@852

MapMyRun.com

2007-05-02T18:26:00.001+08:00

Last Stand

2007-03-16T10:03:00.000+08:00

"The World will know that free men stood against a tyrant, the few against the many, and before this war was over, even the God-King can bleed." -- Leonidas 300 is a good movie. It's very American, but it actually got something to say. War movies are cool. Killing and blood and adrenaline rush are certainly guys' things, but those aside, War brings into question the relationship between Citizen and the State. When Leonidas, the Spartan King who led 300 of his finest soldiers in the Battle of Thermopylae, was forbidden to bring his Spartan Army against the Persians, his questions and actions brings out a ethical question: What do you do in face of the injustice of your own country? Do you confront? Or do you obey? Funny enough, Socrates, one of the Athenians that Leonidas described as "Philosophers and Boy-lovers", asked the same question before he was prosecuted by his fellow Athenians and died. And then there is the fighting shots choreographed by computer graphics, so visually entertaining they even decided to sync it with the heavy-metal music in the background. Honestly, it looked more like video-game in Matrix style. And at one point, I got my eyes tired. Not like they were dry or what, but I thought my vision was so bombarded with visual excitements that I was like "woo can I pause this or what?". Maybe it was because I watched it in the biggest cinema in Hong Kong and the screen was too big. But as I was in the movie, it was entertaining I would keep asking for more of the fighting. As you could see from the poster the movie is full of gimmicks. Not only men in Speedo everywhere (for that I thought the movie took care of women and certain men audience), but Leonidas eating an apple after having killed hundreds or thousands of Persians like he was camping was pretty wicked. The best though, goes to the Persian King Xerxes. The Brazilian dude who played this role managed to look like Prince (the singer).(And the only thing I could think of was Chappelle's Prince sketch: "Ball, blouses" and "Would you like some pancakes?") I'm serious! I can't say 300 was an epic, but it was certainly better than Sin City.

Bring It Back

2006-12-31T04:04:00.000+08:00

(Just half an hour ago I typed up like two paragraphs in word here only to discover my lovely Intel Mac crashes when saving word documents. Neva thought it would happen even I heard about it. If it had happened in lectures… I would’ve been so pissed. Turns out, changing some setting in preferences would help. Punk ass Microsoft) It’s almost 3:00am on 31st December, 2006. Some 20 hours before 2007. Scary. Can’t believe 2007 is here ‘cause 2000 was like yesterday. Or really. And because I can’t sleep I thought might as well use this time to reflect. Trying to do it right. True I haven’t updated this blog for so long. Too long sometimes that I don’t even want to touch it. But that isn’t because Hong Kong has been the perfect place to live on Earth and I just got no materials to write about. More because I got too many things happening in my life, that I can’t write about anything I used to able to think about. Not only time wise I can’t afford to do so, mentally I can’t. I wasn’t feeling it. If this blog was meant to evolve with me and document the change in me, then the time I didn’t write about anything would be the period I couldn’t figure out where I was at. But now I want to write about Hip Hop. I meant to do it in summer, but I was caught up with something else. Now’s this is it. I’m with it. But the reason behind is not very convincing: I just watched the DVD that came with Common’s last album Be (I had this album like, last year, but randomly I decided to watch the bonus DVD tonight when I wasn’t feeling anything else), and there was this last scene when he went to a junior high in South Side Chicago, where they had a group of young students doing poetry, led by Common and the teacher. This little boy, must be like 13, spitted fire. And what he spoke wasn’t about how he looked or was better than somebody else; it was just about him and GOD, and finding himself. Few lines, but that was the moment that should impact anyone who claims they love Hip Hop. At least, it moved me. What is Hip Hop? In North America, it’s about the bling. Selling. Business enterprises as Jay-Z and Russell Simmons said. In fact, so weird that on any MTV compilations lately you’d find Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson then followed by Pharrell. Or Jadakiss featuring on Paris Hilton’s single (When I saw Jada doing that, I was like… yo, is this a joke? Funny for the rapper who thought he knew how to ask WHY). In Hong Kong, … screw that. You either get kids who admire Hip Hop because of the look of the clothing and being a B-Boy. Or you get them clubbing kids (and middle-aged men) who “dance” to the top 40’s Hip Hop, including Pussy Cat dolls. In the magazines here, they still try to preach them kids on historical facts of Hip Hop like “in the 70’s in Bronx, New York, a bunch of teenagers started this music when they move to a beat called Hip Hop, with other elements like break-dancing, MCing, and graffiti. These are the four pillars of Hip Hop”. And you flip the page, there’d be lists of clothings and accessories for you to “look” “Hip Hop”, with the names of stores and addresses (Come on kids, Hip Hop is not even an adjective). Yeah, they aren’t incorrect things to say, but before anyone want to say anything about Hip Hop, they should ask themselves this question: does Hip Hop move you? Do you feel it inside? To go back to why and how Hip Hop came about got to do with black history, the roots of black music from Blues to Jazz to Funk (just to name a few), and I ain’t even qualified to talk about it ‘cause I ain’t expert in it. But I know this: Hip Hop is the music you pop your head to when you feel it. You rhyme with it when it came right. You break and pop-lock cause that’s the moment. You put that scratch to your mix cause you got beat right. What else? Just having fun man. Doing your thing. It’s that simple, so simple that it speaks for itself. You don’t really need to wear Air Force 1’s. You don’t need to wear baggy jeans if you ain’t feeling it (for y’all Hong Kong kids, stop saying you "gotta wear baggy jeans to look like a B-Boy", and give dumb reasons like "because that’s how young black people dress... because back in the ghetto they used to wear clothes that were given to them even though they didn’t fit". Just don’t say shite like that). You don’t even need bathing ape. Hip Hop isn’t about how or what you dress, but about who you are. I know this statement, by simple logic, doesn’t really make sense: if you are just trying to be YOU, why you have to listen to Hip Hop or even take part in it? Then you are like anyone else (like the classic statement: I’m just trying to be different, just like everyone else!). And the answer to that, simple: because Hip Hop music allows you to be creative, unique, individual, with style. It’s because I love Hip Hop so much that it hurts me when I see people misunderstand Hip Hop. Some think it’s immature. Some think it has no content. Some think it’s only cool if you talk about gunning down somebody else. But to me, that’s just the music I can relate to, and it’s almost spiritual when I can relate to it. Then there’s the aspect of empowering oneself with Hip Hop, that goes beyond any sort of looks or clothes that one can buy. It’s about the strength when you express yourself. It’s about the creativity. About speaking out. About being proud of yourself, because of who you are – and that’s why I think, at this stage, it’s so hard for Hong Kong people to “feel” Hip Hop, because we are even confused about our identity. Or as professor Ackbar Abbas said, when Hong Kong people are in face of China’s quasi-colonialism, it’s not about nonrecognition of who we are, but misrecognition, like reverse hallucination in Freudian sense. Or maybe it’s because our colonial history was bloodless with no struggles, or our struggles used to be in the form of economic success, that collectively, we are having a hard time finding an identity – if that’s the case, who are we to be proud of? Still today, a lot of us in Hong Kong finds our own identity in shopping – yeah, and that makes sense, because in the post-modern world people define their own identities by consuming. That’s why consumerism and capitalism solves our identity crisis, because it’s more than just a therapy – it’s a chance for us to get a “sense” of us. When individuality is submitted to consumerism (and likewise other mechanisms of ideologies) as a way to solve identity crisis, where is the place for Hip Hop? I agree with Chris Rock: “Love Hip Hop music, tired of defending it”. That’s why I give it up to artists who are still true to themselves today: the Roots, Mos Def, Kweli, Common, Kanye, Madlib, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, the Perceptionists, Dead Prez, De La, Jazzy Jeff, Primo and Guru… yo I can go on and on. And Dave Chappelle, for having brought us the Block Party that not only brought Lauryn Hill and the Fugees back, but to tell us how a concert is supposed to be a party, ‘cause it’s about the fun and vibe at the first place. (… and he also brought us Rick James, Prince, and Byaaaaaah!) R.I.P. James Brown.

Guerrilla Monsoon

2006-10-02T02:12:00.000+08:00

So we know that one of these days, if you got the fame and money, you can become singer -- not by singing per se but by making CDs with very nice covers and put them in the store for the "best-buy" price. And this is a global phenomenon: it happens every other day in Hong Kong, and, unfortunately, it happens in N. America (or, the U.S. and UK charts) as well. Yeah you know who, it's Paris! And she can't sing for SHXT! Oh wait... she doesn't actually sing on the album. But moaning words like 'i'm so sexy' to a could-be top 40 club beats occasionally. And worst of all, I can't even hear what she speaks. Yeah the fact that it's happening really sucks. We all hate it. But have you ever thought of doing something about it, other than not buying it? Well, someone did. This artist in UK called Banksy "bombed' some of the stores by replacing Paris' album with his own homemade spoof. Check out the link here with a video documenting how he did it. This guy is guerrilla. And no wonder why they say artists keep activism alive. Props up!

Rear Window

2006-09-07T16:08:00.000+08:00

People like to look into other people’s life: to see it, to know it, to feel it, to experience it, because they feel like they are part of the person they want to be. It’s a desire to possess, to satisfy oneself while fully knowing the limit of this desire – that you can never physically “own” the person you are watching, or be the person you want be. It’s this desire among of us that keeps the paparazzi fed. A couple of weeks ago in Hong Kong, an extremely popular cute-sy female singer/actress, Gillian, got on the cover of a magazine. And it brought on some serious heat among the local community on how the law should protect people’s privacy, including showbiz celebrities’. Why? Because the photo on that magazine was a snapshot of this actress changing when she was on tour in Malaysia. The photo was clearly taken by paparazzi with some sort of hidden camera. It was actually, voyeurism. But that’s not the first time, was it? The paparazzi invades celebrities’ everyday life, home life, vacation life, to a point that I start to wonder if these celebrities would be known if their private issues weren’t covered. After all, these mag’s look like a big ass piece of entertainment – there are hardly any words in them anyway. I have been hating this kind of reporting by tabloids and “people” magazine all my life: since high school I have expressed my opinions on this entertainmentization through writings that school. But this trend never seems to die. In fact, with the photos of Gillian in changing room released, this entertainmentization has finally hit the threshold that it was never supposed to hit – body. In Foucaultian theory, our sexual experience and perception of which in everyday life is the window to relationship between us and the power under which we live. In a way, power and subject – or us – is shown through sexuality. This cannot be more obvious in Hong Kong: Celebrities’ private life could be shown all on paper, taken as the accepted norm, so long the sex part – which is symbolically represented by the body – is not touched on. Once this sex part made public in Hong Kong, the threshold is reached and all of us criticize those who report such unethical stuff – even we all have enjoyed those photos of others’ private life, the evidence of intrusion, the proof of the repression. Every issue of these magazines is about boobs, about body: before Gillian’s photos were on there had been tons of almost-nake photos of women all over the covers. You got ex-pornstar in bikinis, celebrities promoting slim products and show their cleavage, slip of gowns when some women go to galas. I mean, the bombardment of “sex” has always been there, the culture of voyeurism has always been going on. So why now? Because looking through someone’s rear window while they change is more wrong that take pictures of topless models sun-bathing? If what’s wrong is the fact we have intruded others’ privacy, then it really doesn’t have to be a “more-wrong” incident to make it “ah, now you are finally proven wrong”. Regardless of what’s on the cover this issue, the interesting part is that we always like to touch on sex in such public domain, just to flirt with the taboo, without really thinking about why we are interested in this anyway – why boobs out of million other things out of million other things you can talk about? – and that’s the dangerous part of our collective mindset. If we have been all wrong anyway, because we have always liked to look into other people’s life with all the little bit of details that didn’t really matter to us at the first place, then maybe we have all been a little retarded in our responses to such “entertainmentizing” way of reporting. Because the truth is, some of them celebrities need to have snapshots of their private life exposed – if objectifying me gives me to fame to sustain the life I been living, why not? I ain’t justifying the act of voyeurism. It’s wrong. Period. But it’s not really about blaming on the one who took or release some sort of photos, but to think about this question: what has gotten all of us to be so interested in someone’s body at the first place? Right now, the chief executive has said he would take care of it, the head of police in Malaysia has said he would investigate Gillian’s case. But what Mr Donald Tsang did not tell us is that it would be hard for him to put a stricter pull on the laws that protect privacy: because two months ago he himself was still talking about giving the police in Hong Kong more executive power in monitoring phone calls, emails and so on… (Yes, US Patriot Act Hong Kong version, though the target of patriotism is this vague image of Beijing up north of us). If law prohibits such acts of voyeurism by reporters, then how could the government check up what you just bought today? What a challenge for those politicians with mediocre political intelligence. And everywhere you continue to look, it's absurdity.

