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Came across this news article that will give more access to Chinese students with bachelor's degree to apply for master or phd studies in Ireland.
Wow, smart cards are being faked, I wonder how many do get through though. The article mentions 2 people trying to use the fake cards getting into HK. Another thing though, would there be problems with genuine cards being mis-read? I wonder if there were any complaints from people about them?
What do you think? Discuss at IBC Forum.
This article which I stumbled upon mentions the fines and sentances given to people who disturb the peace, or false identities, eavesdropping etc..
China has stipulated, for the first time, penalties for disorderly conduct such as making noise, sending explicit text messages, and eavesdropping.
I suppose tourists might need to be told about the being noisy in public part. *lol
So I came across this site on an ABC ranting about the pressures of study by Asian parents, so it's the same everywhere. So all those who are doing exams this year (and that includes my cous, Kev), no need to worry. You do your best. At the end of the day, it's for yourself, not for your parents.
I totally forgot about this! Sinead got in contact with me via the IBC forum and I manage to get in contact with her on time. I was unable to get the issue 10 of Capital magazine... I got the next issue. But Sinead is nice enough to post up the article at her site (Thanks, Sinead!).
Here it is : Chinese New Year and the Irish Community
As I mentioned in my previous entry that I will upload pics of the CNY's eve dinner at home. Here they are : CNY Eve 2006 dinner.
From the Beeb online:
French for example is declining as an international language, but Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic are all languages of the future.
Which is good, but I think English will still be the primary language. I only wished that back then I had an opportunity to take Chinese for my leaving.
Just to let you know, the sidebar on the right was getting a little too long from all the links to the monthly archives since 2002! So I have moved them http://kaykays.com/archive_page.html for your perusal. Nothing exciting, but at least it relieves the clutter a bit for now while I try and contemplate on redesign of site that has been put on the longest finger ever! 
You can also find the link the archives page under Personal Links on the sidebar.
I read this article, 'China in their hands, world at their beck and call' in the Indo the other day. More and more Chinese women are in China now earn more money and have more choices. Materialism is on the up and up.
In 21st-century China, expectations of women - and the expectations they have of themselves - have become so complicated that it would be hardly surprising to see a woman steelworker step out of a Maoist propaganda poster clutching a Chanel handbag in one hand and cradling a baby on her other arm.
As I chatted with a friend of mine the other night, some acquintaces of his were trying to set him up with a Chinese girl. But he was a bit turned off after being warned that she is has expensive tastes when it comes to shopping. He can't quite understand why? What is so important about these rip-off items that Chinese women fall head-over-heels over? But it's fundamentally there, every women secretly wants to be lavished on. And none more so than the Asian women.
Before China became as wealthy as they are now (at a phenomonal rate), it was predominantly Chinese women from the wealthy countries like Hong Kong (before crash in 97), Singapore and Japan (they still spend even though the economy has been in great depression). You can see it, in the last decade, it was just HK, Singaporeans and Japanese tour groups. Now it's dominated by Chinese tourists from Mainland China. It's incredible. All the expensive (high street) stores don't care, money (more so cash) are rolling in for them.
For me, I don't really care for Gucci, LV, Dior etc., but for many, it's new found status symbol. Materialism has spread like wildfire in China (to those who can afford it). Then there are those who love the labels, but do not like paying for its high price, and get rather cheaper knockoffs in China on their holidays. Yes, tourists love it there for that. As for me, I don't really care about that either.
UPDATE
I restate how materialistic Asian women are, see this entry in bigwhiteguy's blog about this HK women who bought a 123 number plate cos it was 'cute and memorable'! OMG, that is just crazy... because it cost her HK$1.5 million (EUR160K)!
Wow, what crap weather today. Why are Tuesday's so crappy? Is it just Irish roads that gets jammed up with the slightest hint of rain? Well, it could be worse, my friend Kieran tasted the cold winter in Beijing when he took a trip down to Tianamen Sq.. But another friend of mine Derek is at the ice festival up north, a bit nippy at a cosy -20 degrees celcius.
