Dragon Descendants - A Green World

Chinese New Year Factor

2012-01-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

Just yesterday, Eng Lye asked if I would be interested in watching Jay Chou's( 周杰伦) and Nicholas Tse's (謝霆鋒) latest action flick, The Viral Factor (inset). We had gone to Big Cinema in Taiping Sentral to book tickets for the following day but since there was a show on at half past nine, we decided to watch the movie then. Jay Chou, by the way, is the Taiwanese actor and singer who played Kato in the 2011 version of The Green Hornet while Nicholas Tse is the Hong Kong actor and singer who once dated Faye Wong and married Cecilia Cheung secretly in the Philippines. The two actors played brothers who had been separated for almost 20 years in the HKS200 million movie which was shot in various places including Hong Kong, China, Jordan and Malaysia. The movie which was released on 17 January has lots of actions and an interesting storyline and Eng Lye had expected that it would be difficult to get tickets. The cinema hall however, was just almost half full which made him slightly surprised. The film, I found is more exciting then Tom Cruise's latest Mission Impossible outing, Ghost Protocol and I thought the present lack lustre turn out was probably due to the coming Chinese New Year. Chinese all over the world will be ushering in the year of the Dragon come Monday 23 January and the Chinese probably are busy with last minute preparation and last minute shopping. Happy Chinese New Year then, everyone! May the year of the Dragon brings you lots of happiness!

A Number Game

2011-12-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

When Lim Guan Eng, ( 林冠英) (inset), the 4th Chief Minister of the State of Penang in Malaysia turned fifty one, he reportedly received a cake shaped in the number 4. Numbers, to some Chinese could be auspicious (吉利) or inauspicious (不利). Most of the time, it depends on the Chinese word that the number sounds similar to. It is auspicious if the numbers sound like the words which have positive meanings and inauspicous if they sound like the words with negative meanings. The numbers 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 are therefore auspicious because they rhyme with words that mean birth, I, fluid, prosper and longlasting. 4 and 7 are inauspicious because 4 sounds like death while 7 is more associated with the Ghost Month which is deemed unlucky. A kind and thoughtful person would therefore, not present you anything with the number 4.

Genetically Chinese

2011-11-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong actor, LiZhìtíng李治廷 (inset) who played Bruce Lee in the 2010 movie, Bruce Lee, my brother also goes with another unusual name, Aarif Lee. He was actually born Aarif Rahman and it is not surprisng since his father is part Malay, part Arab and part Cantonese. Aarif speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, English and German. In Malaysia, he would not be considered a Malay at all since Malaysia's Federal Constitution has it that a Malay is a person who among other things, professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language and conforms to Malay custom. A medical geneticist from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Professor Zilfalil Alwi said at the second Borneo History Seminar that the modern Malays in Malaysia just have 20 per cent Malay DNA. They have a little Proto-Malay, Semang and Indian DNA but the bulk, about 52 per cent of their DNA are actually Chinese in origin. Like Aarif Lee, you'd probably think of them as Chinese genetically.

Jimmy Lin Sr.

2011-10-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Some people probably could just appear once in your life and you'd remember him for a lifetime. Just take, Jimmy Lin Chong for instance. This Taiwanese singer is not to be confused with his younger counterpart, Jimmy Lin Chih-Ying who became an overnight superstar at the age of 17 with the release of his debut album, Not Every Love Song has Fond Memories (不是每個戀曲都有美好回憶). Jimmy Lin Chong was more a man of the 60s, having started his career in Taiwan in 1955. In 1962, he had gone to study in Japan. There, he was signed up by a Japanese film company Toho and became a big hit. In 1968, he became popular in Hong Kong too and he appeared in Shaws movies. I remember first seeing Jimmy Lin Chong in the 1969 Run Run Shaw produced movie, The Singing Thief' (inset) which he appeared with Lo Lieh, Lily Ho and Essie Lin Chia. When I saw him next, it was in a recent Hokkien variety show in TV. This time round, I was surprised to hear him speaking Hokkien. That probably would leave another impression...