J5

2006-09-03T02:06:00.000+08:00

Trust me, this video is better than any of those clips of Bush stupid moments. This song featuring Dave Matthews Band is from Jurassic 5's new album Feedback, which didn't really impress me when I heard it at HMV, even it got Mos Def on one joint -- until I saw this video. Jurassic 5 has always been my favorite Hip Hop from the West Coast. Originally from Bay Area, they are one of the best hip hop groups out there. I remember I first heard their song in HMV Shibuya during a trip to Japan in 2000. I was shopping, and they were playing at the store songs from their first full-length album then called Quality Control, and I thought "man, this sounds like De La Soul with West Coast rhymes!". So I put my yen down on the counter without even thinking about it. (And glad I bought it, 'cause the same album was only imported in HMV Hong Kong like 6 months after I bougth it...) And come on, how cool is their name -- Jurassic 5. (apparently they were 5 people when first started and became 6 as DJ Cut Chemist joined after and remained the same name -- I think -- but Cut Chemist just left the group this year.) I think I like J5's first album so much that I haven't really liked anything else they produced after that. Their second album Power in Numbers wasn't as good as I thought it'd be (but again, cool name tho'). So far as this new one goes, I'm really thinking about it -- at least, we got it at HMV not that much later than the US release.

iWatch

2006-08-13T22:59:00.000+08:00

YouTube is full of surprises. I randomly typed in the word "Sugarhill Gang" cause it came to my mind, and I got this video, which is, as said by the person who posted it, "the video that started it all". 'nuff said. This song Rapper's Delight was the first Hip Hop song that made it to the radio in 1979 and got a multi-platinum sale. Maybe something other than this song got big in Bornx back in the day as well, but this song made Hip Hop known to the world. (Oh of course I wasn't born. Too bad I wasn' there.) The group made some hits after this, but none of them came close to the exposure this song claimed. Everytime I hear this song I feel like I know why people first got into Hip Hop: it was about the fun in the funk man (did you know that the word "funk" originally means the stink of sweat from the club back in 70's, when people were dancing to Funk music?). It's all about the groove, the beat, the shake. That's why I'm still diggin' old school classics time to time, from Run-DMC to Afrika Bambaata to Beasties Boys. Everything that makes me feel like breakin'. (Though I don't really do that anymore.) But it's the feeling of something moving you, that makes you realize: man, this is what Hip Hop should sound like. Yo, read the comments for this video as well. You got a 19 year-old saying how he appreciates it and a dude saying he was from back in the day when this video went down..... and everything in between.

I'm getting hooked to YouTube man.

Shadow

2006-08-02T01:40:00.000+08:00

DJ Shadow is in town this friday, playing at Western Market, Hong Kong. No, ain't no joke. The legedary 7-inch wax destructor is here. When I was in Junior High this man was claimed the Best DJ on the planet. And then there was Entroduing...., an album that blew my mind. Till today. Let alone the first class price I might be paying for this show, coz money ain't a thing here. The saddest of all is....... I'M FLYING TO BEIJING THE SAME DAY. and there seems no way i could change my flight cause things are all fully booked. Is someone up there trying to play a trick on me? This is gonna be the second time I miss DJ Shadow's live. The last time, I think, happened when I left Montreal during summer. I wanna punch something now, I'm serious. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After a three weeks of not writing anything at all because I have been so preoccupied with the AMSA conference, here I'm again typing and talking to myself. What a good feeling. Doing something that I believe in. It seems like I need some time to take in what I did with the conference and all that. and that's exactly what i will do in Beijing. It's only through question that we grow.

Marxist Divide in a Communist World

2006-07-08T01:32:00.000+08:00

It’s been more than once that I said China is only Communist by name (as the party goes). Now, I don’t want to comment on its good or bad. But I can say one thing: the new capitalistic, economic movement we have seen in China in the past 20 years, has yielded us both big leap in GDP and an expanding gap between bourgeoisie and proletariat prophesised by Marx – that’s how you get a growing middle class in a communist country. Doesn’t that sound odd to you?

But wait, our government don’t just bear the name. We do the real shit to make sure the people is suppressed to achieve a common good. It’s some real hustlin’ aight?

Check out this article on Project Syndicate, which I thought was a pretty brief but good comment on what my country is doing to my people. Our very own people. Yeah I know some of this stuff – I have probably said it somewhere here – but yo, I need somebody who can tell me things in an intelligent, academia style so that I feel like things can get out of my chest.

Here, let’s have a nice quote from Minxin Pei’s article:

“When things go wrong – as is likely, given mounting social strains caused by rising inequality, environmental degradation, and deteriorating public services – China’s alienated masses could become politically radicalized. And, unlike past protests, which have usually been allied with students or members of the intelligentsia, popular disaffection might not have the virtue of rational leaders with whom the government could talk and negotiate.”

If you talk to a 65-plus old folk in Hong Kong about this, his likely response would be “Hey that’s the way it is. It’s the leftist. They can do whatever they want.”

And that’s exactly where it’s going wrong: we are so desensitized to the problems in China. Not only we don’t hear everything about it, ‘cause not all are reported. But the situation is so chaotic that damn, I get tired thinking about it. So at the end, “that’s just the way it is”.

And here we are, living in Hong Kong, where most people – and I mean the people who influence this city politically and financially, like that someone who made a well established medical school go by his name with his 1 Billion HKD check – tend to think that in order to continue with our declining prosperity and economic success, we need to work closely with China. We need communication with our motherland. We need to rely on our roots – and that, implies not going up against it. Stability comes first. So that when business in Hong Kong starts to get a little better, they can come out on 1^st of July and say: “Democracy ain’t as good as stability. Watch some soccer and enjoy yourselves. It’s celebration, bitches”.

Well, this stability might just be the “delayed inevitable”. Bitch.

Road Less Travelled

2006-07-01T23:11:00.000+08:00

Same road, two parties. Parade in the morning, march in the afternoon. Patriotic before 3pm, opposition after 3pm – nonetheless, they gave the same sweat.

Today is the 9^th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover, which is the also forth 7-1 March on the streets of Hong Kong, ever since the half a million that was mobilized on 1^st July, 2003. The latest figure said about 36,000 to 43,000 joined the March today, and this is ironically contrasted to the figure of 50,000 during the parade in the morning – a parade organized by all the patriotic (or Left, by the Chinese government standard) parties and labor unions, to celebrate their supposedly happiest day of the year.

Of course, joining a March is not about who and how many are in it, but about why you need to speak out, why you need to take it to the street. In 2003 and 2004, it was about the resignation of Mr Tung Chi Wa, the historic but proved-to-be incompetent first Chief Executive of Hong Kong. I missed those two years ‘cause I was in Montreal. Year 2005, after my graduation, I joined. It was about the hope for universal suffrage in the 07-08 year, ‘cause according to some inside source that was promised by the Beijing government way back when the Basic Law was drafted, and 2007 would be the year the second Chief Executive to be elected – or should I say assigned? (I don’t have the source, but I read it in two different newspapers in two different years, so I assume it didn’t come from nowhere.)

This year, same request of Universal Suffrage, without a time frame, I didn’t join. I didn’t join because the so-called democrats in Hong Kong, who are the major supporters of the March in terms of motivating the conscientious HongKongers, seem to be pulling all this off for votes for their party. And I am starting to doubt the meaning of taking it to the streets of Hong Kong – does the government, or China government for that matter, give a crap at all? We – as in the democrats in HK – claimed they did, ‘cause after two years with half a million people marching in the streets, the Mr. Tung resigned (somehow) in 2004. They called it a victory for the people. I call it the ultimate control – Mr. Tung resigned because the Beijing Government thought that instability that involves one fourteenth of HongKongers was deadly, and they needed to do something about it. And note, they didn’t even freak out, they made him sign off his office, gave the title to a dude called Donald Tsang, who happened to be the Chief Secretary back then and had worked for British during colonial times – all happened within a finger snap. To go with it, we added a little overriding of the Basic Law – oh, sorry, reinterpreting the Basic Law – to make sure Mr Tsang would sit in his office for only two years, instead of 5 that was stated IN THE LAW, as the Beijing would like him to go through a little probation so to speak.

DO YOU STILL CALL THAT VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE?

In Johnnie To’s latest movie, Election 2, he used the triad as a metaphor for Hong Kong’s political situation. Being the young and upcoming boss in the triad that has believed in democracy by elites (which is Meritocracy, isn’t it?), the main character Louis Koo realized, at the very end of the movie, he was nothing but a calculated step by Beijing to gain the ultimate control of Hong Kong, with the maximum stability. He was “elected”, with the help of some Chinese agents from Canton, to be the man of his gang – if he cooperates with our “motherland”. A painful disillusionment for a man who worships cash and power – which is why Johnnie To uses this as a parallel to Hong Kong and name the movie Election, ‘cause Donald Tsang’s appointment as the Chief Executive is HongKongers’ painful disillusionment. The truth is, the real thug is government.

So in year 2003 and 2004, the Beijing gave a crap about stability in Hong Kong, so taking the streets might make a noise. Today, they don’t give a fxxk. And here are the reasons why: 1. If Beijing actually cared, Donald Tsang wouldn’t be holding a cocktail party this afternoon, telling with his empty words how we could make a change in our economic and business environment and be part of the uprising China; he’d be hiding his head like Tung Chi Wa did back in 2003 – you think a man like Donald doesn’t need to take orders? Who cares about a Harvard master degree here? 2. Beijing got the plans to distract us – the railway to Tibet from the mainland just opened today, and the whole world is after it. Who needs this people on the streets?

However, one thing I know, because when Mrs Anson Chan, the former chief secretary with the “Hong Kong conscience”, stepped onto the streets with the crowd today, she showed us this: no matter whether you are left or right, democrat or not, so long as you live in Hong Kong, your life has now been politicalized. No more escapes from politics from now on, because the woman who wasn’t (supposed to be) involved in democratic movement now step out, telling the crowd what she prefers. Regardless of her intentions (some said she wants to run for the chief executive, and she is making a show for votes), SHE REPRESENTS. And I give her that. And together with the Civic Party that just formed by a bunch of lawyers in Hong Kong, this 7-1 March is no longer driven by the same goal – that’s why I wasn’t there.

Martin Luther King would agree that social movement doesn’t need everyone with the exact same goals – you could ask for a million different things, so long as you different groups marching got one thing in common.

