I've posted articles about materialism a few times, and more or less was about HK people (women in particular). Well, here's this generations (and next and so on) luxury shoppers -- Chinese consumers from Mainland China. Of course, people in the industry knows that already (still doesn't stop some HKers with too much money and paid US$5.6m for Andrew Lloyd Webber's wine collection). Jewellers in HK knows that come Friday, Chinese from over the border would flock to HK and buy luxury watches, rings, and other bling. Even just being a normal joe on the train around this period, you can see girls dressed up to the tee for a weekend trip to HK.
This causes problems, as pointed out by FT's article about the property prices in a massive rise.
Not sure about the great power, but definitely great responsibility to keep the HK economy from bursting.
Now all this country (Ireland, I mean) has to do is to tap into this market, if they ever pull their finger out.
Check info about the CNY festival in Dublin at Dublin.ie -- Chinese Near Year 2011. Chinese New Year is on 1st-14th February 2011 and is the year of the Rabbit (metal).
Initially, I was starting to read WSJ1, and my husband told me to check out a blog response2. It's funny how close the poster of the blog article background is sort of similar to mine, born of 1st generation Chinese, parents not totally strict (i.e. piano lessons, gettings straight As, study all the time) and married to a non-Chinese guy. The attitude is certainly a lot different. From the WSJ's article, it represents a form of keeping up with the Joneses by bragging how well they brought their kids with their straight As, playing some musical instruments, etc. I don't really face these situations often, so don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for that. My lasting impression was when I went to visit my aunt in UK with my mom. We headed out to meet up with my Aunt's "friends" in London Chinatown for afternoon dim sum. Nothing unusual there, but surely they don't need to dress up to the tee in designer gear, all blinged up with gold, rolex watch and largest diamonds, and blabbing on about their kids. It was a horrible experience, that was when I was around 15 years old, and I'm in my 30s now! I just wonder how many the non-stereotypical Chinese/Asian parents are living near a large Chinese/Asian community, and does this have an affect on how they raise their children?
It was funny to read the blog and see that her parents considered her successful until she left Google (she thinks so anyway). I, too, had to explain why I left a Sun back in 2005. That was pretty hard considering my Cantonese is passable. I even had problems trying to explain what kind of company Sun was when I joined the company. I didn't even know the word for software engineer till after I left the company. It has changed since the 1st generation arrived in Ireland, and the 2nd generation's way of thinking is so different. I hope when I have kids of my own, I will not force what I would like them to do, but encourage them on what they want. Easier said then done I suppose. Would my wish for my future kids to speak Chinese be a bit too much to ask though, and is this a step towards the stereotypical way my kids are raised?
By the way, some interesting comments here, I especially like the end of this comment. Another comment3 led to this interesting article about the enrollment controversy in Canada.
1 Wall Street Journal - Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
3 Original comment with link to "enrollment controversy in Canada"
Initially, I was starting to read WSJ1, and my husband told me to check out a blog response2. It's funny how close the poster of the blog article background is sort of similar to mine, born of 1st generation Chinese, parents not totally strict (i.e. piano lessons, gettings straight As, study all the time) and married to a non-Chinese guy. The attitude is certainly a lot different. It's their form of keeping up with the Joneses by form of bragging how well they brought their kids with their straight As, playing some musical instruments, etc. I don't really face these situations often, so don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for that. My lasting impression was when I went to visit my aunt in UK with my mom. We headed out to meet up with my Aunt's "friends" in London Chinatown for afternoon dim sum. Nothing unusual there, but surely they don't need to dress up to the tee in designer gear, all blinged up with gold, rolex watch and largest diamonds, and blabbing on about their kids. It was a horrible experience, that was when I was around 15 years old, and I'm in my 30s now!
It was funny to read the blog and see that her parents considered her successful until she left Google (she thinks so anyway). I, too, had to explain why I left a Sun back in 2005. That was pretty hard considering my Cantonese is passable. I even had problems trying to explain what kind of company Sun was when I joined the company. I didn't even know the word for software engineer till after I left the company. It has changed since the 1st generation arrived in Ireland, and the 2nd generation's way of thinking is so different. I hope when I have kids of my own, I will not force what I would like them to do, but encourage them on what they want. Easier said then done I suppose. Would my wish for my future kids to speak Chinese be a bit too much to ask though, and is this a step towards the stereotypical way Chinese kids are raised?
Billy Waters1 teaching English in China, interesting view on his first Christmas in China, it was in the Irish Times.2
So a Chinese teapot valued at €100 was sold for €50k by a bidder from Beijing over the phone.
The teapot was made in China during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng who ruled between 1723 and 1735.
(Source: Irish Times Online)
A major HK-listed jeweler's stock fell when gold content in some 18K gold products were removed from sale as it didn't meet Beijing Association on its content of gold. The HK jeweler's spokesperson was reassuring people in HK that these products were only found in Mainland stores. Given I'm not surprised as they have a very big HK customer base, their other competitors like Chow Tai Fook must be taking advantage on this news. Also many Chinese will travel from the Mainland to HK to go shopping, especially for jewellery. Just have a look at some of the photos what you normally see in a typical jeweler's.
Read more:-
This is pretty heart-warming given the current bad news all round. A baby girl, Rachel, who was born in China to a Canadian father (born in Libya) and her Chinese mom but couldn't get citizenship as the couple's not married. Because of her father's origin of birth, Canada denied citizenship to her as well. Until they found a silver lining, the father of the baby's father was born in Ireland before emigrating to Canada and because of Irish citizenship rules, it's enough to give little Rachel her citizenship. After 14 months in limbo, she can now call Ireland her home. Told you it was heart-warming. :-) Read more...