Which Jimmy Lin would you identify with? Jimmy Lin Chih Yin or Jimmy Lin Chong?

Spoilt for Choices

2011-10-29T22:12:00.001-07:00

Not too long ago, someone recommended me to watch the latest version of Madam White Snake, this popular Chinese legend about a young scholar who falls in love with a thousand year old white snake who has taken on the form of a beautiful woman. Ching Siu-tung's 2011 movie version stars famed kungfu star, Jet Li and even has the corny title of It's Love which I thought is still as bad as the other title, The Sorcerer and the White Snake (inset). As it is, I did not watch the movie. Afterall, it is said the movie, even with all its special effects, pales when compared to Tsui Hark's Green Snake, the latter I had seen and enjoyed in 1993 when a friend and I frequented the now defunct Cathay theatre in Taiping. Besides, Hong Kong reportedly reacted negatively to the latest version and since the legend has always been a subject of films and television series, one would be spoilt for choices!

Which version of Madam White Snake would appeal to you?

Campaign

2011-10-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

There was something Singapore's former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew (inset) said that should be good food for thought. He had said in a mix of Chinese and English during a dialogue at the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention that if young Singaporeans were to give up the Chinese language, then they would have lost something valuable. Probably, he has been concerned about the declining proficiency of the younger set of Singaporean Chinese. The younger set of Chinese in neighbouring Malaysia however are rather different. Most, having had been to Chinese primary school could speak Mandarin and from there on, could switch on to other Chinese dialects easily, especially Cantonese which they probably would have picked up too from Hong Kong television series. Many learn to speak dialects like Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka from the older generations, their parents or grandparents especially while others pick up the Malay language from schools or their Malay friends and the smarter one would even pick up English later on in their working life. In Singapore, there used to be a campaign called 华语 Cool! (Huayu Cool!) to attract the young Singaporeans Chinese to learn and speak Mandarin. Probably, they should have one to encourage the older set of Singaporeans to speak Mandarin to their children too.

Bless Anita!

2011-10-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

The late Anita's Mui Yin Fong's pearl and diamond necklace and earrings reportedly drew the highest bid of some US$200,000 at the Sotheby's auction. Many people probably still remember Hong Kong's cantopop diva with the contralto voice and the outrageous costumes who had been dubbed the Madonna of Asia. The singer was also a well-known actress, appearing with Jacky Chan in Rumble in the Bronx and winning the Best Actress Award at the Golden Horse Film Festival for her role as a ghost in the haunting 1987 movie, Rouge. Anita Mui starred in over 40 movies over a 20 year period, taking on comedic and dramatic roles. Throughout her career, she was also actively involved in charitable projects, so much so that the Tibetan red-crown Shamar Rinpoche proclaimed that she had a true and the and the the mayor of San Franscisco proclaiming 18 April to be Anita Mui Day. Elsewhere in Toronto, Canada, 23 October 1993 is also ab Anita Mui Day. Bless Anita!

Incorrupt

2011-10-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

You'd think being incorrupt is a good thing considering that in Roman Catholicism, this is a sign that an individual is a saint. Being incorrupt by the way, means that the human body will not go through the normal process of decomposition. I suppose the idea is very different for the Chinese. Many years back, I heard of a rich young man who died in a helicopter crash. A number of his siblings died prematurely of various causes and there were rumours then that a senior member of the family was buried in an unfavourable spot and the body had not decomposed. For the Chinese, when an elder in the family dies and the body does not decompose, that would spell trouble for the descendants. So, you see in this sense, there is a difference between Westerners and Orientals. In Roman Catholicism, not every saint is also expected to have an incorruptible corpse and I'd suppose now that not everyone with an incorruptible corpse is a saint.

