What is otaku-hunting? Well, according to this article, it's targetting and robbing young otakus (obsessed fan of animé, manga and videogames). Young as in, they still attend school. Some of these robbers have been arrested. And the reason why they rob young otakus?

"Otaku are weak and they've got money, so we went after them," one of the arrested youths told the police.

I know you have to be wary in cities, but I am looking forward to Akihabara, and stories like this do not put my mind at ease.

Danger, danger!!! If you use skin whitening treatment, be aware! Those creams are not as harmless as you think they are. If you don't know what skin whitening is, it's just what you think it is, a product to whiten your skin. Why would any sane person do this? It's the same reason why all western people love that nice brown tan whenever the sun cares to peep through in summer.
Skin whitening in the Far East means that the person (normally female) is delicate and fair. I think the tanned skin comes from back in the farming days, when women worked long hours in the sun in the fields as apposed to rich women. So it's a sign of wealth and beauty. Yes, shallow, isn't it?

Anyway, the reason why I mentioned DANGER here is when I came across this article: Experts warn of skin whitening cosmetics. China fakes many products, which includes, baby food, soy sauce, eggs, cosmetics, medicine etc etc. In this article it cites that

In Hong Kong, there are no strict rules for product labelling and you can buy cream that says it is mercury-free, but when we examine it, it is full of mercury," said Christopher Lam, a professor of chemical pathology at the Chinese University.

Now that is scary thought. And here is another quote that will scare you as well:

"When we did an x-ray of the offending cream, it didn't allow the x-ray to go through. It was radio-opaque," said pathologist Michael Chan at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

What Asian women do for beauty. When will the regulators bring in proper laws to stop this type of abuse, not just for cosmetics, but for anything that can be faked and could cause danger to humans themselves. Especially the innocent ones.

More info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_whitening

"Aii-yaah!!", you might hear that every so often from an Asian person. It's equivalent to "Jaysus!" or "Feck!" or "Darn!"... you get my drift. The shorter "Ai-yah!" tends to be uttered when you, say, stub your toe, or drop something on the floor. It's like a little exclamation.

I am commenting generally from Cantonese-speaking point of view. I find Cantonese language can be vulgar, like any other language, I suppose. You would have the equivalent of the F-word before, during and after a sentance, followed by more mumbling. It's sort of like Bus Uncle.

The phrase I grew up with is "Yau mo gau chaw!" i.e. "WTF!" or "Oh no!".

It can be quite colourful if you wanted it to be. But the Chinese language can be vicious, that even words can hurt. So much for sticks and stones...

As you may have noticed that I made a little change in the colour scheme of the site. Removed the recent entries from the sidebar, less clutter. Plus a new banner. Updated the scheme throughout the archives (categories and monthly) and individual entries. I hope I did not miss anything out.

It's a slight change, 'cause I don't have time to do a full site re-design.

You know, one thing I always wanted to do right and look cool doing was spinning a pen. I always see my best friend (who is from HK) do it. It looks so cool. I can just grasp the basic, but the pen drops more than I spin it. At least I learnt it the proper way. It's more of an Asian thing, they sit in school, bored listening to the teacher, they just twirl their pens, and even while reading or thinking. I don't know why, but maybe it helps them to think about things, calm their nerves?

So what brought this on...? Well, apart from memories of being in school twirling the pen, I came across this crazy vid on Japanese pen twirlers:

Oh, if you want to find out how to do basic twirling, check out the following vid to start you off...

Comments welcome at the IBC forum.

Sarah Yeh (Editor of DimSum) asked me to submit an article on why I created this site, and my experiences maintaining it and with the community (yes, you guys )

My leadin:

An Irish born Chinese girl with an Irish born Chinese site, and a goal to unite with other second generation Chinese in Ireland. Vicky Lee recounts her experiences in being a webmistress, the Irish Chinese community and her reasons for starting her site.

You can read the rest of the article at Dim Sum - Irish Born Chinese.

The Chingrish in found in BoingBoing was pretty shocking and from that post, it shows what happens if one is not careful in translating from one language to another.

In Hong Kong, they are marrying each other in any ol' place, like a shopping mall! My, my, how.. um.. how shall I put it, how unromantic, tacky, though original, is not really special. It's a marriage between two people, how come it's always Hong Kongers making it so not special. Getting married in Disneyland HK, photographed months before you get married, it's all so surreal. It's not even traditional culture, that is always kept the same... but the western-style marriages are just a fad. Or maybe too many are influenced by soppy romantic movies from Hollywood.

You read right... no frills flight to Hong Kong.

bq.Newcomer Oasis Hong Kong Airlines on Thursday launched the first no-frills long-haul flight from London to Hong Kong for just 75 ($220), excluding taxes.

At least you still get food. Hmm, it can't be worse than BA? *bleurgh

Chinese is hard? Never (in sarcastic tone).

Mick pinged me about this article on why Chinese is hard for a native English speaker to learn to Chinese. It's not just speaking it, we all know that is a sinch for native English speakers, the writer incompasses reading and writing! The article was an enjoyable read of how he grapples with Chinese after so many years studying it. I am not surprised. I remember my mom (a long time ago), was trying to write a letter in Chinese, and she had a whole copy page filled with scribbled out Chinese words. At one stage, she enlisted the help of my dad and my cousin who was living with us at the time. At least reading Chinese is easier then writing, not that I can read alot anyway.

Comments welcome at the IBC Forum.