Specification of Statues of Mao Zedong

Standardized specifications for statues of ex-president of China have been released in Hunan Province, China, where the founder of People's Republic of China was born, as reported by Xinhua News Agency, one of the two state-owned new agencies in China.

Mao was described as 'the guide and the leader' of China's communist movement. The idolization of Mao in China peaked at China's Cultural Revolution. His images were displayed everywhere and the books of collections of his quotations were considered as 'red bible'. After the Cultural Revolution, the Cult of Personality of Mao was not mandatory or part of education as they were. Mao's image, like that of Che, turned into a symbol of pop culture.

In China, nonetheless, the cult of Mao never set. According to a survey on religious belief of Chinese people conducted by a Chinese agency, more than 11% of Chinese city dwellers display Mao's image at their home, office or vehicle. His image was believed to reduce traffic accident if it was displayed in cars.

The arthority of Hunan was 'concerned about the quality' of Mao's statues being sold in markets. They regulated the 'colour, texture, look' and other specification of Mao's statues 'in reponse of increasing complaints of customers'. Mao's grandson made a statement praising the implementation of this regulation.

Mao Zedong waving to Red Guards.Image from Scape TV. Distributed under CC

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Movie Review: a Passage to India

Last night, after the morning exam, I was trying to dig out a worthwatching movie from my almost-50-g movie collection. Unfortunately most of the movies are crime or action themed which are so boring that you wouldn't expect much shock or taste after you watch them. But luckily enough, I found I've got a copy of a Passage to India. The exotic name itself was persuasive enough for me to denote my night into this piece of motion picture.

I never work out how to write a proper movie review. How to handle the ratio between the storyline and my own opinion? How much depth should I get into the movie story especially most the readers have not watched the movies themselves? This thinkings are, very often, the obstacles of my production of movie reviews. And often I go into exploring the historical background of the movies, which could be inappropriate in a movie review itself.

I am afraid this movie review will fall into a similar pattern, less analyzing the movie itself, more of telling historical stories. For though who are not interested in stories, this is perhaps not your cup of tea.

This movie, A Passage to India, is based on the story of E.M. Forster, whom I will talk about later. The story is based in British India, where back then English were the rulers and Native Indians were second-class. A local Indian doctor, Dr Aziz, a warm and friendly father-of-two, 'admired' the English and dreamed of becoming friends of them. Meanwhile, two English ladies, Adela and Mrs Moore, fob (Fresh-off-the-boat), were eager to mean some Indians to know more about the country. After their first met, Dr Aziz arranged a picnic with the two English ladies on a hill with some mysteries caves. The trip ended up with Adela screaming and running down out of the cave with Dr Aziz standing there without knowing what happened. Then Dr Aziz was accused of harassing Adela. The trial attracted petitions and riots from Indian who were questioning the justice. In court, Adela finally realized what happened to her was a combination of echos and illusions so she withdrew her accuse towards Dr Aziz.

The book was published in 1924, after the WWI, when Gandhi's Indian independence movement just became well-known-ed. The author showed his sympathy toward this oriental country, where racism, discrimination and suppression were common.

I once read an article talking about the virtue of British Empire. It said that the voices of freedom and anti-colonization were raised together with the expansion of the empire. The voices, however, were barely suppressed by the authority and sometimes even became mainstream. These voices made Great Britain the first European countries abandoning black slavery. However it should be acknowledged that the independent of India is not a result of the mercy of colonizers. It is the result of struggling of Indian people. (As it was stated in my high school history text book.)

What made me sad in the movie, was not the segregation between Indians and British. It was the segregation between Indians and Indians that shocked me. When there was a riot on street, it was the Indian policemen who beat up Indian protesters. When Dr Aziz was invited to visit the British Club by Mrs Moore, he said 'no Indians are allowed'. Then we found the Indian guardians standing in the club, judging the visitors by their colour.