This is my friend Derek at Harbin. Amazing sculptures! (More of his pics at http://flickr.com/photos/derekindalian/)
I suppose the guys are having so much fun, they probably haven't heard much of the HN51 in Asia. Worrying enough, recent news mentioned that there could be an endemic in HK!
With all the madness of the run up to the Chinese New Year with prices of chicken going as high as HK$200, normal price is HK$20-40. It's no wonder many folks were trying to get as many poultry into the territory. My uncle ended working New Year's just because of the over-ordering of poultry, and had to be sent back (since HK don't allow imported poultry to stay in HK). But on a lighter note, the lantern festival is still happening in HK.
The Radiant Romance lantern show will light up Kowloon Park January 20 to February 26 to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
An interesting article I found about threats to traditional Chinese celebrations?. Many taboos for Chinese New Year are already lost for all us bananas (heh), I mean overseas Chinese. But this is still true back in the Far East. Younger generations just go an enjoy themselves, with so much influences of the west. It's a shame really. Face was mentioned in the article, I really hate the way face is important in Chinese society. It's snobbiness, but it's all part and parcel of being Chinese. Not very auspicious attitude, right? But everyone enjoys these traditional celebrations. In fact many overseas Chinese embrace it (even if we don't keep with all the aspects). It's great to be celebrating with family, visiting relatives. Something to be happy about. Ok, red packets are on the minds of kids, but curiousity of many young people are aintrigued on where this all come from. With the Chinese Channel on satellite nowadays, many can see what is happening back in the Far East. Everyone gathers together to watch tv like they do in HK as well. It brings us all closer. So I agree with the article that just becuase traditions are changed slightly, does not mean that the traditional celebrations will be lost.
But being the Year of the Dog, according to the lunar calendar... we have 13 months! 
From Asian-pacific news :
The lunar year begins Jan. 29 and lasts 385 days, till Feb. 17, 2007. It includes an extra month between the seventh and eighth months, and two 'lichun' days -- which mark the beginning of spring -- on Feb. 4 of 2006 and 2007.
Now that is long! And I can still get married in the year of dog. 
(Views you want to comment on? Go to Irish Born Chinese forum.)
I have mentioned this in in previous blogs, from 1st Irish pub in HK to ban it to HK campaigning to ban smoking since 2001 to local 'entertainment' industries protesting about the impending doom of smoking ban.
So when I saw the latest article about HK being smoke-free by 2009, it just makes my day (although it would be nice if it was brought in sooner).
Just readin the Indo (need registration to read - free) that more than 200 non-Irish recruits passed the aptitude test to join the Garda. And half of them were Chinese!
I was doing a search on more news about this and came across this, it's about Gardaí learning Mandarin. Some of the comments are a bit nasty on the end though. It's an ideal world when immigrants knows the English language, but when as more folks come here, the community gets bigger, they will just keep to themselves, and some might not speak English at all even though they have lived here for a long time.
The search also brought a Garda doc to my attention. Very interesting on how they should approach multi-ethnic people.
In my previous entry I mentioned Lam Tsuen's Da Jiu (Peace) festival to give thanks for the safety of the region that was part of the devastating typhoon decades ago. Tai Po's Da Jiu festival does not happen yearly, it's a few decades (not sure how many) between each one, so it is a very big event. Not everyone can go twice is what mom and dad said. Now that's a long time for a big festival.
I got curious then about the typhoon disaster. I remember my dad mentioning many typhoon disaster, and I am wondering was the one in 1937 was the one he talks about (he was not born then). I found this article though when I searched for more information. But the search results did not harbour anymore results.
Well, not really, more cuteness. I was going through some of bigwhiteguy's piccie entries, and found some delightful ones taken recently...
Well, this one's dog-related and his Happy new year pic.
I like this one of the firecracker aftermath he calls firecracker foliage. Fantastic. I have not seen that amount of red exploded firecrackers since my trip to HK to attend Da Jiu Festival in Lam Tsuen (The festival to celebrate peace, as Tai Po and each of the villiages suffered terrible tragedies from typhoons decades ago. They don't happen very often, really depends on the town or villages). Heh, just checked the pics... found my Uncle in the procession... 3rd guy in red from the front.