(Via Independent.ie)
And it's earthquake resistant as well as being sustainable. I don't know... built in 6 days, that's impressive but was quality compromised? Would like to see the building in a couple of years time and see how it fares.
There are some really rich people in Hong Kong, that we cannot deny, but " case of burgundy for $232,00" was bought at a Sotheby's auction by a HK collector.1
'We will sell more wine in Hong Kong this year than we will in New York and London combined,' said Robert Sleigh, Sotheby's head of wine for Asia.
In other news, a landmark ruling in HK orders divorced couples to split assets 50/50. However, in the article, is did mention that it will based on how long the couple are married, otherwise we can all assume money hungry men/women getting married to the super-rich and then get a divorce just so they can get their grubby hands on their assets.2
1 Via sify.com - At $3,200 a glass, Hong Kong tops wine world
New accidental discovery from a fisherman's haul realised that the stories of Cheng Ho probably did reach eastern Africa before Vasco Da Gama. Investigations is still underway, but if it's true, the history books may have to change. Given that it's probably an imperial convoy makes it all that much more important a discovery.
Read more... (via BBC News online)
(Via Edwin's Facebook linky)
I was astounded by Bill Rankin's map of Chicago's racial and ethnic divides and wanted to see what other cities looked like mapped the same way. To match his map, Red is White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic, Gray is Other, and each dot is 25 people. Data from Census 2000. Base map © OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SASee the map itself.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see the same from different cities around the world?
Check this out, it's so cute.. Dim Sum badges, they may have more stuff in the near future. Check their blog as well.
An Irish boy is in the top 5 in the Chinese story-telling competition in Hangzhou, China. Impressive, isn't it? So are the judges. Read more...
(Via Irish Times)
The Playboy Of The Western World : Trailer from Pan Pan on Vimeo.
PAN PAN'S PRODUCTION OF THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
Performed in Mandarin with an all Chinese cast with English surtitles.
Text by John Millington Synge
Directed and Adapted by Gavin Quinn
Designed by Aedin Cosgrove
Translated by Sun Yue
Cast:
La La (Pegeen Mike)- Xia Zi Xin
Zhao Yingjun (Shawn Keogh) - Liao Wei
Liu Ge (Michael Flaherty) - Zhang Wan Kun
Zhang Xiaofei (Philly Cullen) - Lan Fa Qing
Ma Shang (Christy Mahon 'The Playboy') - Cheng Jun Nian
Kun Guafu (Widow Quin) - Bai Shuo
Shan Shan (Susan Brady)- Zhang Ting Ting
Sha Sha (Sara Tansey) - Sun Xiao Yan
Na Na (Honor Blake) - Wang Jing Lei
Lao Ma (Old Mahon ) - Bao Gang
"Stoking nationalist flames and testing the boundaries of decency." Variety
"PEKING AT YOUR KNICKERS, CHINESE CRACKER IN STAGE STORM. AN IRISH PLAY HAS SPARKED A SEX STORM IN CHINA - because one of the cast shows her KNICKERS." The Sun
"The Actress's mini-skirt is too short - call the police!" Daily Mail
"Short shifts leave Beijingers breathless. It's funny and very hip. You never get bored. The mostly young audience was extremely enthusiastic." The Irish Times
"Pegeen Mike evokes a blush in Beijing." The Irish Times
"This exciting production is innovative and unique drawing on the counterpoints of an Irish story and contemporary urban Chinese culture. The well known anti-hero Christy Mahon morphs into a fast-taking Chinese who hangs out in a foot massage parlour. Rather than a village in darkest rural Ireland , this Asian version is transposed to a modern setting of an a 'Whore-dressers' on the outskirts of Beijing in 2006." Irish Independent
Came across this site via WongFu Productions sample entry for Interpretations Film.
The whole thing is headed by Justin Lin, and basically challenges aspiring film-makers to create a 3-5 minute short with the following lines:
“It’s not something I’d do.”
“Well?”
“It’s not what I expected.”
“You sure?”
Some good sample/featured vids on front page, but there's many other up and coming film producers vids that are just as good.
[...] scheme requires applicants to show they have a net worth of C$800,000 (US$776,000; £502,000) and they must invest up to C$400,000.. Ottawa has stopped its "federal immigrant investor programme" as it's in the process of maybe doubling the amount of funds needed before an applicant can apply.
The one thing to note, the applicants are typically in their 40s but they are getting younger!
Just picked up a copy of IFI's programme for the month of August. As I was flicking through it, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Hong Kong Season will be on between August 3rd to 22nd. They even have McDull Kung Fu Ding Ding Dong for kids on Sunday (Aug 22nd).
August 3rd 18.30 Written By
August 4th 13.30, 18.30 Running Out of Time
August 5th 13.10, 18.20 Long Arm of the Law
August 7th 13.50 Storm Warriors
August 8th 13.40 Night and Fog
August 14th 14.00 Invisible Target
August 22nd 11.00 McDull Kung Fu Ding Ding Dong
Chinese characters originated from picture form, but this takes Chinese characters and art to a whole new level. Check them out...
Interesting... a European-equivalent of Hong Kong for "Your Country, Your Call".
Several ideas:-
Foreign Affairs Minister, Michael Martin calls for Chinese as an option in the Leaving Cert. I wonder when this will ever come in though, it has been several years since I first heard about calls on bringing Chinese into the LC, UK already doing trial runs in their primary schools this year.
Past related articles:-
* Mandarin in Junior Cert and Leaving Cert?
* Mandarin in English schools
I've posted about this before, but here's an actual video of this cool apartment in HK.
(Via Edwin's comment on a linky on Facebook) - http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/play/hong-kongs-soundscape-018484. Check that audio files out.
In relation to this, a video Edwin did back then:
And it's cheap too. That's all well and good if you live in HK, but if you are visiting, I find wi-fi hotspots lacking, I normally go to Starbucks for its wi-fi.