Anyway now it's 100 years over. And I am visiting India in about three weeks. I am expecting to see a new modern India with its friendly people.

Now it's time to talk about the author. E.M. Forster, the author of this novel, was also the author of A Room with A View and Howards End. The author also wrote a novel, published after his death, Maurice. While the former two were about traditional English middle-class lives, the latter one, Maurice, was about a forbidden homosexual love between two Cambridge students and a working class gardener. Forster himself was homosexual. He stopped writing heterosexual-themed novels after he had a relationship with a police officer, which was quite irony because homosexual was illegal back then. This story was published in The Australian last week.

Computer Age: A Hoax

These days everyone is working on exams. In my case, I work on computers all the time. So sometimes I was thinking, who is the tool? Me or the Computer?

Today on tram I was reading a short Sci-Fi story. It was about an alien power invading the earth through the existed Internet. But it was not succussful because the were defeated by the coalition of CPUs of computers on earth, the real rulers of the world.

Then I was thinking another hoax sci-fi story I read several years ago, which was about the dogs were acturally the masters of men because they managed to make human to feed them all the time.

Sometimes things are really not what it seems to be. In a democratic country, you think you work for yourself. But acturally you work for the bank. You work so hard that you can pay your debts to the bank before or after you die. You pay the tax for the government in order to educate more workers for the bank.

But apparently we are not doing anything to counter the ruling of computers. We are acturally very very dependent on computers. We are so dependent on them that we need computers to make computers. Acturally now only computers can make computers, we can't make computers ourselves.

GaoKao Please Die

Today I went to field work on a project in Western Victoria. On the way back, I was mobile Internet surfing and found a post from renren.com. In the post there were a lot of classic Chinese literatures. Then I complained to Helen, my colleague, about how intensive my high school in China was that we went to school from 7.20am to 9.00pm.

Then I got back home and read the news. I realized today is the day for National College Entrance Exam of China, or GaoKao (高考).

I hate GaoKao. I firmly believe it ruined my life. In high school I believed the only way to success is to go to a good university. In order to go to a good university I need to do better in GaoKao. So I study and study but I just hate to do all that homework and exams but I just had to.

Everyboy is crazy in those days. They do nothing else except for preparing for the exam. The teaching usually finishes almost a year before the GaoKao, which means most of the Year 12 is exam preparation. The teachers take students all over around the text books. Students do hundreds of sample exams. I remember we had a book of five years past exams and three years sample exams. It was a nightmare.


I can also remember I was so stressful that I was almost sick in bed one month before the exam. I was always thinking if I did bad in the exam I would be a failure for all my life. Those days were just suffering.


And then luckily I did not bad and I went to a university in Beijing. Then I realized even I went to a key university it didn't mean anything. People were already planning to go to graduate schools in 1 year of their uni.


Now I am thinking all the time in high school I was wasting on that exam preparation that I had no other things to do. It is all because of this GaoKao. So GaoKao please die.

Visa vs Union Pay: win China or win the world

We live on credit cards. Or debit cards. We hold one or more those plastic keys to deal with our daily transactions. Going overseas? No problem. The multinational credit card organisations can settle all the currency issues for you, with only 1% - 2% currency conversion fees of course. The logos on the right bottom of your card gurantee everything, no matter it's Visa or MaterCard. Easy. Quick. Safe.

While I was talking about how the major international credit organastaions deal with foreign exchange, there is a domestic credic card organisation in China called UnionPay, or 银联 in Chinese. This generous organisation does not charge a cent for foreign exchange commission. Isn't that sweet? However this organisation only issues cards in China and a limited number of international banks. This is a strategy of its global expansion, especially most of the transcation systems around the world is controlled by Visa and MasterCard. (Yeah they don't even accept American Express and JCB!)

Domestic credit card transcation with China is a different story. Foreign card organisations are not permitted to issue credit cards in China by themselves. They have to affiliate with UnionPay, which is the only legal transcation system in China. Therefore, most credit cards issued in China, if not issued by UnionPay alone, are co-branded card with two logos on.

