大只佬

I watched "Running on Karma" yesterday on TV8. I have to say there could be better ways to spend a Sunday night. The movie is a mix between oriental sci-fi and horror with a central theme of East Asian "cute" idealism - maintain world peace and don't kill people.

Andy Lau is "Big", a disgustingly muscular ex-monk who has the supernatural ability to see the "karma" - ex-life, cause and consequences, things like that - of anyone who's about to die. He helped cop girl Cecilia Cheung (Li Fengyi) capture murderers and saved her life multiple times. But Li's still gonna die because of bad karma in her last life as a Japanese soldier. Feeling indebted and amorous towards Big, Li decided to end her life in a meaningful way. She went into the mountains where Big used to dwell as a monk to try to look for a guy Sun Ko who killed Big's monk-time girlfriend, a Jade. Next she went missing, leaving behind a Blair-Witch-styled video showing up to herself getting dragged off and killed. Big went in search for her, did some excavation and uncovered her headless corpse; then turned around and saw the head hanging among leaves. After the cheap jump scares, the plot rapidly thickens. Big spotted Sun Ko but found later that they were the same people or something. Big didn't choose to kill Sun Ko, probably trying to end the "karma", so the latter disappeared. Next Big stayed in the mountains for 5 years and found the real Sun Ko, brought him back, and became a monk again. However, he has lost all his brawn.

Once again I who am not good at getting movie plots had not much clue to what the ending meant. It seems like a popular IMDB explanation amounts to something like: after Jade's been killed, Big split into two persona, the muscular Big who went to HK and was kind and helpful; and a crazy, hatred-filled Sun-Ko-like Big who remained in the mountains. It was the latter who killed Li and who confronted the muscular Big afterwards. Or Li wasn't really killed, but killed in the mind of the alter-ego of Big for the bad karma she suffered. Or Li was killed by the real Sun Ko but played out in the mind of the good Big as being killed by his alter-ego. Or "Wearing clothes you haven't washed for 5 yrs is just plain disgusting. "

Anyways... confusing and got scared for nothing. When will HK movies stop using cheesy special effects and jokes to get away away with the audience? There's always an immensely hopeful amount of plot-weaving in the first 30 minute after which everything just comes out in the open. Clues left around are either unconvincing or irrelevant. With this one they try to throw in a reasonably hopeful storyline (come to think of it isn't karma a topic that appeals to the western audience as well?) and be mysterious about it. To tell the truth, the ambiguity and symbolism might just got a little out of hand. Too much was left for interpretation. And Andy Lau is just not fitting for philosophical roles... He just looks too romantic. And all male leads in HK movies just cry out for romantic partners. Or is it just my prejudice?

For those who studied in Singaporean primary schools

I find back a little of me.

1. You grew up watching He-man, Transformers, Silver hawk and Mickey Mouse. Not to forget, Ninja turtles and Smurfs too.

I watched those in Chinese.

2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug. The teachers said you must brush each side 10 times too.

This I wasn't told. Am incorporating the skill now. Very useful really, to never slacken on teeth-brushing.

3. You know what's Bin(1) Fen(1) Ba(1) San(1) is all about.

No I don't.

4. You know what SBC stands for.

Yes.

5. You were there when the first chinese serial, the Awakening was shown on TV.

I was.. sort of there, when the re-run was shown on afternoons at 3 pm.

6. Internet? What the hell is that? So you thought a decade or more ago.

Hmm.

7. You find your friends with pagers and handphone cool in Secondary school.

Didn't have friends, with or without pagers and handphones, in Secondary schools.

8. SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats are made of wood and the cushion is red! The big red bell gives a loud BEEEP! when pressed.There are colourful tickets for TIBS buses. The conductor will check for tickets by using a machine which punches a hole on the ticket.

Oh yes! I used to wait dutifully for a non-airconditioned 197 everyday after school to save that 10 cents.

9. Your favourite actor and actress is Huang Wenyong and Xiangyun. Next is Lee Nanxing and Zoe Tay and the Aiyoyo woman.

Didn't have favourite actors and actresses. Still don't now. What's this - an iconoclast?

