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Book Reviews Fiction Whacky Thoughts

An Attempt To Pinpoint Why I Still Love Reading Chinese Literature – A Brief Review of 倪匡中篇奇情武俠系列《金腰帶》

倪匡中篇奇情武俠系列《金腰帶》

I have read tens or perhaps hundreds of English books but none matches the sensation I derive from reading in my mother tongue.  Like this particular book I am going to feature here, I was so deeply affected that my mind just wouldn’t allow me to do anything else right after I’ve finished reading the book.  The plot was alive in my mind for days thereafter.  I still cannot pinpoint why.  All I could guess is that the reading pleasure may come in fourfold: the native understanding of the passages, the linkage to the culture and tradition, the construct of the phrases, and the depth and complexity of the development of human characters within.

People at times tease me on how much I suck in English spelling, which is true.  Unlike English whereby words are constructed in alphabets that can be pronounced without knowing the underlying meanings, you can’t do the same for Chinese characters.  You may be able to recognize the meaning of a character because characters are often assembled in components that represent the picture, sound, color, or the combined meaning.  It is only fair to say that I am trained in recognizing and replicating words in the form of characters rather than memorizing the pronunciation of the words in alphabets.  While I can quite easily find a Chinese book that I can recognize 99.99% of the words within, I can hardly say the same for English, by a far margin.

Recognition of words aside, it is often the context of a certain phrase derived from some literatures written in the old days that contributes to the art value of the modern day Chinese literature.  If I was to soak myself into the work of Homer or Shakespeare or Dante or Woolf the same number of years I soaked myself in the Chinese poems and classic literature and history, I think I may be able to gain a similar level of appreciation from reading English literature.  I knew that all those years of reciting old Chinese poems and literature does translate into something.  There is just no easy way to do this except to invest time and effort.  It is part of the culture and tradition that is imbued in me from young.

Another notable difference, especially in the genre of Wuxia (that I will explain later), is the excessive usage of dramatic and explicit expressions to describe situations that often lift up my soul just by reading those phrases at face value.  For those who have the Chinese background, let’s see how many of the following phrases you can recognize.  To describe a fearful looking man, we use “the horizontal growth of facial flesh” to paint a brutal picture of his face.  To describe the break of dawn, we compare that scenic view to “the white belly of a fish”.  Picture yourself in front of a half naked blacksmith creating a piece of metal weapon.  As the hammer hits the red hot piece of steel, you can see the pulsation of this man’s muscles.  We describe his muscles as “an infinite number of jumping mice”.  When faced with a clamoring crowd, we describe the situation as “seven mouths and eight tongues”.  Why is there an extra tongue?  That is how noisy the crowd is.  Finally, I will leave the last example, a four-character Chinese word, for you to decipher – “the howling of the devil, the rallying of the god”.

There is a certain parallelism between the Chinese genre Wuxia and the Western fantasy I believe.  As I was once told, in the world of the Western fantasy, the good and evil is often well defined.  It is the same for Wuxia though to add to the element of drama, there is often shades of good and evil.  There are evil characters that may behave in an honorable way or good characters turn bad.  The center philosophy of Wuxia is a blend of honor and martial arts.  In the godless world of Wuxia, characters wield rare weapons, have gifted talents, able to perform martial arts, and some gain once-in-a-lifetime enlightenment to take them from heroes to legends.  Center to the human character in the world of Wuxia is honor, love, hatred, deceit, revenge, betrayal, struggle, and sacrifice.  It is hard to define any Wuxia piece of work as comedy or tragedy like a Western piece of work.  Chinese authors seem to have no qualm in letting their most beloved characters assassinated, murdered, killed, mutilated, disfigured, or even raped at times by the very person these characters trust, by the most evil characters, or simply by the most insignificant characters.  If there is any redemption to all these mishaps, the plot of a typical Wuxia story often resolves to the theme of: justice will prevail, honor will be restored.  But at what cost?  That is the beauty of this genre.  The authors’ imagination is the limit.