The only exemption is the 2008 Olympics credit cards issued by Bank of China, which had only the logo of Visa on them. It was because UnionPay was not spousor of International Olympics Committee, whose logo then is not permitted to be printed on commercial products with the five circles.

(Images from the website of Bank of China. Copyright remains to BOC and other parties)
So both Visa and MasterCard, (Yes I did try to include JCB and American Express) issued a lot of those kinds of credit cards in China. Holders need to pay through UnionPay system if it is a domestic transaction in China. They could choose whether to use UnionPay or the other system when they were making an international payment.

Not anymore.

June 2010, Visa International regulated the international transcation for Chinese co-branded cards. It told the banks and merchants to use the Visa system (VisaNet) rather than UnionPay system in the transaction. Failure to do so will result a fine of $50,000 for the first violation and $25,000/ month for further violations.

The spokesperson of Visa China denied their attempt of banning UnionPay international transaction. They say every card starting with 4 is the property of Visa Inc. and they are not banning the usage of credit cards starting with 62, which are solo-branded cards from UnionPay. 'We are concerned about the safety of our customers.' They said.

Observers pointed out that the aim of Visa is to seek for a more open Chinese card market. Therefore they are threatening UnionPay and Chinese authority behind it. MasterCard and JCB will not follow on.

MakerBot: Prelude of the Matrix

So the latest issue of NewScientist has an article about a new kind of robot, MakerBot. It is a  kind of machine that is able to make anything, if material and methods are given, including itself. They even have a website selling cheap kits of different models. The famous one is a CupCake machine making delicious cup cakes.

Yeah the whole idea sounds cool. Finally after thousands years of struggling we are free from labour works. The machine can even replicate themselves! In fact the machines on sale are offsprings of some earlier made machines. So they are having a family tree already!

However the creators say there will be some errors when a new machine is born. The errors will be accumulated generation by generation. But they don't think it will be a problem.

Wait... what's the definition of life again? Self-replicable? Having tiny errors every generation? The reason why computers haven't rule the world, (somebody argues they already are, think about how many hours we need to work for computers! the energy we feed them and information we provide them) is because they are not on a stage of self-replication. Once they are, things will change, slightly. And slightly.



So now we are doing something to help the process. It's probably only a butterfly, flapping its wings, people are amazed at its beauty and not aware of the tornado ahead it brings with.

Or probably the butterfly has already flapped, and this MakerBot is Hermes, delivering the message on the eve of the catastrophe.

Well I am generally not conservative about science. But still I am a little bit concerned because the inventors sometimes love their stuff so much that they spoil them.

Nanjing: Compulsory Pay Rise

If you hava a business in Nanjing, the ex-capital city of China, you now have to increase your employees' salary by at least 6% annually. If you are not, you are faced with a fine from ￥1,000 to ￥10,000!

Let's first look at how strict the new regulation is. Wow you will be fined if you don't do so! So how much is ￥1,000?

Well, as an average indicator, 1 AUD = 6 RMB.

So, if I have a business, I will pay the fine rather pay more to my employees. Who cares!

You know, as Chinese Consitution indicates, everyone is equal, including working class and peasant farmers. Their rights do not need to be protected because it is THEIR country. Who would offend? What the Chinese law did say is, somebody is more equal than others. Every enterprise is owned by the PEOPLE. Why would we have laws against our own enterprises? We need to become rich to liberate the whole world.

So the union of workers, which is a compulsory organisation in each enterprise, stands for the interest of the PEOPLE, I mean, PEOPLE who own them. Salary negotiation? WHY? Don't be selfish comrades.

Communism comes to China?

A recent strike in China is unexpectedly reported as front page news in China's state-controlled media. Thousands of workers from Honda's factories are now on strike for higher wages. The factories, perhaps 4 of them, are then forced to halt production. Two leaders of this strike were fired by Honda, only to burn the fires among the workers.

