Series following George Lee as he investigates whether China's growing economic power represents an opportunity or a threat.
It's a four-part series, more info at http://www.rte.ie/news/features/china/georgeleeinchina.html.
Only found out after seeing an ad for it tonight (23:15 on RTE One). Keep an eye out for the next 3 eps throughout 2008 (according to RTE).
So there was an article about the Asian businesses in the north side of the city, and from my interview with SCMP, I mentioned there was no Chinatown in Dublin. Well, some establishments want to have some sort of gateway for a Chinatown.
Business owners on Parnell Street have petitioned Dublin City Council to let them turn the area into an "official Chinatown" by building a giant archway, flanked by golden dragons, at the entrance to Parnell Street. If the council agrees to the project, it will be a real sign of just how diverse Ireland has become in a relatively short period of time. [...]
I wished it appeared sooner than the 12th (since the column IBC was featured in was the 13th July).
In the Indo, amusing tidbit about China cracking down on streaking and the f-word. Only in China, "Spectators House Rules"... it's not going to be easy. You cannot just change people habits just like that, it'll take time. I sure hope they have enough western loos there, I hate squat loos.
I forgot to blog that I was interviewed by Mark Footer from South China Morning Post. If you are subscribed to SCMP, you can read the whole article, but here is the article online.
First, it's the news that Bruce Lee's last home will become a museum (Reuters). A billionaire turned down an offer of HK$105 million (6.8 million pounds) for this mansion.
Billionaire Yu Panglin said:"I will consider the views of the community and different parties. I may consider donating the property if the majority thinks we should preserve it,"
The next news is about Jackie Chan who recently filmed a documentary promoting HK. Hong Kong Tourism Board recently announced that he is the new ambassador for tourism. Check out some of the pics.
Went to the HK tourism board and found their link to their Youtube page. The video promoting the Olympics is sooooooo cheesy!
I've always wondered what this fruit was called, I just found out it's called a Mangosteen. The latest fad in diets, http://tinyurl.com/5qm6eb (from MDN). More info about this fruit at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen.
500 diners, 3500 ducks and lotsa fish. The biggest Chinese restuarant in the world (bbc4) based in West Lake (Hunan). Employees of 1000!
Work as a team. Do our best.
And they sing their motto.
They have a huge kitchens.... 1000's KG of meat and veg and 5 kitchens!
And they are fully booked!
The surrounding grounds of the restaurant and the premises itself is ultra chinese kitsch. They even have a stage with 800 seating spaces! An entertainment hall!
The employees are dressed up in tradional gard, guests are treated like they are emperors for one of their most expensive meals (the imperial meal). There's performers, even announcements and wishes for guests to enjoy their meals, just like royalty back in the days. Each dish has its own story.
They have a snack avenue, on the street. Same chef to cook the same meal everyday to maintain quality. They explain the process of how it's cooked.
The restaurant is always looking for new dishes, as their patrons are so demanding of wanting something new each day (from what the owner says)
They make sure the chef refresh their skills often.
Man, they get alot of ducks, 150-200 a day! All from one farm, they are all wild ducks. Owner goes and check the local food and how's it's cooked and adapt it for the resturant. A clip that was unnerving was the killing of a duck where they pierced the duck's chest to find its heart and pull it out!
They have competitions for the chefs. (it's like iron chef or the anime)
It's amazing how they kill, skin and chop the snake so quickly! And the snake is still moving even though it is in pieces! Eew. They scale and clean the fish and are ready for frying, the chef was holding onto the fish with his hans and hand was protected by a towel and he dunked the fish in the hot oil! The fish was still moving when he took it out and placed it on the plate! It just seems so cruel!
They make so much money that they have machines to count the them! They have meetings every morning to talk about problems from the previous days, and how to correct them. They check for cleaniness everywhere.
With the intent of being the best, the owners know that all locals know how to make tofu but the owner thinks that the chefs need to do better as their tofus are not as good. So the owner takes the chefs out to learn how to make tofu, incls. trekking up hills to get the spring water. From 10 dishes of tofu a day to over 100 a day. because of the quality of water used.
So, it has been interesting documentary of an owner, who's venture from the support of friends and family has cumulated in one of the largest and most successful restaurant in China and perhaps the world.
Via Fusion View, I read about One Inch Punch's new site called Visible Chinese - A Guide to Achievers in UK's Chinese Culture.
Visible Chinese aims to become an Authoritative Independent Listing of Achievers within the UK's Chinese Culture with the following mission statement:1. To Be Comprehensive
Through all walks of life and subjects2. To Operate with Integrity
3. To Provide Recognition
Candidates are carefully screened and selected
Profiles will inform, celebrate and inspire
See Photo Gallery: Hong Kong City Life (although I do not appreciate the link name on the first slide there).
