a long tradition of sending their people to work overseas, in particular the North America. At the end of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th century, Kaiping was poor and had a serious problem of banditry. Hence, people went to work overseas and send back money to support the families.
I think this explains why we have been in Canada for so many generations.
In the old days, we were a landlord in the village. Because Great-Great Grandpa and Great Grandpa worked in Canada, and sent money back to support the country, we were able to survive a number of political turmoils at the turn of the 20th century. But of course, we finally fled to HK like many others did in the 1940s-50s when the communist party came in to power.
Diaolou (碉樓)
One special feature of Kaiping is the thousands of Diaolous (see the picture). A Diaolou is a fortified multi-storey tower. Those worked overseas sent money back to build these towers, and also brought back the western architectural style. Apart from being a beautiful house, it also has a defensive purpose. See the balcony in the middle? Mom said there are holes on the floor, so that those standing on it can shoot through the holes thieves or other invaders underneath.
In 2007, Kaiping Diaolou and the village is added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Our Cho Uk
So, are you wondering why my mom knows this little feature of a Diaolou? It's because our real "cho uk" is a Diaolou itself. The picture in this page is not from a tourists website nor from the UNESCO homepage, but our "cho uk". That means, when Goo-ma, Dad and the older uncles were still kids, they actually LIVED IN a world heritage site!
When I was a kid and Sara was still a baby, we were there once. All I can remember now is that the house was dark and full of cats! (Scary!) Mom said the stairs at the time was half broken and my feet then were way too short, and hence I had a hard time climbing the stairs.
Around our "cho uk", there's a gate made of good quality steel. When China was at war, the gate door was taken away to produce weapon. (There're different versions here. Mom said the gate door was taken away by us to support China at the Korean War in the 1950s. But I think I had heard Grandma saying that the door was taken away by the Japanese army during WWII.)
The Dialect
We Kaiping people speak a Taishan dialect (Taishan is another city next to Kaiping). Even today, when the older ones want to discuss something that don't want us to understand, they talk in the Taishan dialect. I don't know if they have ever realized that the Taishan dialect is actually not very different from Cantonese. I at least can understand 99%, if not 100%!
P.S. Sara had suggested right from the beginning to include this post in the series, but I had tried my very best to avoid it, cause I don't know much about our hometown. But since Rose had sent me this picture, I might as well give it a try.
Extended reading:
Kaiping in Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiping
Diaolou in Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaolou
UNESCO World Heritage -- http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112
Uncle and Aunt 2's house is a good place for treasure hunt. When I stayed there last December, I found my Autocad (Release 11!) book still on the shelf! That book is 16 years old and I used it at my first year of college!!!!!
The Treasure (1)
Comparing to what Rose had found, my Autocad book is nothing:
Cheque book of Great Grandpa's grocery store!
Great Grandpa had a grocery store in Edmonton. When he's getting old, Uncles 2 and 3 went to Edmonton to take care of him and also to inherit the grocery store. The brothers later on started their own career and therefore the grocery store was shut down at the end. It would be fun, I think, to check out the place where the grocery store had been some times :)
The Treasure (2)
The next item is even more exciting! Drum roll, please......
Pictures of young Grandma and young Grandpa!!!!!
For the top left picture, Rose said it stated at the back that Grandpa was 14 at the time. For the one in top right, it said on the picture that it was 1940 in HK. Mom said Grandpa went to school in HK, so that might be why the picture was taking here.
For Grandma's pictures, they were taken before Grandma and Grandpa were married. Great Grandpa used to put up these pictures, and told everyone that his daughter-in-law was prettier than any calendar girls!
The Tse's in Canada
I always thought Great Grandpa was the first one in Canada, but Grandma and Uncle 2 said it's Great-great Grandpa (i.e. Dad of Great Grandpa, Grandpa of Grandpa, or Great Grandpa of your parents :) who first landed on the Canadian soil.
Great-great Grandpa first settled in Saskatchewan, and opened a cafe. (Rose suspected it was the one in the picture above.) When Great Grandpa was a kid, he somehow got into trouble with another kid so they sent him to Great-great Grandpa as some kind of punishment or an "escape". Great Grandpa first helped in the cafe as well, and then returned to China to get married. Great Grandpa somehow relocated to Edmonton later and started the Jay Grocery.