Meet the Incorrupt Saints: Saint John Mary Vianney

Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda

Saint Zita

Saint Virginia Centurione

Green Post: Go Green

2011-09-28T00:43:00.000-07:00

Greening the environment means there will be more plants and trees in our world to give shade and provide fresh sources of oxygen. Is this not a good reason for us to go green or can you think of a better reason for us to go green? Go green and never mind the dogs!

A Malaysian Tycoon

2011-09-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

Malaysia's richest man, Robert Kuok Hock Nien (inset), described to be media-shy and discreet, reportedly has great influence in China. The billionaire built China's first five-star hotels, Shangri-La and was among the first overseas Chinese entrepreneurs to help Deng Xiaoping when the latter announced China's reform in the 70s. Said to be worth around US $12.5 billion, the man has however, in a recent interview, said that he did not like money. He, however, hopes that his companies make profits so that all the employees would have bonuses. He was also of the opinion that many people were cleverer than him. That's really one down-to-earth tycoon!

Chinese Educated VS English Educated: Not A Simple Life

2011-09-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday, someone told me that Deanie Ip (inset), the Cantopop singer from Hong Kong had won an award at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. The singer and Cantopop king Andy Lau as well as well-known Hong Kong director, Ann Hui, were earlier reported walking the red carpet in Venice and were rubbing shoulders with Hollywood heavyweights. Then, I was much caught up by what Hollywood legend Al Pacino had said during his speech there: What am I doing standing here, speaking in English? I'm an Italian for God's sake. Why am I speaking in English? I wish I knew how to speak in Italian because it's inside me, you know. Incidentally, someone else had also mentioned to me earlier about Chinese children in Malaysia having to go through the hard job of mastering three languages in school, namely English, Malay and their own language, Mandarin. Not refuting the importance of Mandarin, the latter had said that as far as the local scenario is concerned, English is the language that could get you places, get you far even. Sometimes, I thought it was a matter of having the proper intelligence or not; or perhaps, if you are black or white that could get you ahead. Al Pacino, in his speech, makes me think about one's roots and identity. Perhaps, it makes sense then that when one reaches one's final destination, one would start looking for roots. Sometimes, it would be too late. It's not too late though to say that Deanie Ip won the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for portraying the role of Sister Peach in the Ann Hui's directed Hong Kong movie, A Simple Life.

A Different Moon cake Festival!

2011-09-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year again - The Mid-Autumn Festival or Zhongqiu Festival. This is a popular harvest festival celebrated by not just Chinese but the Koreans and the Vietnamese as well. The festival dated back to the Shang Dynasty in China over 3000 years ago when people were said to be practising moon worship. I suppose Chinese pray to the moon, believing that there is a goddess called Chang Er there. I suppose a temporary altar where all the offerings are laid will be constructed and joss sticks and candles burned for the goddess. I remember seeing that at least once when I was a kid but things probably must have changed since Appollo 11. Apollo 11, if you remember was the spaceflight which landed the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr on the moon. Come to think about it, it could be a shame that progress sometimes put an end to a harmless celebration that brings about family togetherness. Now, what do you think?

National Treasure

2011-08-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

Who has, at over fifty, been voted one of the ten hottest idols by a gay and lesbian organization? It is not Matrix's Keenu Reeves, of course; the latter being born in 1964, is barely fifty. You'd probably not have guessed this but we are talking here about a female actress who specializes in male roles, playing emperors, aristocrats, warriors, beggars and sending many a female fans' hearts fluttering. Female fans reportedly crowded around the TV studio bearing fancy gifts and creating traffic jams because of this Yang Li-hua (楊麗花)(inset), superstar of Taiwanese opera and a sort oTaiwan's f living national treasure of sort. I remember probably about two decades or more ago, when CDs or DVDs were not the norm,her VHS tapes were circulating around among the Chinese communities in Malaysia, in Phillipines and elsewhere even. Needless to say, my parents were ardent fans and Mother even went to the extent of going to Penang with her friends to watch her live performance, paying as much as a hundred bucks, which was a big deal then, to sit at the front row. I still remember the yellow cap with a picture of Yang Li-Hua which she had proudly displayed on the wall and I remember Yang Li-Hua again especially when one of her old series 'Butterfly Lovers' plays currently on paid TV.

