Roadability

2005-05-27T00:50:00.000+08:00

Well, I made it to Bangkok. I'll be on my way to Phnom Penh pretty soon. Any apprehension I've had about the trip has entirely dissipated. I'm just excited to get going now. I can see myself living like this for a long time. Of course, that won't happen this time though.

Anyways, I'll write more when I have more time online. Talk to you soon from Cambodia!

Cheers.

2005-05-26T03:25:00.000+08:00

I've been so busy in the past week! I can't even be bothered to account for it all. Its got some ups, some downs, people leaving, joy, sadness, expensive Nepalese food, selling a business, securing an apartment for when I get back, securing a flight, and just a whole bunch of other things! I can't possibly recall everything right now.

At this time tomorrow, I will be in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I think I'll have to finish my packing tomorrow morning. My backpack is turning out a little heavier than I want it to be. But I expected it to be light as a feather, so that pretty much figures. I've reduced the amount of clothes I'm bringing to two pairs of shorts (one of which I wear), two shirts (one of which I wear), 3 tanktops, and underwear. I really can't wait to get on the road!!! I'm really super excited, but I'm also a little nervous and apprehensive because I'm going by myself and I have no idea what to expect. I figure it's something I will have to get used to. I'm already planning another backpacking trip -- this time a longer and a much more thorough one -- to Central America, and maybe South America as well! I can always return to Southeast Asia too, because I won't be able to make it to Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brunei, and the Phillipines. Plus, there will be many places that I'll have to skip in the next month or so because there simply won't be enough time. I also want this trip to be pretty relaxed (at least at this point, so this may change drastically once I'm actually out and about) so I'm not going to try to cram all the sights in.

Anyways, I should get going. I need a few hours of sleep, and then I'm heading off to the ferry terminal, and then I'll be on a dirt-cheap flight to Bangkok, and then Phnom Penh. I'll try to write a word or two when I'm on the road, whenever I get the chance. Talk to everyone soon!

2005-04-26T21:03:00.000+08:00

"Touristic culture is more than the physical travel, it is the preparation of people to see other places as objects of tourism, and the preparation of those people and places to be seen. So, although most of us may not go to most of the places advertised... the touristic gaze and imaginary shape and mediate our knowledge of and desires about the rest of the planet."

-- Franklin and Craig, Tourist Studies (2001)

2005-04-19T23:55:00.000+08:00

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Kylie Minogue is performing in Hong Kong on Jun 23, but I will be in Phuket, Thailand right around that time.

FUCK!!!

How to choose, how to choose? I actually, originally, planned to be back in Hong Kong by the 23rd, but because I couldn't find a cheap flight to Phenom Penh, Cambodia, I am first going to fly to Bangkok, trek overland into Cambodia, and then work my way around the place. The new plan sorta lops a few days off my tight itinerary here and there, so I thought I would delay my trip back to Hong Kong so I won't feel too rushed (although I still will be rushed... and to think I planned on cramming Vietnam in there too *sigh*).

Errr.... I just checked the ticket prices for the concert, and the "good" tickets are THREE HUNDRED BUCKS CANADIAN DOLLARS. Holy fuckin molies. The NEXT best seats, which aren't very good already, are ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS. The nosebleed section, and it really is a super nosebleed section folks, is about EIGHT BUCKS.

Errr.... nevermind. I'm sticking with my original plan. I'll be in Phuket! Hopefully it'll be sunny there.

D

2005-04-19T04:41:00.000+08:00

SURE, it's going to be over plus 28C for all of this week in Hong Kong. But with the hot weather, comes a lot of big, weird, and scary looking bugs. Some have really reeeally long feelers. Others have humongous bulging eyes. Some have shiny shells. Others are orange and purple. I get totally freaked out. I don't want to smush them because that will make things even more disgusting. Oh, why can't they just go away? Or, why can't I love get myself to love those little critters!? No matter how hard I try...

When somebody can genetically engineer a bug that flies AWAY from light, instead of TOWARDS light, like every scary looking insect does, I'll be happy. Then they won't be all swarming into my room at four in the morning when I'm trying to write one of the five essays I have due in three weeks. Holy shit I'm fucked.

And all I can do is keep one eye on that funky looking pseudo-stick insect in the corner of my room. Maybe I should stick to arctic climates after all.

I CAN'T WAIT TILL THIS SEMESTER IS OVER!!!

D

(P.S. Does anybody want to come to Cambodia with me?)

danger on the highway?

2005-04-05T22:06:00.000+08:00

Right now, I have concerns about Route 13 in Laos, specifically the stretch between Vientiane and Luang Prabang. I plan on taking a bus on that route. The scenery looks amazing.

The LP guide says that the danger on the highway is "very real... but slim."

I'm looking for advice here right now.

planning the trip

2005-04-04T02:24:00.000+08:00

I can't believe how much work I have to do in the next one and a half months!!! I seriously, seriously, seriously, do not know how I am going to get it all done. I have 5 big essays to write. They all involve large amounts of research. I feel like my brain is going to explode, already. I'm kind of scared.

I found out my first exam date today. They sort of trickle in a bit at a time. It's not good news. It is LATE. Thus, it implies that I won't get to leave on my trip until LATE -- perhaps around May 26.

I got the Lonely Planet Southeast Asia On A Shoestring guide today. I've sort of flipped through its pages, doing some preliminary planning in my mind. I don't think 4 weeks is nearly enough for 4 countries. I think a person can spend a month exploring any one of these countries. There seems to be so much to do. Thailand seems especially amazing, if a little bit cliche because of its overexposure.

I've decided that instead of flying to Bangkok first, I'm going to fly into Siem Reap, Cambodia first thing. The city is right next to the Temples of Angkor. From there, I'll catch a day long bus trip to Phnom Penh in southern Cambodia. I think this way is smarter because I won't be doubling back into Bangkok, and thus saving me the cost of one flight. I think.

I'm still asking around to see who would like to come with me. I'm not going to beg though -- that can only be bad news later. I can foresee these things. I don't mind going by myself at all, but depending on the travel companion, it could be nice to have somebody else around. Of course, I know there are lots of chances to meet other solo travellers in hostels and guesthouses everywhere.

As I said, four weeks spent in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand does not seem nearly enough, considering all the things that one can do, and all the places to see. So, I'm thinking of making it a little shorter. I don't want to be rushed at all. Or, I can just really narrow my "itenerary" down to the specific places I want to see. If I had more time (and not necessarily more money, because it's actually very cheap to travel in this area of the world), I wouldn't need an itenerary.

I can't imagine carrying around five different types of currency with me!

I just have to get these damn essays and finals out of the way. Fuck fuck fuck!

(P.S. Oh, I just remembered that I also wanted to write about race relations in Southeast Asia, which I learned about in my "Chinese Identities and Global Networks" sociology course last semester, but I'll have to leave this note to remind myself to talk about it next time, because I have to read the news (the pope died, apparently) and do some work. I haven't done any work today! I am soooo bad.)

damn bureaucracy...

2005-03-29T19:08:00.000+08:00

I can't wait to have my final exam schedule.

Not because I am looking forward to exams, obviously (or maybe not so obvious when it comes to me, haha) but because I want to plan my trip to Southeast Asia. This is it. I really really want to have enough time to go to all the places I want to go. Neither do I want it to be too rushed. I just want to take it easy.

I don't know if I'm going with anybody right now or if I'll be going by myself. I would prefer if I went with somebody, but ultimately, it doesn't really matter either way. I have a feeling they will be entirely different experiences if I went alone or if I went with one or more people, although it's hard to say which experience will be "better", ultimately.

Southeast Asia, as I'm beginning to realize, is a cheap place to visit. I think I'm going to fly to Bangkok, Thailand, first of all. From there, I have two options. I can first travel to northern Thailand, which I hear is amazing, and then travel up into Laos, which I hear is the most beautiful, unspoiled part of Southeast Asia, even if the country has no beach. From there, I'll fly to Saigon, the capital of Vietnam, and travel in that area (I'll have to remember to get my visa for Vietnam when I'm in Bangkok because I hear it takes a while). After Vietnam, I'll fly over to neighboring Cambodia, because it is quite cheap. If I have money left over, I can go back to Thailand and go to the southern areas of the country such as Phuket, relax on the beaches, and then head back to Hong Kong from there. Or, if I have even more money left over, I can fly to Java in Indonesia and spend time there. All this extra stuff at the end is entirely tentative though (as if the entire trip isn't at this point.)

My other option is to go the other way around. From Thailand to Cambodia to Vietnam to Laos and then, maybe, back into Thailand to explore the northern, mountainous regions of the country. And, as in the other plan, if I have money left over, then I can go to southern Thailand or Indonesia.

My dream trip, really, would also include Myanmar (fomerly known as Burma), Malaysia, Singapore, the Phillipines, and a thorough exploration of Indonesia, but that is SO not happening on my budget.

I am really quite excited about this. However, I still need my exam schedule!

(P.S. If this trip goes well, I'm already thinking of saving and planning for a trip through Central America -- you know, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and so on. I like how these places are so close together!)

Fireworks during Chinese New Year

2005-03-13T16:31:00.000+08:00

Fireworks during Chinese New Year

2005-03-13T16:11:00.000+08:00

Really tall buildings

2005-03-13T16:06:00.000+08:00

This was taken looking down from the Mid-Levels.

Lanterns during Chinese New Year

2005-03-13T16:04:00.000+08:00

new pictures!

2005-02-26T04:38:00.000+08:00

Oh look! Wela finally sent some of her pictures. This one is classic. Not only did it take us 10 minutes to balance the camera on a rock, you can see that I'm wearing 5 layers of clothing in the picture -- a big jacket, a smaller jacket, a sweater, a long-sleeve shirt, and a t-shirt. In fact, I had an undershirt on beneath the t-shirt. But, alas, it turned out to be a really warm, sunny day (unlike every other day I was there.)

We took the picture in a Chinese garden in Suzhou, which was a 90 min. train ride from Shanghai.

D

The Bund

2005-01-25T21:52:00.000+08:00

Some nice old buildings here. Soon to become Shanghai's Golden Mile of commerce and prosperity.

D

Nanling Donglu at night

2005-01-25T21:50:00.000+08:00

Shopping as far as the eye can see.

D

"The Wavy Building"

2005-01-25T21:46:00.000+08:00

I love the "wavy bulding"

D

At the cafe at the top of the Jingmao Tower

2005-01-25T21:41:00.000+08:00

Coffee is expensive this far up.

That's Wela looking for something affordable on the menu in the reflection. And beneath it all is, one, the Oriental Pearl Tower to the right, and the Bund skyline with its colonial-era buildings further to the left.

D

Jingmao Tower, Shanghai

2005-01-25T21:39:00.000+08:00

A thing of beauty.

D

Near Yangshuo, Guanxi province

2005-01-25T21:33:00.000+08:00

at long last, they exclaim!

2005-01-25T20:42:00.000+08:00

I've been back from China for a while now. I've been meaning to write about the couple of trips I made to the Mainland in the past month, but it just seemed good enough to know that all I needed to remember was in my head -- and recalled with the help of the hundreds of pictures I took. Basically, I didn't really feel like writing about it, every time I sat down intending to write about it.

I did glean a lot of insights into the mainland Chinese, and lesser so -- into my own cultural heritage, thru my trips. They were more "eye-opening" trips than "exciting" trips, although the mountain scenery in Yangshuo was spectacular.

Youth culture is fascinating, everywhere.

Wela and I, and a few other people, went to this nightclub in Shanghai. It was packed, smoky, dim, and much fun. Change is apace. You can see it everywhere. You can even see it in the way the Chinese see -- the way they peer into new consumer outlets and billboards going up all over the city, a sure sign of consumerist ideological encroachment.

You can also witness the introduction of gender ideologies and worldviews through, oftentimes, Western media imagery and advertising. Women do this. Men do that. It's not very subtle.

Yet, just outside, poverty abounds.

It is such a fascinating place of contradition.

There are so many research possibilities in China, if only I knew mandarin. I really want to learn mandarin. As I've said in my parallel journal, China is probably the most sociologically-exciting place in the world right now (if "sociologically-exciting" is ever possible -- well, for me it definitely is :P)

The trips have also got me thinking about the nature of tourism. Why do people travel? Surely, for some, it's a mode of amusement. For others, it is just another one of those "things to do", to past the hours of existence, like going to college, buying a car, getting married, having a mortgage, producing children, and so on. For others, travel is a way to "discover" the elusive "self". Not to delimit my experience too strictly, but for myself, I think I travel because I love "sense of place." It's part to do with my fascination with sociology, society, and culture, part my fascination with urban planning, and part my fascination with different ways of life. Sociology cultivates a sense of wonder -- wonder at how another person must live his or her life, how he or she might perceive the world, how he or she finds meaning, what his or her struggles might be, how he or she might perceive them, whether similarly or differently from my own, and how their personal lives are related to larger social forces that every person must confront individually.

I've touched upon these themes before in my parallel diary.

I love cities muchly though. I love Edmonton. I love Hong Kong. I love Beijing. I love Shanghai. I reserve judgement. Each city has its own charms, its own character, its own people, its own culture, its own "sense of place", its own design, its own purpose.

Edmonton and Hong Kong both feel like home though. I was extremely happy everytime I came back to Hong Kong from my trips. The moutnains, the ocean, the amazing infrastructure -- tunnels, bridges, interchanges, tall buildings everywhere. The city continues to amaze me half a year later. It is a sense of place that cultivates amazement and awe. Edmonton, by contrast, cultivates contemplation and quietude.

Each different. Each enough on their own.

In the future, to make travelling more manageable financially, and to narrow down the options, I think I'm going to travel to cities -- big cities, little cities. Cities in the U.S.A., in Canada, in Mexico, in Brazil, in Argentina, in Nigeria, in South Africa, in Iceland, in Sweden, in Norway, in Belgium, in Germany, in Italy, in Spain, in Turkey, in Russia, in Mongolia, in India, in Bhutan, in New Zealand. I want to see cities. I just have this fascination with cities.

Did I ever tell you I had wanted to be an architect and/or and urban planner/professor for the longest time? I love "space".

There are a lot of social and cultural theories regarding "space". You would not believe.

Mostly, from my trips, I have realized how privelged and lucky I am for the opportunity and freedom to travel. A billion and more people in China, and billions more elsewhere in the world, do not have the luxury to travel -- especially for leisure or just for "interest's" sake. Many people live in one place, or in the vicinity of one place, for their entire lives. That, or they're forced to move by conditions beyond their control, as political refugees, or -- though we don't call them as such, economic refugees. I, on the other hand, have the choice to move about. Choice -- that makes all the difference. And to think that my life could have been so different if things had only been a little bit different in the past. And to think.

If you're looking for fun and amusement, I do not recommend travel to China. Instead, you should probably head to Australia or Florida. However, if you're looking for a cultural experience, if you want some insight into the worldview and culture of the mainland Chinese post-CCP, if you're looking for insight into the longest-continuous civilization in the world, now set to rejoin, and some say take command, of the international community, China is the place to be. There is nothing like it.

That being said, I would recommend Beijing over Shanghai. Beijing remains the political and cultural heart of China. Shanghai is much more commerical -- in fact, it oft appears that commercial is all that it is. Shanghai has some really interesting neighbourhoods to walk around in though. It's colonial, communist, and capitalist all at once. And if history is any indicator of the future, then Shanghai is merely at the forefront of China's social revolution again -- and once the allure of consumerism begins to wane, perhaps Shanghai will once again rise as the vanguard of the next China, post-consumerism. That's all mythology though.

I also highly recommend a trip into inner China, either to some of the national parks and scenic places, or maybe to some city in the interior. There, you will glean insight into the other side of China, and you will likely see the fabled Chinese countryside and its "peasants", still hard at work on relatively small plots of land by Western standards.

I can't wait for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. They are going to ROCK.

Pictures soon... but no promises because I might not feel like it. :P

There, updated. Satisfied?

D

the link WORKS!

2004-12-28T05:08:00.000+08:00

Hey Y'all!

I hope Christmas was kind to you. All I know is that I didn't get an Ipod for Christmas (unlike some lucky people), so it looks like I will be shelling out about C$400 for my own. Boo-hoo.

I will be in Shanghai in less than two days. I am very excited, and for some reason, a little bit nervous. This time, it will just be Wela and I exploring the BIG city.

Finally, the photolog is up and running... FINALLY! Just click on the link to your right. Remember to leave comments! Even if just one!

Happy New Year everybody!!! All the best to everybody in 2005.

D

holidays galore

2004-12-22T01:35:00.000+08:00

Another thing I love about Hong Kong are the festivals and holidays.

Most of them are completely unique to the Chinese and have traditions that go back thousands of years.