Ni Kuang (倪匡) is a Chinese writer from Hong Kong who is famous for his science fictions.  I cannot recall how many of his books I have read when I was a student.  His venture into the Wuxia genre is new to me.  In fact, this genre has been dominated by the legendary works of Jin Yong (金庸) that are usually lengthy and come in a volume of one, two, four, or five (another interesting observation is that some Western literature often comes in the form of trilogy instead).  Ni Kuang has written a set of short Wuxia stories (each story roughly equals to 1/32 of a typical length of a story by Jin Yong) when he was young but the timing was not right for him to release his materials.  It could be because short Wuxia stories were against the norm back then.  Now that Ni Kuang is in his 70s and all of a sudden, he has decided to release all his Wuxia works in one go.  Rejoice for fans like me of course.  With such drastic reduction in length, Ni Kuang has stripped away the historical references to the main storyline like the typical Wuxia novelists do, the poems and the scenic descriptions that are so prominently demonstrated in Jin Yong’s work, as well as having a much limited character set.  The result is a tight storyline, fast pace read with a high entertainment value.

《金腰帶》 (loosely translates to “The Golden Belt”) as part of Ni Kuang’s medium length Wuxia story series contains two short stories, like the rest in the same series.  The first story is about how a daughter of an evil lord gets involved with a young hero who is in love with a lady from a good lord.  The second independent story is about how a daughter seeks revenge after her parents were murdered due to a treasure they stole and later on falls in love with the son of the very person she is seeking revenge upon.  I have retold the story to Cynthia in English (with drawings, timeline, and flowcharts) and she was deeply moved.  I guess, in a rather long fashion, I have illustrated the last attribute of the uniqueness of Chinese or especially Wuxia stories: the depth and complexity of the development of human character within.

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Whacky Thoughts

This Is How Love Is Measured

Everything in life can be measured, that is what I believe – either directly, via proxy measurement, or indirectly. One friend of mine asked: how do we measure love?

We don’t have something like a love-meter, nor any consistent correlation that can scientifically measure love. How love is measured (after months and years of pondering), I think, is simply how much time you spend thinking of that someone or something positively during the day. Time is finite and it is a good unit of measure because everybody has the same number of hours a day. If you are thinking of that LV bag the entire day, yes, you are in love with that LV bag. If you are craving for sushi the entire day, yes, you would love to have sushi for dinner. If you think of work even after office hours, in as much as you hate to admit, you love your work more than your own family, or your cat, or your dog.

It is kind of simplistically elegant. If you are unsure whether you love A or B more, ask yourself one question: do you think of A or B more often? No more dilemma, no more so called follow your heart. If you love someone, you think of that someone often.

Not too surprisingly, if you hate that something or someone, you also think of that person or that thing often. Love and hate belongs to the same category – intense feeling towards something or someone (the opposite of love is indifference).

So, what does falling out of love mean? Perhaps that is when you think lesser of that someone each passing day. Perhaps having the pictures of your family at your workplace does make sense. You see, you think, therefore you love. Perhaps having a picture of your dog as your wallpaper does reinforce how much you love your little companion.

So, do you love me more than I love you? Tell me how often you think of me and I may tell you what you want to know.

Love can be measured, I believe.

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Whacky Thoughts

Be HIP – What Does That Mean To You?

My new colleague once asked me if I know where the best sites to download music are. My immediate response was Apple.com (iTunes Store that is). It is rhetoric. I knew that was not what she has in mind and neither can we buy music from iTunes Store in Singapore.

Allow me to indulge myself in the politically incorrectness of generalization. There are two groups of people I observe in general when it comes to listening to music. One group cares less about music. They seldom purchase any album nor possess any music in any form. Music from the radio or TV is good enough for them. Another group in contrary loves music. And within this group of music lovers, it subdivides into three categories. One that buy music. One that downloads music feeling indifferent to whether or not it is the right thing to do. And one that downloads music believing that it is the right thing to do, believing that they play a part in revolutionize the music industry.