When I was a kid, I heard a story about how Great Grandpa took a month to travel from China to Vancouver on a ship, and then another week from Vancouver to Edmonton on a carriage. But now with the Saskatchewan cafe kicking in, I am confused whether the week-long trip was to Edmonton or Saskatchewan.
So this wraps up the series on the modern "cho uk". Let's talk about the real "cho uk" next time.
P.S. Special thanks to Rose who digged out all these pictures and "researched" most of the content of this post from Grandma and Uncle 2. More of Rose's findings in the following posts.
I'd already exercised some self-control for not buying some even more useless stuffs.
... the girls' room!
From one generation to another
I think this is the first time someone called it the "girls' room".
It is the bigger of the two rooms in the basement of Uncle and Aunt 2's house. The first occupants of the room were Aunts 7, 8 and 9. When they started to move out, Rose and Di occupied the room and I also joined in the crowd during college years. It's a room full of silly girlish talks :)
In the past, there were a single bed and a double-decker bed, couple of small desks, a big build-in closet (big enough for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), etc. Most of the furnitures were there since Aunts 7, 8 and 9's time and are still in the room except the beds. Now, instead of two beds for three people, there's one double bed instead, and it also becomes a guest room when Rose and Di moved out.
Starry, starry night
One of the additions Rose and Di made to the room was the glow-in-the dark starts on the ceiling. (I tried to take some pictures but obviously was not very successful.) During the twin's first visit, we showed them the stars, but they were still at the age that would scare of the dark, so they would only stand at the door and held our hands tight with a very amazed smile.
One day, again, when I was reading in the room, Dai Mui came.
"Can you read outside?" The toddler asked.
"No." And so Dai Mui's gone.
After a while, she came and asked again, "Can you read outside?"
"No."
"I want to see the stars."
I can't remember if she succeeded this time, but Dai Mui sure was an assertive baby.
Always show your appreciation. One looks more beautiful when you always remember the good sides of others.
I visited another dentist, who is a relative of a friend, yesterday.
This 2nd dentist is more experienced and the nurses are more fun. I also took an x-ray. The dentist explained to me the root problem of my teeth and how every problem springs from there.
So, the conclusion is, I don't need to extract the wisdom tooth at the moment but need to have an "endodontic treatment" (pulp treatment) for the problem tooth. (That's exactly why I was hesitated to take out my wisdom tooth last week. The other dentist asked me to extract a wisdom tooth which I don't feel anything wrong, but leave the one that's killing me for days untouched!)
I still need to go several more times before the treatment is done, and more scaling is needed! (Sooner or later, the dentists will scale out all of my teeth!) Then the dentist also asked me to brush my teeth with the small brushes in the picture. It can go all the way through the teeth spacings. Very scary.
P.S. Stuck at home because of Typhoon Fengshen (God of Wind, what a name for a typhoon). And also salute to those keep working under bad weather to keep the city running.
I'd been to the dentist three times on the last four consecutive Saturdays. There's an extra one cause the clince was drowned by the heavy rain and couldn't be recovered till the following Monday.
So, what had I done? I'd had two tooth fillings and had my teeth scaled. Spacings between my teeth were wide to begin with and now, after some very substantial scaling, it's even more spacious. I can even feel the water running between my teeth and have some difficulty to speak properly :( For a while, I think I will need to stay on an "old people diet" (i.e. fish, tofu, egg, minced meat, etc.) before I am used to it.
The dentist suggested me to extract a wisdom tooth (which I now have three). I am a bit hesitated. What do you think?
P.S. Couple of months ago when I watched Babies of Our Times of BBC, the small group of six or seven years old kids all thought Tooth Fairy was real while Superman was fictional. Interesting. I can't remember if they thought Santa was real or not.
For my international readers, the title reads "for how much more that Henry Tang will need to die?"