For instance, today was the Dong Zhi, or the Winter Solstice Festival.

"Celebrated on the longest night of the year, Dong Zhi is the day when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest. The coming of winter is celebrated by families and is traditionally the time when farmers and fishermen gather food in preparation for the coming cold season. It is also a time for family reunions.

"This celebration can be traced to the Chinese belief in yin and yang, which represent balance and harmony in life. It is believed that the yin qualities of darkness and cold are at their most powerful at this time, but it is also the turning point, giving way to the light and warmth of yang. For this reason, the Dong Zhi Festival is a time for optimism.

"Dong Zhi is celebrated in style. The longest night of the year is a time to put on brand new clothes, visit family with gifts and to laugh and drink deep into the long night."

I got that in a helpful email reminder today.

It forgot to mention the HORRIBLE traffic though. I spent almost 4 hours on a bus today. Shit.

the avenue of stars

2004-12-19T01:02:00.000+08:00

This is prime real estate. And the Hong Kong people have dedicated it to its pop and movie stars.

I think there's a sociological thesis in there somewhere.

And I don't know if you know, but Hong Kong movies are SO ENTERTAINING. I don't know what it is. They're just funner, and free-er than other movies. Sometimes they're dumber. But also very postmodern. I think there are less "conventions" and "rules", and production isn't overly excessive.

On a totally different note, I will be coming back to this city often in the future. It's primal or something.

And plus, almost all my relatives are here, even if I can't keep track of all of their names yet (there are, like, 150 of them.)

i love hong kong

2004-12-18T23:56:00.000+08:00

Yup. I just used the "L" word. I really really really do like the city. I had a honeymoon period. Then I had my period of disillusionment. And now, with my more realistic understanding of the city, I still really really like it. It is definitely one of a kind. It also has so many different faces. This is a picture of Tai O on Lantau Island, the biggest island that makes up the city of Hong Kong. I think this is where the fisherman live.

I love this city.

D

what's for dinner?

2004-12-18T23:48:00.000+08:00

FRESH CHICKEN!!!

Just make sure it's dead.

D

how many dolla?

2004-12-18T23:42:00.000+08:00

A "quiet" shopping street in Hong Kong. I was too busy bargaining at the busier ones.

D

only chance is objectivity

2004-12-18T23:39:00.000+08:00

This is a very, very, very random street in Hong Kong. There's not much more to say. It's just random.

But I guess that's saying something too.

D

smile, dammit!

2004-12-18T23:38:00.000+08:00

My cousin's kitty. I don't think the kitty likes me. But I love him all the same, in that "love is cruel" kind of way.

D

it was windy

2004-12-18T23:28:00.000+08:00

This is Shanghai from "way up there" -- in one of the big balls of the Oriental Pearl Tower.

D

somebody's old house

2004-12-18T23:25:00.000+08:00

This is a picture of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. Actually, to be more accurate, one of the over 500 buildings of the Forbidden Palace. The place is unbelievably huge.

There's also a suspicious looking man in the shadows in the foreground. I hope he wasn't following me.

D

another day...

2004-12-17T05:55:00.000+08:00

.. another sunset. This is another picture taken from my bedroom window in Hong Kong.

D

another face

2004-12-17T05:48:00.000+08:00

Another picture of Shanghai. This was near a restaurant I ate at.

That's it for now!

D

hyperpostmodernity

2004-12-17T05:44:00.000+08:00

That is the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. It's the fourth tallest in the world. In the background is Pudong, a bustling new commerical district that was swampland just ten years ago.

Lonely Planet calls Shanghai "the most futuristic city in the world." Believe them. More than half of the world's construction cranes are operating in Shanghai right now, building superhighways, entire mass transit systems in just years, and hypermodern buildings. But that's only the new Shanghai. The old Shanghai continues to exist, alongside.

D

shop! in the name of progress!

2004-12-17T05:38:00.000+08:00

This is a GIGANTIC outdoor shopping district in Shanghai. It used to be a GIGANTIC temple. Yes, that's progress for ya!

There was a LOT of good food in this area.

I'll be back.

D

"on the sea"

2004-12-17T05:36:00.000+08:00

That's me on a boat in Shanghai. The Bund district is in the background.

I'm going to be in Shanghai again in less than 2 weeks!

D

more testing

2004-12-09T04:59:00.000+08:00

This is a picture I took from the Great Wall. DUH!

Tiannamen Square!

2004-12-09T04:46:00.000+08:00

I took this picture when I was in Beijing. Duh.

I'm still testing this program out.

the world...

2004-12-09T04:35:00.000+08:00

.. from my window.

I've discovered this photo sharing program called Flickr. Now I can EASILY post pictures to this blog!!! Look for LOTS more to come soon. Hurrah.

D

shivers

2004-11-16T14:28:00.000+08:00

It dropped below 20 degrees today.

I got cold.

I'm losing my Canadian touch.

D

It's official!

2004-11-05T01:42:00.000+08:00

I have the flu!!!

This is fun!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

D

when drinking the water, remember the well

2004-10-31T22:18:00.000+08:00

I guess I should update.

I've been doing a genealogy project for one of my sociology classes this week. The main purpose of the project is to trace the migration patterns of various groups of people through time. I've been learning some really interesting things about my family that I didn't know before.

For example, all my grandparents used to be wealthy landowners in Guangdong province, China. Guangdong is the most southerly province in China. On my mother's side, my grandparents had lots of land and had quite a few successful businesses all across China, including that bustling metropolis of Shanghai. They were the wealthiest people in the region where they lived. On my dad's side, I think my grandparents were less wealthy, but they still had land and they were also business people.

Of course, much of that changed when the Communist Party took over.

One day, without warning, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) arrived and took all the land and money away from my mother's side of the family. The land and money was redistributed to the farmers in the area who used to pay rent to my grandparents. The living standards of many of the peasants improved considerably in the following few years. However, the exact opposite happened to my grandparents. They went from wealthy landowners to living in a small, delapidated hut and they ended up having to beg for food for about 5 years. My grandmother was also severely beaten and tortured by the PLA. Once, her children (my aunts) thought that she had died, but she regained consciousness about three days later. She had tried committing suicide several times because she didn't see any hope that things would improve.

Luckily, my grandfather was already in Hong Kong at the time for business, or else he might have been killed. That was what happened to one of his brothers who had stayed behind. He was actually elected as some type of leader in the area, but when the Communists arrived, he was paraded around the town and then killed by a shot through the mouth, which his family was forced to watch. After he was killed, his relatives (including some of my aunts) were forced to tread over his dead body. One of my aunts, who was only a teenager at the time, was too afraid to do so and thought that she could get away with just scooting around the dead body when it was her turn. However, the PLA wouldn't let her. In fact, they made her lick the blood off his dead uncle's body.

There are many other such stories. It was a horrific time for them. The beatings and the begging and torture went on for about 5 years until the authorities finally granted them permission to leave.

They were stuffed onto the cargo bay of a ship and they stowaway illegally into Hong Kong.

There, they met up with my grandfather.

Since they lost all of their land and money, they basically had to rebuild their life in Hong Kong from scratch.

My grandparents on my father's side seemed to have it a little better. They managed to escape either before or after the CCP arrived without major repercussions (at least none that I've managed to scrounge up yet.)

Whatever happened, they also had to start life again in Hong Kong.

On both sides of my family, they were concerned in the mid-1980s when China was exercising its new diplomatic muscle to demand the return of all of Hong Kong to China (the original agreement was that only the New Territories would have to be returned, but Kowloon, Lantau Island, and Hong Kong Island would remain with the U.K. indefinitely.) Many people on my father's side of the family left. They scattered themselves everywhere -- New York, Peurto Rico, and when we first arrived in Canada, like many Hong Kong Chinese, we had first settled in Toronto.

I wonder what my life would have been like if we had stayed in that big city of Toronto. How would I be different?

I wonder what my life would have been like if the CCP had not arrived and taken everything from the family. My family would have probably never left China. In fact, China would probably be very different today without the CCP. It would probably be more developed economically and more traditional all at once.

They would have probably still had their land.

Although without the CCP, the entire country might have devolved into a whole bunch of different states, or the country could have been cordoned off by various foreign powers such as the U.K., France, U.S.A. and Germany like what happened in the late nineteenth century, leading to the internal chas that China had struggled to repair for decades. Only the CCP had been able to restore order and unity to all of China. But enough of history...

I've been trying to figure out why everybody on my dad's side of the family fled Hong Kong, while almost nobody from my mother's side of the family left Hong Kong.

I know there are multiple and contingent reasons, but I think I can reduce it to a few major factors. These are just my hypotheses by the way.

On my mother's side, there are many many more family living in Hong Kong and they tend to be quite close. My mother has 9 other siblings. The tight support network, and the increase of social control as a result, would make it less likely that somebody would choose to pick up and leave. On my father's side, the number of extended family living in Hong Kong is much less, and I have the feeling that they are not as close, especially my aunts and uncles. As a result, they felt more freedom to migrate -- or maybe just less reason to stay behind.

Another hypotheses is that my father's side of the family had more family networks overseas, which would have facilitated migration to an entirely new culture. However, I don't have enough evidence that this is definitely the case, although it's a compelling argument that has been used by a lot of other sociologists, under the rubric of "network capital."

I think my father's side of the family had a little bit more money to migrate. I've been getting conflicing information from many of my relatives on the financial situation of my grandparents, so I can't really be sure.

The final possibility would be based on pure contingency. My dad happened to get the chance to study in Winnipeg, Canada. He remained long enough to obtain citizenship. As a result, it made it much easier for him to enter the country and to sponsor other relatives to live in the country. However, this doesn't explain everything either.

I wonder how I would be different had my family stayed in Hong Kong. Wow. That would be so weird.

I've been talking to people all week to do this project, and by this time, I'm getting quite sick of it. However, I learned a lot about my family history and I think I have a less "egocentric" view of my family now. I have a wider perspective on everything, and how I ended up in Canada.

Another interesting thing is that many Hong Kong Chinese who had moved abroad during the 80s and 90s are now returning to Hong Kong. Many of my cousins and relatives have. Other cousins and relatives always think about it. I would consider it myself, but I think my "career" will take me everywhere, not necessarily just "somewhere else."

Personally, I really really want to go back to where my parents and grandparents were born in Guangdong province. Many of our (distant) relatives live there, and they still welcome family whenever they go there to visit. Of course, I shouldn't be expecting anything stereotypically traditional, because Guangdong province is one of the richest places in Asia. It's by far and away the richest province in China. Actually, its GDP per capita is nearly on par with Hong Kong, which is quite incredible. Guangdong people do business well.

I think I might go back next summer, if my mom decides to come to Hong Kong again. I mean, I don't want to go there by myself because I don't speak Chiuchowhua (the dialect that my grandparents and parents still use when speaking to each other) and I've never seen these people before, nor have I ever been to that part of Guangdong in my life. I think my mom will be coming to Hong Kong much more often now because all her family are here. Now that my brother and I have "grown up", I think she feels like she has permission to come back to Hong Kong more often.

When my grandparents (on my mother's side) died in Hong Kong, they were sent back to the ancestral village in China to be buried. I would like to visit just to pay my respects. I feel really different knowing where my family is from.

Although I'm sick of looking at this project (even though I haven't even prepared the presentation or done the essay for it yet!), it was a lot of fun doing the research for it. Interviewing people is really really stimulating and fun. It sort of reminds me of the year of journalism I took in Ottawa. I think people are fascinating (but also annoying when you have to be around them all of the time :P).

Moving on to other news...

On Friday, I was invited to the University of Alberta Alumni Association of Hong Kong Annual Dinner because of a scholarshp I won which they had sponsored. They also invited all the other U of A students who are in Hong Kong on exchange. Some of them are at the other universities in Hong Kong. It was really nice. The dinner was on the very top floor of Exchange Plaza 2 in Central (the building that houses the Hong Kong stock exchange), which is right on Victoria Harbour. We had the big room all to ourselves and there was a live band that was playing for us. There were about a hundred alumni there.

The president of the U of A Rod Fraser was also there. I talked to him a bit and I got a few pictures taken with him. Lucky lucky me!!! He kept recommending that we learn Puotonghua (or mandarin). I kept saying "I know" because I really do think I should. More people in the world speak Mandarin than any other language. It would be useful for research, or just for contacts, I would think. Apparently, Mr. Rod Fraser goes to China every few months to keep apace with new developments there and to sign all these agreements with the U of A. I guess everybody wants a piece of the action now. He says that everytime he goes back to China, it's like an entirely different place.

The food at the dinner was really good. There was a dance afterwards. I saw the president do the boogie and I heard him sing really loud karaoke. I took pictures of that, of course. The exchange students stayed until the very end when the band stopped playing. I think we were the last ones to leave.

It was really fun.

Last night, I went to a relative's place in Kwun Tong for dinner. My Lonely Planet guidebook says that it is the most densely packed district on the planet. It sure looks like it, although it's not that novel to me anymore. I mean, all of Hong Kong is pretty packed, except for the slopes on which it is impossible to build anything substantive (although build on them the Hong Kong people do.)

I will soon be buying a Lonely Planet guide to Shanghai, I think. I'm making plans to go there from either Dec. 30 to Jan. 9 or from Jan. 1 to Jan. 9. I am SO STOKED about this. I only spent a couple of days there this summer due to the lack of time, but this time, I will get to spend more than a week there. I will be staying with a friend from back home who's on an exchange in Singapore but her family has an apartment in Shanghai. I haven't finalized anything yet though.

I really really want to go.

I'm SO READY for Christmas break. I am really really sick of writing essays and doing reading, as much as I love what I'm learning this year. It's time for a BREAK. But no, that won't happen until I write SIX MORE ESSAYS. Holy shittiness.

Umm... I'm not sure what I have left to write. Something about getting used to the city and actually thinking in Hong Kong dollars instead of Canadian dollars....

Maybe next time.

D

news from afar

2004-10-26T15:07:00.000+08:00

I just want to share with my friends back home, where it's below zero and snowing right now, that I'm still in shorts and t-shirt because it's PLUS 28 EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY HERE!

But in not so sunny news, I've been mostly writing essays lately. They suck.

D

ummmm.... shut up?

2004-10-21T01:35:00.000+08:00

I just finished my first essay of the semester today.

It's only 2000 words.

But I had to write it here, in hall, with lots of noise and distractions.

I think the quality of my essays are going to drop this year, for that reason. Actually, I think I can maintain the quality of my essays -- they're just going to be much simpler and less theoretically and philosophically complex to save myself from thinking too much. I had a tendency to really really push boundaries in my essays back home (and not to brag, but I got an A+ on every one =D). Now, I think I'm just going to stick with basics, even though I could SO do a really complex and thorough essay on Marx and Weber and Durkheim, and so on. Those guys are GENIUS. Really, they are. I think their most fascinating ideas have to do with the nature of social reality -- and hence, all reality. Weber's views on science, and more specifically, social science, are REALLY REALLY superb and mind-blowing.

For example, he doesn't think the categories we use in social science (and to a lesser extent, the natural sciences) have any real precense in the objective world -- ideas such as "social class" or "personality types" or so on. Instead, he thinks these "ideal types" are merely logical extremes used for research instead of empirical generalizations that reflect the "real" world of human beings, which is way too complex for any human mind to fully comprehend (notice the Kantian influence?) That was a mindblowing insight for me. That has a LOT of implications for research on human subjects and the status of its knowledge.

His ideas on the ultimate irrationality of rationality and the relationship between values and knowledge are really interesting too. I can see that has a huge influence on many later sociologists, such as C. Wright Mills. At least now I know where that comes from.

Anyways, enough of that stuff.

My next essay is on Foucault's idea of "power/knowledge". That is going to be a BIG challenge, because it means I actually have to PIN DOWN EXACTLY what he means by it, or at least try to work around it. No longer can I take it for granted and move on, like I have in the past.

Oh boy.

Actually, I don't know if Foucault had ever read Weber, but they have similar ideas (except Weber thought of them first!) I never noticed that before.

I think it's really weird that I'm putting "University of Hong Kong" on the front of my essays, instead of "University of Alberta". It's, like, really really different. Like, lol!!!

D

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2004-10-15T19:28:00.000+08:00

I'm becoming a bad student.

I went out last night when I should have been doing some work for today's classes.

I had fun though. I got drunk, and then, as usual, I got tired. But then the music got good and I danced and I was wide awake again.

There were lots of familiar people there, so it was fun.

The place was nice. It was a place called Club Ing in Wan Chai. It had three rooms. One played pop/rap/r&b/hip-hop/radio fare, one played house, and another played this house-jazz-drum'n'bass fusion type of thing.