Revolutionize the music industry?! I had much debate with one of my friends who download a couple of albums a day. No doubt he has difficulties in listening to all the albums in his vast collection. Till today, we have not come to a conclusion.

You see, I am a keen supporter of “honor IP (intellectual property)” – HIP. I pay for the music I appreciate, the PC games I enjoy, and the DVD I watch repeatedly. For those who are indifferent to the consequence of downloading music (arguably illegally), I think there is no right or wrong answer. Neither is there a question of moral stand. Hence, I am indifference to the indifference.

However, it is people like my friend who intrigue me. I hear what my friend says. Music industry is a rogue business. The musicians hardly get anything in the end. The record companies are the big winners. All the proceeds from the record sales have to cover the marketing expenses and to fund the new artists that come on board. What the musicians get in the end is peanut – unless you make it big. That much I can understand. But to portray the heroic act of playing a part to hurt the industry so that the wrong can be right and the big evil (aka record companies) can be punished? I have my doubt.

Are you willing to work for free? After all, it is your boss who take home bulk of the profit, it is your organization that has the double digit growth – not your pocket. If you expect the musicians to work for free, it is only fair that you too work for free. True or false? Think of the retail business. Isn’t it true that the landlords are the big winners, always?

There is no right or wrong answer. Governments deem illegal music download the same as stealing. Some home users deem downloading music is the right thing to do because it will revolutionize the music industry. That one day the musicians will benefit the most from the proceeds of the record sales. Or perhaps as my friend has pointed out, the way to earn a living by the musicians is not selling records but performing live concerts.

Self deception or not, you decide.

PS. This post is created as the prelude of an upcoming music review. You will see the connection I promise.

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Whacky Thoughts

Cynthia And I Shop In A Different Way (Working Title: I Love To Shop)

Increasingly, I realize that there is some sort of role reversal between Cynthia and I when it comes to shopping. And I assure you, there is nothing to do with that 7 months break I had and how I became domesticated.

Cynthia shops with objectives in mind. She may not know where to buy that something but she has a clear vision on what to get and how many items she needs. For instance, she has a clear picture on how many pairs of business shoes and casual shoes she has and which ones are in the pipeline of being decommissioned. I wish I could do the same for my ties. I mean, having an extra tie really wouldn’t harm, would it? Today, inside a mall, I was staring at one particular tie on the rack. I turned to Cynthia and asked: haven’t I already bought a tie of a similar style just two days ago? We both stared into space and could not recall. As of now, those ties I bought two days ago are still inside the shopping bags ready to be unwrapped.

The fact remains unchanged … I hate to shop when I need something. It is stressful. Having an objective in mind puts a time line to what could have been a wonderfully relaxing shopping experience and turns it into a chore. And that is no fun. I treat shopping as part of an exploration journey. It doesn’t have to be a route from A to B. It could be something like from A to A1 and then A2 and then zigzag between A3 and A4 … and finally you reach A999 without actually arriving at B at all. And you can save B for another day.

To illustrated, take the other day as an example. Cynthia and I needed to buy a birthday present for Lora. I walked into Orchard with an open mind (really … why need to think when the “answers” are … everywhere?). Cynthia walked into Orchard with plan A to Z all ready. Okay, I exaggerate. It was more like plan A to C. In between these plans, I stopped Cynthia at the hat section and asked her to try out some hats. Deep inside, I think she liked the diversion but she kept saying: focus, focus! And I stopped at the Men’s section and bought some ties. Finally, we got something for Lora and I really wanted to check out another department just upstairs for some casual clothes … but the time was up! Gasp! We were scheduled to meet another friend of ours for dinner …

But … but …

Sure people can understand if someone got stuck in shopping, right? I certainly can. That’s why mankind has invented wireless phone so that while waiting for your friend to arrive, people can roam around and check out things around them? That is win-win!