Cool idea, and well done to Michel Chen for his invention and it pocketed him a cool £5000 cash plus £1000 towards his former university in the James Dyson international design awards. It's a cycling jacket that changes colour when you slow down, or when you turn left or right, and of course, when you are stopping.
Found this via BBC video of his interview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7345902.stm
Beeb article on it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7340000/7340963.stm
He's been picked up by many sites, including Gizmodo.
I just so happen to flick to BBC Four tonight and caught a documentary on Chinese School. It follows the days of several pupils from primary to secondary school, showing the different pressures Chinese school kids have, and this was produced in 2007. So it's quite recent.
I noticed that the children are so straight to the point, for example, in the primary school shown, kids are made aware of how to treat your own possessions properly, the example of using class monitors to go around checking the item of the teacher want to make an point of, a pencil eraser. One boy was pointed out and voted to have the worst eraser and was shown as an example of a story of a tattered jumper that it's important to respect one's own things like respecting people. The humiliated pupil went around apolagising to the rest of the class and hooked the little finger hook with each of the students (like a shake on that gesture), and the class forgave him in unison. Although he was crying from being pointed out that he should look after his personal items properly, being a kid, it was forgotten very soon afterwards in their outdoor activities.
The pressures of secondary school kids looked pretty intensive, they even have medical checks on final year students, yes, a full medical! It's to make sure they can hack it through the tough study and exams and ensuring clean bill of health means you can get into university level). That just hits home as I watch all these kids, with books piled high, and how there study hour is reciting outloud in the same room, that will drive me absolutely bonkers, but that's how they study. And they get up at 5:45am, do morning exercises before brekkie at 7am. I noted that most of these students are staying in dorms or boarding schools. Even young kids at 6/7 years in that primary school learn to take care of themselves, no dishwashers, washing machines and parents to pick up things for them there. >-<
I have said this in many a posts already, we have it so easy over here!
More info:
- Structure of Chinese education
- Structure of Hong Kong education system
Came across this via http://drawn.ca/2008/03/27/chinese-painting/ with their linkie to the video, see below:
To me, "Manga" in Chinese is Manhua (ok, in Cantonese, or maybe it's the same pinyin for Mandarin!). And there is an exhibition held in London right now! I found out via this interesting article from the Beeb.
Location: London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle
And it's called Manhua! China Comics Now. If you are in London, the exhibition ends on April 11th.
Further details:
I meant to post about this on Saturday... An Post released a stamp to commemorate cultural diversity. While I was checking out the stamps, I also found that An Post released stamps for the Year of the Rat.
Came across this story that is very touching about the love of a husband who carved 6,000 steps for his wife in the mountain. Check the article out, contains photos as well: Chinese Man Shows World What Real Love is by Carving 6,000 Steps Up a Mountain for Wife (From Asian Offbeat)
Wow, he is 102 and still carries on what he does. Check the video, very inspiring: Helping China learn to read (From the Gaurdian)
It was really cool, you know you are in HK, buildings, lights, people's underwear... ok, not the latter one. Mind you, it's a lot safer now landing in Chep Lap Kok and kind of boring. Kai Tak is special. There's a cool video I came across, and one clip, you look up and you see a huge boeing fly quite low past the highrises. Amazing, see for yourself.
Check out the photos at the IBC flickr pool. If anyone has any more and you are on flickr, feel free to contribute. :)
In keeping with CNY this week. For all those who have all those leftover lai sees from last few new years, here's a vid to make your own chinese lantern:
Found this on Good World's window (Georges St, Dublin).
Tickets: €20 and €15 ( see Seating Plan)Lyrics and dialogue with Chinese and simplified English subtitles (More Information)
Running Time: Approx. 2 hrs 30 mins with an intermission
Audiences are strongly advised to arrive punctually
Latecomers will only be admitted until a suitable break in the programmeTickets available from 7th Jan onwards
Half price tickets available for senior citizens, people with disabilities, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security
Assistance (CSSA) recipients (Limited tickets for students and CSSA recipients available on a first-come-first-served basis)
Patrons could enjoy only one of the above discounts for each purchase, please inform the box office staff at the time of purchaseProgramme Enquiries：087-2443028
Ticketing Enquiries & Reservations：0872580839 & 0872443028 &0863428150Postal address for Cheque payment: 88The Green Woodbrook Glen Bray Co. Wicklow
Mr. Wu Hua, a national famous singer in Jiangsu Nanjing who will be our MC and singer for the show
Programmes are subject to change with announcements by Chinese Irish Cultural Academy as final
The contents of this programme do not represent the views of Chinese Irish Cultural Academy
(Thanks, Heilong)
Unfortunately I will be away in Hong Kong from the 12th for 2 weeks, so I will miss the event. If people are going, and are taking pics and/or videos, is it possible for you to post them in forum?