When I got back to hall, it was already really late. However, my roommate was still up, and so were many other people, so I didn't bother trying to go to sleep yet. My roommate went to bed at 5 in the morning, after doing his laundry at 4. I followed suit and fell asleep at about 6 in the morning. I woke up in about 3 hours for class.

Let me sum up today in one word: coffee.

Actually, it was a productive day intellectually. I had a discussion about Foucault's conception of power/discourse with a few other students -- students who really, really knew what they were talking about. I was impressed, and it helped me understand a few things, although ultimately, I have my own understanding of what Foucault means by power/discourse and I think the concept has a lot of logical inconsistencies that are easy to overlook. There was this guy in class making all these references to Nietzche and Heidegger so that was intimidating. I like talking to those people though. It makes me feel like I know so little, philosophically. And that's good, because it only drives me to learn and understand more.

<>I just want to know everything. I have this mad desire to have every idea and conceptual tool at my disposal so I can cut through the world of knowledge like a knife. Yes, that's it.

Blah. I'm tired. I'm going to hit the sack early tonight, or at least try to.

For now, I will try to do some reading. It never ends...

time just keeps on going...

2004-10-13T18:29:00.000+08:00

I haven't had a lot of time to update lately.

First of all, I have a LOT of reading to do and I have essay deadlines creeping up on me -- fast. This is scary because I haven't been doing nearly as much work as I normally do back home.

I will survive!

Secondly, I have a roommate now, which makes it difficult to 1) work, and 2) update this blog. I like writing in a general aura of privacy -- meaning, in a space by myself, or a space so public as to render you anonymous and your precense indifferent to anybody else; you're just "another face in the crowd", so to speak. Having a roommate in hall doesn't accord you much of either. In fact, all the space that I had made personal and private suddenly became available for general, public use as soon as he moved in.

He's a good roommate to have though. He bought me Chinese medicine.

He's a local student, which means he has to take part in all of the hall activities (sucker!), meaning, for one, that he has to leave his door open whenever he's around. That lets all sorts of noise the chance to intrude into my open thought bubbles. That is SO not conducive to essay-writing. Also, people are now given the freedom to wander in and out of our room at random and at will, as long as "the door isn't locked."

How lovely!

I think it would be more tolerable if I wasn't so psychologically damanged and neurotic as to require some actual, secure ALONE time every once in a while, god forbid.

And then there's all the other things about "hall culture" that I've written about already -- like the gradual but persistent emasculation of all your independence and individuality. As I said, something I resist psychologically and philosophically.

Hence, I am on the lookout for housing alternatives. I just have to do what makes me happy. There are a lot of possibilities nearby, I would imagine. It's only a goddamn forest of apartment complexes down there. But right now, it just seems like so much trouble to move. I need to decide what my ultimate committments are and how they're best achieved.

Generally, all's good and I love the trip. It's just that my accomodation can be a little more, well, accomodating -- like the normal residences that seem to exist at every other university in Hong Kong.

Oh well.

Okay, before I get back to reading, here's my Hong Kong Top 3 as of October 13, 2004...

1. Exploring a new part of the city (and there are many!)
2. Nature (yes, you better believe it. There are so many nice green spaces here, not to mention mountains, hiking trails, secluded beaches, the ocean...)
3. Visiting my (extended) family for dinner every week.

See ya!

D

holy smokes....

2004-10-10T17:11:00.000+08:00

[I'm just going to post this entry without editing it, because it's too long, I've spent too much time writing it already, and I have way too much shit to do. I hope it makes sense! Good luck!!!]

Man, there's way too much to write about. I think it's been a week since I last updated.

I felt sick last weekend. On Monday, I felt a little bit better, although I still had a headache. I concluded that it was a result of leaving the fan on all night, leading to my aches and chills and all. I don't keep the fan on at night anymore.

I had lunch with classmates on Monday. It made me feel better.

I'm having trouble sleeping at night. There are various reasons. I'm not going to go into them now. In the words of another diarist, I wish there was a way to "hang up on myself."

On Tuesday morning, on the way to class, I made a mental committment to heal myself. To heal myself completely. I don't care how hard it is or how long it takes or how uncomfortable it might make me in the meantime, but I want to heal. I asked myself the question: am I committed more to the status quo, or more committed to the life that I want for myself? Often, I tell myself one thing, but do another -- albeit, unconsciously. I want to bring the unconscious into conscious. I want to learn to love and accept every part of "me". I want to learn to be aware. It was relevatory. I wanted to sit down and take a breather, but like much else in Hong Kong, I had to rush off, to class.

I think after Hong Kong, I want to take a long vacation by myself to a secluded beach somewhere, with no phone, no internet, no nada.

I saw a gigantic eagle flying around the sky last week. It was really cool.

On Tuesday, I had a long conversation with my professor and another student about Hegel and Marx. It was really interesting. They both have such fascinating ideas, albeit ones that are often misunderstood.

There was a high table dinner that night. Basically, everybody from the hall gather at a restaurant downstairs and eat dinner together, and then there are speeches and guest speakers, and hall songs and videos. It's a very fraternalistic occasion. Everybody has to dress up for it. It takes place once a month.

I get along quite well with other exchange students, especially the ones from Canada. I think we just understand and "get" each other. I think many exchange students, including myself, are having some trouble adjusting to hall life. Hall life is very fraternalistic, I find, but not in a voluntary way. It's mandatory. The hall "culture" -- as constructed and artificial as it is -- does its best to sap you of your individuality and independence. It something I resist quite strongly, both psychologically and philosophically. I probably resist it stronger than most.

Even when it has nothing to do with me, I get angry. For example, there was a (retarded) floor meeting on Friday night (meaning I couldn't go out because all floor activities are mandatory), during which the upper-year students scolded the freshmen for not having enough "hall spirit". They literally scolded them, and told them that they had to have "hall spirit" from now on. Does anybody else see the irony in that?

That, in my case, only made me more antogonistic to "hall culture". Nobody should be enforced to feel anything. In fact, I don't think we should even "enforce" ourselves to feel anything, but I'm not going to get into that now.

I'm become ever-increasingly aware of what my motivations are for certain of my actions. It's both liberating and extremely distressing all at once. But overall, it makes me feel better.

My birthday was on Wednesday. I'm 21! My cousin Annie took me out for lunch after one of my classes. We went to a tasty restaurant in the Soho district. She bought me blueberry cheesecake for dessert. We wandered around a bit and then she had to get back to work. I walked around Central by myself and explored the area. Later that day, I went across the harbour and 5 of my cousins took my out for dinner. It was in a really nice restaurant from which you can see the Hong Kong Island skyline. The food was only okay, though. We stayed there until late into the night, just chatting. I like being around them.

Came back home. I didn't really go around broadcasting to everybody that it was my birthday, so nobody on my floor really knew. I don't really talk to the people on my floor anyway. There just isn't much to say, and there is a bit of a language barrier I still have to overcome.

I slept in really late on Thursday. I found out my class was cancelled when I got there, so I went grocery shopping instead.

I have a roommate now. His name is Samuel. We get along really well, actually. He's taking Chinese Medicine, you know, like acupuncture and holistic health and herbal medicine and stuff like that. He has a LOT of photography equipment. He has about 10 cameras, at least. He also has antique cameras, and antique video cameras.

But as much as we get along, I miss my privacy, my own space, and my alone time already.

Actually, that's not even the thing that bugs me the most right now.

Last week, the floor "chair" made a request that I switch rooms, because they wanted all the exchange students to be together and all the local students to be together. That was okay. I didn't to move, but if that was what they really wanted, fine. I could live with that. However, a few days later, when it came down to it, I found out that they wanted me to move in with a specific exchange student. This guy is from mainland China, and he's... different. He's a nice person, but he's always asking me weird questions at the most inopportune times, and he doesn't have much of a sense of humour. Now, that's completely and totally fine and everything, but I know that I wont' be able to live a year in a small room with him. They wanted me to move in with this person because none of the local students wanted to move in with him.

I think it can be summed up in what he told me: "We look after the interests of the local students first, because they're staying all three years. And because you're only visiting, your interests come second."

It can't be more clear, eh? So they wanted to force me to move into another room because nobody else wanted to be there. They had gone to the office and requested that they switch my room without even my agreement.

It's a situation I'm not very happy with, and it's causing quite a bit of tension.

I would very happily move in with another exchange student from Mainland China who's also on our floor, since their rationale was that they wanted all the exchange students together, but no, they want me to move in with that specific person. It just doesn't go down very well.

Cynthia, a friend I've made from France, who lives on another floor in the building, is also not very happy with her floor, for a different but similar set of reasons. We might see what alternatives there might be.

I'm going to see if there are any affordable flats or rooms near campus. I found a couple that were really cheap -- cheaper than hall, actually -- but they were specifically for "girls only". Whatever.

This is something that's causing me stress right now.

On Friday night, I was supposed to go out with a whole bunch of people, but the plans fell through. I ended up doing some reading (for my own interest -- fascinating stuff) and then I went to the floor meeting that I had intended to skip, like many of the other rebellious exchange students as I've found out. In reality, I really could have skipped it. It's more to get people to conform and feel like a group (in a militaristic sort of way) than any attempt to engender goodwill amongst the floormates. I think having "floor spirit" is actually a rule that's written down somewhere.

The meeting eventually hit the hour mark with no signs of abating, so I snuck out ever so sneakily :P. I called some people, who had apparently tried to contact me during the hall meeting I was at. They were out and partying. By this time, it was almost two in the morning, so I decided against taking a bus all the way to Central. Instead, I waited for Cheung Cheung and a few others to get back to hall, we got a few drinks (we could only find non-alcoholic), we headed up to the rooftop of the building, sat around, and talked. It was great. The star were amazing. The constellations from this part of the earth are different.

That made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. I felt so trapped on my floor.

I also learned I wasn't the only one with floor problems, so that's also a relief, lol.

It's something I need right now actually, to feel better. I woke up this morning and I was in immediate "distress" mode, a CODE RED. I've felt that way since. I think I'm going to heart disease if this keeps up.

Anyway, finally, I have to talk about yesterday. I spent the afternoon ATTEMPTING to do homework, but I was distracted my so many things and thoughts. In the evening, Cynthia, Cheung Cheung, Frederic and I went to somebody's party on an apartment rooftop in the Mid-Levels. It was nice. There were lots of people there. They all spoke French, lol. Many of them were in Hong Kong for internships. In fact, I find that a LOT of French people are here on internships or exchange programs. They are a huge contingent. They must like travelling or that kidn of thing. I met some nice and really interesting people there. Made a few more contacts. I drank too much way too fast. Then, I ate too many chips and chocolate in an attempt to recover. Yup, not too healthy of a night. Cheung Cheung also drank too much, which is unusual because she can drink A LOT. She ended up feeling really sick so we had to wait till she felt better before we could leave. Got home late.

Got up late this morning. I'm rushing to get work done now. I did laundry. I wish I had my own space. I need to slow down. Things are getting crazy. Things are down and stressful. And then I'm having lots of fun. And then I'm scrambling to get work done. And then I have to rush from place to place for various things.

Yeah, how 'bout those transparent dangling carrots, eh?

As I said, I need to take a vacation by myself somewhere, with as little distraction and as little stress as possible.

Reading Week is coming up... ;-)

D

misery

2004-10-03T23:23:00.000+08:00

What a miserable day. My headache has only gotten worst through the course of the day. My forehead feels like it's throbbing. I have to stand up slowly and walk around slowly or else I get dizzy and fall. My limbs hurt more than ever. My neck is stiff. I think my body temperature is haywire. One moment I feel way too hot and then the next I feel cold, and then later I break out into a cold sweat.

The funny thing is, I don't have a runny nose, a cough, or a sore throat. I feel completely fine in that regard. I have no idea what this thing is. Any doctors out there reading this?

I've also had absolutely no appetite today, although I just forced myself to eat some fruit -- an orange, an overripe mango, and a star fruit, in addition to a can of corn.

I had a long nap in the evening, although it wasn't exactly refreshing. Again, I wasn't sure if I was hot or cold. I had a shirt, a jacket, and a pair of socks on underneath my blankets at one point because I was so cold. Then I woke up later sweating profusely because I was so hot.

I hope I feel better by tomorrow. I'm going to book an appointment with a doctor, regardless, I think.

D

broken

2004-10-03T13:31:00.000+08:00

I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but I feel like I'm dying right now.

I slept funny last night. I felt like I had a fever. I was both hot and cold at the same time, and I couldn't figure out whether I needed more blankets or less. This went on for the entire night.

When I got up, every single one of my limbs hurt -- literally, hurt.

I have no energy.

I'm still tired.

I'm dizzy.

Oh, and for the first time in what must be years, I had a headache before I went to bed last night. It's still with me now. Everytime I make a sudden movement, such as laugh, my head hurts.

I also have no appetite. I don't even want to drink water.

Something's wrong, perhaps?

D

wake me up when september ends

2004-10-02T13:54:00.000+08:00

For what must be the first time ever, I truly understand that boredom is due to something within you, and not due to circumstances beyond you.

There are gazbillions of things to do in Hong Kong, but I'm feeling rather... inert, right now. I think it's a combination of sleep deprivation, going out too much, more alcohol than my body is accustomed to, poor eating habits, not having enough alone time, and simply being stressed out about all the work that is piling up that I haven't touched yet. The bigger the pile of work I have to do, the less inclined I am to do it. That's just the way the chips fall.

However, one thing that is fantastic about today is that the weather is COOL (i.e. "only" 24C). Lord bejeezus, the weather actually CHANGES in Hong Kong!!! It's been steadily above 30C for the two months since I got here. Hopefully, this miraculous turn of events is a harbigner of things to come. Not that I don't like hot weather. It's just that I prefer comfortable weather more. Yes, I'm Canadian to the bone marrow.

Also, now that it's cooler, I can actually go running outside. Yay for that, fitness and hotness all in one, here I come!

Umm... that's it. I think this may be the first lame day in Hong Kong since I got here. I'm just going to do some reading. Maybe I'll explore the city by night, later on. I don't really want to go out again, as in, go out to drink alcohol, dance like mad, and talk shit.

Oh, I'm also waiting in nervous anticipation for the new roommate to arrive. He better not be retarded.

Waiting is soooooooo stressful.

D

american idiot

2004-10-02T02:03:00.000+08:00

The new Green Day album American Idiot is, in a word, amazing.

I thought their last real album Warning was their best ever, but this one just might be a bit better. I find that the new album quotes quite a bit from Warning.

Somehow, Green Day has become one of the most versatile, adventurous, and in my opinion, talented rock bands from the U.S. I would never have believed it if you told me a decade ago.

The new album rocks.

D

national day activities

2004-10-02T01:19:00.000+08:00

Tired.

Today was National Day. Whence, no lectures!

Since I got home late last night, and didn't get into bed until 6 in the morning, I woke up at around 2 in the afternoon today. Still, it was not enough sleep. I need a good ten hours to catch up on all the slumber that I've been missing.

I did laundry today. Now, I have clean clothes to wear!

I also watched the presidential debate between Kerry and Bush on streaming video. If this page is any indication, Canadians unanimously think that Kerry won, hands down, and should without a doubt be president.

I think Kerry certainly did a better job, although I tend to agree with the Bush campaign that Kerry doesn't have a solid stance on the Iraq issue. Kerry's rhetoric on Iraq in the second half of the debate contradicted his rhetoric in the first half. It's just so wishy-washy. I know he's in a tough position though. He wants to appeal to the American electorate, that tends to buy into the concepts of "freedom" and "truth" and "justice" and "good and evil" and such, but he needs to distinguish his own position on Iraq from Bush's. No easy task.

Truth be told, I probably wouldn't even vote if I was American. I simply wouldn't be able to get myself to vote for Kerry. Although he's a Democrat, I think his stance on everything is actually even more conservative than the Conservative Party of Canada. He wouldn't stand for me. I actually do think Bush is a strong, principled leader, although he's strong and principled and the leader of all the "wrong" things -- and I concede that even that is debatable. I would probably vote for Nader if voting was compulsory. Or I'll eat my ballot, or something.

I was embarrassed for Bush during much of the debate. I actually felt sorry for him. I really don't understand how his words appeal to so many people. They're so superficial and basic, stuff like "we will kill the terrorists", "we will free the world", "war is hard work", "i am tough", the "war on terror is EVERYWHERE" (so Orwellian) and so forth. Although Kerry was much better, he also said let's "kill the terrorists" at one point, and I didn't know whether to whince or let my eyes roll.

All of history and complexity boiled down to: let's kill the terrorists. Oh please, if a god exists, we need your help now, dammit.