Background
Henry Tang is the current Chief Secretary for Adminstration of the HKSAR Government. When he first became the Financial Secretary in 2003 (which was almost the worst economic downturn in HK history) he had once mentioned that the unemployment rate in HK would never get back down to 2.2% as long as he stayed alive (有生之年，失業率都不會回落到2.2%). No doubt he's being critized as mean (or "black heart"), and he also considered it as one of his most serious mistakes in his political life.
Latest Progress
Today, the unemployment rate of the previous quarter was annouced. The newest number is 3.3%, lowest in the decade. The title is what a FB friend sent me after learning the news.
Jobless rate stays level at 3.3%
http://www.news.gov.hk/en/category/atschool/080617/html/080617en02002.htm
Again, no special meaning. Just that this song got stuck in my head these few days, and the lines are beautiful.
But then, the next lines sing "曾經交錯但離去後，不會再遇".
Isn't it life all about?
P.S. I thought of translating the lines, but not successful.
The other day a colleague asked if I had eaten any Dragon Boat dumplings this year.
I said no, cause my Grandma made the most delicious Dragon Boat dumplings in the world that I didn't eat anything else.
I am not being exaggerated. I tried one mouthful of dumpling that was made outside the family, and I had never tried another ever since. My mom and aunts learned how to make Dragon Boat dumplings from Grandma, but none was as pretty and as delicious as Grandma's (no offense, just telling the truth :)
It's our tradition to make Dragon Boat dumplings during Dragon Boat Festival (very obvious), and, interestingly, during Chinese New Year (don't ask me why). Grandma only made a small amount of Dragon Boat dumplings before CNY for some traditional ritual. However, making Dragon Boat dumplings before Dragon Boat Festival was a serious matter. It took Grandma weeks of preparation -- to soak the leaves, pick the best ingredients (they were all over the place), boil the dumplings, etc. It took long time to boil the dumplings. The fire in the kitchen heated up the whole house, and the entire apartment smelled like Dragon Boat dumplings :)
Grandma's dumplings were simple in one way, but not that simple in another. They were simple cause there're only salty ones, no sweet dumplings ever. They were not that simple cause there were a lot of ingredients -- salty egg yolk, peanuts, fat pork, dried Chinese mushroom, dried scallop, etc. and the sticky rice was stirred with salty egg white before hand, so even the sticky rice was very delicious. Grandma would make tonnes of dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival that they easily became my nightmare every year -- dumplings for breakfast and weekend lunch at least for another month :(
However, the most amazing part of Grandma's dumplings is that she tailor-made for our picky stomach. For example, the one I and Ed ate had only lean pork and dried scallop (I didn't eat the other ingredients). Those that Aunts 8 and 9 ate didn't have peanuts. Grandma would tie different knot to identify the dumplings but usually it's only she who could decode the knots.