If you want to write about the event, and you want it in the IBC blog, let me know, I will give you access, or if you have access and have forgotten, let me know.
While I am away, I will try to check my email as often as I can. Oh, and Happy new year 2008, everybody! 
For those who are unable to see the sites, you can view them virtually now, with a 360 panoramic view. Read more...
I think I mentioned this a long time ago... anyhow, it's about Cork-Shanghai's twinning of cities and 9 Chinese couples got a blessing down in Cork. I was all part of a Chinese tv show called "Dating On Saturday".
It was organised to co-ordinate with Shanghai's famous 'Rose Wedding Festival' which each October sees thousands of weddings and related street entertainments. [...] They will now enjoy a six-day tour around Ireland including stopovers in Limerick, Clare, Waterford and Dublin.
Read more here.
There was alot of discussion in the IBC forum about meeting up. It did not go according to plan last week, as there were clash of days that people could not meet up.
So I created a poll for the week of 15th-21st Oct:
Here is the RSS feed from Poll Daddy (updated hourly): IBC meetup days RSS feed
Found this article about Asian food changes to adapt to local tastes over time in the Bay Area.
Over time just about all these restaurants became more generic and homogeneous, which means the dishes end up sweeter and less spicy.
This is true everywhere, I know this as I was raised on 2 types of Chinese cooking, home cooked and style cooked for the restaurant patrons. The taste is definately milder, maybe sometimes boring. Okay, really boring. I asked my dad once, why don't we change our menus to more tastier dishes that I ate at home, or in London Chinatown or Hong Kong. But he simply says that the local palette for anything outside of our curry chicken (although our curry is our speciality, as it's our family recipe) and special fried rice, they are not that experimental and adventurous enough to try something like a whole steamed fish, tofu dishes etc.
Even in Dublin, people have moved forward in wanting to try new things, but in Limerick, and probably same for anywhere outside of Dublin, the toned down Asian food will not change for a long time. There are Chinese restaurants where there are two menus, one for locals, the other for the local Chinese. But due to more and more Chinese come to Ireland, and centred around Dublin, there are more ethnic Chinese restaurants. And yes, it does make a darn difference if the cook is Chinese or not in a Chinese restaurant/takeaway, even down to the waiting staff. It feels more authentic, and food tastes different. You hear me, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, we need more Chinese chefs and cooks, give us a bit of leeway to hire these folks.
For those in HK now, you can check out the International Arts Festival. Main site to check out details: http://www.hkiac.gov.hk/
And the bird market in Mongkok is now open following a bird flu scare.
From my last posting about HK, I mentioned that HK is still wealthy. And Beeb has an article saying that...
Some feared Beijing would crush the city's spirit. But believe it or not, Hong Kong is 40% richer than it was 10 years ago.
Ever resourceful, its locals have bounced back from the Asian financial crisis and SARS. The economy is growing at its fastest since the 1980s. And it is still a great place to do business.
It's amazing that HK has grown stronger and stronger. People want democracy, but you cannot rush things like that. It takes time. HK people wants to make profits, they get that, and the government fully supports that. Unlike other countries with heavy taxes on anything profitable that you make. It's great that China is using HK as an example, but that could also be HK's downfall. Cities in Mainland China has progressed so fast and it's already outgrown HK. It's shopping plazas are shinier, roads bigger, just about anything materialistic has gone more and more upmarket. So now we have Hong Kongers kowtowing to Mainlanders who are oozing with wealth, and are not afraid to show it. Hey, it's in Chinese nature.
Unfortunately, the poor are getting poorer. Even in HK they do exist. All you have to do is look around in HK, you will see the homeless under the bridges, in parks. The elderly men and women who have to fend for themselves wheeling their carts of cardboards and tin cans in the awful summer heat.
The lights are shining bright everywhere, but the forgotten does not seem to find solace in HK (or China)'s prosperity.
It has been 10 years since the handover of Hong Kong to China. I have found all the scare stories back in '97 just as they are, scare stories. Hong Kong is still prosperous, they do get to partake in elections. They were forbidden under British rule. BBC has an interesting audio slideshow of views from 3 different generations of Hong Kongers: Hong Kong memories
Ireland is really changing. And I have just come across this news article that covered a story about a Nigerian asylum seeker who came to Ireland 7 years ago, who worked really hard with multi-cultural integration in the community of Portlaoise, is now the first Irish black mayor there.