Anyways, then in the evening, I went out with a bunch of people to Wan Chai to see the National Day fireworks. They were spectacular. Usually, when I see fireworks, they're isolated in one part of the sky. These ones, however, were spread out all along Victoria Harbour, from Sheung Wan to Central to Admiralty to Wan Chai and down to Causeway Bay. The fireworks basically lined the entire harbour area. They were also the loudest fireworks I've ever been to, probably because of their proximity and all the buildings providing the big echo effect. There were big crowds, all oohing and ahhing, mostly for fun though. It was funny.

After the show, we went to the Western District for dim sum (yes, at night, lol) and then to another place for dessert.

People say the new Wong Kar-Wai movie is awesome, for people who admire his work, at least. I still have to go see it.

I was just informed that somebody else will be moving into the other half of this room next week. Bummer. We'll see how that saga plays out.

D

no sleep

2004-10-01T04:52:00.000+08:00

Quick update.

A few nights ago was the mid-autumn festival in Hong Kong. It is a specifically Cantonese holiday, so it's not celebrated everywhere in China (China is a big place). It's a big deal locally though.

I went over to my relatives' place for dinner. There was lots of food. Afterwards, a few cousins and myself walked around the neighbourhood and went to a park, where there were children and couples carrying paper lanterns everywhere. There were also lots of people huddled in small groups around the park, lighting candles and setting various flammable objects on fire. It should be called the pyromania festival. It was an interesting sight, and the atmosphere was friendly nice.

We got a few lanterns and glo-sticks of our own and walked around amongst the crowd. My aunt made a few burnt offerings to her ancestors, since the moon was full.

People eat moon cake during the mid-autumn festival. I've had so many it's not even funny. Those things are damn good, but tremendously tremendously fattening.

After the trek around the neighborhood, we settled down at the apartment and a few of my relatives taught me how to play mah jong. It's so much fun! And I was winning lots at first. I was happy. Beginner's luck, probably. Too bad we weren't playing with real money though.

I took a minibus home late at night. I swear to god, the minibus drivers here drive the bus like it's a racecar. It's especially exciting (scary?) when you're going down a steep hill on a windy road.

I've been so tired lately. I'm not getting enough sleep, ever.

Last night, all the people on my floor went mountain climbing at around midnight. Yes, at midnight. We hiked from our hall and up a trail that takes you up to The Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island. I took a few pictures along the way, which I will post on here eventually. I got to see my hall from high above a mountain at night, so that was neat.

I'm amazed at how nature meets urbanity in Hong Kong. Hiking up the mountain is like being lost in the jungle (although civilization is right next door.) We passed by a lake and a waterfall on the way up. It was amazing. The scenery was awesome too, as you might be able to imagine. You could see many of the outlying islands and part of the mainland that make up Hong Kong.

Some of the locals are saying they're beginning to be influenced by my "Canadian-style" of English. I'm not quite sure what that is. But apparently, it has something to do with "the way I talk."

I have an outbreak of acne right now, which hasn't happened in a while. I know it's all the junk food I've been eating. It has to be. I normally stay away from junk, but I've been so busy here that there has been no time to think about (or practice) healthy eating habits. I'm hungry. I grab the tastiest thing nearby. End of story. Some part of that will have to change soon before I become a pimpled pig, lol.

I had a class presentation a few days ago. It was on the historical and social context that lead to the rise of the discipline of sociology (or as I prefer, the idea of sociology.) I think I talked too fast. My mouth was on autopilot. I need to be more conscious. Think more, talk less -- that's my motto for future presentations of this type. The professor said I did really well though. Also, I aced every question that people threw at me, such as "what does Romanticism have to do with the rise of sociology?" or "What do you mean that the rise of sociology was both an extension and a critical reaction to the Enlightenment?". However, I need to learn to slow down so I can articulate myself better instead of letting all the words and ideas gush forth like an open fire hydrant.

I've been reading lots of (social) theory lately -- including Barthes, Saussure, Hegel, Marx, and Foucault. I don't find that reading for my classes is work. It's fun. I love that stuff. I love what I'm studying. Some people like to brag about how little reading they do for their classes, and that's certainly not me. I would love to make a contribution to that theoretical canon someday.

I'm still trying to figure out whether I agree with Foucault's conception of discouse/power/knowledge or not. My prof today said that Foucault will probably be considered one of the most important thinkers of our time in the future, which is exactly what I think and have written about in here before. His ideas really shake the foundations of Western knowledge, and how we know, to its very core.

Oh, and now on to tonight =)

I went out with a bunch of other people tonight for Olga's 20th birthday. First, we met up with a larger group of people in Soho, short for "South of Hollywood Road". It's a wonderful district full of fascinating shops and places. Best of all, it's a huge area halfway up the mountain (but still urban as urban can be, of course), so it can make for days of exploration. The longest outdoor escalator in the world runs through it.

Then, we decided to head over to Wan Chai for clubbing.

However, I was wearing shorts and sandals today (which I knew I shouldn't have, but it's still scorching hot here everyday, and I'm from Canada). They wouldn't let me in. I insisted that everybody go in without me because I could just go home. I didn't want to hold everybody up. But, people were super nice and insisted in return that we all stick together. So we took a cab back to Central, this time, to another area halfway up the mountain called Lam Kwai Fong. It's basically a couple of blocks of buildings (amongst a forest of other buildings) with an extremely high concentration of really nice bars and clubs. The road is packed with pedestrians at night.

We went to a place called Bar George. It was totally great. I got tired late into the night, but I still had a lot of fun. We wandered around the area afterwards and got stuff to eat.

I love how you can wander from one nightlife district to another in Hong Kong. The choice that is available is staggering. And walking up and down the narrow streets, you can find interesting restaurants and shops in little nooks and crannies everywhere. I totally love that. I also totally love that most restaurants and shops here are one of a kind. In many North American cities, you find the same shops and the same restaurants everywhere. Here, almost every place is a new adventure, a mystery waiting to be discovered (however, in Foucault's world of power/discourse, it would be a mystery waiting to be produced, but that's besides the point, and why would anybody care about this now? It doesn't even make sense in the context of what I was trying to say! Anyways...) But I have to say in general, the malls in Hong Kong are similar to malls everywhere else in the world, I imagine, except they're almost all super-sized here. It's the Hong Kong street-life that's original and awesome. I also totally love that Hong Kong is a walking city. As in, I don't need to get in a machine with four wheels just to get a loaf of bread.

Have I mentioned before how much I love this city? Are you sure? Oh, alright.

D

doth i protest too much?

2004-09-27T01:00:00.000+08:00

Alright, I need to update before I forget everything.

Today, I woke up really late, around one in the afternoon. Then Oga and myself took a bus to Sham Shui Po where we met Cheung Cheung, and we went to a martial arts competition together.

Afterwards, we were all starving, so we went to a Thai buffet. The desserts were good. I ate a lot. Too much, in fact. Again.

Then we walked around, then took a bus home, and I'm exhausted because I haven't been getting enough sleep lately and I feel like I've been running around non-stop. I think I need a week off to recuperate, which is not possible in the near future, since I already have deadlines in school (such as a presentation in my social theory class this Tuesday) and the Mid-Autumn Festival is also on Tuesday and Oga's birthday is on Thursday and National Day is on Friday and I've already made plans for next weekend, not to mention the fact that my birthday is coming up very soon. It all adds up.

I'm also behind on all my reading.

Yesterday, a couple of my cousins took me out to some random place for lunch (because there are random places everywhere and random places are good) and then we went for karaoke in Jordan. Karaoke is amazingly cheap here. Hong Kong people love karaoke. We spent a good 4 to 5 hours in there and we sang a lot of songs. I can sing The Scientist very well. Also, One of Us by Joan Osborne. I can't sing Alanis Morissette songs very well.

But I learned the point of karaoke is not to sing well, as people who aren't familiar with it believe. The point is to have fun. =) =) =)!

Then I went over to their place for dinner. I was so full already. I tend to buy food off of street stalls and little shops wherever I go, since they are everywhere and everything is so frigging tempting. To the extreme. Yes, I'm getting big. Yes, I'm going to do some running starting next week (or, most likely, the week after my birthday). I miss running.

Then, I found out that the gang wasn't going to the rave party at the beach anymore because Cynthia got really sick and had to go to the hospital. She's feeling better now though. That's good.

I ended up going shopping for DVDs (yes, it's becoming a favourite pasttime of mine in Hong Kong) and I bought Alien, Aliens, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I rushed home to watch Eternal Sunshine. It is one of the most gut-wrenching movies I've ever seen. The first time I saw it, I think I engaged with it largely on an intellectual level because I was trying to figure out what the frig was going on. This time, now that I already knew what was going on, I think I got really absorbed into the worlds of the characters. Totally gut-wrenching stuff.

Then I went to sleep late.

The night before last, I had a freaky dream. Really, really scary stuff. I involved severed limbs and lots of blood and everything. I didn't appreciate it's intrusion into my life.

Totally freaky.

I have no idea where these images and narratives come from. They're just sort of there. The unconscious is real, and it's a fascinating fodder for self-analysis, in my opinion.

And I'm not quite sure what happened three days ago. I had classes, I'm sure. Then I went shopping for groceries, I think.
And then I just stuck around my floor and did some reading.

Getting new ideas about everything once again, and undermining old assumptions. I love university.

I've read a few books on ego psychology lately, and along with some aspects of Buddhist philosophy, they are having a great influence on my personal and intellectual life.

I don't really do "sociology" anymore, I don't think. I'm just trying to "figure out" the world and trying to figure out what "figuring out the world" really means. I think that sociology just happens to be the best discipline from which to approach those queries, although I welcome contributions from across all the disciplines, from the humanities, to philosophy, to other social sciences when they make sense and not hide behind a veneer of so-called "objectivity", to the natural sciences.

Hegel, Kant, Nietzche, Marx, Weber, Foucault, Barthes, Derrida, Becker, Mills, Lyotard, Jung -- all people with ideas that have influenced me greatly in one way or another. There are many others.

I don't really remember what happened last Thursday. Probably not much.

Oh, I think we had a floor run that day. I've been eating too much lately, so the run was exceptionally painful, although I managed to run the whole thing without stopping -- I essentially pushed myself to the very max. I wanted to finish near the front of the pack with everybody else, despite the growing pain in my abdomen. I'm competitive. Or maybe I like to test my limits. Probably both.

Last Wednesday, I decided to drop a course, which was Colonialism/Postcolonialism. It was fascinating and thought-provoking material, but I had to drop something because I think taking a full course load, along with all this other stuff I was doing, was getting too stressful for me. There are SO MANY THINGS to do in Hong Kong, that I don't think I'll get to finish doing all the things I want to do here by June even if I take a reduced course load. And plus, I want to go to Shanghai during Christmas. And then travel around southeast Asia in June. That's the tentative plan. I don't have the resources to go travelling to a new destination every weekend like I know some exchange students are doing. Not that I'm jealous or anything. I don't even want to go somewhere new every weekend. I'm comfortable studying when I feel like it, and exploring the city whenever I feel like. I guess I'll rather get to know one fascinating place really really well, instead of just getting to say that I've been to all these places superficially at one time.

I love Hong Kong. I know I've said this before, but it's very true. I really really really like this city. It's ultra compact. It's alive. It never sleeps. The people here have an interesting psyche (there's a great big generalization for you :P) There's everything here: countryside, secluded beaches, wildlife reserves, mountains, scenery, ocean, one of the most amazing cityscapes in the world, history, amazing architecture, great food, museums of every kind, and so on. I'll be coming back here a lot in the future. I know it.

And I still want somebody to visit me. Please! I still think it will be a lot of fun.

I also like Hong Kong because of it's proximity to China. China is such a fascinating place in the throes of some revolutionary changes. A hundred years from now, I think people will recognize that China is now in the throes of a revolution that will change not only the Chinese forever, but also the direction of the entire world. Whether that will be "good" or "bad (according to who?) that is still to be seen.

Although I've been feeling physically out of sorts lately, mostly because of my erratic eating habits, I've been feeling psychologically more healthy than I have in the longest time I can remember. Of course, I've had guidance from various books and philosophies that I've been reading. My eyes have been opened to so many things. The key is that meaning is essentially in the hands of the beholder. It is up to us to interpret our world, and our self (self-help and postmodern theory all in one!) We can choose to interpret our life and its comings and goings in a way that empowers us, or not choose. And I'm truly beginning to learn that happiness really does lie in my own hands, and in my own hands only. I take responsibility for my own unhappiness. I take responsibility for my own happiness. That way, I put power into my own hands instead of being a victim, or as the case may be, victimizing myself.

It's a work in progress though. I sort of see the light at the very distant end of the tunnel, and all the things I have to reclaim and remember to get there. But at least now I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I have a clear sense of direction, and what I might have to do to get there. And as a bit of Jung-ian philosophy, I get that in order to arrive at the so-called "light", I have to confront and integrate (instead of repress and denigrate) the so-called "dark."

All humans are all things. Coming into this world, we all have the potential to be a saint and the potential to be a mass murderer. It is family, society, and ulterior influences that causes us to filter our experiences and our humanity to become a "good" and rock-solid but small and piecemeal persona. But now my goal is to be whole. It's not as easy as it sounds, but my efforts have already proved fruitful. I see my "self" in entirely new and productive ways, and I feel so much more free, like I have the power to choose what I want at any one given time, instead of flitting from one unconscious moment/emotion/reaction to the next. Having access to all parts of myself, and not having to deny anything (usually unconsciously), I can choose to be boring if I feel like being boring, or selfish, or altruistic, or amazing, or silent, or loud, or masculine, or feminine, or judgemental, or open-minded, or mean, or sad, or irrational, or funny, or extroverted, or introverted, or sexual, or incompetent, or dependent, or independent, or neurotic, or insular, or liberal, or the life-of-the-party, or derivative, or even wildly original, etc., whenever I feel like, without having to constrain or force my experiences into a concrete mold. Some people say that unravelling the formed ego in such a way amounts to becoming nothing. That's a valid interpretation. Equally valid, and an interpretation that I think may be more empowering, is that it amounts to being everything; all things, because that is what we are. It is only our formed egos that limits, coerces, and defines the nebulous "self" into a concrete "thing" that takes so much psychic energy to preserve.

I'm become ever-increasingly conscious that a substantial chunk of my shadow was developed during my experiences in junior high, with additional influences from family and elementary school. I'm beginning to recognize how those experiences have actually shaped my habits and thoughts, projections and psychology in the present day. Of course, there may be a whole chunk of ego development that I may never ever be able to reclaim simply because they happened too long ago, even as their effects remain with me to this day.

Lately, I've also been listening to the CD So-Called Chaos by Alanis Morissette a lot. I think it might be her best album. It wraps up a lot of what I've been working through lately, psychologically. I love the songs Eight Easy Steps, Out Is Through, Doth I Protest Too Much, Knees of My Bees, Spineless, and especially Everything. I like that song more everytime I listen to it. It's splendid.

Last Sunday, my mom left the city. I really missed her at first. But now I think I'm much more okay about it. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, everything was disorienting. I remember the first time I came to the residence and I was completely disoriented and overwhelmed by the narrow, windy roads, the amazing scenery, and the really tall buildings. It was sensory overload. Now, I feel much more comfortable and sane here. I know where I fit in. I know what I want to do and get accomplished here, and I decide what I will or will not do from there, although I am open-minded to new opportunities.

I'm feeling more love for my mother than I have in all my life though, I think. Despite all our differences and our disputes (some serious ones, as some of my long-time readers might know), I know she tried (and tries) so hard to serve us. I just want her to help herself now. I want to tell her that we're okay now, and I want to thank you for taking us this far, but now, I want her to do what she really wants to do with her own life. I want her to be happy, that's all. I don't think she's really that happy. I want her to take the time to discover what really makes her happy, and not buy into anybody else's narratives, myths, and expectations. I could help if I can. Of course, I don't tell her this, but it is what I want for her.

Other things have happened in the past week, but I don't really remember them.

I feel really stupid when I'm talking to somebody I've met for the dozenth time, and yet, I still can't remember their name. There are SO MANY PEOPLE! My address book has probably quadrupled in size since I got here. But also, it's because I don't make a conscious effort to remember names when I first hear them. And I don't make enough of an effort to remember to make a conscious effort to remember. And so goes the self-fulfilling prophecy, or is it the feedback loop... or maybe just karma ;-).

A lot of the times, what happens is that I run into people who look familiar on campus, and I end up talking with them and eating lunch with them, and then maybe later, going out to do things with them, and then we all head home in separate directions. And then I never talk to them again, until the next time I incidentally run into them on campus, and by that time, I've forgotten some of their names because I've run into dozens of other people in the time that has passed since I last saw this other person.

I think this is also telling me that I have to ask for more phone numbers from people. I keep forgetting to, and then I simply lose touch.