Just saw this interesting vid on BBC News site about Himalayan Buddhist nuns taking up kungfu. Check it out.
Fengjun Shang, under the supervision of Prof Jeremy D Glennon, will receive the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, which includes a $5,000 prize.The award recognises outstanding Chinese students undertaking PhDs abroad.
Just passing this on:-
Hi, my name's Emer O'Toole, and I'm doing a PhD on intercultural theatre. One of my case studies is Pan Pan Theatre Company's Mandarin Chinese version of The Playboy of the Western World. The play was developed in Beijing with an Irish director in 2006, and came to Dublin in 2007.A good percentage of the Dublin audience (about 25%) were from Dublin's Chinese community, and I am trying to contact any Chinese or Chinese/Irish people who might have seen the show to ask them for their impressions of it. At the moment I have lots of Irish audience members' opinions on the show, but, in terms of interculturalism, this is unbalanced. I'd really like to know what Chinese audience members felt about the production.
If you have seen the show, I'd be very grateful if you could contact me for a short (only five little questions) e-mail interview. It would really help my research!
My e-mail address is (remove spaces): emer . ot @ gmail . com
Got this from Billy Water's tweet about two gweilos speaking perfect Cantonese, for all you folks who grew up watching TVB, you might recognise the first person. Check out the vid that's in the article:
Well... about €110,000, the asking price of the vase was €150 at a Co. Loais auction! There was a bidding war between a Chinese woman who flew all the way from Beijing to bid on the vase via her husband on the phone. She lost out to a London antique dealer. Read more here and here.
(Source: Irish Times)
Received this this morning...
Thought I'd let you know that at 13:15 today I am interviewing Dr Shane McCausland the curator of the Telling Images of China exhibition at the Chester Beatty Library - log on to
http://www.radiokerry.ie/training/radio.html
Check it out here. (Would love it if they allow code to embed their nice piccies.)
In the papers today...
Plenty of positive feedback in the Irish Times, and quick overview of the festival by Irish Independent ending the article to let people know that An Post just released the Year of the Tiger stamps.
Check it out on Flickr - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Valentine".
Plus some pics from CNY in HK.
If anyone on Flickr has pics from Chinese New Year this year, espec in Ireland, add it to group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/irishbornchinese/, thanks! :)
Got a mail from Yellow Academy about FREE Actor Training for British East Asians aged 16-30. I presume that IBCs are also welcome. ;)
Could you be the British East Asian acting star of the future? Discover if you have what it takes to make it on our screens and stages!
Yellow Earth (UK's leading East Asian theatre company) and ALRA (The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts) are working in partnership to offer Yellow Academy 2010, an exciting new scheme to introduce British East Asians aged 16-30 to professional acting and performing. FREE actor training activities are held in Belfast, Birmingham, London, and Manchester from February - August 2010.
Activities in Belfast
Taster Talk: Wed 3 March 2010, at 6pm
Audition Workshop: Sat 1 May 2010, 2-6pm
See attached flyer for more details
For details of a full programme: http://www.yellowearth.org/initiatives/yellow-academy/
This project is funded by The Skills and Learning Council.
Yellow Academy 2010 in Beflast is supported by Chinese Welfare Association (Northern Ireland)
Some exhibits from Shanghai Museum on show at The Chest Betty Library. Didn't realise the Terracota soliders that were on loan back in 1987 were damaged by some scaffolding.. whoops.
It's on the same day as Valentine's day, and for those who are curious on what's on, check out Dublin events listings.
Hopefully I can find more information and post it up. Post to IBC forum if you know something is on.
Well, not personally, but this guy's an Irish Chinese guy, he's name is John Foo.
He's in Tekken:-
You can find out more about him in wikipedia.
Just saw this from the Beeb, a video on an interview with Mary Jess Leaverland and at the end, she sings a sample song, the best Chinese song sang since goodness knows when, those so-called singers in HK really can't hold one note at all!
British student Mary Jess wins Chinese X-factor
Here's a vid (sorry, it's in Cantonese, but you can hear her sing the Mandarin songs and I still can't quite believe how good she was, and only 2 months to learn the songs!)
Google is not happy when it found out that human rights activists e-mails were being targeted in China, of course, they are not blaming the Chinese government directly. So they are not going to censor the searches on google.cn anymore (an agreement they made in 2006 to acquire the licence for google.cn). China has a big population, how will these latest actions affect Google in the future?
Read more from BBC article.
(Source: BBC News)
A rare Chinese map created by an Italian missionary is on show in the Library of Congress in Washington. This map depicts China as the centre of the world showing its importance by the missionary. It's one of the most expensive rare maps which was bought for £1 million.
(Source: BBC News)
So, this is a Nick toon, was weird seeing it on TG4 (they also show Spongbob) so kids get to learn Mandarin and Irish at the same time. :)
Maybe kindergarden should start teaching Mandarin, kids love watching telly in class.
More information:-
Here's a great vid (sorry, no embedding from this vid), and reminisce on memories of see people's washing hanging out their windows, and clearly seeing into their living rooms watching telly. Check it out.
Some cool collection of photos of HK past and present, side by side. Check it out. (Via One inch punch)
I knew it, even Cantonese is featured in it.
Yet much more exotic vowels exist, for example that carry tones: pitch that rises, falls, dips, stays low or high, and so on. Mandarin, the biggest language in the Chinese family, has four tones, so that what sounds just like “ma” in English has four distinct sounds, and meanings. That is relatively simple compared with other Chinese varieties. Cantonese has six tones, and Min Chinese dialects seven or eight. One tone can also affect neighbouring tones’ pronunciation through a series of complex rules.
Got this from a friend of mine, it's the cheapest Michelin one-star restaurant and it's in Hong Kong.