Rotimi Adebari, who was elected Mayor of Portlaoise Town Council, received a standing ovation amid scenes of celebration. He declared: "This is not just a country of a thousand welcomes, but a country of a thousand equal opportunities."
It's really great to hear minorities taking so much interests in showing awareness, and the Irish acceptance of ethnic communities.
A babies first six months doesn't seem much, but scientists have discovered that babies can distinguish between different languages based on the facial expressions as one speaks. The article from New Scientists has two videos with no sound, one in French and the other in English, so readers can see the changes in the face when the two languages are spoken. Interesting enough, bi-lingual babies can still pick out the native and foreign tongue, whereas mono-lingual babies stop at six months. I hope this does not start eager parents to start speaking in many different languages so their babies can be mutli-lingual.
For me, it's only natural to speak to your own baby. For me, I will speak to the baby in Cantonese and English.
And how old scientists think? Well, a couple thousand years older at that, they seem to think it dates back to 7000-8000 years! More on this from Xinhua news.
... in Tokyo, of course! The exhibition revives 40 sweets and looks back on the culture of Japanese confectionary such as:
boiled rice with tea, topped with a steamed bean-jam bun
Downside, you can only see, as there are no samples for tasting.
Article itself - Culture of strange Japanese sweets unveiled in Tokyo exhibition
Another example of how crazy it is to go to school in the Far East (in this case, China). Piano, study, study, cram, piano, maybe an hour to play! Ouch.
Give a show of hands of those born overseas who can speak Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka etc).
*Raises hand
Okay, I can speak Cantonese, and understand Hakka. But I have no clue of Mandarin. Mandarin is getting so important to know nowadays. I have already made some blog posts about Mandarin.
Anyway, I came across this news article on learning Mandarin via Skype with a qualified Chinese tutor from Mainland China. What a fantastic idea. Cheap teleconferencing, cheap lessons, and learn proper Mandarin.
Technology is a great thing, isn't it?
Well it has been awhile since I was home for Chinese New Year. And now I am home for the big family dinner tonight on New Year's eve, and I don't have to endure long ride home like most folks in the Far East.
And this year is the year of the golden pig. Does not come by that often, and means babies born during this year will bring great wealth and luck.
I cannot wait for tonight, check out a short article on Chinese New Year food from DimSum.
More info:
From a study by Robert Levine who published a book called "A geography of time". I came across this from a news article, but this site gives a bit more information about it. Hong Kong is in 10th place.
The first study is a comparison of 31 countries using a composite index composed of the accuracy of public clocks, walking speed and the time required to complete a simple business transaction: buying a stamp. The top five countries using this index of pace of life or time consciousness are in order (from fastest to slowest), Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Japan and Italy.
Crazy, isn't it? Would not have thought Ireland to have a fast pace of life.
Folks from Sweet Mandarin have asked me to forward on their invite to their book Launch party in Manchester.
Would you be able to let your members on the site know about the launch - we would love to extend it to the Chinese population in the UK (given that this book talks about the Chinese in the UK).
Details:
DATE: 31st January 2007
EVENT: Sweet Mandarin – The Book Launch Party
TIME: 6pm – late
WHERE: Sweet Mandarin, Manchester
Canapes on Arrival
Open Bar
Sweet Mandarin is the epic story of a family of independent Chinese women and their struggle to survive. You are invited to the book launch at Sweet Mandarin with Helen, Lisa, Janet Mabel and Lilly.
I've also posted this on the forum.
It's great that Mandarin is becoming more and more popular amongst non-Chinese according to the BBC article. I have even mentioned it in past blog entries. But I think it is gaining popularity for oversea Asians as well. I wonder what percentage are oversea Asians taking up Mandarin.
That reminds me, I think I will pick up level 1 this year (that is, after my wedding and honeymoon), and at least give something to do in the evenings. Afterall, there are plenty of courses, just need to find the right time.
Discuss at IBC Forum.
The status of the dragon in China should not even have been debated over about. When one thinks of Chinese dragons, it's this wondrous creature of power and wealth. Maybe it's how I am brought up, being able to tell the difference between western and eastern dragons. But symbolically, the Chinese dragon has an aura that can also be paired with the phoneix (normally together for a couple who is getting married). But as the article shows, that many Chinese would have the word dragon (龍), which is pronounced "loong" in Cantonese. It's always been cool to have 龍 as part of your name (too many movies, I think. >-<) Asian comic depictions of eastern dragons help this image of power.
And my fav dragon are the ones in Dragonball.