DO WE?

The political environment in Hong Kong is constantly shifting, and apparently it has become less substantial these days when one talks about “democracy” and “universal suffrage”. And I cannot help but to relate this shift we are seeing now to the consumerism-based culture we have in Hong Kong, which makes everything comes and goes so fast. Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe I’m not giving the credits my people deserve. But I am constantly rethinking what it means to take it out on the streets, because I realize there are “reasonable doubts” on either side of the story. So why takes a stand when I am not fully agreeing with it, though I want democracy, while taking stand means I might be categorized?

Today, some travel show on National Geographic asked this white dude what he thinks about Hong Kong, he says “I think it’s a great city to get lost in … if you like to explore.”

He’s right. Cause I’m lost.

2006-06-27T22:10:00.000+08:00

I read something very true, very well put but also kinda like common sense in this article The Geopolitics of Football: "...when conflict stops, from Kosovo to Kabul, football is the first sign of a society returning to normal." See what's even more of a common sense is that, good writers, or popular writers, are sometimes just people who are able to put common knowledge really, really well. Anyways, this article appears on Project Syndicate, some site I wish I knew earlier. They feature lots of writings from pretty prominent thinkers, though most of them are economists. I never really studied economics myself, though I'm happy to read articles about it. But the truth is, we are living in a world right now that is dominated by economics and economists' thoughts. Every time when I read about China, I come across some issues on economics. For people who are more left than right, writers on Project Syndicate might not be the cool writers. They are not exactly the Right conservatives, but For myself, since I consider myself neither Left nor Right -- even though I sound/think/write like a left -- I feel good to read about this stuff, cause it makes me think from a new perspective.

Stephen Hawking and Interpretation

2006-06-19T02:38:00.000+08:00

Stephen Hawking came to Hong Kong last week, and gave one keynote speech at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). As expected, it created lots of hype surrounding his work, his disease, to a point that all of a sudden, everyone – not just U-students, but politicians, some bankers, housewife and their kids – tries to get a hold of the tickets to one of his talks. They even made some laser-tech based tickets at HKUST just to avoid the fakes trying to get in – have you ever heard of seeing fake admission tickets at the door of an academic lecture???

I will not talk about the interpretation of Stephen Hawking’s work, cause I never really read his work (I guess the most famous one being A brief history of time) and tons of other people can do a better job. But I got to say something about how Hawking himself is interpreted in this amazing city Hong Kong, in which everything can be broken down to one thing -- entertainment.

As most people know, Stephen Hawking is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disorder with severe retardation of body movements that is eventually fatal. I feel sorry for the man himself, not just because of the disease, but because sometimes he is better known for his disease than for his work. I ain’t saying his work is not famous, because it takes a lot of knowledge (and guts) to come up with something like “the Big Bang” and claim that you have explained to the world what Einstein could not explain in his work. But in Hong Kong (I don’t want to generalize and expand this to other societies/cultures), the hype has it that “oh man, he is the dude with this muscular atrophy thing, and he is physicist with awesome ideas!”, instead of “oh man, he is the scientist who has developed this awesome theory!”. And the reason I say this is not because I think so – some U-students came out of the talk, and I am quoting what I read in the newspaper, “Oh man, the vocal synthesizer he controls with his eyeball was so cool…” as if he went in just to check out his wheelchair; or some woman said “I can now die fulfilled and without regret” because she said goodbye to Hawking at the airport.

The truth is, if Stephen Hawking were not an ALS patient, he could have come to Hong Kong with whatever evidence or even proof for Big Bang theory, and still would not have created the kind of hype that he did. Hong Kong is a city that does not value science, not because we don’t think science is important – we somehow do when it comes to stocks for the biotech corps – but most people don’t give a crap. And I will give you one example to support this: when it comes to laws that involve biotechnology and bioethics, the laws that are supposed to govern experiments, say like, stem cells and fetal germ cells, are at least 15 years (possibly more) behind the technology itself. Why? Because it had never even appeared to the lawmakers that we should set our ethical grounds on these, though it is talked about all over the (developed) world – which is why no matter how “developed” Hong Kong is in the economic sense, it’s never really truly developed. After all, there are not that many research based biotech companies in Hong Kong; academic research is going on among Universities, especially on genomics, but still we are focusing just on the fame that it would bring us as the “Asia’s World City” (by this “we” I ain’t referring to the researchers and the teachers I respect, but people like the vice chancellor, or whoever sitting in the board…etc.), but not the possible implications of the scientific work we are doing in Hong Kong. Because this is the bottom line: as science moves forward, so are our values; when we can’t defend our values, we lose the grounds, the justification, for doing science – because then, if what you create requires destruction of the meanings and values of life in the process, it doesn’t really matter how many lives on earth can be saved by your new biotech invention, cause you have already killed life.

In fact, after studying biology and had a glimpse of what cell bio research is like, I realize that biotech and biopolitics make the perfect new couple – Foucault talked about medicalization, with implications that are still true, but Biotech is pushing these limits of biopolitics everyday at a pace we can’t even keep up with (or to view it a little differently, closing the gap between life and sovereign to a point that has never been so intimate before).

Coming back to Hawking: in Hong Kong, he is interpreted as the physicist with that severe disease. It is indeed, very respectable: his courage, his perseverance, the inspiration he gives to the next generation. But my point is: you don’t necessarily have to look at a diseased physicist to get these virtues, ‘cause if you do, you are disrespecting both Stephen Hawking himself, for interpreting him not with his work but his defect, and all other physicists, whose hard work are then not acknowledged equally even though they might have been important in the same field or the other.

This is what I mean by interpretation: sometimes we look at someone, or something, without addressing the real value that it has or deserves, but to go the opposite – we devalue that something, strip it to the last reducible form where we add new values and meanings to it as we please. I can’t say interpretation is wrong, for everyone single one of us interpret various things everyday; in fact, in a truly democratic society, everyone should co-exist peacefully regardless of how different their interpretations might be. But when a group of people in the same environment tends to interpret homogeneously without criticizing the basis for that interpretation, something is wrong. As we see now in Hong Kong, everything is about giving an interpretation that would give you the highest degree of entertainment – entertainment in the sense it would give a common, hot topic of interest as a social happening, the hype: from the Bus Uncle clip that “captures” every bit of our curious slim shady, to both the disease and work of Stephen Hawking, they have all served the same purpose in this tiny Asia City – a city so full of herself that she has forgotten she doesn’t form a dot on the world atlas.

This type of interpretation, is seen as the new form of news in Hong Kong that I call Entertainmentization, a phenomenon that I have hated (and bashed, in my high school composition class) every since I was 16, and it has been going downhill from there.

Wha’mo’can I say?

Common Sense

2006-06-13T18:30:00.000+08:00

Malcolm X, Corners -- is Common Sense Common, the Chi-Town rapper formerly known as Common Sense, has done it again. This song, The Corners, first appeared in Common's Album Be last year. The ablum version got hot beats from Kanye, but this remix is even better; this remix by Ro Blvd is just Blues in real Hip Hop. I mean, this song sounds like Jimi Hendrix on the decks man! Malcolm'd be proud. (except one thing: Mr. Dropout K really needs to stop fxxking with the Mic and just concentrate on his beatmaking... no one likes somebody who only likes listening to himself, you know) Another hot remix of this song is by Freddie Joachim. I keep poppin' my head when I listen to it. In fact, he got some free downloads on his site. THIS IS DOPE MUSIC MAN. word.

Remember, Remember the Forth of June

2006-06-04T19:45:00.000+08:00

I think I have finally recovered from the congestive brain failure I got from the exam – for the last few days I had a complete brain dysfunction. Got my fingers crossed now.

Today is the 17^th commemoration of June Forth. The white candle assembly, as the tradition in goes, is still going on in Victoria Park in Hong Kong – does that ever occur to anyone that is kinda weird that a ceremony that symbolizes the strive for democracy, and possibly the largest among all Chinese communities around the world, happens in to take place every year in a central park named after the queen in a city that was once colonized?

Every year, a group of activists and ex-activists in 1989, some of which by now are even ex-politicians, come back together and hold this reunion, making sure that Chinese people will not forget about June Forth, the Tiananmen Massacre that happened in 1989. And every year these people will still urge the Chinese government to officially acknowledge the wrong decisions that were made in 1989, to ask for a formal readdress of the injustice committed by the government, to ask for the responsible officers, and even apologies or compensations for families of the victims. But these are tough goals, not just because the Chinese Government, as an authoritarian communist party, just would not tell you they had done something wrong (like a Chinese father), but also because the responsibilities for the decisions made back then might go back to one of the greatest leader in the People’s Republic, Dang Xao Peng. And we all know, no one can target and bash our leaders like that, not Deng, not Mao, no one – for if you did that publicly, the next thing would be a charge of treason.

Exactly because of this, this struggle for June Forth has also become a symbol for the democratic struggle in China, for all we know, there would never be a day of a official address of the injustice committed, unless our country is democratic. So ever since 1989, June Forth – or in fact, just the number 6-4 in Chinese – is the symbol of democracy. And every year, you will see articles in Hong Kong saying how we want and need to see a democratic government acknowledging the injustice back then. It’s lucky (and yes, I have to say it’s lucky) that in Hong Kong, because under common law the legal system is still “intact”, and public assembly of June Forth commemoration is still allowed, for any ceremony of the same scale in the Tiananmen Square will probably bring you indefinite imprisonment without a need for trial.

I have never been to any ceremony of such in Hong Kong. Not one year, not a single one. I might sound like I only talk the talk but never walk the walk when I say I want democracy in China. But there is a reason why I have never been to one single June Forth assembly: I don’t know how strong this link between June Forth and Democracy should be, therefore every year I will need to take one step back and think about the whole thing.

I was only 6 years old when massacre happened. It was only in Junior high and high school that I got to read more about June Forth and learnt about what happened from my Chinese History teacher (note: not that June Forth has ever been part of the curriculum, but my teacher told us about it). Of course, as a Chinese, I think the government owes us all a formal apology on this matter, but are we at the stage to ask for this? Some politicians in Hong Kong, aka the so-called democrats, had brought it up before when they got the chance to meet up with Beijing’s officials, but it never went further than some pissed off faces.

Speaking of Beijing’s attitude towards the June Forth, I think some interesting parallel could be drawn between this and other atrocities during the WWII such as those by Japan and Nazi Germany. The Germans (and German government today) has formally addressed what happened under Nazi, and, indeed, carried on from there to avoid such atrocity in future with legal and constitutional action. But why can’t the China government do the same? Well, besides things like an authoritarian government, the fact that Nazi regime went down after WWII but Beijing is still Beijing, maybe the Chinese paternalistic ideology plays a role too.

On the contrary, the Japan government has never really acknowledged what wrong they had done to various Asian countries, including China, with the imperialist actions during WWII. Just last year in the ASEAN + 3 meeting, our president Hu decided not to shake hands with Japan’s prime minister for Hu thought Japan had never really apologized for their wrongdoings, even though Japan thinks that such apologies have already been made. It’s just a matter of perspective, you might say, but the truth is that so long as the dominant party in Japan is the right wing, I don’t think any better apology or formal acknowledgement will be made, because this is the Right in Japan relies on for their people’s votes: ambitious imperialist-like conservatism that triggers sadness in every Asian who has gone through WWII.