Tim Ho Wan, which means Add Good Luck, can seat only 20 people in its steamy dining room where battered bamboo baskets of dim sum sell for as little as $1.42.
Oh, in Chinese it's 添好運. It's address is: 2-8 Kwong Wah St., Mongkok. 2332- 2896.
Mmmm, would love to try it, but the queues are an hour long at times, probably not somewhere you want to go to if you are really hungry.
More information:-
LUMINA is a thriller web series written, directed, produced and starring Asian Americans and Asian Canadians, and the first season is up on our website: www.luminaseries.com and on KoldCast TV: http://www.koldcast.tv/#/show:lumina. If you would consider posting about us, or maybe doing an interview with myself (writer/director) or our cast that would be really fantastic! LUMINA is a new indie thriller web series directed by first time Asian American director Jennifer Thym. The nine part series features an exciting international cast, including JuJu Chan (TVB People's Choice Award for Miss Chinatown USA 2009), Michael Chan (star of the YouTube viral hit, Wall Street Fighter IV) and Vince Matthew Chung (winner of the Amazing Race Asia 3.) LUMINA is the story of a beautiful young Hong Kong girl who falls in love with a mysterious man she can only see in mirrors, only to be caught up in a whirlwind of lies and treachery.
Check out trailer:
I wish there was more of these plastic food samples over here, I was tempted to buy some while I was in Tokyo. I just didn't have the time, there's a whole area that manufacture and sell these realistic looking food samples. It makes good pressies though, for anyone who is traveling to Tokyo.
(Source: BBC News Online)
Article from CNN also mentions the weddings in China (via Twittermoms). They also mention Vegas weddings where...
The Stratosphere is among several hotels and casinos offering quickie weddings. It is angling to marry off 99 couples at 9:09 p.m. for -- what else -- $99.09.
Hehe, that's hilarious and yet disturbing.
(Source: CNN)
Extremely lucky to have so many 9s on the date of your wedding, for most Chinese anyway. Yes, 8 is a lucky number, mostly to do with getting rich. 9 is more auspicious number for forever, hence the nine courses in a typical Chinese wedding. It can be upto ten dishes, as that number is a perfect number. I just came across this Beeb article about the rush of couples getting married on 9th September this year (i.e. today).
In Beijing, the marriage reservation system has notched up a gear: "Normally it takes 10 minutes to handle the whole procedure, but we have set-up this reservation system, so now it takes only three minutes.", said marriage official Zhang Weiwei.
As I mentioned that 10 is an auspicious number, so 10/10/2010 maybe a busy time as well (as mentioned in the article).
(Source: BBC News online)
The only time I've ventured down Moore Street, is when I'm taking a short cut to Parnell Street if the iLac centre is closed to get to the cinema. All I know that it's cleaned up alot since a few years ago, but it's still dirty though. This article from The Irish Times gets the opinion of people of different nationalities who work on that street on the changes of Moore Street over the last few years. From the looks of things, Moore Street, seems to be dying, with boarded up shops on one side due to a supposed development which looks like it's stalled. I wonder what other punters like myself think of Moore Street nowadays and its future?
Japanese young people have always been the forefront of fashion, games, and especially cosplay, so I'm not surprised that they won the world cosplay competition (lots of pics on the page for your to peruse over).
It's a cultural thing, according to this article from the Beeb, Asians just study the eyes, where as the Western participants in the study shows that they look at the whole face, eyes, mouth, etc. to determine what expression that person is. When I looked at the faces, I looked at the whole face, started at eyes then taken into account the mouth and then eyebrows.
Piccie from Beeb's site, Singapore Airline's A380 landing in Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong.
You like your Japanese toys, or do you like to dress up? Unless I lived in HK, it's hard to find places to buy your favourite robot figurine, I found this though, enjoy!
Pics of Otaku shops in Hong Kong (mainly around Nathan Road).
Louth Contemporary Music Society in association with Louth County Arts Office and Dundalk Arts office present The Kronos Quartet with special guest Wu Man in the Irish premieres of Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera & Terry Riley’s Cusp of Magic in An Tain Theatre Dundalk on 13 July 2009. Both works were specially written for the Kronos Quartet and are available on cd recordings from Nonesuch records.Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera
Ghost Opera is an acclaimed work for string quartet and pipa (Chinese lute) from Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera is written for string quartet and pipa (Chinese lute) and features Grammy winning Kronos Quartet with acclaimed Chinese instrumentalist Wu Man. Stephen Pettit of the London Times said Tan Dun is master of effect. Ghost Opera is a five movement theatrical work that mirrors an ancient Chinese funeral custom in which the performer engages in a dialogue between his past and future. Ghost Opera is beguiling and moving. It is a colorful as well as a touching meditation, garnished by sounds of clashing stones and cymbals, the Chinese one-stringed lute and pipa, and small bells. . .wonderfully atmospheric.”