10. You've probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who's Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.

Nope.

11. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.

Missed it by 2 years. (The introduction in question took place in 92, no?)

12. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.

Wow really?

13. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.

Not I.

14. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street.

Didn't watch Sesame Street, English TV, or much TV in general.

15. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka(20 cents per pack) and Ding Dang(50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every week not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the lollipop is the diamond on the ring.

Had no clue about any of those. Not conditioned to spend money.

16. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.

Didn't watch cartoons or TV2.

17. All that you know about Cantonese is from the Hong Kong serials you watched on TV2.

Maybe.. Can't remember my impression of Cantonese before WD.

18. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven are probably the thickest story books you ever thought you have read. Even SweetValley High and Malory Towers.

Well I do read thicker Chinese books like the 四大名著. But, yeah, HB, NC, FF, SS I did read and rather made me a fan of Enid Blyton. Sadly most those storybooks are dumped copies savaged by mum. The SSs I received for some academic achievements.

19. Civics and Moral Education was “Hao3 Gong1 Min2”.

Yeah... so?

20. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates and let you use metal forks and knives.

I see. Was rather insulated from the fast food industry as well. In general insulated from all consumerism targetted at primary school kids or non-primary school kids or non-kids.

21. The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and THE MOST EXTREME WAS 'super white'...you just couldn't bring yourself to say the hokkien relative.

Didn't say any of those. Didn't really appreciate their significance then.

22. Catching was the IN thing and twist the magic word.

What's "catching" and "twist"?

23. Your English workbooks was made of some damn poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.

Believe it or not this provokes strong memory. It proves I'm really rather academically oriented - to remember well stuff regarding work. Or it proves that I really hadn't had the little subset of "life" designated for primary school kids.

24. CDIS was your best friend.

Is that the publisher of all the textbooks? How's that anywhere near being a friend? Oh wait it's the publisher of a lot of assessment books too. Yeah I did a lot of assessments, but then again those books were once again salvaged by mum from dumps so I have to spend hours erasing the previous kid's working. And invariably they used thick pencils and made deep impressions. And I mean DEEP. It wasn't unusual that I exhausted half an eraser for less than five pages; and still ended up writing in the ghostly shadows of ungainly curves and lines.

25. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.

Yes, I remember one or two such sessions. They were cute problems about fruits and friends and weren't as hard as I had expected. They were done in a big room with tall ceilings, and were the last classes of Fridays too. Gosh the memories.

26. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere you go.

I had used mineral water bottles instead.

27. Boys loved to play soccer with small tennis balls in the basketball court or play something that uses tennis ball to hit other players known as “HUM TAM BOLA” during recess /after school

Ok. No idea.

28. Hopskotch, five stones,chateh and zero point were all the rage with the girls and boys too...

Did that in China. The level of difficulty and complication in the latter two games are much higher in Chinese schools.

29. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most important plants of our lives.

Till this day I still have little clue of how balsam looks like. The most important plants of our lives start growing when we are little. The names that stick on my mind are 梧桐，白杨，桂花，月季，names back from a time when I wasn't at all confused about what they were about.

30. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our minds from the textbooks. Even Mr Wally.

Not Mr Wally. Other than that, how true. And how funny.

31. You did stupid exercises like seal crawl and frog jumps.

Not sure what they are.

32. Every children's day and national day you either get pins or pens with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or dumb files with 'Happy National Day 1994'.

Thought the gifts were pretty cool. I was still getting files even in secondary school.

33. In Primary six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big sister and brother.

I didn't have to. There probably weren't enough younger kids in my school.

34. Chinese teachers were always old, boring and damn fierce looking.

Actually, I've always found them kind and helpful. Oh well, Chinese has been a subject close to my heart.

35. Your form teacher taught you maths, science and english.

Yeah. The well-rounded quality was impressive.

36. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.

Really true. And emanating the fragrance of printing oil. I think if I get back to them they wouldn't've gotten any browner.

37. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.

How useful! How come nobody taught me that?!

38. Famous Chinese singers were only Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai.

There was 小虎队 too.

39. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.