Funny though, the same time Beijing does not accept Japan’s never-good-enough apology, Beijing would never apologizes to its people for our own wrongdoings – not June Forth, not Cultural Revolution. In fact, neither of these incidents has been given a formal “meaning” or definition to our history by our government. Up till now, it’s still extremely sensitive to mention these events in China, and forget about commenting on the ramifications of the devastation. If I were the Japan government, I wouldn’t be very convinced either when Beijing tells me my apology just wasn’t “good-enough”.

Of course, the issue seems to be different: atrocities during WWII was between countries, while things like June Forth could be accounted as a country’s own-issue, as if walls are built along borders of China and the accurate information will never be released. But political issues put aside, deep down, I think a sincere apology depends on just a few things: courage, retrospection, humility; the refusal to make such an apology then, shows you what one lacks. And if this applies to a man-to-man basis, then why can’t one apply this to a nation-to-nation level as well – after all both Confucius and Socrates thought running a government well is similar to a human being living well, mentally and physically.

I think most people has seen one of the most classic pictures of June Forth: a man with plastic bags on his hands stand right in front of the tank, back straight and arms spread. That picture has been taken to be a symbol of civil disobedience like the portrait of Che Guevara. But to me, just bearing the symbol, even putting it up on your t-shirt, is not enough. We need to think about what happened, why and where to carry on from here. For from what I have read about June Forth, it wasn’t like the students have done everything right either. I ain’t saying we don’t need to remember and educate the next generation about what happened, and ceremonies can certainly serve this purpose, but I think as time goes by, one should add new meanings to June Forth, and see how it’s applied to us in China today. I might sound way too logical to a point of coldness, but if we can’t even do this, we will never move on from the Massacre, never be able to push the democratic movement further, and June Forth will never be addressed officially in China. In fact, it will only be an event of civil disobedience in the History of the People’s Republic, but never a milestone; and it will eventually be forgotten, but never be borne by the future generations.

The South Korean Taste

2006-05-26T14:57:00.000+08:00

I was browsing the New York times (kinda conservative from time to time...i know...) and apparently, Wal-mart in South Korea is gonna fold. What makes me wonder is that if this is really just a matter of adjusting company's strategies to local Korean tastes. I mean, put the issues of localization aside, could it be due to the fact that Koreans just don't like Americans and their corporations? As seen in some protests in Seoul before, the university students and workers there do target the American "imperialism" when they voice out their opinions.

And possibly due to the same issues of being able to "localize", Wal-mart also closed down like .. some 1o years ago after its try out for like 2 stores. Interestingly though, the Wal-mart in China is ever growing...well, I guess it's cause most (if not all) of what they sell are made in China anyway, so why not sell to the people who make them? That will keep the machine alive you know.

To the Leftist’s Right

2006-05-24T14:41:00.000+08:00

So as we have all seen now, our president, Hu Jing To, the big man of the People’s Republic of China, is a real Balla. Because when our honorable president was in the US sometime in late april/early may, he was cruising with George Bush in the White House, gave a highly acclaimed speech at Yale, and had a house party at Bill Gate’s some 2000 acres house or something. True balla fo’real. I have wanted to write about this for the longest time, almost a month now since that all went down, but I didn’t cause first, I was studying for exam and I didn’t wanna distract myself by thinking about all these – and be mad – so I didn’t write it. But then now I am in between exams so whatever. Second, I was a bit concerned that I might get myself into some shxt by talking about our president. I mean, you never who’s gonna be reading this public blog. But this is not a concern anymore ‘cause apparently, according to my real good friend in Guangzhou, this blog site is blocked in China: he simply couldn’t access it. I don’t know if this is for all the blogspot site and related IP’s, or the computer force sitting in darkrooms in China monitoring their online chat rooms just doesn’t dig the colorscheme I’ve got going on here. So whatever, they can’t really charge me for anything, for I ain’t “polluting” nobody’s mind. So why did everyone in the US like president Hu so much? And when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Not just the still-junior Bush who looked confused when he shook hands with president Hu, probably because he couldn’t tell if he was Chinese or Korean by his face and last name; not just Bill Gates, the savior of the developing world after all these money he’s made; but even some students at Yale. They interviewed people’s thoughts about president Hu’s speech on Yale campus, and one Arab student, who replying to an English question with his Mandarin – just to show his love for my country – said something like “oh I like him as a president. He has a hard job, but I think he is doing a good job.” I mean, this is a Yale student who probably thinks he can go to China and work in future because he has taken Mandarin classes – and this is what gets out of Yale? The reporter asked you about his speech and what you think about the content, not him, you dumb ass. But Hu was welcomed because he was there on tour to promote China’s now-on-going 11th 5-year plan (it’s 11th… I think). The aim is pretty much about improving the economy (which implies putting control on it when out of hand) and creating a “harmonious society”. That’s why he gave a speech at Yale, because apparently telling people how great China could get is an academically interesting subject, even though the reasoning behind the success will remain undisclosed. And yah, we still have 5-year plans. It never stopped since Mao’s time. Just that these plans are much easier to get through now because 5 years can be quick like finger snap when everyone is making money – that’s why all the citizens in China’s big cities are all hip happy yuppies right? So of course president Hu can ball with Bush and Gates. We moved up you know, part of the capitalists’ free trade game now. If this world trade game is NBA, our president is getting more triple double’s than Yao Ming. But do economic success, ever growing GDP, open market and lowered tariffs justify the still dictatorship-like social engineering by the authoritarian regime of the biggest population on this planet? Do improving trade relationships with American (and other developed nations) corporations, like IBM and Microsoft and numerous others, justify the numerous amount of control – the Internet being one – over citizens’ lives? During the Cold War, China was part of the “Axis of Evil” to the US because communism is supposed to destroy the free market and the idea of “democracy” and “freedom” the Americans believed in. Just a couple of decades back, in Deng Xiao Peng’s time and even Zhang Zhi Min’s, human rights issues were still on the table with the Sino-US trade talk. Now, we are old buddies man. Even if Bush mentions one word of “rights”, it’s just to show (not that it wasn’t before). After all, money is the most powerful religion to bring an atheist and a Christian together to talk. And of course China and the US are buddies now. Bush is such a good friend that right after president Hu’s visit, he declined Taiwan’s leader Chen Shiu Pin’s request to do an air transit in the US to go to South America. He’s one of us yo. So long as China, being the biggest Socialist regime in the world, plays the game of capitalism the way the developed nations do – i.e. if we conform economically, and maybe culturally – it’s ok, even if we are still communists by title. Even if some people in China are still suppressed, threatened, tortured – or even in exile. Even if the environment is continuously being destroyed, and people are suffering from the threat of toxic materials. Even if AIDS patients are abandoned in China, because no treatment can be provided for them (for which, China could have made a difference by being a negotiator in the TRIPS of WTO’s DOHA round, because this patent protection thing is making antiviral treatment extremely expensive and hard to be carried out in China, as known from Medicine San Frontiers sources). Even if religions are still carefully controlled in China, even though they say they support the Catholic Church. (I know so, from my experience there… which I don’t wanna talk about here…) Even if farmers in rural villages are so heavily taxed that they barely got enough to eat. Even if children in villages are not receiving any education because the local officials got nothing to pay their teacher – meanwhile, you will have city parents paying 10’s of thousands a month to send their only boy to a English-based kindergarten. Even if all these educated heads in big cities of China are nothing but believers of money, and university students seem to be concerned about what kid of job in which international firm would get them the highest pay after their graduation, rather than the question “what I can do for my country”. Where has June Forth gone? I ain’t saying that we don’t need economic reform and open market, because the truth is, all these things have done good to our country and its people. Everyone wants to live well, and it’s certain that no one wants in China wants to go back to the old times of hardcore socialist days when no private property was allowed. But do all these justify a authoritarian social engineering? What’s the difference then, between the new 5-year plan and Cultural Revolution that Mao did? Is it because this would lead us to wealth, but Cultrual Revolution didn’t? There is no difference, because they are both done in one man’s word. China today is a very interesting place, because if it’s successful then you will truly be able to see what capitalism – not just the cash, but the consumer-based style of living – could do to people. As Susan Sontag’s said, capitalism is about “consuming” so one can feel “free”. But in America, when capitalism comes with freedom and liberal education, people still feel brainwashed from time to time. So think about this: what could happen to a bunch of people who are highly educated with fact-based learning tertiary education, with the idea of education = good job = social security and good living, but lack the freedom to criticize and think alternatively because freedom per se, is simply not a word in the country’s dictionary. What the fxxk could happen to these people’s mind and soul? Would they all get their minds drained out and "consumed" by the consumerism? People in Hong Kong blame mainland Chinese tourists for being obnoxious, uneducated and uncivilized. Well they are not the one to blame, the whole government is pushing all these to happen: within the last 20 years, our GDP must have gone up by ten times, if not more, but without a concrete solid base of quality (not just tertiary) education and development and numerous others things related to physical and social infrastructure, what is there for us to be civilized? I ain’t saying Chinese people don’t have culture – our culture goes way back to 5000 years. But so what? In face of this new global cultural-economic wave, we are hopelessly and helplessly losing our cultural grounds, losing our identities, losing the battle. By now, someone arguing against me would come in and say that I am just proving his point, for an authoritarian government seems to be all we need in China now to solve this problem, because they will have to resource and methods to make our society “harmonious”. Chinese government just do it right man, you better believe it. Yah right… these methods are exactly what president Hu would never tell you – not in his speech, not at the balla’s party – because communists never care about the means, they only want the ends. From Marx to Mao, it’s always been the only way: ends regardless of the means. They all tend to think that somehow along the way, the problems will be corrected. But what is prioritized and what not? We don’t know. Plus, the lack of freedom and democracy wouldn’t do anyone any good when they are living in a upcoming capitalistic environment that aims to consume their minds – or, from the point of view of our biopolitical government and its “harmony”, would it? So is this social engineering process is better than Cultural Revolution? Who knows.

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And just after I finished this post, news got that the new 2006 Amnesty International Report just came out, and you can check out China here. And Hong Kong is on the watch list too, partly because during the WTO Ministerial Conference in december 05, the SAR city decided to put enough police officers -- no, sorry, well-guarded riot control unit with pepper-spray -- so the ratio of police to protesters was roughly about 5:1.

Asia's World City eh?

2006-05-13T14:54:00.000+08:00

Oh man... there is this dude in Hong Kong dedicated his whole apartment to Michael Lau, a world-famous toy/figrue/comic artist. Pictures of the crib designed by this #1 fan is on nitrolicious.

Michael Lau's most famous work is probably Gardener, which is from his own comic series 8-10 years ago, about skateboarders in HK... see i was a skater then and was really into those figrues too. These toys had been exhibited world-wide... proud to see someone from HK made it (and made it better than the Japanese).

Though this #1 fan got some crazy custom made furnitures and... um... bathroom, it's kinda weird that he dedicated the crib theme to not just Michael Lau's figures/work, but Mr. Lau himself ... kinda makes you wonder, you know.