Ok, it's not that hard to believe from an Asian person point of view, but Oolong tea helps digestion, it absorbs greasiness. That is why there is a recent Chinese saying (from a drama Stephen Chow starred in a long time ago) "飲杯茶，食個包 (Yum bui cha, sik gaw bau)" → "Drink a cup of tea, and eat a bun".
The Japanese were fanatic over Oolong tea with its link to weight loss, that they would pay anything for it.
But scientists have found a way to produce a soft drink to accompany fastfoods, that will help absorb fat!
It works by using natural ingredients such as oats and Chinese Oolong tea which can help to assimilate fat and cholesterol in food and prevent them being metabolised in the body, said Dr Jorge Oliviera of UCC who helped develop it.
But I don't think I like the idea of eat anything you want, this soft drink will absorb the fat, even though it contains Ooolong.
Everything in moderation is always good. All things that tastes so good are mainly bad for you. It's nature's warning. But self control is hard for most people, I suppose.
More information:
I know the forums has polls, but I want to try this out on my blog and see how well it works.
This stems from the Anyone have any reasons why a Chinatown should be setup? forum post.
So the mid-autumn festival will be here soon, October 6th to you and me. 
So what will everyone be doing? Having a little bit of mooncake, not too much, they are so bad for you!
Related links:
Found this Chinese Culture Blog and it contains alot of great information about Chinese weddings. Ok, I am not having a traditional Chinese wedding, but it can still give me ideas (even though I am at the end of my preparations for my wedding here in Ireland).
Another entry about otakus. Although I would never be considered some kind of otakus, I am still at awe at these Japanese fanatics. Here's an insight about otakus and what they do, plus an interview with one serious otaku, who is trying to give up.
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.
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.
It's not much, should really put in a jaiil sentence as well. These sp@m are just clogging up everything... and are just an annoyance.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/23/china_spam_fine/
This year's Chinese Valentine's extra special. It's a leap year in the Lunar Calendar and it will occur twice!
For some couples, it's very special time to get married as well. Although I noted alot of number 7s appearing there. I thought 7 is a bad? Well, for me, I am glad I will be married in Jan 07, still auspicious but without all the Chinese madness that comes along with it.
Weddings that are Picture Perfect is an article that shows how different the Chinese take their wedding pictures to the west. Whereas normally the photographer will follow the bride and groom the whole day and take pictures, Chinese weddings do not have church/blessings followed by a reception. They have the main reception after the groom manages to get the bride out her house from all her "jee mui" or sisters (like our bridesmaids). I think I rather have photographer take pictures (reportage style) of our wedding next year. But posing for portraits is not really my cup of tea. But it's the only way Chinese in China, HK can taste what it's like to wear a western style dress. The bride and groom take their wedding portraits before they are even married, so much for the bad luck if the groom sees the bride in her dress. That's how different it is over there. Well, for me, I am not letting Mick see me in my dress till the day of the blessing. But I will be wearing a Chinese wedding dress ("siu foon seen") for my civil ceromony, and greeting the guests before the blessing in the hotel. East meets West style is what I am aiming for.
I cannot believe it, they will be demolishing the Star Ferry terminal in HK. It's a shame. It's part of HK (obviously), but not long enough to be a listed property. But that's the way HK is, commericalise everything but building more plazas. I am glad that I brought my little brother Warren on the Star Ferry this year. I don't think we will be able to get the ferry from this terminal the next time we are going to HK. Really sad news.
It's sunny outside (I know that I should be having my lunch, basking in the nice sun, a rarity in its own... but I had enough of that in HK). But it will remain like this for the next few days ... 30 degress celcius! Wow! And in the mean time, HK is lashing with amber → black warnings on Sunday and there is no let up on rain over their. But we are on par with being 29 degrees here and over there. I like it better over here, at least it is not humid! But if you were curious on real-time weather in HK at this moment, the government weather page can show just that.
Ireland the same temperature as Hong Kong. OMG, is all I am thinking right now.
Saw The Standard's article on Language help for foreigners. It's sponsored by the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Very interesting if I can get it running in Camino (and Firefox). Anyone check this out in IE (sigh). Let me know what you think.
You can discuss more are the IBC forum.
Chinese version of most popular books in Irish libraries, books such as W.B. Yeats. Other languages are catered for as well, Polish, Spanish, Romanian, Czech, Japanese etc.
Most of the books are selected from bestseller lists in the immigrants' countries, but the libraries also have copies of popular Irish works in translation.
Most of the foreign-language books are kept in the Central Library in Dublin's Ilac Centre, close to the city-centre homes of many immigrants.
Libraries in Counties Waterford, Donegal and Meath have expressed an interest in joining the book rental scheme to cater for their immigrant populations.