I also need to work on my private journal more. It's a healthy practice.

I think meditation can also do me some good, but I get distracted by thoughts so easily.

Well, I should do some reading before I take a shower and go to bed. I had some ideas about various things that I wanted to share, but I will have to do that some other time (and hopefully, I won't have forgotten them by then, but to be more realistic, they would have probably transmuted into something else.)

Anyways, talk to everybody soon! Come visit me!

D

ooga booga moonga

2004-09-24T01:31:00.000+08:00

I wanted to write a new entry today, because so many things have happened, but again, I'm exhausted.

I'm not getting enough sleep.

Also, I'm eating too much junk food. For the first time in what must be a decade or more, I think I'm growing a little tummy.

Oh deary me!

The prospect of an update this weekend remains slim. I'm going out for karaoke for the first time here. It should be a BLAST.

Also, there is a rave party on a beach somewhere on Hong Kong Island on Saturday. Actual location: confidential.

I get giddy when I get to read social theory.

Yes, I am special.

You are too!

D

poststructuralist inquiry circa 1958

2004-09-24T01:11:00.000+08:00

...

What allows the reader to consume Myth innocently is that he does not see it as a semiological system but as an inductive one. Where there is only an equivalence, he sees a kind of causal process: the signifier and the signified have, in his eyes, a natural relationship. This confusion can be expressed otherwise: any semiological system is a system of values; now the myth-consumer takes the signification for a system of facts: Myth is read as a factual system, whereas it is but a semiological system.

...

Myth is depoliticized speech. One must naturally understand political in its deeper meaning, as describing the whole of human relations in their real, social structure, in their power of making the world; one must above all give an active value to the prefix de-: here it represents an operational movement, it permanently embodies a defaulting. In the case of the soldier-Negro, for instance, what is got rid of is certainly not French imperiality (on the contrary, since what must be actualized is its presence); it is the contingent, historical, in one word: fabricated, quality of colonialism. Myth does not deny things, on the contrary, its function is to talk about them; simply, it purifies them, it makes them innocent, it gives them a natural and eternal justification, it gives them a clarity which is not that of an explanation but that of a statement of fact. If I state the fact of French imperiality without explaining it, I am very near to finding that it is natural and goes without saying: I am reassured. In passing from history to nature, myth acts economically: it abolishes the complexity of human acts, it gives them the simplicity of essences, it does away with all dialectics, with any going back beyond what is immediately visible, it organizes a world which is without contradictions because it is without depth, a world wide open and wallowing in the evident, it establishes a blissful clarity: things appear to mean something by themselves.

...

For the very end of myths is to immobilize the world: they must suggest and mimic a universal order which has fixated once and for all the hierarchy of possessions. Thus, every day and everywhere, man is stopped by myths, referred by them to this motionless prototype which lives in his place, stifles him in the manner of a huge internal parasite and assigns to his activity the narrow limits within which he is allowed to suffer without upsetting the world: bourgeois pseudo-physics is in the fullest sense a prohibition for man against inventing himself. Myths are nothing but this ceaseless, untiring solicitation, this insidious and inflexible demand that all men recognize themselves in this image, eternal yet bearing a date, which was built of them one day as if for all time. For the Nature, in which they are locked up under the pretext of being eternalized, is nothing but an Usage. And it is this Usage, however lofty, that they must take in hand and transform.

...

The mythologist [somebody who deconstructs cultural "myths"] cuts himself off from all the myth consumers, and this is no small matter. If this applied to a particular section of the collectivity, well and good. But when a myth reaches the entire community, it is from the latter that the mythologist must become estranged if he wants to liberate the myth. Any myth with some degree of generality is in fact ambiguous, because it represents the very humanity of those who, having nothing, have borrowed it. To decipher the Tour de France or the 'good French Wine' is to cut oneself off from those who are entertained or warmed up by them. The mythologist is condemned to live in a theoretical sociality; for him, to be in society is, at best, to be truthful: his utmost sociality dwells in his utmost morality. His connection with the world is of the order of sarcasm.

...

The fact that we cannot manage to achieve more than an unstable grasp of reality doubtless gives the measure of our present alienation: we constantly drift between the object and its demystification, powerless to render its wholeness. For if we penetrate the object, we liberate it but we destroy it; and if we acknowledge its full weight, we respect it, but we restore it to a state which is still mystified. It would seem that we are condemned for some time yet always to speak excessively about reality.

...

-- Roland Barthes, Myth Today (1958)

Best essay ever.

D

my apologies

2004-09-22T19:48:00.000+08:00

I was just looking at the pictures I just posted, and I realized that they don't really capture what's unique about Hong Kong life, such as the busy street life on Nathan Road in Kowloon, the residential districts in the New Territories, the numerous street markets throughout the city, food stalls, restaurants, nightlife, cultural centres, cultural practices, and so on.

I promise to do a better job of representation and documentation in the future, although of course, representation can never be complete. That's why you need to be here!

That being said, a billion things have happened since I've last updated, but I've been too exhausted to write anything coherent. In fact, the last real entry I wrote wasn't very coherent either, as I just looked at it and it reads clumsily.

Anyways, I get to sleep in tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have the energy to update sometime in the evening. I have so many things -- and ideas -- to write about.

Joi Gein!

D

that's it for now!

2004-09-22T19:13:00.000+08:00

Last batch of pictures from Hong Kong for now...

This one was taken at a "wet market", which is where many of the
locals still go to get their fresh produce. You can either take the
chicken home live or have it slaughtered in front of you. The choice is
yours!

This picture was taken at the Avenue of Stars at Tsim Tsa Tsui, across from
Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong has the third largest film industry in the
world, after Hollywood and Bollywood. That's pretty amazing when you
consider that the population of Hong Kong is "only" 7 million people.

I'm excited about going to the Hong Kong International Film Festival in
April.

A picture taken from Admiralty, looking towards Central. This is the
main thoroughfare, which is usually jam-packed during rush-hour. You can
just barely make-out the Bank of China tower in the middle of the picture.

A study of contrasts in Hong Kong...

I have a series of pictures from the Hong Kong countryside that I will post
in the future. But for now, a teaser ;-) ...

The district of Tai O, on the north shore of Lantau Island...

Two kitties in the shade...

The world's largest outdoor sitting Buddha... It was friggin hot that
day!

So who wants to come visit me now? =)

more HK pictures

2004-09-22T18:41:00.000+08:00

More random pictures from Hong Kong...

A beach! This is Repulse Bay, on the sunny, laid-back, southern shore
of Hong Kong Island.

The old and the new in Central. The building in the background is the
famous Hong Kong Bank of China tower, completed in 1984. The building in
the foreground is the Supreme Court.

That's Ice House Street, one of the many roads that lead you out of Central
and into the Mid-Levels, a residential district sandwiched between the
commercial district by the harbour and the mountains behind. The building
to the right is the base of the Hong Kong Bank of China tower.

And this one's taken from The Peak -- which is self-explanatory. It's
the highest point on Hong Kong Island (although not the highest point in the
city of Hong Kong). You can make out the IFC2 on the very left, the Hong
Kong Bank of China tower further to the right, and then the Bank of China tower
near the middle of the picture. And of course, you can see across the
harbour to Tsim Tsa Tsui, a district on the Kowloon side of the city.

HK buildings

2004-09-22T18:32:00.000+08:00

A picture taken of the "Hong Kong Island" side of Hong Kong aboard
a Star Ferry, which takes you across the harbour to "Kowloon"
side. The part of the skyline that is visible in the picture is in a
district called Wan Chai. To the left of the picture are more tall
buildings in a district called Causeway Bay. To the right of the picture
are even more tall buildings in the districts of Admiralty, Central, and Sheung
Wan. Pictures of those areas in future installments ;-)

The following picture if of the Lippo Centre on the right, and the Bank of
China tower on the left. They're located at the border of Admiralty and
Central, as far as I can tell.

And finally, the IFC2 Tower standing mighty in Central, along with the Bank
of America tower, I think.

HK pictures

2004-09-22T18:13:00.000+08:00

Here are some of the pictures I've taken in Hong Kong.

This is Stanley, a more laid-back district on the southern shore of Hong Kong
Island.

This is me at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, on the northern
shore of Hong Kong Island. That really tall building in the background is
the IFC2, the sixth tallest building in the world (after the one in Taiwan, the
two in Malaysia, one in Shanghai, and the Sears Tower in Chicago.)

newsflash!

2004-09-18T16:11:00.000+08:00

Top story on the CBC...

Newspapers accused of misusing word 'terrorist'
Last Updated Fri, 17 Sep 2004 23:09:40 EDT

OTTAWA - Canada's largest newspaper chain, CanWest Global, is being criticized over its use of the word "terrorist" in stories about the Middle East.

The owner of the National Post and dozens of other papers across Canada [including the Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, and Ottawa Citizen] is being accused of inappropriately inserting the word into newswire copy dealing with the Middle East, thereby changing the meaning of those stories.

One of the world's leading news agencies, Reuters, said CanWest newspapers have been altering words and phrases in stories dealing with the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reuters told CBC News it would complain to CanWest about the issue.

And that is why I like to consult the CBC, a public broadcaster, and the Toronto Star, an independent newspaper.

I definitely do not consult the National Post, the most extremely conservative newspaper in the land.

I wonder how the Canwest newspapers are going to report this story.

More...

The global managing editor for Reuters, David Schlesinger, called such changes unacceptable. He said CanWest had crossed a line from editing for style to editing the substance and slant of news from the Middle East.

"If they want to put their own judgment into it, they're free to do that, but then they shouldn't say that it's by a Reuters reporter," said Schlesinger.

As an example, Schlesinger cited a recent Reuters story, in which the original copy read: "...the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank."

In the National Post version of the story, printed Tuesday, it became: "...the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel."
...

Last week, the Citizen inserted the word "terrorist" seven times into an Associated Press story on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where Iraqi insurgents have been battling U.S.-led occupation forces.

In an interview, Ottawa Citizen editor Scott Anderson conceded fighters in Fallujah were not terrorists but said CanWest has a policy of renaming some groups as terrorists.

He added the paper had applied that term primarily to Arab groups, and that mistakes had been made occasionally.

However, Anderson said he did not believe the paper had a duty to inform its readers when it changed words.

in the course of a lifetime you'll never forget

2004-09-18T01:53:00.000+08:00

It was a crappy day for most of the day today.

Felt depressed. Thought too much without thinking too clearly. Bogged down in minute details. Felt isolated -- maybe insulated. Self-pity. Didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. Lost. All that jazz.

Then I went out for dinner with relatives in the evening.

Was really tired and irritable at first.

Ate good food. I hadn't eaten all day. Going overbudget. Felt better, gradually.

Eventually, felt much better. Much more aware and connected with myself. More perspective. More sociable. Listened to Alanis on the way home. Felt more grounded. Hung out with people in the courtyard. Played video games with floormates. Let myself be. No pretense.

Lyric that helped: How To Stay Paralyzed By Fear of Abandonment...

I'll figure things out slowly.

Meanwhile, I have no regrets about coming here to study. This is great.

D

(NEWS FLASH: The BMI [Body-Mass Index] is dubious. Always be skeptical of physical or psychological measurements of any type. Ask questions. People accept these things too easily. There are consequences. Ciao!)

dry your eyes mate

2004-09-16T13:11:00.000+08:00

HOLY CRAP!

I'm listening to a radio station back home over the internet right now, and they're playing THE STREETS, one of my favourite musical artists!

I'm really surprised that they're actually taking this so-called "risk", because it's definitely not conventional electronica music. It sounds like nothing else the radio station plays.

Okay, now they're playing Simple Plan. The magic didn't last very long.

I think the turnover rate for new songs on North American radio is amazing. I've only stopped listening for about a month and a half, and already, I don't recognize about a third of the songs on the radio.

I like the new songs by The Killers and Bryan Adams though.

D

another picture!

2004-09-15T23:10:00.000+08:00

Alright, fine fine. Now I want to post more pictures, and I'm sure you
want to see more (or at least I hope so!)

This one was taken on a night boat cruise on the Shanghai harbour. The
buildings in the background are in a famous historic district called the Bund.

Pictures from the Great Wall, Tiannamen Square, Suzhou, the Forbidden City, The Peak in Hong Kong, beaches, and many other places soon!

D

a picture!

2004-09-15T22:55:00.000+08:00

Since I haven't had the time (or motivation) to post the gazillions of
pictures I took in China yet, here's just one of them. It would be a
perfect picture if the fill flash had been turned on, but whatever. It's
good enough. I love the composition. And I'm on a canal! The
picture was taken near Haungzhou, China I believe. Either that, or it was
near Beijing. But I'm pretty sure it was near Huangzhou :-S.
Wherever it was, it's a more traditional area of China, obviously. The big
cities are much more cosmopolitan and modern.

so full.....

2004-09-15T22:25:00.000+08:00

I've been eating way too much ever since I got to Hong Kong. Starting next week, I'm going to start cutting back and doing more exercise. I need to feel physically well again.

I just made my schedule for the next semester.

I have eight big essays to write. Holy shit.

I might be on an exchange program, but it's still an
university-level exchange program I guess. It's not going to be a conventional holiday, that's for sure.

I could take a reduced course load, if I didn't want my scholarships for next year. Yeah, right.

Well, this is a rather aimless entry.

I bought stationary today. It's very expensive here. I think I mentioned this before. Paper is about 10 times more expensive here than in Canada. Not only does it make me want to use less paper, it makes me want to not buy paper at all. Also, pens, binders, staplers -- all that stuff -- is much more expensive.

I'm also not really used to buying groceries here. First of all, the main kinds of vegetables that are sold are completely different. White carrot replaces orange carrots. Chinese vegetables replaces brocolli and cauliflower, and so on.

Back at home, I was also used to stocking up on lots of frozen food, like frozen vegetables, frozen lasagna, etc. Frozen food was fast and convenient and could last me a long time. Here, it seems like the locals like everything 100% fresh, so not only is frozen food rare, but very expensive. It might even be cheaper just to eat out.

This is going to cause a problem, because I don't cook very well, and I don't have much time to cook. Also, I'll have to make way more trips to the grocery store than I normally do (or like to do).

Also, there isn't a lot of canned food here, and it's also more expensive than in Canada. (I don't want to give the impression that food is expensive here in HK, because most of it is cheaper than it is in Canada. It's just that the food I'm used to buying just happens to be more expensive here.)

Back in Canada, I bought LOTS of canned food, like canned soup, canned tuna, canned fruit and so on. Yes, I'm a lazy bum when it comes to feeding myself.

Eating out is great though.

Oh oh! I also have to mention that the most of the milk here is DISGUSTING. I love milk. But not "milk." I guess most of the "milk" that's sold here has been powdered and remixed because there aren't a lot of dairy cows nearby. And generally, HK people aren't that big into beef or milk, or dairy products in general, for that matter.

Real milk is way too expensive. Cereal is also very expensive here, probably because the demand is so low. HK people eat other things for breakfast. Like congee. I like congee though, except you have to go out to buy it (takes too long to make it right), and there aren't a lot of those kinds of shops nearby, although they seem to be everywhere else in the city.

So it looks like I'll actually have to spend time preparing my food here, which is a big pain in the ass, because I'm spending more time doing everything already. The laundry place is a bit further. I have to climb down a mountain to get to the nearest grocery store.

As I've said before, this residence is in an unusually quiet part of the city. Other than all the so-called "inconveniences", which really aren't THAT bad, I'm beginning to like it here. It's nice to have a place distant from all the hustle and bustle. And the view of the sea is beautiful.

I'm going over-budget already. I've spent way too much money on eating out and more than I planned for books and stationary. I also spent money settling down into this place, like on pillows and a stool-thing for putting stuff on besides my bed, a desk lamp, and random miscellanenous things like that. I also had to chip in an extra HK$500 for communal supplies on the floor -- unexpectedly. I've also spent a lot of money on transportation, because the octopus card is way too convenient which makes it feel like you're not really spending money at all, and i've gone out relatively lots.

I think I'll have to get my parents to send the rest of my scholarship cheques down here, so I can use them right away.

I'm still aiming at working within my C$5000 budget though.

If this entry seems a little lost, that's because it is. I ate too much for supper. It was good though -- Shanghaiese food. But now I'm on a sugar-low. Tired. Dizzy. But still felt compelled to update.

Night!

D

quotation

2004-09-15T02:23:00.000+08:00

"power is being told you are not loved and not being destroyed by it"

-- quote from Madonna, via "jonathan29"

Because I place my happiness and my sense of self-worth in the hands of others much too much. Still. And still working at it.

Mumble jumble

2004-09-15T01:58:00.000+08:00

For whatever reason, I feel emotionally drained today.