Tan Dun’s (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) Ghost Opera is a five movement work for string quartet and pipa, with water, metal, stone and paper. Ghost Opera is written for string quartet and pipa with paper, shadow, and water gong basins placed around the performing space. The performers’ movements reflect the back-and-forth between spiritual realms that is characteristic of the ‘ghostopera’ tradition. In composing Ghost Opera, Tan was inspired by childhood memories of the shamanistic “ghost operas” of the Chinese peasant culture. In this tradition, which is over 4,000 years old, humans and spirits of the future, the past, and nature communicate with each other. The work employs elements from the European classical concert tradition, Chinese shadow puppet theatre, visual art installations, folk music theatre and ritual.Terry Riley’s Cusp of Magic
Terry Riley’s six-movement piece, The Cusp of Magic was described by the Los Angeles Times “with its lullabies and entrancing Chinese songs and sweet disposition, brims with joy.” The Cusp of Magic was commissioned by Kronos on the occasion of their longtime friend and collaborator Riley’s 70th birthday, the piece features the Quartet joined by Wu Man on pipa (a Chinese plucked string instrument, similar to a lute) and vocals, with all musicians also playing a variety of percussion instruments, toys, and noisemakers. Kronos Artistic Director and Violinist David Harrington says, “No composer has been as much a part of Kronos as Terry Riley. We first met at Mills College in 1978, and he has written 23 works for us so far. We knew Terry was turning 70 in 2005, and it seemed like a perfect time to commission another new piece from him. I was sure he would spend the time and take the care needed to bring his knowledge of the pipa up to the point where he could write an amazing work, and over a period of more than a year, he learned about the instrument from Wu Man. “One day I was talking with him and he said he wanted this piece to be ‘magical.’ My granddaughter Emily was an infant at the time. We had little toys and noisemakers around the house, which we would play as I carried her around. Of all the experiences I’ve had, that is the most magical. ‘Why don’t you just come over, and we’ll play some of Emily’s toys?’ I said. So he brought over his computer and recording equipment, and we played all of her toys while she was taking a nap.”
Riley adds, “In this work, the different timbre and resonance of the Chinese pipa and the Western string quartet highlight the crossover regions of cultural reference, so that the Western musical themes might be projected with an Eastern accent and vice-versa. My plan was to make these regions seamless so that the listener is carried between worlds without an awareness of how he/she ends up there.”The Kronos Quartet with special guest Wu Man are presented by Louth Contemporary Music Society in association with Louth County Arts Office and Dundalk Arts office. The performance of Ghost Opera and the Cusp of Magic is funded by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and financially supported by the Dundalk Arts Office, the Louth Arts Office and Fáilte Ireland.
Tickets €20 on sale from www.centralticketbureau.com
0818 205 205 UK: 0870 850 2896 International: ++353 1 8721122An Tain Theatre Box Office Crowe St, Dundalk.
Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential ensembles of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 45 recordings of extraordinary breadth and commissioning more than 600 new works and arrangements for string quartet. Kronos’ work has also garnered numerous awards, including a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and “Musicians of the Year” (2003) from Musical America.
00 353 42 9392919.
Email: antain@dundalktown.ie
Saw an article in the indo, Young flock back to live in capital's inner city, it's about the study from UCD about the population distribution in Dublin, how the 'burbs are losing people and the younger population are staying in apartments in the city. The following caught my eye:
Most non-nationals live in the inner city, with 35pc of Asian or Asian-Irish people living around O'Connell Street, Parnell Street and Gardiner Street
(Source: Irish Independent online)
I've never heard of David Choi, but I saw him in one of the pics from Happy Slip's twitpic, and since I know who Kev Jumba is anyway. David Choi's music is not bad at all, check it out below:-
Found this in the paper this morning, the 10 dream wedding locations and 2 Chinese locations were featured.
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINAThis one's in Hong Kong.Get married right alongside the Great Wall of China on the rooftop of the Commune, a collection of contemporary villas designed by 12 Asian architects and run by the Kempinski hotel group. Exchange vows with views of the Wall tapering away from you and the mountains beyond. Receptions are held in the Club House, which can seat up to 500. Smaller parties are served contemporary Chinese food by a butler in a villa or chalet.
Where: Near the Shiguan section of the Great Wall of China, 50km, from the outskirts of Beijing.
For bookings email: reservations@commune.com.cn
INTERCONTINENTAL, HONG KONGSay "I do" on the terrace of the newly completed Presidential Suite at the Intercontinental Hotel, which has great views of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island. With five bedrooms, Duplex living room and wrap-around terrace with a rooftop infinity swimming pool, the suite is one of the plushest in the Far East.
Where: Intercontinental Hotel, 18 Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong (00 852 2721 1211; www.hongkong-ic.intercontinental.com)
(Source: The Irish Independent online)
Update on my last blog about changes in the Chinese written language, Simplified, that is.
This this NYT is more focussed on people who are forced to change their names as their names are not on the list.
(Via New York Times and thanks to my friend, Kieran who pointed it out.)
The irony of it though, China will be releasing a new list of characters instead of re-training millions of Mianland Chinese people Traditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese, as name suggests, has less strokes than Traditional Chinese, in effect losing some of the meanings of characters/ideographs.
I don't know how to read/write Chinese as fluently as I can speak Cantonese, but I can read more than I can write (self-taught), and it's all Traditional Chinese. I have always wondered how people understand Simplified, as there are so many Chinese words out there and some characters are down to 3 strokes. Even my mom, aunts (here and in Hong Kong) sometimes find it difficult to read, they have to have it in context and guess the meaning. So in the end, Simplified Chinese may have caused more confusion than anything else.
I'll try and find out more about this list, and post an update on it.
(via Irish Times)
Just caught The wonderful world of Albert-Kahn, it's all about his amazing collection photographs (colour) taken over a century ago. He's wealthy and sent photographers with the latest camera equipment to capture images from 40 countries, and tonight I watched a documentary about his photos of Japan from 1908. Very impressive.
Seems like BBC4 has a Japanese season, and well worth to catch it. They have some great shorts like the Japanese word for baldness is barcode head, or the Japanese word for legs that turn to jelly after walking up long flights of stairs is called laughing knees. Pity that we cannot view it on their site, if you are not in UK, that is. See Japanese Word of the Day.
More info:
* BBC 4 Hidden Japan
Ireland week begins on March 7th to March 15th in Shanghai.
There would be dancing, drinking, music, literature and other exhibitions.
The opening ceremony on March 7 will take place at the Don Gallery with the launch of the "Fables" exhibition. Photographs by contemporary Irish and Chinese photographers will be on display until March 29. The exhibition was well-received in Ireland.