Life is a constant battle

2006-05-06T17:39:00.000+08:00

As I am now struggling for my own battle --- exams, I came across something a little more important to know than the medical/scientific facts i learnt in class. yeah we know that the genocide is still going on in Darfur, Sudan. And we also know that big nations like the US is unwilling to give a hand, and UN peace keeping is done minimally there due to the devastation. But what I didn't know is this organization for rallie, savedarfur.org. And apparently this was started by George Clooney ... (yeah he is a cool leftist in the hollywood now, after the movies he produced.... or rather, just cool not to be a republican if you are in the US.) Something else related to Africa is about a water-project in Mozambique that I heard of today, which apparently will be an ecological disaster. Things like this remind me of the book by Nareen Hertz called I.O.U., in which she argues how detb and funds from IMF and World Bank have become a new currency for the developed nations to make money. In fact, when most of the developing (or as WTO now put it, Least Developed Countries) nations ask for money, they have stipulations: open up market, ease the trade barriers and tariffs, commit to an interest that the country themselves cannot even pay up within the time the current president is in the house. So a lot of these desparate nations then do anything they could to make money, then start to forget about the basic infrastructure, or worse, their basic production/industry and natural resources, and end up ruining the "motherland", which is arguably the continent with the richest resources. Debt indeed, is a new form of exploitation and colonization. Indeed, when I was reading the book I almost gave up reading halfway 'cause some of the things said are so disgustingly depressing. Like how some Wall Street traders would "trade" some countries "debt": in other words, all those debts of these countries, which include all nations between Uganda and Peru, were put on market as bonds so buyers can buy them like stocks, all around the world. This was one way that some developing countries make a bit more money...or for most of the time, forced to do so cause of the economic pressure. It's because of this kinda shit that we saw the crying mothers in Italy sometime ago in late 90's after they had known that all their pension were gone after being put on the Argentinian debt bonds, 'cause Argentina's then-new-leader refused to pay up. Or the East Asian Crisis in 1997, when this dude named Soros and others decided to "attack" our asian currency, and screwed us all up over here. That impact was just as damaging to Indonesia as the Tsunami. Yeah you gotta wonder what those traders in their cubicles were doing when these things happened. Punk ass capitalists. It's disgusting.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Something nice this week is that i finally got my ears on the 3rd Kobayashi album, straight up form Montreal. The Jazz grooves over the electro-beats are gonna be the only force that carries me through my upcoming two weeks of constant brain-stuffing. I would write about this album and my love for this Kobayashi sounds if I have time...just not now.... (i got a lot of things to write about when I finish exam, don't I). You know I would lend it to anyone who is interested, cause their sounds are just better be heard than said. (But if you are in Canada, just go get it. Don't be cheap on this one.) Peace out. Phil

Be True to Yourself

2006-04-28T16:44:00.000+08:00

I put up some new links, all related to HipHop culture -- the side that you might not hear in the media. I really don't remember how i came across these blogs, but i'm glad i did. In particular, i came across this one post and the comments/discussions are surprisingly well said: http://blogs.sohh.com/connect_politic/archives/2005/03/past_and_presen.html In fact, those cats there said most what i want to say, so i will shut for now. But I will definitely write about Hip Hop in future, for this is what I love. (I just realised the other day, it's been almost ten years since I bought my first Hip Hop CD...) And honestly, this power of the Internet keeps on amazes me. Especially everytime I find some blogs and articles that really resonate to my thoughts. It's like a whole new playground, with its potential stll be fully discovered. This just crazy. Peace. One note added 10 hours after: So I have been giving some thoughts to what was commented on that connect politics blog. And in response to that "conscious" hip hop or not, I just realized i have completely abandoned that term in recent years. None of that underground, backpack, conscious, message or whatever terms that people use to describe the hip hop that is not seen/heard in the mainstream because of its popularity, exposure, and saddest of all, marketing budget. I didn't do this intentionally, but I just don't think these terms give the sounds I love the most their credits. So I have adopted this instead, if I really need to refer to this category of Hip Hop that I like: Quality Hip Hop. With the name inspired by Talib Kweli's debut solo in year 2003, Quality.

Dislocated Locality

2006-04-21T23:50:00.000+08:00

First off, I didn’t come up with this terminology myself – wish I had the talent for that. It’s brought up by Professor Ackbar Abbas, the honorary professor at the Comparative Literature of Hong Kong University who has written on the subject of HK studies. I just went to his keynote lecture at a symposium by the Comparative Literature Dept. on film scenes in HK. This lecture aimed at investigating the relations between cinematography and scenes in HK cinema, and the topic of the seen/unseen. This latter part then led to a more important question about the idea of disappearance (e.g. city image, identities, culture) in the wave of globalization. Professor Leo Au-Fan Lee, a retired Harvard Professor now teaching in HK (apparently, as he said, cause he likes it here…) then immediately responded to Prof Abbas’ lecture. The collective brain power these two men gave was so intriguing and inspiring that just made me realize…man, I haven’t had a lecture like this for a long time.

This term dislocated locality came up because a very big part of the talk was dedicated to the dialectic idea of appearance/disappearance seen in HK and its cinema scenes. I think both professors agreed that in films like Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love and 2046 (see, I got backup for my taste here), or Fruit Chan’s Durian Durian, or even Andrew Lau’s Infernal Affairs I, space and place are stripped from each other. Most obvious (or not), I think, is in Wong’s In the Mood for Love, for the movie was shot in Cambodia, aiming to re-create the “mood” of the old HK in the 60’s, which historically represents the “mood” of the old shanghai in the 20’s. The significance of this, particularly because Wong shot a lot interior scenes or interior-looking scenes even in the outdoors to create this old HK in a foreign country, is that scene/space of a film is longer related to the place it is set in and therefore, marking the disappearance of a city’s image (that’s why I said it could be unobvious, cause it’s disappearing). In other words, as HK is created in In the Mood for Love, the image of HK itself can no longer be found (i.e. disappear) in HK. In fact, as Abbas said, “what is lost is not the city”, but the boundary (or even memory) “between interior and exterior”. Of course he then went on to talk about other films and their significances (which I need sometime to take in, or maybe watch the films again), but overall, I think dislocated locality is a good term to sum it up. (Something else really interesting he said, dialectically, about the Tony Leung in the film was “disappointment to desire”…ah…so sad but true.)

What’s funny is that right when I could link this phrase to myself and “people like me” because it describes my situation in HK so well. What do I mean by “people like me”? – Kids who grew up here, or had lived here in some part of their lives, but went abroad elsewhere and came back for work or school, only to realize that the locality in them is dislocated.

That’s how I feel at least: before I went to Canada for school, I considered myself a local boy. I might have had some characteristics that was part of the globalized youth culture, like Skateboarding, Hip Hop, Breakdancing, or gee, Coke and McDonalds, but never a minute I doubted my locality. Then I went to Canada and got a bit more of the West and “white-washed”, I came back and the “local” people no longer consider me to be “local”. Despite the fact that my locality has not changed – what I used to do or say that was local, it’s still in me – I’m literally and physically dislocated, at least, in terms of my cultural identity and image. But seriously, I don’t consider any change in my locality, because as my best friend once put it “you can take a boy out of Hong Kong, but never Hong Kong out of the boy”.

SoThis label of non-Jupas does not just signify the physical dislocation of space that I have gone through, but also the shift of my cultural identity due to this shift, making me (and numerous others who had gone through this, or so-called 3^rd culture kids) a physical representation of the separation of locality and space.

In fact, I am gonna push this a bit further: when I was in Canada, people considered me HKese. Meaning that whatever they saw of me, they thought I represented a HK kid, fresh of the boat. So when I was there, I was also a dislocated locality, or, taking the perspective of the country I landed, a localized non-locality, because whatever I did would be slightly different from a local. So great, I am now dislocated, regardless of where I go. (Well, then I guess this being stuck in between makes me really global.)

Of course, the word dislocated has a negative implication to it, and that’s understandable because Professor Abbas used it when talking about the negativity of city disappearance and appearance. I used this term here because it fits well, not because I really think this is about negativity. But it’s funny how this idea is seen in real individual, which makes me wonder if people could be lost in globalization as well. Plus, the fact the I came back hoping to be re-immersed in this culture that I am most familiar with turned out to be a self-realization with disappointment, just fits well with Professor Abbas and Lee’s idea of affect in disappearance – it’s out of love (not the mood, ok) for the city I’m from that I experience this disappointment. Yet, more disappointment leads to more desire (for the city), just like how Tong Leung keeps dating the same “type” of woman, only with disappointment every time. Wha’ a playa.

But ain’t this just a form of hybridity – me as a hybrid of two cultures (or more) that I have experienced, just like different people can have in them traces of different backgrounds. Yea, it is. But how this dialectic approach makes sense even for ideas outside cinema and books amazes me. That’s all.

Some other point I thought is very related to what I am interested in here, is the idea of upcoming generic city – be it Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Shenzhen – seen in this force of globalization. As Professor Abbas suggested, it’s not just one city becoming like others, like following a prototype, but also, how a city leaves behind its cultural background (or burden) and becomes liberated to a new form – and thus, seen rather generic. Hong Kong is certainly at a stage right now of being claimed as one of the generic cities, and starting to lose its charm or “competability” among other Asian or China cities. Why? Well, cause we have had this “liberation” and became the generic city long ago in the colonization era, and have been enjoying the success and wealth the liberation had brought and thus, have not been able to move on from there to have another liberation. It might have worked for us then when not that many Asian cities are capable of this liberation (so we looked like we the shit), but now, with all cities and especially the China ones having equal capability and opportunity to become the “new and rising” rookie-of-the-year, we are losing our place. In fact, the slogan for HK, “Asia World’s City” is so out of date that it’s just a joke, ‘cause the whole world is after every single Asia city like it’s a World’s city – that’s why it’s called globalization.

It upsets me when I see this in HK: that when we are losing our grounds that brought us the success, and yet we are not willing to or putting effort to move on, so we keep falling behind. Even now after 8 years of struggle since the handover, we are still just barely catching up, only waiting to be swallowed by China (then we will really be generic, nation-wise).

Professor Leo Lee mentioned in the lecture that Hong Kong lacks local talents to do “crazy things”, and thus not capable of liberating. For instance, he said that we don’t have crazy architectures that would take off from us the label “generic” (which I wanted to respond to by saying that we have the building of Bank of China designed by IM Pei, which to me is an absolutely stunning, elegant beauty. But I realized it’s not by a “local” talent – Pei was a dislocated locality too). In a way, he suggested that we would need local HK talents to be creative and courageous to create a trend in the globalized world, but not to follow it. That, to me, is just a much bigger problem and picture, for globalization is affecting Hong Kong is a special way that’s different from its impact on China, partly because HK had colonial history and has had a different function in Asia.

What are there to do then, for Hong Kong to keep up and possibly lead in this globalized world? Well, first we need to rethink our place here, cause it’s obvious we are no longer enjoying what we had. And this will involve, somehow but not only, a choice between dislocating all of our locality (so that we are swallowed) or to re-localize the locality that has disappeared/dislocated (so we redefine not just our position in the world, but the idea of what can be globalized or not). I hope then Wong Kar Wai and other directors will have then rediscovered what could be appearing in Hong Kong, and they would be filming the time now, the present, but not the past that we are all nostalgically obsessed with.

Racism and Colonialism

2006-04-16T17:32:00.000+08:00

A commentary by a black African man in Hong Kong appeared in the column of SCMP (the only local English newspaper in Hong Kong) on 9^th april, regarding his personal encounter of racism in Hong Kong. This was followed by two responding comments today, one by another black African and one by a white European. And I guess the conclusion from them is simple: if you are not Chinese, you will feel discriminated in Hong Kong. There was also an interesting point addressed by the white European: in Chinese the term for Africa, FeiZhou, has with its first character the meaning "wrong", while the term for America, Mei Gou, has its first character meaning "pretty"; he thus goes on addressing how this might be due to differences in colour. An interesting observation, I have to say, but I'm afraid the two terms were made that way more because of their pronounciations rather their meanings; after all, the white European has felt discriminated himself , which should not have happened if the term Mei Gou really refers to the "pretty" white nation.