So my letter got noticed by a fair few folks out there. Which is good. So I try not to get bogged down by it... but I came across this article about RTE's new programme aimed to
[...] explode many of the stereotypes that have grown up in our rapidly changing country and encourage mutual understanding between people from different places.
I did not watch the first series, but basically it will find out about the person who moved to Ireland, why he/she did it, and the presenter will go to the country the person is from and starts understanding the family and friends of the participant on what their day-to-day lives are like, and discovering more about their culture.
RTE's looking for participants in their No place like home series.
You cheat, you're nicked according to this article I read from The Standard. I am not sure how the students use their phones, they should be kept out of the exam hall regardless, or in their bags with all their books in a place where the invigilator keep watch (i.e. at the top or back of the room). Would it be taken this far over here? I hear stories of how folks see other folks cheat, and the supervisor is oblivious. I saw in one issue of The Times, that cctvs are used to monitor students during examination. I know it's hard to get into college in HK, but is it still worth it to sully your name for the sake of better grades obtained by cheating. Doing that, you are only cheating yourself.
Saw this article in the Examiner. Shanghai, twinned with Cork, will be sending a group of second level students to Cork to study English later this year.
Came across this article discussing the successful activites held in wet markets, such as
[...] the department has run large-scale Chinese New Year functions and thematic workshops on Chinese tea art, Chinese soups, meat cooking and food hygiene. Other promotion activities, including lucky draws, photo-taking and menu design contests, as well as roving exhibitions, have also been held.
Wet markets are so much cleaner than they use to be. Air-conditioned, washed at least daily. It does not stink as much, and this is summer! I remember back in the days (when I was 12 years old or so), my only memory was holding my nose while mom brought me into the market to get fresh meat and fish (and veg). But nowadays, trying to convince my fiancé and his dad that they use to be very dirty was quiet difficult to describe. Considering that we ate brekkie there a few mornings!
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.
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.
Just recently my brother has brought up an interesting conversation (albeit over text messaging), he mentioned about our family kungfu style called Lee Ga Kuen, otherwise know as 'Lee's Family Fist' and is part of Choy Lee Fut style.
Our current generation do not practise it, my dad said it is terribly tough and hours upon hours of training needs to be invested in it (given his own experience back then).
I just wonder out of curiousity, are there any Chinese familes out there that has their own family kungfu style, and if they are still practising it.
It's such a pity that my brothers and I don't know it, or more of it. Only bits and pieces from talking to dad. I can tell you, it's one brutal form of martial arts! And that is probably why dad rather us (if we wanted to take up martial arts) do Tai Chi or Wing Chun. They are good for our health, and are more defensive than the more offensive (and often fatal) styles of KungFu. Since nowadays people taking up martial arts are for recreational and health reasons than for self-defense (not getting beaten up in the alleys in the 60s and 70s by other folks who practice KungFu as well, it does not just happen in movies from what I heard).
That is what this article said. I blogged about multi-lingual nannies, but the wealthy elite are hiring Chinese nannies and are taking it to the next level!
...many Americans believe China will overtake the US both economically and politically by 2040, at the latest. So they're looking out for the next generation. At the very least it can't hurt if your child can hold her own linguistically with the mightiest world leaders of the future.
And to show you how serious the parents where, the child's parents
...brought Chinese friends to the au pair interviews to serve as a kind of language police. The idea was to keep Miss Rogers from learning the wrong sort of Chinese, and finding herself speaking undesirable slang later on.
I really need to knuckle down and learn some Mandarin! At least if I visit China, I would understand what they are talking about.
You can discuss this further by posting comments on the IBC messageboard. (Sorry need to register, blame the sp@mmers.)
Pics from 1920s-1960s from Big White Guy. Really nice depicting what it was like back then. It reminds me of the watercolours from the art museum in Tsim Sha Tsui of when HK was literally a rural island. No mega buildings of any kind. Although I find some of the paintings showing how Chinese are treated back then by the colonist a tad bit hard to take in. But it's history. You get to learn alot.
Heh, saw this article, Gaelic football gains flavour among the Chinese women, and it's really amazing that the sport is being picked up so fast over there. More so with the women than men (men's teams are mainly made-up of Irish ex-pats). Don't you notice that the Chinese love the Irish culture? Well, I do. Lots of Chinese music students love playing Irish music. They love listening to Irish music (my parents included, more so with mom). And probably be one of the fav destinations for holidays, because the temperature is not too hot, or too cold. Apart from Chinese with Dub accents, and probably even more in China from all those TEFL courses. Imagine, it'll be English with Irish accents in China in 5-10 years time!!! It's going to be like back at home in Ireland, now coupled with rising popularity of GAA. 