I feel like I'm chasing a proverbial dangling carrot again, and I don't know for what.

Today, it felt like classes started for real. It feels like I've found a routine I will be settling into for the next semester. Although I'm excited about my courses, it is always a lot of work. And it's not always pleasant fun and games. For example, there's a lot of stuff to learn that I don't really care about, or that I find highly suspect, but I have to learn anyways.

So the weekday routine here feels uncannily similar to the one back in Edmonton.
I wish I had some close friends here. I'm surrounded by lots of people, but it's far too emotionally-draining to have to be outgoing and friendly all the time with new people you meet. But that's the way social conventions are I guess...

My mom will be leaving the city on Sunday. I'm getting emotional about it already, and I've never really gotten emotional about being separated from my parents before. I guess in a great big urban metropolis like Hong Kong, she's still the closest person to me in these parts. And even though almost all my family and friends think I'm this awesomely independent person, I'm trying to not be that all the time anymore, because it's so tiring to have to be one thing all of the time. I don't want to live up to any standards anymore, either somebody else's or my own, although I haven't really figured out what that means in a practical sense yet. These past few weeks, I've given myself permission to be dependent on others, even overly so. Even though we don't have any close personal talks or anything, my mom has been such a great help here, and I wish I could tell her that, but our family doesn't get all mushy about these things I guess. I really am grateful though.

I'm really sad that she's leaving. I'm crying right now, actually.

Yeah, as I've said before, my family tears me apart. I've hated them. I've loved them. They've cause me so much pain, yet, they've given me so much and loved me in their own way -- a "way" I'm beginning to recognize as I become reacquainted with more of my extended family and my roots. I can't say it's a worst way or anything. It's just different. And it's taking me a long time to recognize that, or even get used to it.

I don't really know in which world I belong to anymore. I feel like this cultural nomad.

There are a lot of social theories about people like me, especially in postcolonial studies, lol.

Anyways.

Yeah, have to stop this emotional rollercoaster thing.

Wait, actually, I think I'll let myself be that too. It's too hard to be unemotional all of the time.

So I didn't do much today. Just started some reading for my various classes. So much work to do already.

I'm having trouble connecting with the local people on my floor (which is everybody). I'm torn between trying hard to make friends and being genuine about how I feel and how I want to act at any given moment. There's also the language thing. I don't know what they're saying about half of the time, although I can sorta guess. Communicating in Chinese all the time is hard on my brain. I find it especially hard on the phone when I don't have the benefits of body language to get my point across.

All the people on the floor are also in the own groups already. And plus, there isn't another exchange student on my floor so that we can at least talk to each other. *sigh*

Everything's a big jumble right now.

Well, whatever. It's been a troubling day overall.
Later folks.
D

three days in one unfortunately not so compact entry

2004-09-13T23:28:00.000+08:00

I'm making time to write this entry now or else it'll probably never get written.

A day pasts by so quickly here.

Two days ago, a cousin of mine took me to an awesome buffet at the Sheraton Hotel on the Kowloon side of the harbour. It was SO GOOD. Imagine the best food that the West and the East has to offer, and then imagine it in unlimited servings, and lots of dessert to boot, with the best freshly squeezed orange juice you've ever had, and that was it. I think I had at least 7 big plates full of food. Just thinking about it makes me hungry, so I better stop.

Then later in the evening, I was going to join some other exchange students at a nightclub at Tsim Tsa Tsui, which is also on the Kowloon side of the harbour. I waited for them until they got there at 11:40. By that time, the line to get in was really really long, I was feeling tired, and I learned that it was HK$200 to get in, which is about C$35. That's too much.

I just chat with them in the line and I ended up leaving before I even got in.

On the way home, I kinda got lost in Central, and this person came up to me and asked if I needed any help as I was standing around, presumably looking lost, on some dark, narrow, relatively empty street. I was precautious and cagey at first, I think for good reason, but he ended up being a really interesting person who knew a lot about the city. His name was Ben and he took economics in the U.K., specifically, the phihlosophy of economics, which was really interesting, because I got the impression that economists were the least philosophical people ever. Of course, I was vigilant the whole time because I still wasn't completely sure what he was all about, but we did end up exchanging phone numbers.

But it seems like everybody exchanges phone numbers in Hong Kong. Even people who I only say one or two things to offhandedly ask for my phone number.

Oh, and I read in a newspaper that Hong Kong has the highest cell phone usage rate in the world, which doesn't surprise me. Hong Kong people also probably have the most technologically advanced cell phones in the world.

I ended up waiting for the last bus that I must have missed because it never came, so I asked some other people standing nearby, who showed me where I could catch other buses that run late into the night. I ended up catching a red minibus, which are even more scary than the green minibuses.

The next morning, I had to get up early to go to Shenzhen, China to visit a few relatives there with some other relatives from Hong Kong, which was another reason why I decided not to stay out the night before.

I slept through my alarm and I ended up making everybody wait for me, which I felt really bad for because I hate waiting for other people myself, so I bought cake for everybody at the MTR station.

We caught a KCR rail to China, which passes through the New Territories of the Hong Kong region.

It was weird when we got past the border, because I never realized that there was another bustling metropolis just across the border. The place was Hong Kong in miniature, and its skyline was impressive for a city with about a million people -- similar to Edmonton.

My Lonely Planet tourbook informed me that Shenzhen is a souless place, where people only care about making a buck, which was probably true, but there were definitely some great deals to be had everywhere. It was one big shopping mall.

At least Hong Kong is one big shopping mall with a lot of culture and soul and a great view to boot.

However, one thing that I find differentiates most places in China from Hong Kong is the social space. I find that a lot of the infrastructure in China looks much more weatherworn and brown than in Hong Kong. Everything's just a little more dark, and a little more drab, although colourful enough as it is.

I think even a city like Shanghai still has decades of catching-up to do before it becomes like -- at least infratstructure-wise -- to Hong Kong.

But then again, I don't know if any place in the world can compare with Hong Kong infrastructure wise. I'm still amazed that a city -- nevermind a city of 7 million people -- could have happened here, on a tiny mountainous island and a tiny mountainous peninsula. Even the Queen called it a useless piece of rock when she was told of the aquisition.

Of course, Hong Kong probably never would have happened if Communism itself never happened in China, but that's a history lesson that I'm sure most of you would be bored to death to hear about.

So anyways, yeah, Shenzhen = shopping mall. It was almost like any random city in North America, except there are a lot more Chinese people, and the place tends to be way more crowded (oh, and the drivers tend to be even more crazy.)

I saw a lot of good-looking people there though. The service at the restaurants there is beyond excellent. The waitress we had was really cute, and had a really nice smile, and she kept smiling at me, and I couldn't help but smile back.

Other than that, I was pretty bored most of the time, actually, although it was interesting to see what was across the border from Hong Kong.

I learned a little more about my family past.

My great-grandparents (from both my father's and mother's side) were originally from Chaozhou in Guangdong province (the same province as Shenzhen) which is the most southerly province of China and borders Hong Kong. They moved to Hong Kong, like many other Chaozhou people, during the cultural upheaval of Communist rule in China.
Guangdong people are unique from the rest of Chinese people in that they have their own language -- Cantonese -- which is what I use. However, Chaozhou people are unique from other Guangdong and Chinese people in their they speak another separate langauge -- Chaozhou Wah, which is what most of my extended family use from time to time to converse with one another, and which I only understand in parts.

About 15% of Hong Kong people are from the Chaozhou region, including the wealthiest person in the city. And apparently, Chaozhou people have a very hard work ethic, which has all too obviously been passed down to me from my parents.

I think I would like to go back to Chaozhou before I go back to Canada. I want to go there even more so than Thailand or even Vietnam now, which only seem like tropical beach vacations at the time being which can be safely forgoed. I know there's so much more than that at those places, but with the people I would be going with (or at least the people I can find to go with), that's all we'll end up doing is sitting on a beach.

I'm more of a cultural person I guess. I like the nitty gritty. I find it much more satisfying.

Anyways, I'm sure I'll have much more opportunity to talk about the rediscovery of my roots in the future.

When I got back to Hong Kong, it was late, but there were still a lot of stores open, and I stumbled into a DVD shop, where I bought another 15 DVDs. That brings the total number of DVDs I've bought since I got here to over 50.

Today, there were classes.

I'm taking a sociology course called "Chinese Identities and Global Networks", which is going to be utterly fascinating. It was the best first class out of any class I've ever been to. We had a discussion about the success of the Chinese Olympic team in Athens, and what that may mean to different Chinese people worldwide. I know I felt pride for the Chinese team, probably more so than the Canadian team.

Somebody else in the class from Canada (an exchange student from the University of Victoria) brought up the underdog phenomenon -- that people like to cheer for the underdog, rather than for a powerful country like the United States because they win like a dozen medals a day anyways, which isn't really news, and it all blurs in so much that nobody really cares. Whereas when an athlete from Afghanistan, for instance, wins a medal, it's a story that anybody from around the world can feel proud of.

I personally feel that China is still an underdog on the world stage -- albeit one that is quickly growing out of its underdoggedness. The modern history of China is filled with examples of Chinese being exploited on its mainland and abroad (for instance, in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, for which thousands of Chinese men died, and the humiliating Head Tax that Chinese people had to pay to enter Canada in the 1920s, which no other ethnic group had ever had to pay.)

I find it so much easier to be caught up in Chinese nationalism because there is so much more to be caught up by -- when compared to Canada, which is unique, but not all that distinct. Chinese civilization is many thousands of years old. There is so much potential for growth in the country in the future. There are 1.5B ethnic Chinese world-wide, comprising a quarter of the world's population. There really is no comparison, to put it simply.

After the discussion about the Olympic Games, we shifted to an introduction to the other half of the course, which will be about global networks of Chinese people. I'm no stranger to such networks since I have family all over Canada, Hong Kong, and parts of Guangdong province still (which, by the way, in and of itself already has a population triple that of the nation of Canada.)

So all the people in our class, including many Chinese exchange students from different parts of the world, drew their global connections on transparencies, which we then overlayed on top of one another on a projector so that we could see all of the connections together. What we ended up with was a classic map of global migration.

Lots of lines going from Hong Kong and China to Canada and the United States, equally, and much less to Europe, then much less to Australia, and almost non-existent to the rest of the world.

Almost all the Chinese exchange students I've met here (and there are many) are from either Canada or the United States.

There obviously will be a lot to say about that.

Especially about the phenomenon of Chinatowns in North America and around the world.
The Chinese tend to build Chinatowns wherever they go. There aren't really any Japantowns or Koreatowns, or "Towns" of most other ethnic groups for that matter, at least not nearly to the same extent as Chinatowns in cities around the world.

I've never really thought of that before.

I'm sure I'll think of it again in the near future.

Anyways, there was something else I wanted to say, but I shoudl save it for another day.

Good night!!!

D

the Hong Kong general election

2004-09-13T23:15:00.000+08:00

There was a general election in Hong Kong yesterday. Pro-democracy candidates only made slight gains in the number of seats. However, that's not to say that Hong Kongers do not like democracy or their political freedoms. The voter turnout was the highest ever at 56%, in a territory where most people care little about politics and a lot about making money.

I think many people opted for stability instead. A landslide win by pro-democracy candidates would have only made the positions of each side more extreme.

And plus, the pro-democracy side did win over 60% of the popular vote, although pro-Beijing candidates won more seats. That's because half the seats in the Legislative Council are voted for by special interest groups that tend to be pro-Beijing.

The Communist Party is getting good at the election game though. They had posters everywhere, sent in the gold-medal winners from the Olympics for a huge public rally just before the election, and offered to bolster Hong Kong's economy through various tantalizing incentives.

Anyways, I don't actually know that much about Hong Kong politics, although I'm starting to learn.

It's very different from the politics of any other place I know of.

D

i don't think anybody reads this anymore, but whatever

2004-09-10T23:34:00.000+08:00

It's strange. I've only been to classes for a few days, and already, I run into familiar people everywhere on campus with whom I can engage in conversation with. Back at home, I hardly ever ran into anybody on campus -- but that could be because I had to rush from my classes to work and back the whole day.

Let's see -- today, I ran into Jenny, Arv, Natalie, Rock, Wing, Ogga and one other girl whose name I don't know. I was going to do some studying in the library, and take out a few books, but I ended up talking with all these people instead, which I don't really mind.

Again, all my classes are good. I'm so excited about every single one of them. They're going to have a tough time shutting me up this semester. The subject matters are simply much too debate- and thought-provoking.

Went out to a district called Wan Chai for dinner tonight. Again, dinner was very good.

Tomorrow night, my cousin Connie is taking me out to a buffet. Mmmm!!!

I think I want to hit a few museums, and a few clubs, and maybe a few gay bars soon.

Frig. So much to do!!!

D

(P.S. Oh, and Jacob got voted off Canadian Idol! Boo!!! Even though I haven't really watched the show, I think he was the coolest contestant the show had ever had. I will totally buy his album when it's released.)

they call it "asia's world city"

2004-09-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

I've been losing track of time lately.

Again, I'm not quite sure when I last updated.

And I'm a little bit drunk.

I was just drinking on the rooftop with a few other exchange students. The view of the sea was spectacular.

Yesterday, classes started. I'm really excited about my courses this semester. The professors here are very good. They're friendly, kind, and very helpful. I got giddy yesterday when I bought a 700 page textbook in sociological theory. Yes, I am that.

Last night, I went out for dinner at a restaurant in a district called Jordan. The restaurant was beautiful. The food was great. It was also cheap. The view of the harbour at night was spectacular.

Then we went shopping.

Have I already said that I love this city?

Never a dull moment.

I also can't wait for the opportunity to visit some of the many many museums in the city. I used to hate going to museums. Now, it could take me a day to stroll through a single gallery if it is good enough. I just think differently and I know a little bit more to make museums more meaningful, and hence, way more interesting.

As an aside, the Vancouver Art Gallery has an amazing gallery on contemporary art from the Pacific Coast. The gallery includes a self-reflexive examination of what it means for art to be from the "Pacific Coast" and "Vancouver", therefore, destabilizing the very thing that's supposed to be the foundation of the exhibition. I found that very very interesting.

Today, I had more classes. In the morning, I managed to get a room to myself. The hall office had told me there were no more single rooms available. However, there just happened to be a double room on my floor without anybody living in it, and they let me move in here.

So now, I have a place to myself.

I feel a lot better already. I can be social when I want to be. I can be private when I want to be. And overall, because of that, I feel so much more healthy and sane.

The arrangement of this room is also nicer.

I had another good class today.

I should be in school all the time I love it so much. Going to class and thinking IS my holiday. It's what I would do if I could do anything I wanted to in the world.

And tonight, I hung out for a little bit with some other exchange students in my hall, who always smoke outside downstairs, on outside on the roof. I thought I would join them with my drug of choice, a beer.

But mostly, I just spent time adjusting to my new room.

It is a double room after all, so I just have to cross my fingers that nobody else will want to move in. The view from this room is much more crappy though. I see a little bit of mountain, but it's mostly a view of buildings nearby. The window from the old room looked out onto the South China Sea and the outlying islands in the distance.

But I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow, one class. And then, I'm going out for dinner. Can't wait!

Joi Gein!

D

I love this city

2004-09-08T01:48:00.000+08:00

I'm really going to try to get pictures posted this weekend. I've tried to spend as little time in my room as possible, because for one, there is no privacy anyways, but the major reason is because that there isn't much to do around the hall.

I have lots of pictures of Hong Kong, and of course, pictures of Beijing, the Great Wall (the coolest place I've ever been to), Shanghai, Suzhou, and Huangzhou -- all very very distinct places in China. I'll talk about it more through the captions of the pictures I post.

Today, I woke up late. Met my mom and an aunt in Sham Shui Po and had lunch. There are so many places to eat here, and many of them are so good. Another reason I love this place.

I LOVE egg tarts. They are so good here.

I also love trying food from the street stalls that are everywhere.

Seriously, I need somebody to visit me. Please! It will be so much fun!

I have trouble reading the menus in Chinese though. I'm really trying to improve my Chinese, because you never know, I just might move here in the future. And you never know, I might want to do research or teach here in the future.

I'm beginning to realize how much mental work I do back home and here in Hong Kong in trying to negotiate between Western and Chinese cultures -- stuff like linguistics, customs, habits, beliefs, social codes, or just the idiosyncracies of day to day living.

After lunch, we went to a place that has a LOT of very small stores crowded together that sell lots and lots of computers. The place was huge, and there were so many people there even though it was a weekday afternoon. The comptuers there were a bit cheaper than what I see in the rest of the city, and they're comparable to prices in Canada. However, almost all the computers on sale in Hong Kong are much more update than the ones in Canada. For example, Intel Celeron and Intel Pentium processors are almost non-existent for laptops in Hong Kong, while they flourish in Canada. Almost all the laptops here are equipped with the newer Intel M processor (I think that's what it is called), while it seems to be struggling to find a big market in North America.