I guess to add to that list there is the mainland Chinese, discriminated by HK-er Chinese at all times. Be them tourists or immigrants, we simply look at them as if they are from a different country (while they are not), and act like we don’t know them at all – except when the mainland Chinese are shopping and we desperately need that business.

The majority of Hong Kong people are just culturally unexposed, narrow-minded, and worst of all, indifferent. We claim to be the Asia’s World City, the place of where “East meets West”. But to me, this “meet” is as shallow as meeting a girl in a club: it is simply a co-existence without any understanding or communication in the cultural sense, because it so happens that there are two distinct cultural groups of people – Chinese and non-Chinese (i.e. everyone else) – that came to Hong Kong since the colonization by the British began 150 years ago. There might be attraction between the two cultures so they, occasionally, flirt with each other, as seen in the movie The World of Susie Wong some 40 years ago. Or there are some privileged ones in Hong Kong whose daily lives are more “internationally exposed”: for instance, kids who attend international schools, people who work at international corporations, folks who like in wealthier areas with a bigger non-Chinese populations. And maybe those who travel really often, either for work or leisure, but that will depend on the attitude of how they travel (in a tour groups like herds, or not?) that is another issue.

But mostly the two cultures remain separated physically, socially/demographically, linguistically and culturally: Chinese and non-Chinese live in different areas, though not necessarily nicer for the latter because there are Indians and Pakistanis in Hong Kong who live in underprivileged conditions; you will find both Chinese and non-Chinese in bars and clubs in Lan Kwai Fong or Wan Chai, but you will only see Chinese in bars in Prince Edward and Mong Kok; or you will hardly ever see a non-Chinese in the public estates, where most habitants are considered lower-class in terms of family income (unless they are interested in them and decide to go for a walk in there, which is cool). But my point is this: besides the few whose lifestyle or living condition is “international”, the majority of Chinese HK-ers don’t really interact with non-Chinese groups, so the chance of learning about other cultures is almost none.

In fact, they are not just culturally unexposed; they are indifferent, for they don’t have to intentions to learn about other cultural groups that live in Hong Kong at all. Because if they do put effort into understanding other cultures – be that Caucasians, Black Africans, Indians – these cultures won’t be discriminated. In fact the commentary I mentioned is nothing new: about a year ago, there was another report saying how Indians and Pakistanis are discriminated in Hong Kong, for their qualifications obtained in their home countries are not acknowledged such that they can only do low-income jobs even though they might be well-educated (one case was a PhD from Pakistan, I think, could only waiter in a restaurant). And because of this report, I got into an brief but heated online discussion on the yahoo HK message board with another dude, for when I said that HK people are in general culturally uneducated and indifferent, he thought, hey, we are not that bad in Hong Kong because at least we don’t have ethnic cleansing… so no we don’t have discrimination.

As you can imagine, that really pissed me off, because: 1) just the fact that we don’t “hate” other cultural groups doesn’t mean we understand their cultures; 2) in fact, it’s because we don’t understand or even are indifferent to them that we don’t hate them (I’m not saying we would hate if we do understand them better), the reason being that we don’t really care at the first place; 3) we are never xenophobic because having 95% Chinese here, most Chinese don’t even have to interact other cultural groups, and of course there won’t be any misunderstanding; 4) the fact that we were colonized for a hundred something years and lived in an environment with fear towards the British (that was maintained in a vague, distant relationship) has conditioned us to look at non-Chinese with a different attitude; 5) none of these should justify discriminations, which should be considered on the receiver end but not from the perspective of the one alleged to be discriminating.

It’s colonization that leads to this racism today, because it has conditioned us to perceive foreigners in a way that is different from how we would treat our fellow Chinese HK-ers. It’s well known that Hong Kong when under the British governance gained an enormous amount of economic growth, because the British brought with them the ideas of common law, constitutional “democracy”, tax system, Adam Smith, free trade, and capitalism. And I’m not disagreeing with that, nor am I ungrateful for that. But these “gifts” had their consequences and implications. For instance, it’s less well known that when under their rules (that is before 1997), Hong Kong was never really democratic: the governor of Hong Kong appointed by the Queen always had the same power, if not more, as that of the Chief Executive appointed by Beijing today. Chinese was rarely represented in the Legislative council of Hong Kong before the 60’s, and before the 70’s (i.e. the Cultural Revolution-inspired riots by the Leftists in Hong Kong) there was no Chinese in the Executive body. It’s only towards early 80’s, as the handover was under its way and Basic Law was being drafted that gradually more Chinese elites, most of which educated in England or in HKU (the institution that upholds a British kind of pride, or snobbishness) were introduced to the government. And there was Christopher Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong whose main job was to show to the rest of the world that Hong Kong was ready for democracy, not the pre-cold war kind of communist ideals that the Beijing government was trying to get rid of then – not a very convincing act, however, for there was never really a democracy when we could only elect representatives to a Legislative Council that could easily be overridden by the Executive body appointed by the Queen (or as in now, the Beijing Government). So when I meet foreigners who are interested in Hong Kong and ask me about the 1997 Handover, especially when I was in Canada, I told them that at the core of the Hong Kong politics, nothing has really changed: we never really enjoyed any democracy, and we didn’t get any after the Handover; we never had a real election, at least not for our leader, and we are not likely to have one in near future. The only difference might be that we were manipulated to think that we were democratic so we wouldn’t (or couldn’t) ask for true democracy, and now we truly know that we are not democratic and we will fight for it. (An improvement, isn’t it?)

But what does colonization and democracy have to do with racism in Hong Kong today? They are very closely related, in fact, for the shadow of colonialism is affecting the way we look at foreigners in Hong Kong even till today.

Because of the colonization, we have never been equipped to look at foreigners in an equal way. Collectively between the British (and other non-Chinese) and Chinese in Hong Kong, there never existed any equality. I mean, let’s be real here: the British colonized various parts of the world to exploit their people and their resources, not for the scenery. You think they went to India was Calcutta was beautiful? No. You think they went to Africa ‘cause the Savanna looked good? No. You think they came to Hong Kong ‘cause the fishing villages were exotic? Hell no. It’s all about exploitation in the beginning, done in the name of trade and coated with the benefits they brought to Hong Kong – from which they gained even more. I don’t think anyone would, or could, argue that colonization was not wrong or not about exploitation. And if you really think so, I think you should go read Franz Fanon.

Besides the inequality, we were conditioned to have fear towards foreigners. Because they came with guns and ruled with an invisible gun, most Chinese citizens in Hong Kong has long been adapted to this fact; even for the Chinese who came after WWII, they were conditioned to be afraid of the British government because they had to conform in order to live here. So it’s a condition that people are not gonna challenge the British government so long as they guide us along the path of wealth, except the riot in the 60’s and the student movements against colonialism in 70’s. Even so, fear towards the British – or more accurately, Gweilo, a term that is applicable to anyone who is white – remains in such a way that when most HK-ers look at white people today, we look up (and I don’t mean the physical height). Indeed, although Gweilo is a term considered derogatory because it describes white people as “ghosts”, or something unpleasant, it is used by Chinese with fear – we came up with this derogatory term because we are fear of the whites, just like how we are fear of ghosts. Funny how Chinese people distort their thinking, isn’t it – when we fear of someone, we belittle that someone. I guess Mr. Lu Shun really gave an accurate description of Chinese people in his short story The True Story of Ah Q. And If Gweilo is really that derogatory, then why would be widely accepted even among white people? Of course, you may argue because this is a term that is never really used in a common language between the two cultural groups, but I don’t see derogatory terms like the N-bomb accepted by black people (they use it among themselves, but never to be called by outsiders). The fear of Chinese towards the whites because of colonial history is signified in this word Gweilo, a term still applicable and used today not because it’s culturally used as an accurate description of white people, but because it still represents how most Chinese people perceives foreigners and their culture, and because this fear has never really gone away.

Because this attitude towards other ethnicities was never really rectified, foreigners (black or white or brown) still feel discriminated today in Hong Kong. And don’t get me wrong here, I don’t agree with this discrimination at all and I am not justifying it. But is it really discrimination, if this real Chinese attitude towards foreigners is because of our fear, or our inadequacy in history? For we have to understand one thing: not all Chinese HK-ers have had the opportunities to obtain a good education, a good exposure to English as a language, and thus, a good exposure to foreigners on equal grounds. All these contribute to the misunderstanding that exist between Chinese HK-ers (or a term that I am a little uncertain about – Locals), and any other non-Chinese groups. And of course, you might argue that Koreans and Japanese are not Chinese, but their cultures are more widely accepted in Hong Kong than others. That is true, and one can only blame history for that: Chinese and Koreans and Japanese do share some similarities in their cultures and customs, and it’s just easier for them to interact with each other culturally (although one will have to think about the political conflict between Japanese and Chinese since WWII as well).

I think that colonialism is only one factor that has contributed to this racism in Hong Kong. Other factors, such as the media, free-market and consumerism, language and subculture, all contribute to it. But at the same time, these factors lead to other problems and issues as well. It’s only with time that I can outline them, for at the moment, I feel that Hong Kong as a subject is so complex that I don’t know where to start. So I can only deal with bits and pieces one at a time, and see if I can get a good picture at the end.

Last, let me clarify my stand here: I respect everyone because we are all human beings. I might joke about certain stereotypes towards certain ethnicities, but really, I respect everyone and will take any opportunity to learn about other cultures. Sometimes I even question the idea of identity, because I think it would really fxxk our world up I we are just all patriotic.

So the bottom line (even it might be cliché): one love, one respect.

Kweli speaks

2006-04-13T12:51:00.000+08:00

My favorite artist Talib Kweli just said something real on hhis blog space. This ain't about whether his music is your thing or not, this is simply about RESPECT. Check it out: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=22053298&blogID=109105516

V for ... ?

2006-04-13T11:07:00.000+08:00

So i wrote this "review" on V For Vendetta some weeks ago, and i finally managed to bring it somewhere other than just my blog: http://www.inmediahk.net/public/article?item_id=105447&group_id=59 Inmedia is a independent news source in Hong Kong that allows theoretically anyone who can access internet to post articles, which serves a very important function 'cause it allows a new breed of so-called "Citizen Jounralists" to interact on a neutral platform. For instance, they have a really series of inside, "alternative" reports on the activist works during the WTO Ministerial Conference in December 05, which could not be seen in mainstream media in Hong Kong, where most media corps are profit-driven and tend to entertainmentize the news. (This entertainmentization might be due to various reasons; more on this in future...) Just a side note: even though V for Vendetta was awesome, somehow it just wasn't as good as the first Matrix. I don't know exactly why, but could be because when i watched the Matrix i was only 16, and now i tend to think differently when i watch movies.

Got Moves?

