Irish Born Chinese

I just finished installing Movable Type 4!

2008-05-22T20:03:12Z

Welcome to my new blog powered by Movable Type. This is the first post on my blog and was created for me automatically when I finished the installation process. But that is ok, because I will soon be creating posts of my own!

Sichuan Earthquake Appeal 2008

2008-05-21T15:07:40Z

Sichuan Earthquake Appeal 2008, originally uploaded by whykay.

Sorry for the bad quality shots, took them with my mobile, did not have the D80 with me today.

There's a discussion at the IBC forum on various charities that are happening around Dublin. If there are other fund-raisings happening around the country, post it there. Of course, people can just donate to the Chinese Red Cross via redcross.ie.

Visible Chinese

2008-05-18T06:56:53Z

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 subjects

2. To Operate with Integrity
Candidates are carefully screened and selected
3. To Provide Recognition
Profiles will inform, celebrate and inspire

Dublin Airport in talks with Asian Airlines

2008-05-11T23:05:59Z

This would be very interesting indeed. For example, my mother normally flies to Hong Kong via London Heathrow from Shannon Airport. Handy for her, as she is only 20 minutes drive from Shannon Airport. Now, Aer Lingus pulled out from flying to Heathrow, plus they are not part of One World, therefore no direct transfer of luggage to HK anymore, so much for ease of travelling. And normally it's the flight prices were the best flying this route, it's all changed now. If these talks work out, this means flying via Dublin, but if it flies direct to the Far East, it'll be much handier. So fingers crossed (it'll be handier for me, for sure!).

[NEWS] Severe bus crash in HK

2008-05-01T22:21:49Z

Via the Beeb.

Meet ups in Ireland

2008-04-27T15:06:37Z

Paul Chiu has been trying to prod me to get meet ups going, but it has not been going according to plan. There are sites that communicates when met ups are available like meetup.com (subscription needed) and upcoming.org (free). I found over the years, it's just not working in Ireland, unless you really work hard at it, and a very specialised area, take one of the meet ups I organise called Python Ireland. We hold talks, or meet up in pubs once every month without fail, but it did stop for awhile and took quite a long time to get it going again, initially the group owner ended up sitting by himself in a pub for a few months, then we came along with a few others, now it's averaging over a dozen a month. Ireland must be one of the few places where meet ups are not working out, there are lots of cultural groups like Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Asian Professionals in meetup.com, yet, no one has organised any meet ups at all. Even the Mandarin meet ups were not that great, according to my Irish friend who attended some awhile back. Is this something to do with our society, I mean as a Cantonese Chinese being brought up here, or just being Chinese here? Why do we keep to ourselves? Is it partly something to do with being Irish as well, such as socialising, but there is an element of shyness. A bit contradictory, right? It's just so strange that is all, that Chinese here are so seggrated, maybe there is not enough of us in college, or working together? I really don't know. It's some sort of mentality that is keeping us all from meeting each other. Do I see a research project arising out of this?

Hoarding rice

2008-04-24T21:17:11Z

I tell ya, from my previous entries, people are definitely starting to hoard rice in the US. People are preparing for the worst, so panick-buying, and restrictions are applied to some consumers of some shops.

"I picked up as much as I could," Diep said as she hauled a dozen 50-pound bags of Super Lucky Elephant rice and 10 bags of 25-pound long grain into her van and her sister's sedan.

Hmm, over-reacting, aren't we?

Need mo' rice

2008-04-24T08:19:37Z

Just an example of what is hitting Asians overseas from the current crisis in relation to what will probably happen to me here in Ireland, hoarding of rice. I have mentioned it in my previous post. I suppose that is the least of my worries, as there are people in poorer countries suffering because they cannot afford rice which is part of their staple diet.

Another warning sign for us to bear in mind are dairy products. I noticed that people in China has developed a taste for dairy products, thus a fight for keeping up with demands of supplying dairy produce globally. In Japan, they mainly import their dairy produce from Austrailia, and they are struggling to cope. This article shows that simple needs like buying butter from shops is a problem. Obviously the shortage of grain (rice and wheat) is an issue over there as well, impact from droughts hitting exporting countries and use of grains to be turn to bio-fuel hits pockets as food prices increases hits consumers to bakeries and other food related-businesses.

I wonder will this encourage countries to grow their own food more?

Nice photos of HK from National Geographic

2008-04-20T11:55:53Z

See Photo Gallery: Hong Kong City Life (although I do not appreciate the link name on the first slide there).

Food savings (trying to anyway)

2008-04-20T11:49:41Z

I swear, the prices of food is sky-rocketing, it's not funny any more. I tend to buy a lot of fresh vegetables, some meat and fish, and it's hurting our pockets big time. Maybe some common sense might help here though instead of convenience. I also did not know that many Hong Kong's eateries will be out of business due to the food crisis over there. I take HK as an example just from talking to my mom over the weekend. It's an example of a country that is reliant on imports of everything, the rising value of the Chinese currency compared to the HK Dollar, it's really hurting the normal folks. My aunt in HK told my mom that cooking oil is up by 100% since last year, and buying from wet markets is just as dear as in supermarkets. Back home here, I don't even know what will happen to restaurants and takeaways that sells rice, given that some rice-producing countries have stopped exporting rice, will they be bulk-storing rice over here? I cannot imagine being without rice, I don't eat it everyday, but it's part of who I am. I grew up eating it as part of my staple diet, as with all Asian families.

So I suppose what I can only do here is shop smarter, which will help me stop buying crap and only get essentials. Supermarkets will probably have to work harder now, as I wouldn't be the only consumer trying to save on food spending.

A cycling jacket that changes colour

2008-04-14T23:45:54Z

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.

WTF? Jackie in Woolworths ad!

2008-04-10T19:41:07Z

Chinese School documentary on BBC Four

2008-04-09T00:03:31Z

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

A nice 3d animation coupled with Chinese painting

2008-04-06T21:19:38Z

Came across this via http://drawn.ca/2008/03/27/chinese-painting/ with their linkie to the video, see below:

Rice getting more expensive

2008-04-05T09:44:02Z

In Cantonese, we normally greet each other with "你食咗饭未呀?" (nei sik-zo faan mei aa?), in English it means "Have you eaten (rice) yet?". The reason being, back in history, there was a lot of widespread famine through out China, and Chinese would be very creative on how to make dinner from whatever food they find, including rice. So food is very important to Chinese people, that is why there are so many ways of just cooking chicken alone!

For most of the Chinese, rice is a regularly eaten with other dishes, I say most Chinese as other provinces might be regularly eat noodles instead of rice, for example. What I'm trying to say is that "食饭" (sik faan) basically means dinner. Even now that I reside in Dublin and I don't cook Chinese dinner that often, my mom would as me that question very early on in the phone conversation, and vice-versa.

What's worrying me is the cost of food going through the roof now, especially rice. Normally rice would be the most affordable, but with so much demand, will it going to be a luxury?