Watch Yang Li-Hua performs...

Make a date with Hell!

2011-08-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

Close your eyes and listen to Tze Bei Guan Yin Centre leader, Master Kek Eng Seng's instructions. You are about to go for a tour in the netherworld! It is the Hungry Ghost Festival and in Penang, Malaysia, Master Kek who studied Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism as well as fortune-telling and with 28 years of experience in spiritual matters under his belt, would be conducting a trip to Hell. Participants would get to interact with their long gone loved ones and friends, tour the streets of hell and even witness how torture is conducted there. The tour which will be held at Padang Brown from 8.30pm to 10.30pm on Aug 27 could only accomodate one hundred people. Count yourself lucky if you get to be in the tour!

Images

2011-08-08T00:49:00.001-07:00

In ancient times, people perhaps, get intrigued with images which appear in linen cloth as in the case of the Turin Shroud (inset) which is kept in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. The shroud has the image of a man who appears to have suffered the physical trauma of being crucified. In modern times, a group of friends in Malacca took some pictures and got a shock to find images that looked like a paper ghost. A photography expert however said the images could just be some reflection from a glass window. The group of friends had taken the pictures when they were conducting prayers at a roadside. Chinese often conduct prayers at the roadside for wandering ghosts during the month of the Hungry Ghost . According to a famous exorcist and feng shui guru Master Szeto Fat-ching from Hong Kong, the offerings placed on the streets for the ghosts should not be taken by the public and the the practice itself is not to be made fun of. Don't say you have not be warned!

Green Post: Green Fun

2011-08-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Keeping the environment green could be fun! In Penang, Malaysia, 33 Methodist Girls' School (MGS) students threw 2,000 mud balls into the sea along Gurney Drive. The mud balls were not ordinary mud balls. Microorganisms in them will slowly leak out and within five days, the microorganisms will decompose the organic waste in the sea bed. You would expect less or no sludge in the sea along Gurney Drive in future! Good for Penang!

For the Same Reason

2011-07-31T22:23:00.000-07:00

When I went to Taiping Sentral on Sunday, I happened to meet a friend who asked me if I know of anyone who could teach French. My friend's daughter had wanted to learn French and I asked aloud, why French, of all languages. For me, it is always better to learn Tamil since there is a large Indian population here and Thai would be the next best. There are local Thais living in little Thai villages and while a number of them could speak Chinese, particularly, the Hokkien dialect, Thailand is not too far away in the north and learning Thai would come in handy when one is to visit Haadyai or Bangkok. My friend's daughter said French is an international language and it would do good to learn it. I suppose learning Mandarin would be good too then, the latter being an international language too; but that aside, I wonder now if my friend's daughter could speak Mandarin. It would not surprised me if she, like some people, places English high up the pedestal and refuses to learn Mandarin, even giving French an honourable second position as the next language to be learned. French is not even spoken here. Without being prodded, my friend went on to add that it would help if the family would to migrate. In 1991, the Chinese community made up 28.1% of Malaysia's 18.38 million population and in 2000, they made up 26% of the country’s 23.27 million population. Chinese analysts attributed the decline to the community’s preference for small families, marrying late, women professionals opting to remain single and migration. My friend had cited a difficult life for wanting to migrate. I thought that would sum up for everyone.