2006-04-12T22:26:00.000+08:00

Have you ever had the experience of a "sexy" type of music? I mean, sexy to a point that you will be visulaizing yourself dancing, with a super-hot partner, even though you don't know any moves for the kind of dance. The music itself is seducing you, to a point that you feel like you are cheating, even though you are single. This is the feeling (or rather, sensations....) I get when i listen to Gotan Project, an Electronica mixed with Tango sound production trio of Philippe Cohen Solal, Christophe H Mueller and Eduardo Makaroff. In terms of their mood and style, they kinda sound like the tango version of Jazzanova or St. Germain, although this is an underestimation because Gotan Project uses A LOT of live instrument fused with their electronic sounds. They even invited Astor Piazzolla -- the Godfather of Tango and the ultimate master of accordion -- for a collaboration in their last remix album Insipracion-Espiracion, so that just shows you they are not your normal electronica group, in fact, what they are to tango is like what Outkast is to HipHop. (and by the way, Astor Piazzolla is cool cause his music will constantly appear in Wong Kar Wai's movies as soundtracks, especially in his 90's productions such as Happy Together and In the Mood For Love, if i am not mistaken.) Best approach: get their CD and listen to it at night. Don't ask me why, but it doesn't work for me if i listen to it during the day. (well, i assign a certain time to a certain genre of music.... have you ever tried that? it's fun.) Their first album La Revencha del Tango (2003) is just "sexy" and a classic in its field. (In fact, you will hear some of the songs in the lounges or bistro that plays electronica, if they are ... uh... hip.) And 4 years now, the Gotan Project got new moves: The new Studio Album of Gotan Project --- Lunatico, out now in Europe and N. America but not Asia (yet). In this album they try to move forward from where they left off in their last studio album, using even more instruments besides accordion, especially strings and pipes, to give a more complete taste of "South America" (or Argentina, i am not exactly sure if this is correct since i have never been there). And according to the reveiws, they have teamed up with a lot of local musicians from Buenos Aries. But afterall, it's the accordion that makes the whole album "sexy". Most of the songs in this album are still very progressive, but much shorter than those in their first studio album (about 5 min as compared to 7-8 on average), which to me is a little "unsatisfying": i enjoy their first CD 'cause all the songs are long enough for you to be "in" it before they give you a nice development in sounds and before they end. Now, in the new album, every songs got a good intro and progresses well and deep and all of sudden starting to wrap up and you are like... "that's it?" Nonetheless, the songs on this album will still either move your feet (even while you are not on the dance floor) or blow your mind (I'm serious, i didn't even know there were musicians who can make sounds like that). And thanks to Harris for introducing me to Gotan a couple of years back. This is quality music, man. Word.

Sneaker Freak

2006-04-09T23:54:00.000+08:00

So I heard the “Sneaker Street” in HK is gonna be wiped out soon, for the urban renewal and development authorities think that the buildings on this street are way too old to stay any longer. And apparently, there are tons of residents in these deteriorating, pre-WWII buildings on the street who are mainly the lower-class old folks waiting to move out with the compensation of a flat in one of those new West Kowloon public estates.

The sneaker street – or rather, a strip coz it spans two blocks straight – is a world-famous street in Mong Kok, Kowloon, which happens to be the busiest town in HK as well. Its history dates back about 15-20 years ago when a bunch of Chinese sporting goods businessmen decided that the rent here was good for them to expand their sneaker business. In fact, the boom of the sneaker shops on this street goes along with the success of the big sports brands, aka Nike, Adidas and Reebok. Particularly important was Nike, which basically dominated the sports business from mid 80’s to 90’s with its Jordan series and numerous other basketball shoes. And the result of this is obvious: with its mass-appealing products and ad’s, the Nike basketball business plans have cultured a pool of basketball kids and teens who believe that basketball is the game of life and support the ever growing sales of sports shoes/sneakers, which in turn has created a culture that is even more deeply influenced by the sports ad’s. And all these could not have happened without the sneaker street. Not only because it’s the only two-block strip in HK –and possibly the world – with almost exclusively sneaker stores, but also it forms the perfect space of advertisements for consumers. Once you walk into this strip, you find yourself immersed in a sea of ad’s: the posters in the store, the products on display, and the huge-ass photos of sports celebrities. And once you hit the heart of the strip, which is the cross road in between the two blocks, this visual bombardment peaks and there is no way you will not see one of these ad’s – or bump into someone’s shoulder because there are like 200 people all trying to cross this tiny street at the same time, and all got the eyes looking at some ad’s but not you.

So we have, again, a classic example of from branding of a corporation to branding of a sports to branding a culture to pushing the sales and exponential growth of corp. But what’s interesting here is that the culture here is not just about the sales, or the kicks that the kids wear, but it has created a specific space that belongs to a community. It’s physically the ultimate consumers’ paradise (well, I guess like the rest of Hong Kong) with a strong cultural motivation behind it as the driving force. And I guess this is pretty obvious, even though I’m not in cultural studies myself.

Because in Hong Kong, most streets are pretty crowded and busy, the buildings on the two sides of a street, though they could be just 5-6 storeys tall in the case of the sneaker street, are literally wrapping around the street like two walls, leaving only a narrow strip on ground with the vertical space above partly covered, either by the buildings themselves or the smog. So most advertisements will be put on walls of the buildings at the level of the first or at most the second floor, but not any higher. In fact they can’t go higher than that, because there are people living from third floor up and they need their air. But trust me, these ads are packed enough: if you are there during the day, you feel like you are walking in a maze; at night, with all the spot lights shinning on the ad’s that wrap around the whole freaking building, you start to wonder if you on the street or in the stadium waiting to kick off a game with these sports stars.

I will certainly feel bad if this street is gone, for it’s my favorite place in Hong Kong since I was like, 5 years old when my dad brought me there to shop for my first pair of “kicks” (L.A. gear, man, y’naw’m’sayin’?). Then all through middle school and high school I would go there like every other week, just to check out the kicks that I wanna get with my savings. In fact, I think a few generations of b-ballers in HK have shopped or at least walked there. It’s so significant that I have seen tourists these years walking around in Mong Kok with a map trying to find this treasure strip. Even if a new mall is built on this site, once the street and its stores are wiped out, nothing will ever be the same.

But I feel sorry for the residents. Damn sorry. Imagine all these years they have put up with the shoppers, the traffics, the noise, the dust, the garage and poor hygiene, and the heat of the lime light out of their windows. You might ask why they don’t move out. Well, I don’t think they have a choice – not when they are retired elderlies with the flat as their only possession, or a family of four with just enough income to support the kids’ tuition and books. And I feel ashamed of myself because I have been their numerous times and yet, I never knew the real problems of the situation for these people – I just dip my head into the pleasure of consumerism and stop thinking once the money slip out of my wallet for the kicks. So when a piece of news comes up reporting how bad the living situation is for these people there, I feel used, exploited, victimized: for all I have seen is the surface of the so-called prosperity in Hong Kong, coated with attractive consumer product, underneath which lies the real situation on the streets of this city, with the real people who are probably working hard everyday but can’t even afford to move out or buy a pair of shoes in the stores downstairs to where they live. So happy as the shoppers shop, some people upstairs are suffering, not just from the intolerable physical condition itself but also the hard, poor life they are going through – and that’s the irony of reality. This is where we live, a capitalistic, profit-driven society consisting of a machine that put some people to the edge of their living. What’s even worse is that this is only one small place in Hong Kong where you find this ironic juxtaposition of the extremes. They could be found elsewhere as well, but you might have to look for it, because in a city like this they real shit is all covered up in something that we all like to, in fact, want to look at: advertisements. It’s not even a matrix man, it’s just fxxking dominance.

But is there a solution to this? I mean, does it even help if I don’t shop for no Nike’s from now on? Or does it mean I can continue shopping if say, the government or even the big corps put their money back into these communities to improve on what they have? That’s a perpetual consumer’s dilemma – well, mine as a consumer at least. It’s like if you want a cheap pair of good jeans you are exploiting someone in the sweatshops of Bangladesh; if you want a cup of coffee and so happens there is only Starbucks around you, you are feeding a big machine that exploit farmers. If corporations bring out consumerism based on a new, colonization-like strategy, is individual consumer able to resist at all?

Well, without an answer, all I can say that I am at least aware of the scam, although I admit, this is just not good enough. But again, this problem of consumer/culture is seen everywhere in Hong Kong, and not a lot of people seems to have a doubt about it -- now that's a real problem.

R.I.P. J Dilla

2006-04-06T23:56:00.001+08:00

Apparently, one the producers that I like, J.Dilla, died last month. And I didn’t even know about it. In case you wanna read:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9305932/j_dilla_dead_at_thirtytwo?rnd=1144334501060&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1212

Just so you know, he is the man behind a couple of rapper Common’s big album, Be and Like Water for Chocolate. He also produced for Eryka Badu, A Tribe Called Quest, etc. But my real favorite is the work he did when he got his group Slum Village. And there is the album he did with another favorite producer of mine, Madlib -- their group was called Jaylib (Jay Dee + Madlib), and the two created some real quality hiphop last year that reminded some of Mos Def's stuff. In fact the album was called The Champion Sound (great shit). Plus a bunch of works J Dilla did, which you can find out from that article or from google.

This reminds of other hip hop artists, or talented people in general, who died early. In the Hip Hop scene, you got Tupac and Biggie died last decade; there was also Big L, Jam Master Jay, Aaliyah, and a bunch of others that I might have heard of – or not. Then outside Hip Hop there was Bruce Lee, the man I respect the most; Kurt Cobain, whose songs moved me when I was like… huh... 13; and there is Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane, one of my high school teachers who taught me handball….

You know pharrell is right: Nobody Ever Really Dies (aka N.E.R.D.) I mean, these people left behind them a legacy that is not to be forgotten, no matter what they are. Of course, artists got their works left behind that can’t really be forgotten easily – no matter good or bad they have touched someone. But even people, once they are gone, there will be people who remember them, or whatever reason.

This got me into thinking about life, you know, and how I take the fact that I am gonna die too. “You only scared of die if you ain’t living right, man”, says Talib Kweli. It’s true, to a certain extent. But are we living right, and that we will not regret even if we die? Or am I?

You know, if you read existentialist stuff like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus (although he didn’t want to be called existentialist, The Outsider is indeed an existentialist classic), you will get the idea that if death is only one of those ways that realize one’s existence. Even suicide, after all, isn’t so problematic at all. The reason for this is not because everyone leaves behind legacy, but rather a view of life that is pessimistically based on free will. Of course, it isn’t my point here to give a definition of existentialism, for I can’t – the first thing I was told in the class for existentialism was that it got no proper definition. Or, not one that is brief and satisfactory. But my point here is this: not everyone lives a life with the idea of an existentialist – thought some people might think like so unintentionally. So for most people, we are just trying to live a life that is gonna be good for us and hopefully other people. But what do we gotta do, really, to make our lives right?

As a first year med student in training, I get to see cases of deaths, and learn how to deal its procedure of reporting, the coroner, an autopsy, or the family’s request and possible concerns. But what about the concept of death, is that gonna be taught? Can it even be taught? Certainly we might get some ideas about it from the Christian Fellowship at med school (with people who I respect as well coz they are doing a good job, at least they will stimulate people to think about discussion like this), but is that it, and he school is just gonna sit back and sort of let us deal with it ourselves? I mean, I don’t see a point in doing ethics class without dealing with the concept of death, when a lot of times we gotta talk about death in ethics presentations and PBL cases/tutorials. In fact, what’s the point of teaching you all the diseases that can kill you without telling you what death is? I don’t wanna experience it, but dude, tell me what death might mean/signify/implicate. I know there might not be an answer, and people will have their own stands on this one, but why not at least mention what those are? It’s like in Judo or any martial arts class, you get to be thrown or punched before you get to throw or punch somebody. So before we learn about the biological mechanism that gives rise to life and the diseases that can kill you, why not discuss the concept of life and death?

I got my own views on death, though I am not exactly sure if that is what works best for me. But whatever that is, this is what I think: use your common sense to live your life, man. Only with your common sense you are justified to say shit like “this is my life” or “I’m gonna be true to myself and live my life the way I want”…

Got common sense?

ReThink Consumerism – not just your mainstream shit, but the street culture too

2006-04-05T22:10:00.000+08:00

So I passed by the cross-section of Queen’s Street Mid and Ice House Street in Central the other day, and I saw one of the upcoming stores is BAPE – A Bathing Ape.