Which had been an extremely awkward time for lunch for a person who had never eaten out till 20 years of age.

40. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday.

Oh yes. The mental sums. How I relished seeing the 10 out of 10. But it wasn't everyday though, sadly.

41. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $3 or more for pocket money everyday.

Was foreign to the concept of "pocket money".

42. During class gatherings, parents always tag along in case someone gets lost at Orchard Road.

There was no class gatherings, not on Orchard Road at least.

43. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to height! and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.

It was alright. Just did as told.

44. Handkerchiefs were a must for both genders.

Really? Thought tissue paper was the thing to use.

45. Collecting notebooks and all kinds of stationery was a popular thing.

I like doing that always.

46. Autograph books were loaded with “Best Wishes”, “Forget Me Not”, and small poems like “Bird fly high, hard to catch. Friend like you, hard to forget”.

How true and silly. Though had no autograph nor autographed anyone in primary school days. No wait I did try to compose a poem of my own in the same genre. It goes something like "You like sing, you like dance, wish you have a good advance." It could be due to its blatant grammatical flaws that it was nevered passed around and down to the primary school kids of today.

47. Class monitors and prefects loved to say “You talk somemore, I write your name ah!”

Oh well, I was never told that.

48. There were at least 40 people in one class.

For a school that closed down a year after I left, there were many less.

49. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.

I carried a huge black corduroy bag which was increasingly fraying at the bottom. My deskmate tried stapling the gap but it didn't work.

50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one thing called the timetable.

Didn't know that one thing called the timetable.

奔奔族：中国最“水深火热”族群

　　（北京讯） 中国网络最近热烈讨论一个年龄介于20至30岁的全新族群——奔奔族。
　　《信息时报》报道，奔奔族被称为“当前中国社会中最重要的青春力量”，他们一路嚎叫地奔跑在事业的道路上；同时他们又是中国社会压力最大的族群，身处于房价高、车价高、医疗费用高的“三高时代”。他们时刻承受着压力，爱自我渲泄表达对现实抗争。
奔奔族取代布波族
　　连日来，一则题为《奔奔族(1975～1985年出生的人)—中国社会压力最大、最水深火热的族群》的帖子，引爆各大网站论坛等社区的热烈讨论。奔奔族是现在网上最流行的名词，而此前现代城市最时髦的族群却是布波族(英文为Bobos)。
　　布波族是布尔乔亚(Bourgeois)和波希米亚(Bohemia)的缩写组合词，来自一本翻译引进的书《天堂中的布波族》，布尔乔亚和波希米亚这两种完全不同性质，甚至相互冲突的社会阶层混合在一起，构成了一个自相矛盾的布波族。
　　布波族既讲究物质层面的精致化享乐，又标榜生活方式的自由不羁和浪漫主义风度。大陆上的布波族完全是个先被虚构、后被制造而出的“族群”，它是西方生活方式在发展中国家的一个简陋投影。
　　而在今天，奔奔族迅速走红网络，取而代之成为现代城市最时髦的族群。他们甘当草根、为网络而生，他们玩命工作，痛快享乐，却由于承受巨大压力，不得不提前预支享受生活，他们特立独行张扬自我，却容易在香烟加可乐中得到满足。
　　网友taidou2004说，奔奔族虽然充满浪漫幻想，但与已经打拼多年、事业有成的布波族相比，最大的优势就是奔奔族自身青春的护照。他们对布波族的所谓小资情调嗤之以鼻，严重鄙视布波族“猪鼻子插大葱——装象”的面具化生活，穿着打扮不追求所谓体面、身份的名牌，而是追求休闲、适合自己的，对于布波族浑身上下名牌伺候的原则，奔奔族讥讽是“就知道花冤枉钱的傻冒”。
　　同时，奔奔族的自我张扬还是对现状的不满意，他们被房奴生活压得喘不过气，只能在网上发帖发泄。
　　爱情是奔奔族心中永远的痛！女奔奔族梦想白马王子的浪漫，男奔奔族梦想着白雪公主的温柔，但铜臭味粉碎了奔奔族的幻想，面对超级现实的只认绩优股的MM，男奔奔族只能望洋兴叹！
　　但是，自视甚高的奔奔族不希望“将就”，宁缺毋滥、一个人同样精彩的观点弥漫忧伤的心灵。爱情的贬值、一夜情泛滥让很多奔奔族隐隐作痛，这也是社会上出现大批剩男、剩女的根本原因。
希望一夜暴富
　　面对空前的社会压力，奔奔族一夜成名、一夜暴富的想法空前强烈。因此，聪明的奔奔族选择先名后利的成功模式，从超女到芙蓉姐姐、从天仙妹妹到后舍男孩、从二月丫头到非常真人，成功模式都是先炒作知名度然后狂收MONEY，特别是奔奔族善于利用网络的草根优势，靠脱露、恶搞等迅速成名。
　　奔奔族在爱情长跑中遇“铜臭狙击”时，没有人倾听的苦痛和哽咽，只能用烟头宣泄泪水、在迪厅收拾破碎的心，在网上玩游戏发帖发泄不满情绪，信仰缺失、精神沙漠化已经是奔奔族无法回避的问题。　　
　　奔奔族呼吁社会公平，但是，奔奔族把问题的根源归结于社会缺乏公平的竞争环境。他们说，虽然人生下来是平等的，且先天人和人的智力、家庭背景、出生地自然资源等差异是无法选择，但后天的起点是可以选择的，可是由于社会没有造就一个公平的环境，权力、贪污等恶性循环不断充斥着现实，政府没有营造公平的环境。
　　奔奔族缺乏信心，是由于他们看不到机会，看不到公平的起点和过程，垄断和贪污造成收入分配不公，产生着不公平。
　　自称“奔奔族”的博主毕建科说，其实，许多人对于公平的理解不够全面，认为公平相等于平均。其实奔奔族需要的公平是通过制度的建立体现出来的公平竞争环境，没有权力优势，没有人为制造的障碍，每个人可以依靠自己的努力获取机会。但是，正是由于现代社会尚未形成这样的公平制度，所谓的效率自然只是短视，很快就会被社会产生的矛盾所淹没。