Did anyone see this exhibition? Interesting to get people's opinion on it. Their Paddy's day parade on March 14th sounds great:
Shamrock-covered "green dragons" and two "Celtic tigers" will rush along the parade route, joined by 20 groups of dancers, musicians, marching bands, sporting groups, university students and company representatives.
I wonder how our one this year fare against that? Great to see the festive spirit being revved up in China.
Saw my uncle on TVB main evening news yesterday, talking about developments in Lam Tsuen near the Wishing Tree. Since I am on the subject of the wishing tree, just saw this in BBC News online piccies section.
More about Wishing Tree in Lam Tsuen here
By the way, there is another wishing tree (I think know as lovers tree). My aunt told me to make a wish regarding my love life, as in, I want to get married soon. Guess what, I was engaged soon after that back in Ireland. I know, it's all just coincidence, but it's a nice story to tell.
Yes, for the 15th year in a row. Followed "by Singapore, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand".
(Source: The Associated Press)
An architect, Gary Chang, in Hong Kong renovated his old 334 sq. ft. flat he and his family use to live in, from a cramped multi-roomed space into 24 functional rooms with the use of sliding partiitions. Ingenious, and he's been through four renovations and the current one will not be his last, as he admits that it's an "ongoing experiment". Read more...
(Source: The New York Times online)
This is a great idea, should have this in the Republic as well.
Here's the article:
Northern Ireland Environment Minister Sammy Wilson's pre Christmas initiative came as a result of the increasing number of foreign nationals living and working in Northern Ireland.
They cd is available in Polish, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Chinese. Not sure which Chinese though.
Just saw this article.
It includes irreplaceable objects from the Ming Dynasty, Tibetan Buddhist paintings and rare prints and regarded by experts as one of the most important Asian collections in Europe.
The collection has been on display since November 13th. More information at National Museum's website.
Got this from Fusion View's tweet. It's an article called The generation facing its first recession. How will they cope? I have to say, I've grew up with hardly any toys when I was really, really young as my parents were in their early 20s and had alot of stuff to sort out in the restaurant and bills to pay. As I grew up, I noticed I was getting toys, okay, maybe some stuff I wished for never arrived on chrissie day, but I've mostly got what I wanted. I was lucky, still not as lucky as my younger brothers and cousins, and all those kids who definitely got what they want... and not just for chrissie day. Money is like loo paper I suppose for that generation. I've moved out to work in Dublin, rented in crap places, then was able to afford to move to nicer accommodations and now married to a wonderful guy who is very supportive since I gave up my work over a year ago to go back to college and now figuring what I am to do with myself. Although we are renting, which means no negative equity, and is a tremendous relief. We are looking for a place of our own, and it'll be interesting the next 6 months to a year and see what happens with the property prices. I'm on the lucky side of the recession so far. Now I'm just waiting to see what comes out of this budget tomorrow from the Minister of Finance.
I am sure the younger generation who are attending college and are living at home don't really feel the pinch (as in the article, the attitudes would probably be the same). I am certain that the kids that are living away from home are feeling the pinch though, rent, food, bills, college (not including going out). It'll be interesting to see the IBCs point of view regarding the current credit crunch.
Saw this from one of my friend's postings in Facebook. It might make you miss HK more and also how easy it is to make a nice video with something as simple as a handicam.
Teaser Trailer:
Now the 3 eps:
Wong Fu Productions website: http://www.wongfuproductions.com
From Fusion View's tweet, he pointed out that Singapore's Prime Minister showed the use of Qik on a live broadcast. Pretty cool, huh? Wonder what will it be like in Ireland if our Taoiseach did something similar?
Saw Fusion View's Tweet about watching the Olympics online, with coverage from NBC and BBC. Irish tv network also have live broadcasts at their RTE site. Youhave to give credit to RTE, they have made leaps and bounds with streaming live video and audio to everyone online.
It's nice to see the Chinese getting into the whole Olympic mood, like the Chinese in Dublin (The Irish Times online).
Flags, friendship and a buffet of traditional cuisine were the order of the day as over 100 members of the Chinese community, as well as a host of friends from elsewhere, gathered in the Melody Bar and Restaurant on Capel Street to mark the event in style.
I, myself, only watched as far as the Irish atheletes arriving out into the stadium, it was a very long procession of countries, my excuse... to get back to my thesis project. It was a great ceromony though, can see so many people put so much work into it.
In other news, babies and couples tying the knot was the big thing on 08/08/2008 (including the chef working in my family's restaurant down in Limerick).
Between midnight and midday yesterday, there were 35 births. Only 13 were natural deliveries, with the remaining Caesarean sections to ensure that most auspicious and treasured of babies - an Olympic baby.
A record number of people got married - 16,400 couples from Beijing's eight districts and, when you factor in the suburbs, 20,000 couples.
It's amazing what superstition does to Chinese people.
If you cannot catch the series Rhodes across China, you can still check out the recipes, or the videos.
Just came across this blog entry. She found of the places she has experience working in, Ireland was one of the nicest without much of the prejudices such as
In France, the discrimination is so obvious. Chinese are better than Arab but still they would hint to you how 'shameful' to be Chinese. Even those so-called intellectual would ask you from time to time, do you eat dogs?
It's great to see that someone's who enjoyed working in Ireland, and found discrimination less than other countries, according to her, it's equal!
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.
It's approaching, when? On the 28th Sept. Over here we just eat (well, I don't really) mooncake. The Mid-Autumn Festival is not as big here as Far East. There's festivals going on in Hong Kong.
I remember when I was younger, my mom bought me some lanterns (battery-operated ones), not sure was it from London Chinatown or from Hong Kong. Hmm, but just read this on the HK gov site about dangerous toy lanterns warning.