As Grandma's getting old, she hadn't made any dumplings or other traditional festive food for a number of years. I heard that Aunt 7 is making Dragon Boat dumplings in Grandma's style as well and they taste "almost" the same. May be someday I will try some.
在陽光燦爛的五月裏，我們絕食了。在這最美好的青春時刻，我們卻不得不把一切生之美好絕然地留在身後了，但我們是多麼的不情願，多麼的不甘心啊！
然而，國家已經到了這樣的時刻：物價飛漲、官倒橫流、強權高懸、官僚腐敗、大批仁人志士流落海外、社會治安日趨混亂，在這民族存亡的生死關頭，同胞們，一切有良心的同胞們，請聽一聽我們的呼聲吧！
國家是我們的國家，
人民是我們的人民，
政府是我們的政府，
我們不喊，誰喊？
我們不幹，誰幹？
儘管我們的肩膀還很柔嫩，儘管死亡對於我們來說，還顯得過於沉重，但是，我們去了，我們卻不得不去，歷史這樣要求我們。
我們最純潔的愛國感情，我們最優秀的赤子心靈，卻被說成是「動亂」，說成是「別有用心」，說成是「受一小撮人的利用」。
我們想請求所有正直的中國公民，請求每個工人、農民、士兵、平民、知識分子、社會名流、政府官員、警察和那些給我們炮製罪名的人，把你們的手撫在你們 的心上，問一問你們的良心，我們有什麼罪？我們是亂動嗎?我們罷課，我們遊行，我們絕食，我們藏身？到底是為了什麼？可是，我們的感情卻一再被玩弄，我們 忍著飢餓追求真理卻遭到軍警毒打……學生代表跪求民主卻被視而不見，平等對話的要求一再拖延，學生領袖身處危難……
我們怎麼辦？
民主是人生最崇高的生存感情，自由是人與生俱來的天賦人權，但這就需要我們用這些年輕的生命去換取，這難道是中華民族的自豪嗎？
絕食乃不得已而為之，也不得不為之。
我們以死的氣概，為了生而戰。
但我們還是孩子，我們還是孩子啊！中國母親，請認真看一眼你的兒女吧，雖然飢餓無情地摧殘著他們的青春，當死亡正向他們逼近，你難道能夠無動於衷嗎？
我們不想死，我們要好好地活著，因為我們正是人生最美好之年齡；我們不想死，我們想好好學習，祖國還是這樣的貧窮，我們似乎留下祖國就這樣去死，死亡 決不是我們的追求。但是如果一個人的死或一些人的死，能夠使更多的人活得更好，能夠使祖國繁榮昌盛，我們就沒有權利去偷生。
當我們挨著餓時，爸爸媽媽們，你不要悲哀；當我們告別生命時，叔叔阿姨們，請不要傷心，我們只有一個希望，那就是讓我們能更好地活著，我們只有一個請求，請你們不要忘記，我們追求的絕不是死亡！因為民主不是幾個人的事情，民主事業也絕不是一代能夠完成的。
死亡，在期待著最廣泛而永久的回聲。
人將去矣，其言也善；鳥將去矣，其鳴也哀。
別了，同仁，保重！死者和生者一樣的忠誠。
別了，愛人，保重！捨不下你，也不得不告終。
別了，父母！請原諒，孩子不能忠孝兩全。
別了，人民！請允許我們以這樣不得已的方式報忠。
我們用生命寫成的誓言，必將晴朗共和國的天空！
絕食原因：第一抗議政府對北京學生罷課採取麻木冷淡態度；第二抗議政府拖延與北京高校對話代表團的對話；第三抗議政府一直對這次學生民主愛國運動冠以「動亂」的帽子及一系列歪曲報道。
絕食要求：第一要求政府迅速與北京高校對話團進行實質性的、具體的、平等的對話；第二要求政府為這次學生運動正名，並給予公正評價，肯定這是一場愛國、民主的學生運動。
絕食時間：五月十三日下午二時出發。絕食地點：天安門廣場。
不是動亂、立即平反！立即對話、不許拖延！為民絕食、實屬無奈！世界輿論、請聲援我們！各界民主力量，請支持我們。
北京高校絕食學生
一九八九年五月十三日
***** *****
這些年來，共和國都好像沒有怎麼晴朗過 (如果不更加黑暗)。
北京奧運遇上四川地震，就好像命中注定。
P.S. 傳甚麼奧運聖火都只是虛火，政府如何善後、人民如何協力，才最見真章。
During the recent heat of rational and irrational patriotism among Chinese around the world, I think of this book, Amartya Sen's Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.
Basically, it stresses the different faces of a person, and the danger it creates when we start to group, label and stereotype people.
For example, I am a Chinese woman born in HK. However, my seven years of schooling in Canada also has a great influence of my values and how I see things. While I may support the Beijing Olympic so that China can has a taste of the international society, I am also deeply concerned about the human rights situation in the Mainland. I can have many different, or even conflicting, characteristics but it's still me.
Unfortunately, very often, we focus only one side of a person, and by simple deduction, we believe that s/he must believe in or do certain things. You may not see the impact when that's only me, one person. However, when we single out a big group of people and start to antagonize them, conflict arises. This happens when the book was first written after 9/11, when persons with Islam background or look like an Islam or simple carry some Middle East features are easily labeled as terrorists. The same happens in our everyday lives too.
Not only people have many characteristics, issues can be discussed from many perspectives too. Lately, however, we can only be one way or another.
Identity and Violence is part of the "Issues of Our Time" series. At the end of the preface, the editor Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote,
It's a TV programme in HK that attracts a lot of discussion even after the first of the five episodes was aired on Monday.