The other day, I was shopping with my guy friend. How wonderful it could have been! Except it didn’t turn out the way I expected it to be. Or rather, it turned out the way I didn’t wish it to be. We arrived at one section and I was marvelled at the range of clothes. I took up garment A, visualize the result, analyze the color (if I have this and that to match and so on), check out the available sizes, examine the style (how people may perceive when I wear that), and so on … and I moved onto garment B. By the time I have made the decision on which ones to take into the fitting room, my friend emerged from the fitting room and was heading to the cashier. I was like … dude … so fast?! He was like … ya, I found what I need. I was like … you don’t need my opinion? He was like …

I think the great thing about shopping with someone is that we can take our time to try things on and hear out what we have to say. That is the fun of it all.

How about things that we can’t try but can only visualize? It can be fun too! Or in my case, it could have been fun too! Today was a 20% storewise discount from selected malls. Time to shop for some pyjamas! I started with one brand then moved onto the next. Cynthia casually picked something from the shelf … the color was good, the price was a bit to the high side but … yuck! I said to her: look, there is a printing of a cockroach! Okay, she didn’t see that. Truth been told, Cynthia seemed to feel uneasy in the men’s pyjamas department (I must have been taking that long eh?!). That, I don’t quite understand. If I was inside the lingerie section, I would feel like heaven. That section is definitely out of bound for men unless we are with our partners. And the chance to pick what I like to see behind closed doors? Priceless.

On our way out we passed by the Braun Buffel section. I stopped and couldn’t take my eyes off some of the briefcases and bags on the shelves. “I think …,” before I could finish the sentence Cynthia asked me point-blank, “What do you want to put inside?”

I pondered … and surrendered, “iPod?”

Okay, I don’t even have an iPod yet. But that is besides the point …

Anyway, by now, you may understand why I enjoy reading Sophie Kinsella. Still waiting for her latest book to go paperback though … arrgghh!

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Whacky Thoughts

A Discovery Journey With My VCR

Not many people I’ve talked to appreciate the technology of Videocassette Recorders (VCR). It is a matured technology – the first VCR made for home use was back in 1965 by Sony – and low cost compares to Digital Video Recorder (DVR). I clean the video heads and change my tapes regularly. Four hours long of standard recording in one videocassette is good enough for the occasional short overseas trips, evening outings, and even a World Cup match.

After 8 years of service, my Philips VCR finally broke down.

First thing on my mind was to get it repaired but as my friends pointed out, it is an old VCR and it is more worthwhile considering other options. I can either get a (1) S$300 DVR from my cable TV provider that comes with a small monthly subscription fee, (2) S$600+ DVR that allows me to archive my favorite programs into DVDs that option 1 doesn’t, (3) S$1,000 high end DVR that has HDMI output, or (4) get a new VCR.

Last year, I would have picked up option 2 or 3 in a blink of thought. Right now, I am in the money saving mood and hence thinking hard before parting my hard earned money.

As I hit the stores, I am surprised that VCRs are no longer on the shelves. Singapore is still not on High Definition (HD) broadcast and why in such a hurry to take out such a wonderful technology that still serves well with today’s broadcast signal quality? Clean the heads and change the tapes often like I do and the downgrade in quality is not that observable. In the end, I found that Mustafa still sells VCRs with prices that range from S$125 to S$285.

How odd that I didn’t even wish to part my S$125. At the back of my mind, Singapore is going to have HD broadcast this year and by then, VCR will most likely be obsolete. Still undecided, I headed home to reconsider my game plan.

This afternoon, I wanted to open up my old VCR to attempt to repair it myself. If I could get the yet-to-be-watched “So You Think You Can Dance” tape out, that would be an achievement because seriously, I don’t claim to know electronic equipment well enough to repair them.

It was quite a scene looking at what was underneath the hood. I saw my “So You Think You Can Dance” cassette secured by a metal cage with pieces of the tape running through a couple of rollers and a shinny huge cylindrical metal that called video head. The instruction on the metal cage said: to remove the cassette, push down the latches on the side and push this plate forward. With my two hands, how am I to do three things at a time? I tried and failed. I switched on my power supply thinking that it must have been some electronic voodoo mechanism that would eject the tape if I managed to do these three things at once. No luck. Instead, I got lots of mild electric shocks while doing that. I turned to look at one of my screwdrivers that has a light bulb inside and it lit up! That translated to a presence of electricity. Out of curiosity, I used my screwdrivers to poke the places that used to give me electric shocks (like TV cable) and true enough, the light bulb lit up. All along I thought it was because of my body that is prone to electric shocks.