神仙姐姐要到斯坦福来喽！

昨天杜欣像往常一样告诉了我一则大陆娱乐新闻，这次是关于央视神雕侠侣和天龙八部的女主角刘亦菲下半年将赴斯坦福读硕士。杜欣接着说如果我跟她认识上了她就飞来美国看我，我说她怎么这样，专等我认识了名人才来看我，她说，“看你在新加坡看不就得了？” 倒也有理。我有什么好看的？还是人家神仙姐姐好看。不过我又要怎么与她结识呢？人家既好看又出名，而且二十岁还没到就大学毕业了，到哪儿周围都肯定要厚厚实实地围上好几层仰慕者。今天看到斯坦福的中国学生联谊会 mailing list 开始呼吁长辈们前往机场接新生，想到刘亦菲一下飞机可能会面对一大群举着牌子热烈欢迎的司机们，不禁觉得好笑。看我有没有缘分剥开这重重仰慕者吧。哈哈。

复活！莹のblog

Dear friends,

Everything tonight happened in a whirl to me. Had a row with mum, made peace with mum, was late for appointment; preparing food, eating food, eating the entire layer of pork skin (for I didn't think too many people would appreciate that in what I brought); singing and unwrapping the watch; Venietta ice-cream with its characteristic chocolate wafer between more creamy than icy vanilla (had strong urge to say chocolate thin film on ice-cream substrate but resisted); getting Jefferey to be surety... and then, soon afterwards, rushing home before midnight in my new slippers. I probably had had too much green tea again and I hope I'll get to sleep tonight. Usually caffeine opens at night the floodgate of memories. However tonight it'll not be the torture of nostalgia that a potentially sleepless night executes, even though it had been all about parting and leaving a chunk of past behind. Even though there was the Swatch watch. (My ex- and first Swatch watch, which I lost while rushing for a shuttle bus in a winter morning daze, was a gift from a person who changed my life; and it's of the same design as one that belongs to Professor MVG. Serious.) It's more to do with opening up a page in future; and your actions gave me courage to do so.

Well, thank you all.

JY