I still remember the episode in Fr. Ted with the Chinese in it. That was hilarious! 
You know, I love gadgets... not sure if this is the case for Asian/Oriental girls born abroad?!? But I grew up with consoles, plathera of gadgets, you name it. Where am I coming with all this? Well, I saw this Indo article about "Otakus" knuckling down on all things to do with Otaku for Top 100 Otaku exam (need reg to read.. tis free tho'). Basically it's Japanese for male geeks, not sure why there is no work for female geeks (or is there?). I wonder if there is an equivalent of the word "geek", "male geek" or "female geek" in Chinese (Cantonese if possibile! Heh!).
Oh, found this... 1st page of the exam and the site itself
More articles :
* http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050715f2.htm
* http://news.3yen.com/2005-07-16/be-a-japan-certified-otakugeek/
High score students, don't party too much (these are Chinese students now), now what do people think when they read that title?
Well, I misread it. Since everyone knows that students in the China, Hong Kong studies like no tomorrow, the top of the class students pretty much don't have a life. Well, was I surprise to read the article giving out about students to hunker down, and not to party too much. But I do agree, you don't treat them like celebrities, it's hard enough with the competition to get into college, you don't want the ego to go with it. It's just a progression to next step up the education ladder.
Except for some rare cases such as this 10-year old who will be staring college soon .
The overview background to this is kid is interesting. In this case, his parents did do alot to get him through all the stages of school. The pressure must be huge.
So all those going in to college, don't party too much. Now that was just too funny to say. Have a laugh anyway, that is where all the best fun is at. For those who are at college... I'll leave that to yourselves. And for the grads... heh, remember the good ol' days.
Heh, found this entry on a person's view of how local papers are getting more multi-cultural. It's a good sign.
Found the following 2 articles:
* China to Boost Software Industry
* Is China the next R&D superpower?
It's great to see China progressing so much. And so fast! 
There is a long way to go yet. When I see software in China, it's like Ireland in the 80s. What I meant is, the labour is cheaper in China. China has been one of many places companies are outsourcing to. (Some very good people I use to work with who was based in US was recentyl laid off in my last company. That particular team was part based in China, so cost comparitively, it just made sense to transfer the work back to office in China... and other less expensive locations.)
Apart from that, many, many talented grads are coming out of Chinese universities, and even when they are in uni, most folks would notice them going on exchange programmes abroad. Alot of unis here in Ireland have many Chinese exchange programmes now.
In such a short period, so much was gained, it will be interesting to see what it will be like in 5 years time.
Ok, I did not know that Cork and Shanghai are twinned and how I came across this was an article regarding a Bloomsday event linking Shanghai and Cork.
More info :
http://www.corkcity.ie/ccdb/directorsreports/
Only caught my eye this morning, the Working Holiday Scheme in HK. If you are between 18 and 30, check it out.
Successful applicant can obtain a Working Holiday Visa valid up to 12 months. Under that circumstance, he/she may take up short-term employment but is not allowed to work for the same employer for more than 3 months.
Same applies for HK residents who wish to go to Ireland (and other participating countries).
Cathay Pacific wins top airline for 2005. I have never flown Cathay, as it's one of the more expensive flights to HK, but if you can pay the price, it seems you will be one happy camper onboard. 
And the London Tube is getting a helping hand from MTR to improve Tubes services, and upgrade. Wish they were over here to help with our train services. 
Ling Leong, director of KC City that owns 11 mahjong parlours across the Chinese territory, said a ban would put them out of business as 90 percent of their customers as well as their staff were smokers.
I think banning smoking is good in restaurants, probably give some leeway to bars, clubs etc. In my opinion, eating while someone is puffing away is really offputting.Finally, a little touristy thing for you all... Having a fun day in HK for $20.
The Cheung Chau tradition has returned, and the new bun tower is impressive to look at. It'll be on May 16th. Plus if you cannot make it, and if you are in HK, watch it live. Those crazy people!
Some links
(Still remember all those old Chinese kungfu movies that shows the likes of Jackie Chan, and Jet Li scrambling for buns... heh!)
And since I am on about cultural things.... it leads me onto tourity things. I want to point out that a free PDA tourist guide is available to download from discoverhongkong site.
Oh, and check out those Disney MTR trains (scroll right down to the bottom for piccie).
A collection of stories of what goes on during Ching Ming at Boing Boing. It's wierd that other folks are interested about it. I totally forgot about it until I saw all these stories. Why? I suppose we do not have to carry out all these customs, like tidying our ancestors' tomb (well, we have to go back to Hong Kong for that). But certain traditions just don't happen over here imho. The only thing maybe is Chinese New Year, and we just get the family together and get red lai see packets (heehee, yup, I still get this, it's great to be single.). It's a shame really, that we don't have experience of these traditions. Although we do see or hear about them from tv, or from others who knows about the traditions. Maybe the next time I go to Hong Kong, I might be able to take part in some traditions.