There was a lot of selection in the place too. And though computers arne't that much cheaper than in Canada, accessories are many times less expensive.

However, one thing that is NOT cheap in Hong Kong is stationary. Holy crap it's expensive. It makes me not want to buy stationary at all, if it wasn't for classes. I can get 1500 sheets of loose leaf paper in Canada for the price of 100 sheets here in Hong Kong. And pens and pencils and the ilk and almost spectacularly expensive here. However, Hong Kong people seem to have a penchant for purchasing really really nice stationary and writing equipment. Everybody has a fancy pen -- none of the cheapo Bic shit.

I tried a waffle cone from McDonald's today, which aren't available at McDonald's in Canada. It was good.

Then we went to a larger shopping centre because it was a very hot and humid day outside today.

I bought my first shoulder-strap bag because it was irresitably nice and irrestibaly cheap. I like it.

Travelling about the city, I'm developing a newfound respect for capitalism and the people who make it work in this city. It works really well in Hong Kong, which is dominated by small business -- unlike most places in North America, which are dominated by large franchises, chain stores, and chain restaurants, which makes for a very depressing social and commerical environment that caters to the lowest common denominator, in my opinion. Even the transit system here is run my private companies, and it works very well. I think the human geography in Hong Kong has much to do with the success of the free market here. I elaborated on this in a personal entry I wrote for myself, but it's something I'll probably share on here later.

It does reinforce my belief that there should be as little government as possible, although I do believe in some government as a means to an end, but not an end in itself.

Then again, I'm not much of a politico person. I think arguing about how things SHOULD be can go on forever, and I see way too many holes and any political theory. I think it's better to see things clearly as they are (sociology), before arguing about how things should be (political theory).

Speaking of ideas and all that stuff, a book I've read by Debbie Ford has become extremely influential in my personal and academic life, although I don't think those can be really separated. She basically writes about psychology and a theory of human psychology largely derived from Jung-ian thought. It just makes so much sense to me.

I don't like how the various disciplines in the social sciences are so separate. They should inform each other, instead of being completely oblivious and disconnected to one another. It would be nice to see "human studies" or "social studies" in the future, something that integrates all the approaches in a philosophically critical manner, and drops the pretense of the word "science" from the title, because a lot of the best social "science" -- and certainly the most influential theories -- that have been done were hardly positivist in nature.

In fact, I think positivism can be studied in an of itself as an academic approach placed in its larger social and historical context, as well as one approach out of many that can be used in academics.

I think the world needs more intelligent generalists who can see the big picture clearly, as well as the specialists we have so many of already.

Tonight, I took a bus home that took me down Nathan Road, which is a long, spectacular stretch of neon signs at night.

When I got back to hall, I felt like socializing with people, which I did. I had fun and I met a few new people -- from Australia, France, and Nigeria. I made plans with people to go out on Thursday night to a club for dancing.

I'm still pushing for a single room at my hall, because I like to be alone when I want to be alone, just like how I like to be around people when i want to be around people. Various books and ideas I've read in the past year have really helped me become much more aware of my thoughts, emotions, and inclinations (as opposed to just having thoughts and emotions and inclinations) and therefore I feel like I have more freedom to choose what I want to do or not do, instead of (consicously or unconsiously) trying to be or not be something all of the time.

That's it for now. Classes start tomorrow! I can't wait!

D

around the city

2004-09-06T23:46:00.000+08:00

Today, there was a tour of Hong Kong Island (as opposed to the entire city of Hong Kong) organized for exchange students.

It was okay. I was tired though. And I didn't really feel like being around people, although I made an effort to socialize. I met a cool person from Beijing. Those Chinese mainlanders are breaking so many of the stereotypes I have of them -- stereotypes I've mostly inherited from the Western media. Her name is Olivia and she's the greatest person I've talked to yet when it comes to the social and political issues in China. It was very interesting to get an insider's point of view on issues such as human rights and democracy.

Oh, and they talk about these things in China. The Chinese government isn't everywhere like everybody outside of China thinks. In fact, the Canadian government probably knows more about the average Canadian Joe Schmoe than the Chinese government knows about their own citizens.

The Island tour was disappointing. It wasn't very informative or exciting, although I did meet some new people.

However, the best part of the day came when I didn't have to be around people. Sometimes, I feel very extroverted and I'm a super-people person. Today, I just wanted to be by myself. In the evening, I took a minibus down to Causeway Bay and I explored a super-trendy mall with small stores that sell one-off designer items. There were a lot of trendy young people there. Then, I wandered into some kind of grocery store, except this was no ordinary grocery store. It was a rich people's grocery store. I saw a single apple sell for HK$50, which is about C$9. It wasn't even all that big, although I presume it must be exotic somehow. I could get 30 regular apples at a regular grocery store selling them for a regular price for that amount of money.

There was a whole bunch of other expensive stuff in there too. I obviosuly didn't buy anything, but it was really neat to wander around and see what was available. Some of the food was so extremely tempting. For example, the chocolates. OMG. They looked so good. And they had an entire section of snacks and desserts. OMG! It was almost unbearable.

The place was huge. I walked through it relatively quickly, but it still took me a long time to get through it all. There were also some nice restaurants nearby that I'll have to come back to try sometime, because they weren't that expensive.
I did buy a drink in the shopping centre. It was called a Blue Fairy. It looked better than it tasted, although it wasn't too bad. Too much banana flavour.

I wanted to try a few other things, but then I had to remind myself that my budget for my trip here is only C$5000. I know somebody who's only staying here for one semester and yet budgeted C$10000 in expenses.

I might boost my budget though, since that $5000 is coming entirely from scholarships that I won, so I haven't dipped into any of my savings for the trip yet. Actually, I can boost my budget by another $1000 and I still wouldn't have touched my savings yet.

So I probably will.

I left the place. Walked around with my map in hand, trying to get oriented in the city. Then I walked to a video shop I had been to before, and I spent three hours there browsing through the non-alphabetized shelves of DVDs, and I ended up buying 16 of them. It only cost me C$50. In Canada, C$50 will buy me about 2 and a half DVDs.
I got a lot of good stuff too, some I've watched, some I haven't. I got some Chinese films, some Hong Kong films, some Japanese films, a few foreign films from Europe, and some American film.

They include The Son's Room (Italy), July Rhapsody (Hong Kong), Frida (Mexico), Heroes In Love (Hong Kong), No Man's Land (Bosnia), Bullets Over Summer (Hong Kong), Yi Yi (China), Fat Girl (France), Red Beard (Japan), You Can Count On Me (U.S.), and Together (China).

I seriously did not know my selection was so internationally eclectic until now.

Then I took a minibus home. I'm starting to get used to shouting out where I want to stop and having the bus stop exactly where I want it.

It was hot and humid here as usual.

Oh, and I also wanted to mention that there is a general election in Hong Kong next weekend. This will be a historic election for the Hong Kong people. Unlike politics in most places, there are many different parties here vying for power, although people seem to trust the Democratic Party the most to enhance the democracy in Hong Kong. The election results will be a signal of intent by the Hong Kong people to Beijing, so many people hope that pro-democracy candidates will prevail.

However, even if the people of Hong Kong vote entirely for pro-democracy candidates, these candidates still only make up half the seats of the Legislative Council. The other half is voted for by "Functional Constituencies", a leftover from the old British system whereby only business, financial, and monied elites vote for these candidates, who represent various sectors of the economy.

As I had concluded from a globalization sociology class last year, big businesses are neither pro-democracy or anti-democracy -- they will support whatever is best for making a profit. So it is not a guarantee that the further democratization of Hong Kong will occur even if the people vote for all pro-democracy candidates.

And plus, I think the CEO of Hong Kong was appointed by mainland China.

The politics here is fresh to me, so I might have some facts mixed up. It's like learning about government from scratch in grade two.

Adios for now.

D

I actually shoudlnt' have written this because I need to sleep...

2004-09-05T23:09:00.000+08:00

Quick update for now...

I'm not even sure how much time has passed since I last wrote.

I think on Saturday, another cousin came to visit me in my residence during the afternoon after she finished work. She took classes here at the HKU for a year, so she helped me out a bit with registration. Then we walked around the area and she introduced me to a few places, but it was much too hot and humid to stay outside for long.

So then we took an (air-conditioned) bus to the other side of the harbour, and she showed me around an area called Mong Kok, which is a bustling district with shopping on every corner and nook and cranny. She showed me a few somewhat downtrodden places where I can get really cheap DVDs and VCDs, whether for real or fake. There was also lots of porn everywhere.

Then she showed me a road called "Ladies' Street" where gals AND guys can get really cheap clothing and assorted knicks knacks and daily essentials.

It's a necessity to bargain when purchasing from street stalls, unless you have a penchant for getting ripped off. I'm not really used to barganing. It just feels cheap and fussy to me.

And speaking of being ripped off, my dad called me and told me that my landlord back in Edmonton had taken C$70 bucks off my damange deposit for "carpet". That's total bullshit because I had signed a damange inspection report with the landlord right before I moved out saying that everything was in good order, or at least no worse than how things looked when I moved in.

I'm not going to bother fighting it because I'm much too far away and I have far better things to do, but still, a total rip off. I would be royally pissed off if I was still in Edmonton, but I'm trying to contain myself here.

Anyways, back to Mong Kok, my cousin then showed me an entire area consisting entirely of running shoe stores.

Then we went into a restaurant for lunch. The food is so good here. I decided to pay for us both since I feel like I'm taking all of the time from my family and now I'll rather give back.

Then we walked around the area some more, ate more very very good food at street stalls (MMM!), and bought more cheap movies. The crazy thing is that none of the movie stores we went into stocked their product alphabetically. It's a big nuisance, especailly for somebody like me who has specific tastes in movies, namely drama or science fiction, although I'll watch anything really.

Then we took the train to her place because it was getting late and we didn't want to get stuck in traffic. My aunt cooked supper for us. Did I say Hong Kong food is so so good and satisfying?

At least to my Chinese tastes.

Then we hung out and talked, and then I took the bus to Central and walked around Lam Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's most famous bar and pub district, which is mostly a watering-hole for expats. Lots of over-dressed people. Seemed like anywhere but Hong Kong to me. It would be a cool (and expensive) place to hang out one of these weekends. As I was doing that, I got the phone call I was waiting for. Cheung Cheung and the exchange students gang were eating dinner across the harbour in the Ma Tei district, so I took the MTR over to join them, which is faster than bus.

When I met up with the rest of them, Cheung Cheung took all of us to an all-you-can drink place on Temple Street, which is in an (another) busy district further south called Jordan. We sat around, drank (what else?), and talked. I get drunk and turn beet red way too fast.

Took a minibus home.

Got back really really late.

Because I'm crazy, I decided it was a great time to start choosing my courses, because I should have gotten that done a week ago.

Then even later in the night, I took a shower, and then finally went to bed.

Woke up this morning rather tired.

Today, I stayed in, kinda bored, lonely, and depressed.

But I did finish choosing all my courses (finally!)

I will be taking the following courses this semester:
- Chinese Identities and Global Networks
- A History of Social Theory
- Colonialism/Postcolonialism
- Literary and Cultural Theory
- Film Music
- Architecture and the Creative Industries

It should be fun. As I think I've said before, I can't wait to start classes again.

In the meantime, I'm also pursuing a single room to live in. My roommate is great and nice and all, but I'm still used to more privacy. And who wouldn't rather have a single room?

But really, today I was in this funk and it really sucked.

Anyways, I have to wake up really early tomorrow because I'm going on a Hong Kong Island tour with a bunch of other exchange students.

And if anybody from back home, or anybody else, would like to come and visit me here in Hong Kong, it would be totally great. It would be so much fun. There are so many things to do and I can show you around. I'm really excited about this city and I really like it here (many of the other exchange students have the same opinion of the place, for the sake of second opinions).

I realized today that I have hardly spoken to a single person who can speak fluent English since I got to Hong Kong. Many of the other exchange students I have contact with are from Europe, and they normally speak French, or Dutch, or German, or something. When they speak to me, their English isn't bad, but it's basic communication, and that can only go so far before conversation becomes more of a struggle, although it still works.

When I must/should use Cantonese, it's hard to communicate what I want sometimes with my limited vocabulary, and in addition to thinking about what I want to say, I also have to think about how to say it, which is a big mental drag.

Alrighty, time to go. Good night!!! And don't worry my friends, I'm in the process of catching up with everybody's diaries. Patience is a virtue, they say.

D

(P.S. Oh, I also need to mention that I found a lot of club and bar listings in my Hong Kong Lonely Planet guide tonight, and I'm so excited about checking them out. There are also many gay and lesbian bars in Central and Wan Chai, so I'll definitely be heading over to those places too, alone if I must, because, you know, the music is so much better at those places, in my opinion!)

More something

2004-09-04T01:36:00.000+08:00

Another day, another night, and another short entry will have to do.

Tomorrow is my catching up on sleep day.

Last night I came home late. Today, there was an induction ceremony for exchange students in the morning. Hence, the sleep deprivation.

The exchange students were divided into various geographical regions during the induction ceremony. The Canadian contingent was huge. It's no secret that a large number of Hong Kong people immigrated to Canada in the 1990s -- more than to any other country, I believe. Most of the Chinese culture and food that Canadians know about is really the Hong Kong/Cantonese version. There are some strong connections between Canada and Hong Kong. In fact, one of the scholarships I won was sponsored by University of Alberta alumni who now reside in Hong Kong. There's also going to be some huge reception for University of Alberta executive and University of Hong Kong executive later this year in Hong Kong that I will have to attend because I won that scholarship. Who wants to be my date?

Later on in the day, there were various other sessions and speeches. I met a lot of people from different halls -- mostly other Canadian exchange students. There are a lot of people from the University of Toronto. There were a few from UBC. One from the University of Victoria. Three from the University of Alberta, including myself. I think there were a few other ones, from Western, York, etc.

I got a lot of telephone numbers.

I learned about life in the other halls.

Then, later in the afternoon, I took a minibus down to Admiralty and then hopped on the MTR to Causeway Bay, where I met up with a cousin of mine who showed me around the district. She also showed me places to get cheap DVDs and VCDs. They are so cheap in Hong Kong. In Canada, it costs me approximately C$20 for a DVD. In Hong Kong, it costs me the equivalent of C$10, or C$3.25 for the VCD version, both of which I can play on my computer. No wonder Hong Kong people watch so many movies. It costs me about as much to rent a movie in Canada than to buy one here. It might be why Hong Kong has the third largest film industry in the world, behind the heavyweights of Hollywood (in terms of audience) and India (in terms of numbers of movies produced a year).

By the way, the DVDs and VCD's here are almost all real. The counterfeit media industry has been largely stamped out, according to many of the locals I've spoken with.

Fuck, I'm full of all this useless trivia.

I bought Back 2 The Future and No Man's Land. I'll definitely be returning in the near future to stock up on many more.

Then another cousin got off work and joined us and the three of us went for really good pizza. I have a good time with them.

Then I took a minibus home.

I love the minibuses. They are the scariest but fastest mode of public transport I've ever been on.

I listened to country music on the way back home. Anybody know What About Now? by Lonestar? I love that song.

It's almost magical that I'm gradually learning my way around the city, and learning what the locals know. Hong Kong is such a great place.

There were a few other things I wanted to say, but it's late and I don't really remember. That's my usual excuse -- it's late and I don't really remember -- but when I use it, it's true a lot of the time.

Time to catch some zzzz's.

D

Down with the moral majority

2004-09-04T01:33:00.000+08:00

Sanitation, expiration date, question everything / Or shut up and be a victim of authority / Warning: live without warning.

-- Warning, Green Day

it's a lifetime guarantee / stuffed in a coffin 10% more free / red light special at the mausoleum / Give me something that I need / Satisfaction guaranteed / Because I'm thinking about a brand new hope / the one I've never known cause now I know it's all that I wanted

-- Macy's Day Parade, Green Day

So, Green Day has a new album coming out soon. Their last album, Warning, was one of my favourite rock albums ever, definitely in the top 25. I thought it was the best, the funnest, and the most mature album they ever released, all in one. Can't wait to hear their new album, American Idiot.

D

All is impermanent

2004-09-03T02:56:00.000+08:00

It's super duper later right now and I have to wake up in about 4 hours, so this will be a very short update, to be followed by a longer update in the future, possibly.

I had a very good day. The best day yet.