Basically, it's a programme produced by the most popular TV station in HK and broadcast during prime time. In each show, TV or movie stars interview those in HK living under the poverty line and show us how the poor faces everyday challenges. We have around 7 millions people in HK. According to the statistics, unfortunately, around 1 million are living in poverty.
Ever since I first watched the promos, I was expecting the programme, although I also expect it to be sentimental and shallow.
The programme doesn't fail me on this. What I didn't expect is the tremendous impact. After only the first show, a facebook was created, and if you search the internet using the programme name, hundreds of people have already written about it.
When we watched the first episode, my mom wet several pieces of tissue. At one point she asked if it's inevitable to have the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer as a society develops. I said yes, but others are not as mean as we HK people.
Don't know since when, we start to hate the rich and are not sympathetic to the poor either. We don't like anyone that's different from us. While "we" have to be right and normal, those that are different are undoubtedly abnormal and unreasonable. There's one popular newspaper in HK that criticizes almost everyone and everything everyday, including the government and the civil society, including the politicians from left to right, including the rich and the poor. I finally understand why it's so popular.
The TV programme attracts a lot of criticisms too. For example, the interviewers (i.e. the TV and movie stars) are so ignorant and insincere. Very often I feel that the TV station is only using the poor as a gimmick. However, I do hope that more people can realize that poverty does exist in our society, and don't tell me why the poor can't work harder. Most have already worked hard enough. They just still can't make a living.
This is what I did yesterday, except having a minor car accident in the morning.
After a year of idling, I did wall "colouring" with the Arts in Hospital again for two Saturday in a row. Yesterday, we went to the Haven of Hope Holistic Centre, a place for hospice care.
Volunteers have been working on the project for three months already. Along the wall of the corridor, we could see some HK scenery, such as the Lion Rock. Inside each bedroom, we did a border similar to this along the top of the wall. What I did yesterday was to stand on a chair and colour the green leaves. I know you think it's easy. But trust me. It's more difficult than you thought. The actual size I did was about twice as big and I spent my whole Saturday from 11am to 5pm on it! Since we needed to hold up our arm and turn up your head to reach the height, your neck hurt and your arm felt tired simply after the first five minutes.
At first, I thought there was similar wall paper on sale in the market. It might be even cheaper if we counted in the coordination done by the staff and the volunteers' time. But than I thought might be it's the human touch the mattered and couldn't be substitute.
P.S. I am OK. It's just a car crushed on the taxi I was on under heavy rain and typhoon signal no. 3. I didn't go to the doctor although I was a bit dizzy and wanted to vomit at first. Holding up my head to paint was a bit difficult at first cause my neck hurt a bit with the crush.
This morning, the cleaning lady asked if she could have the foam board I wanted to dispose for a while so that her kids could use it for a school project. Her daughter was more than delighted when I said yes, and told me foam board was expensive. It costs HK$10 a piece.
When middle-class parents are sending their kids to overseas study tours in summer holiday, we can't deny that our income disparity is becoming more and more serious, and it's getting more and more difficult to climb up the social ladder. What make me most upset is not we have poor people in the society, but we have no sympathy. While our "Asian values" do not appreciate the concept of "individuals", we are also expert in distinguishing "you" and "me", "my money" and "your money".
I watched the first episode of RTHK's "Life on the Margin" (活在邊緣) last week. Although it's not perfect, I do hope that it can make a couple of people less indifferent. I also read 呂大樂's 《四代香港人》(Four Generations of HK People) lately. Although I don't usually like Lui's work and nothing he wrote in the book is something you have never heard of, it provides a structured account of the similarities and differences of the different generations of HK people. I do hope that it can make a couple of people to realize that we can't no longer apply the standard in the 60s to the Asia's World City in the 21st century.
These are what I got today -- kids version of some old Chinese literature.
The wonderful part is, all the Chinese characters in the books have Putonghua pin-yin!
YEAH!!!!! Exactly what I wanted.
The collection has 10 books in total, but I could only find eight today. If you happen to see 三字經 and 成語故事, make sure you let me know!
Off-line by 11pm and sleep by mid-night.
P.S. Mission fails on the first and second days :(
I can't make up my mind, so I will let you have a say.