Ching Ming is a Chinese festival on April 5th.
This article on The Rape of Nanking really moved me. Especially this line near the end...
Almost every Chinese-American family has had some kind of experience with World War II, in many cases, dead relatives.
Ok, I am an Irish-born Chinese, but this still holds true for many oversea born Chinese people.
My dad would tell us stories about what happened to our family a generation ago. We did loose family members during that period. In fact, my eldest uncle was part of a group trying to get out of China in that time, and it was frightening to hear about it, to say the least. He was 2 or 3 years old at the time. He had a scar on his foot from that time from stepping on a branch while they are trying to sneak around the Japanese occupiers. He was nearly killed as the group was afraid they were going to be found out if my uncle even whimpered. But my uncle survived, and did not even utter a sound. It's very hard to imagine this in the times we live in. Many male relatives in my family were also soldiers (has been for many generations until my dad's generation, it was my grandma's wish, so we don't loose anymore members). But that article about Nanking really brings home some reality of what went on. I am not sure if I am prepared to read the book. But as the author pointed out, so few know about it, and mistakes should not be forgotten. This is not meant to cause hatred, but to realise the truth.
This is part of history, it should not be ignored. Human history has alway being cruel, but let's not forget. Lessons can be learnt.
From March 7th, the BBC will be doing a special coverage of China for a week. I read this one article from one of the links about from restaurants to tycoons , and it shows alot of similarities to the Chinese over here in Ireland (I don't know how many tycoons there are here though, there are a few). But it sure is changing for us over here as well. Many people start diversifying from catering and move on to other areas. I wonder if there are any local Chinese venture capitalists here...
Saw this in the Indo today, Football an English game? The Chinese might just question that and thought that it was quite interesting that there is a "Irish-Chinese Arts, Cultural & Shaolin Academy"! Anyone heard of it before? Well, google-searching did not come up with anything. But there is suppose to be a match between China and Ireland, which is FAI's 'One Game, One Association''One Game, One Association' masterplan. Check out the story. (And it's free registration.)
Yup they are up at my photo page and you can also discuss more about the Chinese Festival 2005 at the board. Thanks again, Andy, for sending on your pics. Much appreciated.
Chinese new year celebration comes to Dublin
Ireland’s Chinese community welcomes Year of Rooster
And something different, an article about Moore Street. Quite an interesting read.
One thing that is really strange about Japanese culture, their very sophisticated and/or complicated loos! I remember my BF went to Japan (cos of work), and found that the offices like to outdo each other with loos with tons of functions! But a loo with an SD slot is another thing altogether!
Other then that, how about vending machines where you can buy your mem cards, comics! Wonder how long that would last outside of Japan. Re-stocking it would be just useless. 
Well, it will be! Still confused, the year of Yiyou ring any bells? 
Heh, it's Chinese new year coming up, and when will that be? That's Feb 9th to you and me, and it's the year of the Rooster! 
So people ready to say "Gung hai fat choi, lai see dow loi!!"
Just to let you all know, the belated photos from Chinese New Year is up. (Comments welcome).
My apolagies for taking so long 
!
Folks are welcome to post up more pics at the IBC forum as well.
What is Bo Ke (even wikipedia does not have it)? It's a Chinese term for "blogger", well according to the article The 'blog' revolution sweeps across China from The New Scientist. Has always been wondering if there was a Chinese term for a blog. 
, well... here's one. Anyone know any other term?
For folks who are lucky to be in HK, the winterfest 2004 is on from November 26 to January 2.
More info about HK winterfest 2004.
IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) has an exhibition called Dreaming of the Dragon's Nation: Contemporary Art from China. Looks like somewhere I will be for the afternoon next weekend.
A sim card vending machine, it's so cool. Wish they had it while I was over there over the summer. Not that it is hard to get in the first place, off to the nearest phone shop, ask for HK$100 card, and all you need is a phone, and you are set. Now with a vending machine, so quick and easy!
Yup, now that people travel further and further, research on Europeans show the growing number of ethnic food dishes are part of the European food marktet. Dublin has a big variety of restaurants, but for some reason I love Italian food more than anything else, outside of Chinese food that is. 
Quite interesting history about Hunan women and their secret script. But unfortunately it seems that the last descendants has died out.
If you are lucky to be in HK, there is an outdoor project design that can be viewed until the end of October. Project is due to be ready early next year.