Lady with a Hat

2011-07-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

If you are talking about a lady with a whip, you'd probably think of Ann-Margret, the star of the 1964 movie, Kitten with a whip, or even Argentina's political leader, Eva Perón who was featured in the 1952 book, Woman with the whip or even Lady Gaga who presented Beyonce a diamond-studded whip on her birthday; but this is lady with a hat or rather hats - Fong Fei Fei, the Taiwanese singer who always appear on stage with a variety of hats. The lady has been in the entertainment business for 40 years and her hats which exceeded 600, are systematically numbered in a computer database. I remember having seen a tear-jerker which Fong Fei Fei starred in, Chu Lien in which former Asian movie king, Ker Chung Hsiung played a bad guy. Then, of course, I also remember reading about her being robbed at home and having stripped naked and had her photo taken. Fong Fei Fei was most popular as a singer and a variety show host in Taiwan during the 1970s and 80s and some of her evergreen songs had been performed by Jam Hsiao, Fish Leong and Chyi Chin. Not bad for the lady with a hat!

Enjoy some of Fong Fei Fei's songs now, won't you?

Weird Names

2011-07-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

David Duchovny of X-files and his wife, Tea Leoni called their son Kyd which doesn't sound so bad if you consider some other Hollywood celebrities calling their children weird names like Sage Moonblood, Buddy Bear Maurice, Poppy Honey Rosie, Daisy Boo Pamela, Destry and even Petal Blossom Rainbow. Celebrities purportedly give their children weird names to stay in the limelight. You'd probably think then that normal people would not give their children weird names too but eons ago, I have read in the local papers about Chinese parents giving names as strange as alpha, beta and gamma to their children and a Chinese boy somewhere in Malaysia even got to be called Jebat Arjuna or something as strange as that. It would be understable if the Chinese boy is an Indonesian as the law there requires that an Indonesian Chinese must have an Indonesian name. Widow of the late kung fu star Alexander Fu Sheng, Jenny Tseng reportedly, for her sheer love for music, had named her daughter Melody. It made one wonder then if parents who give their children weird names actually love them. You'd also wonder if Hong Kong stars, Nicholas Tse aka Tse Ting-fung and his wife Cecilia Cheung (inset) will call their son, Quintus a little queen...

Hospital with a Past

2011-07-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

During the 9 July Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur, protestors reportedly ran into the compound of Tung Shin Hospital to seek refuge from the tear gas that was fired near Jalan Pudu. Tung Shin Hospital, formerly called Pooi Shin Thong, was founded in 1881 by Kapitan Cina Yap Kwan Seng. The hospital used to provide Chinese traditional medical care for patients but nowadays, do provide Western medical services as well. The hospital aims to render health services to the general public irrespective of race, creed or religion and even provide free medical treatments to poor patients, making funeral arrangements for those patients who have no next of kin even. Chinese have set up other hospitals in Malaysia as well. Most notable perhaps is Penang's Lam Wah Ee Hospital, the brainchild of some Chinese community leaders. Lesser known would be Taiping's Chinese Pauper hospital. Used to be called Yong Wah Hospital, the hospital was established in 1880 and was in fact, the first to be established in the Federated Malay States. The hospital was to treat the Chinese coolies and tin-miners then and charged a minimum fee of 50 cents per annum. The hospital faced financial difficulties and by the end of the year 1880, the State Government took over the hospital and renamed it Taiping General Hospital (inset).

Shu Qi's Lips

2011-06-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, I watched the 2-D version of the movie Fast and Furious 5 in the local cinema in Taiping and the normal version in Kuala Lumpur some time later. Each time, I thought Shu Qi was in the first instalment of the action series when actually she was in a French blockbuster, The Transporter which was co-directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen, the latter, a famed Hong Kong actor, filmmaker and producer. The Fast and Furious movies were directed by Justin Lin, a Taiwanese growing up in America. Shu Qi, incidentally is also a Taiwanese and at the age of 17, had moved to Hong Kong to carve a career in the softcore porn modelling industry, appearing in Penthouse Hong Kong and the Chinese edition of Playboy magazine, before finally graduating in softcore Hong Kong movies like Sex & Zen II. Shu Qi is particularly conspicuous with her bee-stung lips and you'd think her lips would keep her forever in the porn industry, never perhaps thinking that she would have made it big in mainstream Hong Kong movies like Viva Erotica, for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award and she even appeared in two of fellow Taiwanese, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's movies, the critically acclaimed Millennium Mambo which won the Technical Grand Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and Three Times, the movie which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Shu Qi and her pouting lips had definitely come a long way!