Do you like this one?
(1) Square (7"x7")
Or, this one?
(2) Standard Portrait (8" x 10")
How about these?
(3) Standard Landscape (10" x 8")
I started with the square, and still like it the most, but the size is too small. Then, I tried portrait, but today I find it too boring. What do you think about landscape? Never mind the colours and the pictures selection now, cause I only roughly made up three covers tonight. (Of course, you can suggest some colour schemes.)
Better cast your vote quick, or I will be so confused with which one to choose.
For family members, I am looking for pictures! I have already exhausted every single picture in my computer. My wish list includes:
* Birthday
* Graduation
* Wedding
* With individual family (including family members outside the human species)
* With "unexpected" family members (e.g. Di with goo-ma)
* First time doing something (e.g. first day to kindergarten)
* Winning a prize
* Those on top of your TV or hang on your wall, etc. (inspired by someone's picture being replaced by Bacon's on top of a TV)
You got the idea.
... the stair!
A bridge
The stair is a bridge between the world of Chinese TV (main floor) and the world of English TV (basement). During my stay in December last year, Aunt 2 told me to keep the light on all the time. If I was in an English literature class, I would say that the light that was always on symbolized the always welcomed communications and exchange between the two generations. (Wow! I really did learn something in my English 30!)
Superpower revealed
During our first stay at Uncle and Aunt 2's house, Sara, Rose and Belinda, who were born on the same year, were aged 3Y1M, 2Y9M and 2Y8M. On of our hobbies in the house was to walk up and down the stair. (It's easy to understand. We don't have a stair in our HK apartments!) One day, we were walking up and down as usual. Suddenly, the rather absent minded little Belinda stepped on her long dress and started rolling down the stair. In a split second, I (already landed on the basement) turned and caught her with my hands to avoid her head hitting on the concrete floor.
Till now, I still can't believe I could react so quickly and hold a two year-old when I myself was only eight. May be during time of emergency, our hidden power will reveal without notice.
Guess who?
The first time when the twins stayed at Uncle and Aunt 2's house, they were around three or four and I was already in college. One day I was reading at the basement and suddenly the stair light went on and off non-stop.
"Dai Mui (大妹, the older twin), don't play with the light." I commended.
There's a second of silence.
"It's not me. It's Sai Mui (細妹, the younger twin)." Dai Mui appealed.
"It's you. I saw you."
"No. You can't see me from where you sit." Dai Mui insisted.
"I can see you from here."
And then the twins were gone and the light didn't go on and off again.
After all these years, I have to confess that Dai Mui was right that I couldn't SEE HER from where I sat. However, I could see Sai Mu, who was one step below Dai Mui and was at least half a foot shorter than Dai Mui at the time. With this "height" difference, Sai Mui couldn't even reach the switch.
It's not that difficult to figure out the "doer" for a fan of detective stores.
Visited the "World of Mirrors" at the Science Museum today after having a hair cut. Since it's a mirrors exhibition, not everything you see from the collage is real! There's also a "mirror maze" (2nd to last pictures of the 1st row), which I had to walk through carefully as I have a great tendency crushing myself into any glass/mirror!
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year, also at the Science Museum, is great too. Make sure you check it out before 1 May.
A colleague sent me this, and I decide to get the Myths and the Facts of the Tse Family published! (RELAX! By "published", it means "to print a hardcopy".)
(Make your own book with) Blurb:
http://www.blurb.com/
I've played around with it, and got the basic layout done. It seems a lot of funs, although the software itself has plenty of room for improvement.
I plan to print some copies as Christmas presents for families. So, if you want a separate copies, drop me an email with mailing address. Deadline for ordering is beginning of November. If you have memorable pictures and interesting stories to share, don't forget to email them to me. I will acknowledge the contributors in the books!
Haven't left the office so early for a while. I didn't need the magnetic card to pass the gate at the lift lobby downstairs from office, was able to do some (grocery) shopping before dining at home, had plenty of time for my evening walk and some more for a few pages of a good book.
Just couldn't be better.
Haven't practiced my calligraphy for months, and I am glad that I can finally pick it up again today, although I had to start from the strokes!