But year in year out, not much else goes on here in Ireland.
Mentioned on the IBC board, but thought I would blog as well.
Reception of wine and Chinese food after 2.30pm showing of Zhou Yu's Train on Saturday Sept 25th at the IFI hosted by the Asian Institute.
Free entry to Asian Institute raffle of books and Chinese movie DVDs.
Yes, tis a film, and it has been announced that it won the Temple Bar Diversions Festival Short Film Award.
Cool! Bi-lingual stories at sohu.com is a type of thing I would like on this site. Although I cannot read Chinese, so it's annoying (for me) to click on the link to see what it's about. But other than that I think it is rather cool.
It's good to see that even in rural town in China, and internet café is doing well. Having the right people to show that technology is useful. The initial hope is to provide practical information to the farmers.
But not just Britain, but Denmark and Ireland are excluded from the Chinese government deal with EU allowing Chinese tour groups to visit the 25 EU member states. The London Sheraton Park Tower has added Chinese channels to their hotel rooms.
BBC news points that the dragon boat charity event today was for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Shaolin martial arts center built in Hong Kong are offering courses for those who want to learn some kungfu.
Yup, as part of their Chinese Festival of Arts And Culture In Ireland 2004, the IFI are showing some Chinese flicks.
A very interesting perspective of Shanghai, it's not what you expect culturally. The importance of Chinese to Ireland is noted, but also equally also like to have Irish students going to Shanghai.
Hong Kong Family Firm Behind Next DreamWorks Hit, wow, this is so cool. HK has so many cool animation courses, and I remember seeing some stands at the games expo in HK.
Deng Xiaoping - greatest man in 20th century, and funnily enough, my dad was talking about him over the weekend. And he said what made him so powerful was the way he dealt with things for the good of the country, with this one famous phrase
"I don’t care if the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice"
(Read more History)
UPDATE - 22 August 2004
Chinese Advocates of Reform Seek Help From Deng's Spirit
Wow, this is so cool to see Chinese astronomy records as far back as AD 36 to the Perseid meteor shower.
Chinese tourist groups to be allowed to visit 27 European nations (Xinhuanet news). This is brill news.
Chinese hand-writing recognition view from Gizmodo. Oh since I am on the subject of Chinese stuff, check this NEC's touch-panel only phones specifically released for the Chinese market.
2004 Hong Kong Shopping Festival from 26 June to 31 August. That is cool! I am there for that! Considering I am there as a tourist (heh!). Well, I have friends there for the first time as well, that is my excuse.
...if you are wondering, yesterday was Japanese exams for Leaving cert students. Wonder when the Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) will make it here, since there are Chinese courses in UK, AS GCE in Chinese and Advanced GCE in Chinese. Would there be enough interest in this subject? Would anyone who are Irish born Chinese be interested in this?
That elusive croc in Yuen Long! It's captured earlier this month, and is now in Kadoorie farm. Check ot some drawings by kids of the croc.
Kadoorie farm page - http://www.kfbg.org.hk/
China Ireland Cultural Festival
Details tbc. www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie/pdfs/china ireland brochure.pdf
Asian Movies at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
Internal Affairs, starring Andy Lau: July 5, 8pm. www.mermaidartscentre.ie
Irish Chinese Cultural Society
All events start 8pm at United Arts Club, 3 Upr Fitzwilliam St, Dublin 2. (www.ucd.ie/~iccs)
June 23: Dr Jin Di, translator of Ulysses into Chinese
June 26: Birr Castle & Demesne (starts 2pm at demesne entrance)
For all you lucky people in HK on these dates [30th July - 3rd Aug], you can go to the HK comicfest 2004 at Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. Comics, games.. you name it. I, unfortunately will be back to work by then. :(
More summarised info on this at the Travel Channel page, cos there was no dates that I could see on the official page.
But there are other things on... check it out at discover HK's What's on page. Not sure if I want to go the the Ocean Park Summer Splash!
...before I head to Hong Kong for my holidays. It's not too hot there.. ok it's 27° celcius and it's pissing rain here in Dublin (with a bit of sun). But I know it will hit over 30° celcius by the time I get there in July. Well, it's a computer modal of forecasting 12hours to 72hours of weather. I think it is pretty nifty.
Really cool to read about China's first complex machine to create jewellary.
This would be great for folks heading to HK in June. Walk for a greener Hong Kong! But you need to get your applications in early!
Forgot to mention this, wikipedia is a free online knowledgebase for anything, yes, and online encyclopedia essentially. It's great for alot of info at your fingertips. Anyone can contribute. But I found that entries on Tai Po a bit scarce. I will need to dig up more information and see if I can add more. Wikipedia is great, even has an entry on Hakka.
Saw this article in Dim Sum. I viist this site every so often (and also this was the site that inspired me to start this site. :) ) Well, as I was saying, this article, Perspective - Save Chinese Catering, really shows that the stress if EU clampdowns on labour is hurting the Chinese restaurants on both sides of the water. People want ethnic Orientals to serve them in restaurants, and ethnic Orientals to be the chefs, cooks, porters etc. in the kitchen, and yet all these laws prevents hiring of these folks. In an Italian place, you expect Italians for example. It's authenticity. Well, have a read, and the feeling in the article can be duplicated here in Ireland. But what can we do, but back to the hard times and knuckle down and bear with it as usual.
So Brazil wants to break into China with its coffee. Chinese drink alot of tea, mainly for healthy reasons (aid digestion, hung over, nicer skin, lose weight etc...) They'll have to come up with some good campaign ideas to woo Chinese to take up coffee drinking.
My blog entry China ready for the coffee culture
From the previous entry, just gonna list some blogs that I will be visiting every so often... heh, I already have feed to Big White Guy's blog.