Well, I went to the main campus this afternoon for an inauguration ceremony for new students. I was reminded of the fact that it was the third university inauguration ceremony I've attended -- first Carleton, then the University of Alberta, and now the University of Hong Kong.

Then I attended a "tea gathering" for new students to the Faculty of Social Sciences. I can't wait until school gets starts again. I love learning. It just puts me in an entirely different mindframe. It makes me humble because it jolts me into realizing I know so little, and it's exciting because I get to understand a little bit more, and it's invigorating because I get to interact with other people intellectually and debate, which isn't something people like to do in their free time anymore, ever since the ancient Greeks or the ancient Chinese died off, at least.

Then, later in the afternoon, I went over to Tsim Sha Tsui and Harbour City with Stephen to buy some formal clothing for myself. The clothes here are so much cheaper than in Canada, and there is no sales tax. Furthermore, the clothes here actually fit me. The clothes here are tailored to fit Asian sizes, which tend to be smaller than the sizes for Caucasians. Back home in Canada, the clothes I buy are often too long for me, either pants or shirts.

Then I got home and I had to quickly prepare to go to High Table Dinner, which is a compulsory formal dinner occasion for all the residents of the hall (although this one was optional for exchange students.) It was why I had to go out to buy nice clothing earlier in the day. The exchange students met on the third floor before we left for the dinner, and I got to meet a lot of people.

Very cool.

There are a lot of students from mainland China in this hall. Their English is very good and they're very nice, assured, confident, stylish, and outgoing people -- just to break any stereotypes anybody may possibly have of the mainland Chinese. The Western media's coverage of China is so poor.

I just think it's unfortunate that so many talented people in China have chosen to take their skills overseas. Personally, I think China is the place to be in the future, and it's an exciting place politically and economically because it's still maturing, and people with power, talent, and vision have the opportunity to shape a quickly changing society of 1.4 billion people.

Then, dinner was interesting. The food was okay. Many of the exchange students in Europe found a lot of the food to be very exotic, which was interesting to me because I'm not conscious of how accustomed I am to Chinese food and Chinese customs during dinnertime.

It was interesting to realize how much I know culturally, that I did not even know I know. I think it's what sociologist Bourdieu called "habitus."

Then, there was a High Table discussion of some sort.

And then, a whole bunch of us exchange students and a very cool "tutor" from the 15th floor went out to a pub in Central. I had a very good time. There were two girls and two guys from France, two guys from Austria, the tutor who's a local from Hong Kong, and myself, from Canada. We just sat around, talked, drank various intoxicating substances, and I got very red in the eyes and face.

Then we came home.

And now I'm writing this.

And soon I'll be taking a shower and heading to bed.

Good night y'all!

D

Something...

2004-09-02T00:32:00.000+08:00

Today, I tried to register for my courses. I didn't understand the system here so I called the Faculty of Social Sciences Office, except nobody was able to answer my questions adequately in English. As a result, I'm still not registered.

Luckily, I have a cousin who went to HKU for a year and she's going to come here to help me out on Saturday.

Later in the afternoon, I went to family's place for dinner, and just to look around. I love how right outside my hall there always seems to be a minibus cruising by, just waiting for you to wave it down and take you where you want to go. Back in Edmonton, I'm used to waiting half an hour for a bus.

The mass transit system in Hong Kong is so efficient it blows my mind.
I ended up in Kwun Tong, which is a more "normal" part of the city, meaning bustling and full of people. It's where I would have preferred my residence to be because at least there will be things to do. As it stands, it takes a long time for me get home from most places, and the buses to my place stop running just after midnight.

That means lots of lots spent on taxi fare in the next year.

Speaking of which, I haven't gone out clubbing for a long time. I just want to dance. Damn I miss that. I need to round up some people. Hong Kong locals are more into karaoke though, and just walking around and eating snack food from street stalls at night. That's not bad. I'm just accustomed to the liberation and purity found in dancing my ass off.

My friend Heidi in Ottawa sent me pictures of a huge techno festival she went to in Germany. My god I was jealous. It looked like SO MUCH FUN. Dancing all night and sleeping during the day... sounds like heaven to me.

My mom is still in Hong Kong. My family tears me apart, in good and bad ways. My relationship with my parents hasn't always been pleasant, but in the end, they have helped me so much and they do so much that I am very very thankful. I'm also grateful that I have so much extended family here. They've also helped me so much and have been so kind even though I haven't seen them in almost a decade. I'll have to take them all out to dinner soon -- that'll be about 40 of them! I get and take and receive, and I just want them to know that I am definitely very grateful.

I'm definitely not an idealist when it comes to the concept of family, but they've helped me a lot without asking for anything in return, and I'm thankful.

Blah. It's late. I get emotional. Time to sleep.

D

Around the City

2004-08-31T21:44:00.000+08:00

Today was definitely better. I got up really late. Used the public bathroom facilities. 20 people share two toilets and two showers.

Then I made contact with Stephen, who's also an exchange student at HKU from the U of A. As I was waiting for him, I ran into a French exchange student who I had spoken with before whose name is Olga. Her name sounds much better when pronounced in French, although I can't seem to say it right in French, so I stick with saying her name in English, which sounds just as it is spelt. She's a cheerful person. I also ran into a German exchange student who I talked with briefly. He had a really long name that I can't remember. He seemed disoriented.

I think all the exchange students should get together to do things. But the way things are arranged, they split up all the exchange students into separate rooms on separate floors, so we're left to our own devices in order to get acquainted with people and accustomed to the environment. It seems like that I'm not the only one feeling a little lost and alone. This is probably even more acutely so in my hall and the two other ones beside it because they're so isolated from the main campus and there aren't a lot of things to do or see in this part of the city. It's stranglely people-less here for Hong Kong.

Before I could talk to Olga or the German exchange student long, Stephen arrived downstairs and we took the first minibus we saw to Central, and then hopped on the MTR to Causeway Bay where we met Lyndsey and Carol, who are also exchange students in Hong Kong from Edmonton. Lyndsey is also going to HKU and Carol is going to Polytechnic University. This other exchange student who also goes to Polytechnic was also there. I think her name was Jane, or something-Jane, and she's from London, Britain. She was a nice gal. We walked around the place, bought some supplies, battled through the crowds, and then we all went over to Polytechnic and got a tour of the place. The residence there is SO NICE. It's almost like a hotel. And there is LOTS of security. For us guests to get in, we had to show a piece of ID which was recorded, sign in with a resident, pick up a digitalized guest card, have the digitalized guest card registered with a resident card on a separate machine, and then go through infrared turnstiles that are flanked by guards with our guest cards, accompanied by an actual resident. This is compared to a relative lack of security at the hall where I live -- merely a door that needs to be opened with a resident card and a receptionist. There are no guards, and no video cameras (that I can see, except in the lifts).

The rooms and bathrooms at the Polytechnic University residence are glamorous compared to the hall I live in. 2 rooms share one bathroom, which was the arrangement I had at Carleton University, and one that I prefer. The place was new. The furniture was nice. Each room has its own fridge. The common areas were luxury. There were dozens of leather couches and giant flat-screen plasma televisions, and smaller but also very nice televisions. There was a wall of windows to one side. There were also no signs of cult-ish behaviour, which can't be said for the halls here at HKU. There is orientation camp happening right now, which exchange students cannot attend, but I don't know if I want to anyways since they're freaky and weird. Like, they all dress the same. And they all stood in the rain one morning. And they scream loud things at 2 in the morning outside, and then again at 8 in the morning, and they apparently do freaky initiation-esque things. It seems daunting. I don't think I would understand.

I feel so exposed and public, and a bit insecure in this resident hall at the moment.

After the tour of Polytechnic, we took the Ferry back to the island, then took a minibus back to the hall. There's nothing nearby here except for luxury apartments, so we ended up eating dinner at the cafeteria in the hospital near our hall. It was strange venturing into a hospital for dinner.

So that was a day. I didn't get the things I wanted to get done today, namely choose and register for my courses, and find a gym near where I live, but I did have fun, explored bits of the city, and now I'm exhausted.

There are so many places I want to explore in Hong Kong. I'm so excited to go out and see and discover things. It's going to be an exciting 10 months, as crappy as my living arrangements seem.

I heard from Stephen, who heard from somebody else, that the exchange students tend to be segregated from the "locals" in the halls. That's just the way it works out every year, generally. So now I don't feel as awkward. I think they should have made an "exchange" floor. It would have been a real party. Right now, I don't think any of the exchange students feel very welcome or comfortable here.

At the moment, the floor is pretty much empty again. It would be nice to have some friends around.

I don't have to feel lonely though. That's just a mentality. I just have to find a way to get in touch with all the other exchange students spread out all over these buildings. Hmm...

I love emails. No, I really honestly do.

2004-08-31T01:06:00.000+08:00

My gmail inbox is so full!!!

(Read: expect slow responses unless you make lots of money, or unless you're offering nude pics :-))

D

"Home"sick

2004-08-31T01:02:00.000+08:00

It's strange that I said I feel homesick, because now that I think about it, I'm not sure where or what "home" is. Really. If I ever do get back to Edmonton, I won't even have so much as a place to stay (except temporarily, mayhaps with parents or friends.)

I'm a lost little man, let down and hanging around, crushed like a bug on the ground.

Guess the lyric!

Oh, and now that I have a CD-burner (shut up, I'm catching up with the times faster than you know!), who wants to trade mix CD-Rs? In addition, if you want a postcard, send me your address, even if I should know it already, because I'm like that.

Music rocks.

D

I'm here!

2004-08-30T14:01:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Hong Kong!

I am here, thousands of kilometres from where I used to write. I'm sitting in
my dorm room right now, which is rather small and lonely at the moment. It's
very, creepily quiet on the floor right now. I got home from dinner not too long
ago and it seems like everybody has disappeared to some place. I've only stayed
here for two nights, tonight being the third. I wonder how long it will take for
me to get used to it.

Every night so far, including tonight, I've felt lonely, and strangely,
homesick. I've never felt homesick before, or at least not that I can remember.
When I studied in Ottawa, I didn't feel homesick very much. It might be the different culture, and the completely new environment that I'm living
in. I can converse in basic Cantonese, but once people start having discussions
about "real" topics, then I get lost in the technical terms and
details. It's also tiring for me to use Cantonese all the time. It's like
thinking in an entirely new way. It's simply emotionally and mentally draining.

I also have a roommate -- quite literally a "room"-mate. His bed in
a few feet away from mine, and his desk is parked right next to mine with not so
much as a gap in between. Having been around people almost continuously in the
past month, I can safely conclude that I'm more introspective than most and I
really, definitely, without a doubt need alone time. I treasure my alone time,
and I'll probably treasure it the more while I'm here because it will be a real
rarity.

So yes, I'm feeling homesick, lonely, sad, melancholy, or some form of one or
all of the above. I want to be around friends. I wish I could explore the city
with somebody familiar.

Alright, enough of the whining. I need to "get out" of my head --
you are what you think you know (a play on Descartes, perhaps?)

The "lost and lonely in the big city" syndrome aside, I really
really like Hong Kong. It is a fascinating city. I have a vague mental map of
all the places I want to explore. I live on the west side of Hong Kong Island.
My dorm window overlooks the South China Sea. It's certainly nice, no doubt
about it. The roads on this part of the island are crazy. They're narrow.
They're twisty. They're very steep. They're generally old. They're lined on both
sides by towering buildings so that you can barely make out some sky. The rest
of the city is packed too, but not this packed. However, I think the city really
opens up further away from the downtown district. Hong Kong is famous for it's
cityscape, but there is also some spectacular natural scenery in the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region, not far from the city proper. I saw an awesome
rocky beach on Lantau Island that looked desolate for the most part, and there
are some nice sandy beaches elsewhere, including the south of Hong Kong Island.
North of the city, in the New Territories, I've heard that there are more parks
with spectacular scenery and even places to watch wildlife. But Hong Kong is
basically built on a mountain, so there's more or less a view from any part of
the city. It's quite different from good ol' Edmonton. Ahhh... that city seems
so... rural, in comparison.

I highly recommend a visit here by anybody. If you come when I'm around, I'll
take you around. If I ever do get lonely during the day, there is a list of
things to do here that is so long I probably won't see the end of it by the time
I leave in June of next year. I also have a lot of relatives here, including
some pretty cool cousins, so I can keep in touch with them too. They can take me
around when they're not working. Hong Kong people work a lot. Sometimes, I
forget that I have a huge extended family because they all live in Hong Kong
while I live in Canada. It's nice to having them around though, I must say, even
if it's hard for me to communicate in Cantonese.

There's so much more to write! I can go on for pages and pages. I still have
to post the pictures of my trip to China. I think I'll explicate everything
through the pictures I post -- a visual diary if you will. China is a totally,
utterly fascinating place. If you're into a unique social and political
experience for a vacation as well as a lot of fun, go to China. The Great Wall,
for example, is probably the most amazing place I've ever been to in my life. It
is breathtaking. It's not just a wall, which was what I thought it was going to
be. It's a GREAT wall. It's a SUPER DUPER wall. It's ancient. You feel like
you're walking on history (which you are). It is steep. It is awe-inspring. It's
LONG, obviously. It's also built on the top of a mountain range though, which is
probably the most amazing thing of all. It literally snakes along on top of a
mountain, making climbs so steep you need both arms and legs to climb up. It is exhausting
to climb in many parts. And when I went, it was also friggin hot. The view from
the high points is amazing though. I took a lot of pictures from the
Great Wall. They're probably the best pictures I took from my entire trip.

Of course, China isn't just about a wall, although it is symbolic of a lot of
its long and rich history. I saw more temples than I ever wanted to see in a
lifetime. I saw the Forbidden Palace -- another amazing place. That thing is
HUGE. I also went the Hangzhou and Suzhou. Suzhou is such a beautiful place. I
really love it there. There are also a lot of good-looking people there, but I
don't know if I am objective since everybody told me that the city has a
reputation for good-looking, laid-back, easy-going people before I even got to
the place. And Shanghai. Do not expect Hong Kong, because it is not. You would
be disappointed if you expect Hong Kong (kinda like myself initially.) Yes, it
is hyper-modern. But it's also hyper-old. And hyper-European. And hyper-Chinese.
And hyper-Soviet era. And hyper-capitalist. And hyper-urban. It's just hyper.
The city probably has a couple of decades to go before it catches up to Hong
Kong in terms of infrastructure and "world-class" status, but when it
comes of age, it's going to be one of the great cities in the world. It already
is a great city.

China is a changing place. You don't need to be there at asynchronous times
to realize that. You can see it as you drive from one city to the next, as the
landscape shifts from urban to "suburban" (which is basically still
urban), and then "rural" (which is also basically still urban, for the
most part, if you define urbanity but a whole bunch of people in one place
because there are people everywhere.)

They're also crazy about the Olympics there. They're quite pride of their
team. Modern nationalism may be the glue that can hold the country together
unlike nothing else in the past. The Chinese are striving for first place in
medals at Beijing 2008. I'm seriously considering visiting Beijing during the
Olympics. Anybody want to come with?

As an ethnically Chinese person, I think it's great that China is rejoining
the world, and at a breathtaking pace at that. Right now, it's mostly following
the Western world, in terms of values and the economic system and whatnot. But I
want to see a Chinese society that will lead the world in terms of government,
values, economy, and so on. The revolution is happening right now, but it is
anybody's guess what may happen in the future. However, a good (or maybe bad)
thing is that the Chinese aren't tied to the past very much. Most of the signs
of the past have been razed by the Communist party. The future and progress in
their motto. Religion is unique in China when compared to the rest of the world
in that it is relatively non-existant, having waned in influence with the rise
of Communism, and further weakened during the Cultural Revolution. At least in
the cities, I think the new religion is money. Boy, they sure know how to make a
buck there.

There is nothing like the free market to unleash the productive potential of
(a) people, at least at first. But isn't there more to life than that?

Whoa. Look at the time! As I said, I can go on and on and on. I have a dearth
of people in my life right now who are willing to listen to me ramble about my
interpretations of the world, so it all comes out here. When I have the time, I
will share my pictures and write more entries, but I will probably be busy in
the next week preparing for school and for orientation for exchange students.

Well, talk to you all again very very soon. And to everybody back home, I
miss you! I really do miss you. And to anybody who wants, I would love to chat
on msn with somebody. Or email. Although I like getting emails more than I like
sending them, so you might never hear back from me. Just kidding, sorta ;-)

I'm going to go now. Walk around the floor maybe. I don't know where anybody
is. I feel kinda lost here.

2004-07-04T16:33:00.000+08:00

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes" -- Marcel Proust

testing

2004-06-20T05:09:00.000+08:00

testing again testing again testing again testing again testing again testing again

2004-05-30T12:35:00.000+08:00

Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing. Hi, second testing.