I went "wow" when I saw this book in store, after an office event, this afternoon.
Churchill is one of my heroes, and I have been wanting to get this book for a while. I had tried visiting two Page One in one day but all they had were books with lots of scratches on the covers.
Bought some more as well (but where's my time?). The bad thing was -- I thought bookstores were still on sale but the one I visited ended the sale earlier than the others :(
Too bad.
[For those not in HK, bookstores with a Chinese background usually have major sale during Chinese January, cause "book" and "lose" in Chinese sound the same!]
Today is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year. According to Chinese tradition, today's 人日 (People's Day), i.e. everyone's birthday. On this special occasion, let me wish everyone a happy birthday!
As a People's Day Special, let me present to you the following collage of our first year old b-day party pictures:
Quiz 7
For those in the family, can you figure who's who in the collage? (Rule: You can't name yourself nor the one in your immediately family!)
For those not in the family, can you find me in the collage?
Hint 1: There are 19 of us in the generation. Two of us I can't manage to have their photos in time, while some pictures are actually repeating to make the collage a perfect square.
Hint 2: Due to the difficulty to have a hold of all the pictures, some were not exactly one-year old.
Hint 3: You may want to visit my photo album that shows the pictures in bigger size. I also included in the album some other pictures on the same occasions but with more people.
Please support an up and coming young artist:
http://photos.yahoo.co.jp/ph/cchoy/lst?.dir=/a7f0&.src=ph&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.co.jp/&.view=t
This is the problem of the touch pad of my notebook, so it's gone for maintenance again. (No. I have nothing in the harddisk. Everything is stored in my two portable harddisks, so nothing can be released.)
So I will have no computer at home for a while. That means blog will be updated less frequent (although I have lots to post), and also less traffic in Facebook. Be patient!
We had the food, and we had to had a feast (or feasts) to finish them off.
(1) Old days in HK
Since we lived with grandma and grandma and my dad is the oldest brother, everyone came to our house for CNY. (This "everyone" meant Uncles 4 and 5 and their families, while the rest were in Australia and Edmonton. Those days, all that were in Canada were in Edmonton.)
The celebration started on CNY Eve and would last for four days.
On the first day, i.e. CNY Eve, everyone would rush to our house after work for dinner, and my mom would cook for around 13 people (Yiu-lun and the twins were not born yet). Like in Uncle and Aunt 2's house, we couldn't all crowd to the dinning table even though we would "enlarge" the table by adding on a very thin piece of metal plate (as in a Chinese restaurant, but theirs is made of wood. Very common gadget in the house those days when we still had big families.) We would therefore separate into an "adults table" (i.e. the dinning table) and a "kids table" (i.e. the coffee table, still in my house today!). Usually, the kids table would serve fewer, simpler and cheaper dishes than the adults table :(
The Uncles and families would come again on the CNY Day. They would come to our house to greet grandma and grandpa. The Uncles and Aunts and my parents would "pour grandma and grandpa tea" (another Chinese tradition for the young to do to the elderly), I think, and then grandma and grandpa would give them red pockets. Uncles 4 & 5 and their families would stay till after lunch and then off to visit some other friends and relatives. They would come again to have lunch on the 2nd and 3rd days of CNY and then the family CNY celebration was finally over.
One secret I never told anyone before was that I wanted to start my very own "CNY business" during those days. At the time, security of a housing estate was not as tight as now. There would be people knocking your door and said "distributing Choy Son (派財神 distributing "god of fortune")". Basically, it's a small piece of red paper with the words "Choy Son" ugly written on it with a Chinese brush. Usually, since it's CNY, people would receive the "Choy Son", gave the young guy a red pocket and sent him off.
I was less than 10 at the time, but I thought I could use a Chinese brush better than these people, and I had a big pool of "cheap labours" (i.e. Nobel, Sara and Belinda. Simon was too young at the time.), and I should be able to make good money from the same business :P
I thought about the same year after year but couldn't make it real even once :( May be I was too little to propose to my mom this crazy idea :(
(2) Less as old days in Edmonton
Same logic as in HK, everyone goes to Uncle and Aunt 2's house for CNY as they are the oldest in the area and live with grandma and grandpa most of the times. Unlike in HK, the celebration takes part only on CNY Eve (interestingly, on CNY Eve not on CNY day), and hence red pockets are also distributed on CNY Eve rather than Day.