I nearly destroyed my VCR and my “So You Think You Can Dance” cassette while yanking the cassette out using brutal force. I found a very fine and loose spring after the act. The moment I switched on my VCR, the motors were in action. My VCR must have detected the absence of a cassette and all the parts have returned to their original positions. My heart jumped when I heard the sound of the machine as though it was coming back to live. But my joy did not last long. My VCR went dead as before. I tried many other things with no luck. In the end, I googled my problem and somewhere I read: to turn off the modulator, press and hold the ON switch of the remote control for a few seconds. There are other amazing stuffs such as hold the Stop/Eject button for a few seconds to do this and that. Suffice to say, none of those Internet search nor list of problems address my current issue.

Anyway, I whipped out my VCR remote control, pointed it to my VCR, and pressed the button so hard thinking that if it does not work, so be it. I don’t know if the VCR remote control button that did it or a combination of everything with the tape out and all. I don’t even want to find out how my VCR got into such a state to start with. I don’t care and I am happy because it works.

All complex problems have simple solutions and you may travel a long journey just to discover the answer lies right where your home is. If you think that playing adventure games like Sam & Max, that requires you to try everything possible and half of the time you found the solutions by chance, reality is not that far off. Right now, I have a working VCR that I am not sure how long it would last after an “operation” from an unskilled electrician. To the least, my reward would be my missing episode of “So You Think You Can Dance”. I doubt if Cynthia will notice that our VCR is back to where it was. She is in for a surprise tonight.

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Whacky Thoughts

Of Elephant and Duck

Day 1 of the Facilitation course at British Council, as icebreaker, the trainer asked us to think of an animal that best described ourselves and why (the activity was called “Animal Magic” by the way). So, some said dog, cat, lamb, hamster, cow, and some said lion, tiger, and eagle (I chose eagle because of the sense of freedom and the love for bird-eye views). And we were divided into two groups – the wild animals and the domesticated ones.

Then we were given the exercise of choosing an animal that best described our own company and some other questions such as the animal’s habitat, what this animal needs in order to survive and so on. Our group – the wild animal group – almost immediately associated our company to the most ancient animal on Earth (due to our company’s size and its legacy). We chose an elephant in the end and talked about how elephants left the footprints on all corners of Earth (well we did have some dispute with someone who think of himself as a lamb to start with and how the lamb ended up in the wild animal group was due to number imbalance).

The domesticated animal group, on the other hand, chose a duck to represent our company and talked about how ducks survive by keep peddling and feeding on small fish.

It did hit me at that moment through “Animal Magic”, perhaps how we see the world begins with how we see our own self.

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Whacky Thoughts

Why I Hate Dining Out

Many Singaporean friends of mine prefer dining at the hawker centers to cooking a proper dinner at home. I do prefer home cook food but ever since Cynthia frequently worked overseas, there is not much point in cooking my own meal. Hence I eat out. Choices are limited – either dine around my work place or dine around my home.

Near my home, I can either order takeaway from a hawker center (I phoned them to place my order) on my way home or I can drive out a bit and dine at a neighborhood hawker center. The takeaway menu is always the same. I feel sick just to think of the food itself. The neighborhood hawker center gives me 3 choices: super oily chicken rice, super oily Indian food, or moderately expensive Japanese food.

Around my workplace, the choice is really limted. I used to dine at the Singapore Delight located at the ground floor of where we park our car. One day, after I have ordered my Wanton Mee, I have witnessed the lady who cooked the noodle didn’t wash her hands after handling the rubblish bin and the other lady who cut the pork didn’t wash her hands after unpacking can drinks from a dusty box. Oh well, too late, I have to eat my food.