- HK Blogs
- ordinarygweilo.com
- Not the SCMP
- Bat gung
Ooh, I have to go and see this. Since it will be on till June 26th, I won't get a chance to see them (I am there in July :( ). More info at the HK government information site. And of course the official site is at : http://www.united-buddy-bears.com/
Saw in the Indo's breaking news today - Chinese PM to sign tourism agreement with Ireland. That sounds cool! Did a bit of a search, and found the following:
- http://www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie/What%20We%20Do/arts/wwd_a_china.htm
- Speech by John O'Donoghue TD Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism
And also, Forthcoming Exhibitions at Irish Museum of Modern Art - Chinese Group show 13 October - mid January 2005 I'll definately be going to that. I
Also created topic on this at IBC messageboard, check it out and feel free to comment.
online.ie: news - Festival of Irish culture and art underway in China
...today by the Belfast Telegraph, titled "Life according to... Gerry Anderson - What about giving the Chinese a bit of credit, eh?. Um, not sure what to think. I think he is giving credit to a book, "1421: The Year China Discovered the World", that is out now (I saw it at my local bookstore today andwas tempted to get it). I also think he is a smoker, given his biaseness towards the no smoking ban, his language is a little rough, but to the point I suppose. ;) Just thought it was interesting to share...
Some up and coming attractions in HK. The new cables car, new theme parks. HK is so small, just amazed at how they can plan and fit all this in!
Plus, for folks who are curious on Chinese culinary history, you can go see it at The HK Heritage Museum in Shatin.
You IT savvy? This looks really interesting to me. Might have a look-see when I am in HK with my BF this summer. Sounds and looks better than our Dublin's Digital Hub. Buzzwords ahoy on the site though. And postgrad courses... All looks interesting indeed.
Ok, now the contact got back to me recently, so I have been updating what is going on there under IBC forum's Information for Chinese People
Ok, I have written 2 articles here on HK people being materialistic (kaykays's search result onsite on "materialistic").
But this article shows something that is very impressive indeed - HK Ferrari fanatics gather for world's largest parade - and all for a good cause., Po Leung Kuk.
Anyhow... there's a Canadian teacher and she's Cantonese. She teaches origami and also cutting paper into lovely shapes. It's held in Kilmainham, the Modern Art Museum of Ireland (I think that's what it's called). It's very unorganised however it's very interesting.. problem is though.. it's only for really small kids cause it gets a bit boring after a while...
Contact me if you want more info on this!
BBC online - Chinese parents and kids fight over new year gifts, not really a problem with me personally. I only get Lai Sees from parents and relatives anyway. Nothing to hide. ;) Can do what I want, preferably save it (heh).
Ok, this is satire, like the Irish Phoenix magazine and the British Private Eye. So please don't be narrow-minded when you go to get the sneak peak at Hong Kong's new English satire magazine, Spike magazine. It's very cynical, I glanced at the Chinese New Year article.
I would love to subscribe, but I would get a copy first and see what it is like.
Wish I was in HK like I was last year.... :(
The lightings were better this year as well! Here are the events for HK - Holiday fun in HK (discoverHK).
Anyway... Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!
It's probably going to be an annual thing. Food, music the works... celebrating Chinese new year, and everyone can go. Here are some info:
Dublin.ie - Chinese new year 2004
Dublin tourism - Chinese New Year Festival
Discussion at IBC board - Chinese Festival 2004
The Web : Asia Weblog Awards 2003 - All I can say.. go Big white guy.
Since my relations are in Tai Po, I found this article from www.news.gov.hk, a new giant floral display at Tai Po Waterfront Park. Cool. Wish I was there to see it.
Hong Kong is opening Avenue of Stars in the second quarter of next year. The walk will be constructed on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront promenade. (Article from news.gov.hk)
Look at all the events happening in HK!
Saw the Strato-Fantasia on yesterday on TVB direct news feed on TVB-Europe. Looks much better then the little annoying gif that is on the page. Looks huge as well. My bro is in HK, maybe he gets a chance to check it out.
Now this is high!!! Check out the company that completed it (course it's Sun Hung Kai), their press release: SHKP News - Hong Kong's tallest building Two IFC is completed If I did not read it wrong, it took 3 years to build??? There are some pics here as well.
For more cool pics check out skyscrapers.com - Two International Finance Centre
Official site - http://www.ifc.com.hk/
Got "Traditional Chinese" and "Simplified Chinese" on my message board now. :D
Um, not that I will understand what people will be writing but I do have friends and relatives who can read Chinese... ;) Heh... the only thing is that I do not know how to type Chinese so I cannot test this. So feedback welcome!
I did not do any special drawings/cartoons, but I'll make a mention in the blog anyway, so "Happy Paddy's Day!".
The Chinese Association here in Ireland are participating in the St. Patrick's Day parade. It really goes to show how far Chinese has come along to be recognised in the Irish society. As I mentioned on my messageboard, if anyone has an pictures taken of the Chinese participation in the parade, feel free to send them along to me, and I will put them up on my site.
Should have added the link here, but I blogged it in my own personal blog. Here it is anyway - Asian Online Journal
I have always been interested in Chinese culture. Just because I am an IBC, doesn't mean I ignore my other half of my culture. I am Chinese as well, and proud of it. I have found a link to a site which has lots of links to other Chinese philosphical sites and story sites. It's not nice looking but at least it is a simple table... - All things Chinesey.
I have also been interested in Chinese novels. My parents have loads of them, and curious as I am, I cannot read them! I am trying to pick up Chinese ideographs, honest! But reading the gossip column in the Chinese newspaper we get here does not cut it. :) Here is my blog on my personal page - Chinese Novels.
Muzi.com - Global English-Chinese Bilingual Community
Ok, more sites:
Ever Heard Of Chinglish?