Would you opt for Bette Davis's eyes, Barbara Streisand's nose, Sophia Loren's cheeks or Shu Qi's lips?

Chinese Sayings

2011-06-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

*Water and words are easy to pour but impossible to recover.

*A genius always presents himself as a fool

*There is no wave without wind.

* A smile will gain you ten more years of life.

*If you don't go into the cave of the tiger, how are you going to get its cub?

Circus

2011-06-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

Probably, children today cannot scream: The circus comes to town!; at least, not children in Malaysia. It would not be surprising if many do not know what a circus is too considering that the circus never comes to town these day and whatever circus one probably sees is just from the idiot box. A circus, by the way, is a travelling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, jugglers, tightrope walkers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists. Their acts are often performed in a big tent called the big top, more specically in a circular arena called a ring which has tiered sitting around it.Foreign circuses had come to perform in Malaysia before, more notably The Royal Circus of India which had in fact made its way toTaiping a long time ago. Foreign acts are actually a rarity. In the 60s and early 70s, there was actually a local Chinese circus that toured the whole country called Tai Thean Kiu which probably translates into the Great Circus of the World. I remember getting very excited to see a group of elephants marching into the little town of Batu Kurau in either 1969 or 1972. The circus had really come to town! The circus was to be held in Padang Astaka, a field near the local secondary school, SMK Dato Kamaruddin. A merry carnival atmosphere soon overtook the quiet place and villagers thronged the area to watch a rather polished act which had all the ingredients of an actual circus. Students even got to see the circus on concession tickets in the afternoon. The local Chinese circus toured other places after that and then no news was heard of it. Besides the idiot box, nowadays, stunts like those in the circus perhaps could only be seen on the streets...

Care for some circus?

An Interesting Story

2011-06-14T00:18:00.000-07:00

The local paper carries the story of Norazirah Abdul Ghapar, a Malay lady who once studied in a Chinese school, SJKC Chen Min in Klang. The lady had, as a result of her love for the Mandarin language, taken up Mandarin at the Federal Teachers Training College in Penang and had since become a teacher in a Chinese school, SJKC Pei Hwa in Alor Setar, Kedah. That Norazirah Abdul Ghapar made an interesting story in the newspaper is understandable. The majority of Chinese in Malaysia could not just speak their mother tongue, i.e their own Chinese dialect such as Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka or Teochew but many can speak Mandarin and one or two other Chinese dialects and English and Malay, too which they learn in schools or pick up from friends. Their Malay counterpart however is different. Most of them, especially those in the kampungs or villages could only speak one language whic is Malay. If there is an extra language, they could speak, most of the time, it is just English and perhaps Arabic. While many Chinese in Malaysia are multilingual, the Malays the most are bilingual and even that, their numbers can be counted. A Malay who could speak Mandarin is therefore news.

Happy Duan Wu Jie

2011-06-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

Just the other day, I was in Ipoh with my nephew and his friend. It was already half past eight and dinner should have long been over but then, we had just arrived in Ipoh after a gruelling trip from Kuala Lumpur to Sungai Besar, Teluk Intan, Sitiawan and now, here- Ipoh- the capital of Perak. My nephew's friend had wanted to take us to Pasir Pinji to savour the famous Nga Choy Kai, i.e. chicken with bean sprouts, a dish synonymn with the city but unfortunately when we arrived at the eating shop, it was closed! And why of course, it was Duanwu jie or the Dragon Boat Festival. Many Chinese eating shops are closed on this day since people will be eating zongzi (or zong) (粽子) at home. Duanwu jie, by the way is a festival which commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived during the Warring States period. The festival is celebrated each year without fail on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar and this year, it fell on 6 June. when we arrived home in Taiping on the night of 6 June, there was a big plate of zongzi. Happy Duanwu jie!