Today, I ate at the Golden Shoe hawker center. Just when I was making my selection of Chinese dishes, I saw a small cockroach crawling on one of the dishes. Again, too late, I have to eat my food.

Sigh.

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Whacky Thoughts

Not Unlike High Platform Diving

I am not a big fan of sport broadcast but since young, I fall in love with high platform diving. With a high platform, the athletes are given enough time to chain the difficult moves together and yet land onto the water with the minimum amount of splash. Perfect ten is made of this.

Some argues that gifted people with talents are able to paint a picture, write a book, compose music, perform drama acts, and etc. naturally without the need of long hours of practice. Little do some knows that these gifted people devote much of their lifetime doing what they love best.

What prompted me to think of high platform diving was when I was doing recording for my new song (this is the one). It was frustrating trying to get the vocal recording right. Taking the song into pieces trying to make each piece sounds right is not unlike the moves within one high platform dive. Lots of practicing.

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Whacky Thoughts

Singapore’s Customer Services

With the recent Hong Kong trip still fresh in my memory, I find it hard not to compare the customer services experience in Hong Kong and in Singapore. Back in Hong Kong, one evening I entered an electronic shop not unlike Courts near closing hours. The salesperson was very helpful full of enthusiasm showing me the subtle differences between Plasma TV and LCD TV of various brands. Beyond the statistical information and general product descriptions that some Singaporean salespersons can’t even memorise, he showed me the TVs in the viewers’ perspective. In particular, he was pointing out the color vibrancy, the feel of realism, the comfort level, amongst many other key feathers that a viewer should look out for.

Today’s lunch time, I took a train to Raffle City and walked all the way to Suntech to visit the optical shop that I have purchased the contact lens from since 1995. I forgive the fact that as a salesperson, he has thick nose hairs sticking out of his nose (eeeewwww) but I can’t forgive the fact that after looking at my long record card, he said that the product that I have been using is a monthly disposable lens. I told him that no, it is bimonthly. He insisted till he has to refer to the one who sold me the lens (does that make a difference?!).

Excited by new toric lens, I asked this salesperson what the differences are. “Supposed to have more oxygen” was I think the only reply. “Stick with the lens that work for you” was I think his only suggestion. Fine, I have ordered a trial pair to see for myself what the differences will be. Don’t they know that they can easily solicitate customers’ feedback when the customers have decided to place an order after the trial period is up?

Walking back to the office, I stopped by Funan for lunch. Passed by the Nokia shop at ground level after my fish soup rice meal and besides me was a foreigner who was interested in one of the phone. He asked how much the phone is in US dollars. The friendly salesperson even borrow his colleague’s phone and did a live demo on what the phone can do. After the foreigner has gone, I proceeded to ask a few more questions and all his smile suddenly disappeared and gave me a two or three words reply like “It’s a designer phone” and turned his back to me. I am not kidding, he has literally turned his back on me! I asked another salesperson to show me one of the phone and she passed it onto me without a word. She was not even trying to sell me anything. Not a single smile. Like I was a waste of time. Even in Hong Kong, the salespersons are professional enough to give the potential customers a good impression

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Whacky Thoughts

What Constitutes To A Good Song

My friend JT and I have a long debat on what constitutes to a good song. To him, a song must be original that has hooks; to him, majority of the commercial songs are “typical” and not worth listening to; to him, majority of the songs I listen to are “typical” and not worth listening to.

The question in his mind is: why would a songwriter like me indulge into songs that are typical?

Tongue-tied is the word.

To him, if a song is branded as typical, he will not even listen to it. To me, however, if I find something interesting that arouse my interest – or I see a potential of me liking the song so as to say – I will give it a few tries just to see if I like it or not. It is hard to decipher what arouses my interest. It could be the special voice, the special lyrics, the special musical layout, the special beats … etc.

Bottom line is, if a song’s tune can stick onto my mind and I happen to like it, does it matter if it is typical or not? Out of typical songs are rare and is like fine dinning to me. More often than not, I do enjoy MacDonald’s if you get my drift.