This is probably the most successful street fashion brand on the planet. Started by this Japanese dude Nigo in Harajuku some years (a and half decade??) ago – long enough before Gwen Stefani knew about it – this was the cool brand when I was a teenager in junior high. Its graphics were exclusive, limited, hip, mixing the American style of pop culture with the Asian creative talents, expressed in the form of the universal teen language: T-shirts. Today it’s got its chain stores with hair salon and café, and marching across the Pacific Ocean all the way to NYC (their NYC store opened last year, I think). And don’t get me wrong on this one: that’s cool too. Good to see Asian brands doing well in the world stage, even though they are not from HK.

But here is the thing: one reason the Bathing Ape does so well is that everything is limited, for better quality control and, most importantly, a price that is almost “dysfunctional”. I mean, if I am not mistaken the price of a tee from BAPE has always been about 600-1000 HKD (which is about 80-125 USD), or it might be cheaper now if it’s bought from the official store (because they were only available from all the independent importers in HK who jack the prices up like teenagers are goldmines). But dude, would you spend fxxking thousands dollars on a fxxking cotton t-shirt? I mean, unless you tee is made with Indian silk with gold stitches and hand painted by Japanese tattoo artist, there is no way I am gonna pay that price. And I am gonna be honest here: I can’t afford it. So call me a hater all you want, but even if I can afford it, I got a little more sense than that. (I’m Rick James, bitch!)

But of course, the street culture got its own thing to say: we are limited so that we can control our quality, and though that makes the products pricey, it also makes us cool. And given that the Japanese got their own magic brush that seems to be able to make everything so much better – at least so it seems to most of the street fashion heads in N. America and Asia – they got all their power to be pricey. In fact, some of them deserve to be pricey, really, ‘cause its quality. And I’m cool with that.

And by street culture I don’t mean the Sean John t-shirts with Sean “Comb” John written all over, or the phat farm shoes that are made like shell toes. But brands that make products with creativity, inspiration, respect, and might even bring out a message, a mission, a tribute to those inspired them – does BAPE still got that?

But if you are one big street fashion brand (Mongul?) like BAPE, you can afford to be the shit ‘cause you are, right? You know, people dig it. So BAPE and their owner Nigo just keep opening up like starbucks, and that’ll still be street culture. YEA RIGHT. Not when you are now planning to open up in the middle of central, right opposite to Harvey Nichols and Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Not when it’s in Central (just so y’all know, Central is like the Financial district in NYC, or any other so called CBD – Central Business District in the world. A lot of bankers and banks and even more bankers, like the streets in Matrix) and you well blended in a sea of hi-end fashion stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and whatever the fxxk those companies that sell leathers are. Because here is my point: when a street fashion brand is trying to reach up to the top of the fashion world like that, it ain’t the street no more. So how much do you think it would live up to the expectations of quality control, being hip and got cool graphics, and, the most important part of this street culture, got the intentions and messages in the products? I mean, most of its profits gotta be now going to the rent, to the commercials in magazines, and to sponsor celebrities who think they are in the culture. And yea, they are still limited so they got the official reason to rip your ass off while the product designed in Japan is made in China. So fxxk the street culture, we got the real business deal over here, son: We moved out of the streets, bitch.

In fact, just as the BAPE is sponsoring and teaming up in designs with artists like Pharrell Williams, it’s a classic example of “culture/consumerism” – a phenomenon that as consumer products team up with cultural figures for better sales, it’s reshaping the culture (partly for its own good) and so that the culture reshapes around the products and so, becomes the culture. This was probably the best argued in Naomi Klein’s book No Logo. For example, think about Nike and how it sponsored superstar like Jordan so to create the super craze on basketball shoes in 80’s- 90’s, and how Nike has been since very late 90’s and early 2000 sponsoring street artists/brands like Stash, Futura, Stussy, and numerous others that I lost track of to keep their air force 1’s and dunk’s alive. As they sponsor the street culture for better sales, because they see how a big part of the street culture is about sneakers, a.k.a. “kicks” for us sneaker-heads, Nike is reshaping this sneaker phenomenon in street culture so that people are even more crazy over their pari of limited-250-pair-artist-special-colorway-15^th-anniversary shoes they got on, and at the same time, pushing its image of cool to its max on the streets, and all of a sudden it’s ok that they use child labor that we all know about (we went to college too, ok, we know how to think independently): I mean, they changed their policies of outsourcing to factories and no more human rights violations right? Just keep making the hottest colorways and we will forget the rest.

Fxxk no: it’s not ok. But I gotta admit, it’s so damn hard to ignore this big part of me that’s attracted to these products, like Nike and Adidas. But it’s not my point to talk about the big corps here. It’s just an illustration of how brand shapes culture to fit the brand better. So on choosing those big brands or not, I’ll leave it up to you to decide your own stand, for I am not the best person to criticize what they had done here. (if you are really interested, read No Logo). But what I am concerned about is how street culture brands bearing the name of street culture are moving away from the streets while telling you, “we are more hip now, ‘cause we move up the ladder to the high end world”. It’s simply a disguise. For BAPE, because they have done it extremely well in this brand/culture manipulation -- better than Nike indeed to a certain extent -- it’s even more important for us to think what they are doing, because they might be turning themselves into one of those big corporation machines that don’t have the street culture essence anymore.

And they have done well partly because the street culture has a smaller circle than the mass that Nike was aiming at, so it’s been easy for them to pinpoint and focus on who to team up with. And the result is an extremely powerful push in the sales for both BAPE and the artist. So powerful that sometimes I think Nike copied BAPE’s model of marketing. Back in the days when BAPE sponsored and teamed with DJ Shadow and James Lavelle from Mo’Wax, that was cool. Then the HipHop heads start to dig them in around 2001 – 02, at least among the cool ones like De La. That was cool. Then Jay-Z and one of my favorite artists Pharrell. That’s cool too. (don’t forget here though, that Pharrell had moved up the ladder too, I mean, the guy even got onto cover of iD). But Omarion and Bow wow and Usher wearing Bape Sta and Bape Hoody? …. dude, I don’t know.

The street culture and its fashion is always about being the alternative to the mainstream, so that literally, the kids on the block can make his statement out of his fashion style. Be it the graphic message on his tee, or the limited colorway of his kicks that you can’t get at foot lockers, fashion is the strongest statement. But fashion is only a tool in here, not the essence: you are using fashion to make a statement because you got something to say, a.k.a. I ain’t comfortable with the mainstream and here I am, telling you how I’m gonna be different. And the beauty of this is everyone is an individual, to a point that it’s individualism to the max, and it’s freedom of expression with respect for other human beings. Because people want to be unique, people are getting more and more creative, constantly raising the bar for esthetics, and in fact, this is the what has motivated the street fashion world to be ever evolving, and so it got different themes that send out the messages to the communities it represent.

I might sound like cynical anti-mainstream-just-for-the-sake-of-it type. Maybe I am. But I certainly don’t wanna just follow the crowd when they are crazy about something – let’s step back and chill and think about what’s going on.

So, it don’t even gotta expensive gears, but it gotta be cool – we are talking about esthetics here, not just bling bling. It doesn’t make you street if you wear the BAPE that everyone wears – and it’s not because the “everyone wearing so it’s not limited no more” – because the BAPE ain’t got the street essence anymore like it used to, because they are selling everyone the same old tee, same old shit while trying to tell them “man, that’s still a lot of design talents here”. So if you think you are counter-culture and thus, cool, because you copped a pair of bape sta, sorry, you ain’t there yet.

So when BAPE store opens in central, y’all street heads better recognize – recognize the fake. DAMN!

Can I kick it?

2006-04-02T11:51:00.000+08:00

So originally this should have started way back in September 2005, when I first started medical school in Hong Kong. The idea to start a blog was that “man, there are so many things that I think about everyday and they are just overflowing in my brain. I gotta write them down.” This is still true, except that from September to now I have been spending even more time thinking about what’s there to blog and why to blog. I mean, why do I want to even write my thoughts down like this, really?

For my younger sister and her friends – who happen to be in the generation immediately younger than me if I count 5 years as one generation – blogging is like a part of life. It’s so normal for them to be writing this online diary and read up others online – a “space” where information is so open and accessible to everyone that you might think if a new and true-to-core democracy is going to start anywhere on this planet, it’d be the Internet. Indeed, something about this blogging that is so powerful that it doesn’t just change the ways of communicating, but it changes the ideas of communication itself. Like 8 to 10 years ago when I first started using ICQ with a 56K modem, that was at least still talking to people in a real-time dialogue. But when you realize blogging could be a way that people communicate with each other – or rather, one person communicating with a lot of others – the idea of communication has changed from real-time dialogue to monologues free of time constraints (or not?) just because people have already changed their way to collect information of other people, and “talking” is no longer associated with time.

So what am I going to write on here? – Anything of interests, I say. My thoughts through the day, thoughts on my life, other people’s life, society, medicine, politics, movies, music, culture, transcultural problem (which was actually what first got me thinking about blogging – transcultural issues I have been seeing/thinking, in and out of Hong Kong, after my 5 years in Canada). I mean, does it even matter, for I don’t even have a specific audience but myself? And isn’t that what blogging is all about, writing to oneself as if one is writing to others – a bunch of multi-directional, linked-in-space monologues?

What I really want to do is to draw the lines between the dots, aiming to make connections that seem to exist - at least to me. It’s just fun to do things like this. And it will also be a fun way to see how my interests will change over the years, if this blog continues. But what I don’t want to do is to turn this blog into my diary, because I just simply think that’s undermining the power of blogging: the network behind blogging is so infinite that if you just write about your daily events, the true potential of blogging will never be discovered. For I believe that blogging has the potential to connect people and to achieve the idea of “power in numbers” if we could really influence one another through our thoughts in such an open space, and blogging about one’s own life and daily events is certainly not going to influence and stimulate others’ thinking as much as simply expressing one’s opinions here. I mean, say what you want to say, that’s the deal. In fact, sometimes I have such a strong urge to just say/put down what I have to say, or else I get choked up or something.

Of course, I don’t have the time to do blog daily, so at the moment I hope I can do a minimum of one blog a week. (Maybe until I get a new laptop and can access Internet everywhere then I will blog more often.) But the bottom line: one week. This forces me to write every so often, to think, and “feel” like I actually exist. I certainly don’t want to sound like Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” – I don’t mean that at all. But just wandering about things and occasionally get excited over my own thoughts (‘cause I thought they were cool) is just part of who I am. And expression is part of who I am as well. I have come to realize that without these two big elements in my life, I am pretty much nothing but a walking body.

Why starting on my 23^rd birthday? Well…It’s just easy to keep track of the time. I’m not a very birthday person (tho’ I gotta admit I had a really good birthday this year), because I never really believe in this “milestone” idea of just your, well, birthday. I mean, it doesn’t feel like I have achieved something really important in my life just because I have lived till this April 2^nd of 2006. But 23 is a good number. Mid-way between 20 and 25, 23 is stuck in the middle of the first 5 years of what could be the most important ten years of my life – and that just sounds so boring. I need something to spice it up. And that’s this blog. Keep track of myself. Of course there are other meanings to 23: the evil 23^rd ordinance on security in basic law (shout out to the fighters against this), Michael Jordan (hey don’t be a hater…), luck meaning in Cantonese (ok, I’m starting to make things up now…), etc.

But why I start it is not so important. Rather, what I put here and where I take it are important. I don’t know the answer to that right now. But we’ll see.

Peace, phil