(3) Nowadays in HK
As we are getting old, we have more plans during CNY. The celebration thus only means going to "yum cha" on CNY Day in recent years.
***** *****
The real CNY special of the Fact and the Myths of the Tse Family will come on 13 Feb. Stay tune.
On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, let's talk about some Tse Family tradition on the occasion.
When I was single-digit years old, we lived with grandma and grandpa. During Chinese New Year, grandma would make a lot of festive food for "ancestor worship" as well as the CNY feast. I can't remember all that she made, but here're some highlights.
(1) "Pond with duckies"
I don't know how it's called. Basically, it's made up of different kinds of flour (麵粉、糯米粉、粘米粉, etc.). Grandma would roll the dough into some small balls, short columns and duckies, and then arrange them in a round bamboo container so that it would look like some duckies swimming in a pond. (Grandma would let us play with the dough but all we could make were the balls and may be the columns.) Then, grandma would steam it and put some red colouring as decoration. Grandma would make a few "ponds" each time for "ancestors worship".
When the "ponds" were freshly cooked, we would eat them directly with soya bean sauce. After the first day, grandma would cut them into pieces and stir fry them just like "Stir fried Shanghai nin go (上海炒年糕)".
(2) Salty Chickens
Chickens were the main character of our CNY feast. The Consultant of the Fact and the Myth of the Tse Family said we would consume five to six chickens each CNY for different ancestors that we need to remember. The chickens were usually freshly killed (i.e. no frozen chicken) and boiled. For the first couple of chickens, we again would eat them directly with some oyster sauce. For the rest, grandma would use a lot of salt to sort of season them after the ritual, but the objective was actually for preservation. To salt fresh food is how people preserve food in the old days when there's no refrigerator. Grandma kept the style even though we had had refrigerator for a long time by then.
The salty chickens were usually re-cooked in one of the two ways: (i) steam; (ii) steam it on top of the rice so that the rice would soak up the chicken juice. The rice tasted real good as well as the chicken. Believe me. The salty chickens usually would take us till the middle of Lunar January even though we had it almost every single day! It still tasted good at the end of the period, although I have to say we (or at least me) was bored after eating them for half a month!
(3) Dragon Boat Rice Dumplings
Yes, this is right. This is our hometown's tradition to have "dragon boat rice dumplings" during Chinese New Year, but grandma would only make a few just good enough for "ancestor worship". (I will talk about grandma's "dragon boat rice dumplings" later on, so please don't comment on this for the moment.)
So much for the food. Let's talk about the celebration tomorrow.
... the dinning table!
The most celebrated birthday
The dinning table is at least as old as the house, if not older, and many of the Tse Family gatherings, from small to medium to big, take place around the table. While it might look ordinary, the dinning table has witnessed a lot of unforgettable Tse Family moments. Among those, it includes Uncle 2's birthdays, the most celebrated b-days in the Tse Family.
Uncle 2's birthday "usually" falls in August (check out my cousin's blog to see why I use "usually"), which is a prime time for the "once in a few years mega Tse Family gatherings". Except, again, Goo Ma, Uncle 4 and his son, everyone in the family has participated in Uncle 2's birthday party at least once, and has taken similar pictures around the dinning table as the two in this post.
Quiz 6
So, can you tell which years were these two pictures taken, or how many years apart of these two pictures?
Who qualify?
However, not all of us are qualified to sit around the dinning table. When there are around 40 of us in the family, even if only a quarter of us show up at the same time (which is quite a "regular" size for a Tse Family gathering in Edmonton), we can hardly fit to the dinning table all at once. So, usually those "older ones" can actually sit around the table, while those "younger onces", especially those not very good with chopsticks and speak better English than Chinese, will use a plate and folk to take some food before the older generation gathers around the dinning table and go to eat at the basement where English TV is on.
Tse Family catering
Last but not least, thanks to Uncle and Aunt 2, delicious food is always served on the table. It's a pity that they don't open a restaurant :(