China, as a communism country, does not really guarantee its citizens the rights of strike. Strike was considered as a very 'unharmony' component of this fragile society. They are not allowed to appear on media. The organisers of strikes were often questioned or even arrested by the police. A famous case was a proposed Taxi driver strike. The organiser was located by the police through an online IM software and then sent to jail.

However this time, the state media put the strike of Honda factories workers on the front pages, on the top of Korean crisis and chain-subsiding in Foxconn. The report said Chinese workers earn only 1/50 of their Japanese colleagues in Honda's factories, only are able to live on basic standards.

The salary discrimination in China has been a long unwritten rule among foreign-owned companies. Employees holding foreign passports or residencies generally earn more than Chinese local employees and enjoy more privileges. One explanation of this phenomenon is those foreign employees having higher basic salary rates in their home countries. This may not be a reason, but states the truth. Legal minimum wage in China is so low that it can barely cover basic living expenses. The high inflation rate in China brings a tougher life for those living on basic wages.

And the workers union in China is only a department distributing free condoms (implementing one child policy) and movie tickets (propaganda). They are usually controlled by either government or even employers. It does not stand for the interest of workers, not to mention in salary bargaining. The workers have no position in negotiating their pay. Because they are always find people willing to do the same work with less wage demand.

That's the secret of China's export-leading economy. That's why people in western countries can buy cheap Made in China goods.

However the era of cheap labour in China is about to come to an end, at least in South China. Governments are more strict about regulations of minimal wages, which is increasing more frequently than before. People are more aware their rights and know how to ask for it. So today, they are on strike. Perhaps this is how communism comes to China, for real, this time.

A factory with 12 lives

A cat will die after losing its 9 lives. How many lives does a factory have?

2010, Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, witnessed 12 of its employees jumping off their high-rise dormitory buildings to finish their lives.

Foxconn, aka Hon Hai, is a Taiwanese-owned group having some 800,000 employees. It is owned by a Taiwanese tycoon Gou Tai-Ming (郭台銘). The group operates several manufacturing factories in China, being suppliers for international customers like Apple.


Troubled by accuses of its abusive employment practices, Foxconn is still a popular employer among young workers in South China. It has higher pay rates than most of its counterparts and provides after-hour work opportunities for those who want extra money. They have clean dormitories, canteens, etc. In fact, the living area of the factory is like a community.


Except people barely know each other. They have no time to socialize. People working in Foxconn complain about they have no chance to even speak to their roommates, who may work on different shifts. No such things as clubs or associations among workers in Foxconn exists.


The suicide cases in Foxconn shocked China. Gou believed there was such curse to doom his factory. He was about to invite some Buddhist monks to prey for the factory, before more cases followed up. The executive board of Foxconn then implemented other measures to stop more people from suicide, such as opening hotlines to solve physiological pressures of its employers, delivering physiological lectures, etc. And then more cases happened.

26 May 2010, Gou went to the factory himself and delivered a speech to the workers. He apologized for everything happened in his factory and promised no one will be forced to work extra hours.


Less than 12 hours after the speech, a young man jumped off and died in Foxconn.

Volunteer Teacher Forced to Leave China

Eckart Loewe, or better known as his Chinese name, 卢安克, is a German volunteer teacher in remote South China country village. Having been teaching in China for almost 10 years, he was interviewed by the Chinese state-owned CCTV and became known to the public. The people in China admired his contributions to the education of kids in villages and described him as a hero of the nation. He can speak fluent Mandarin, which is described ‘like poem’ by some people. He operated a blog in Chinese focusing the Education in China and problems of ‘left behind children’, rural kids whose parents migrate to city to make money.


However Mr Loewe is forced to leave China due to his visa expiry soon. China has very strict immigration laws. It issues visa with short stay length and renew times limitation. Mr Loewe obtained his visa four years ago. Now he is not able to renew or obtain a new visa onshore, which means he has to arrange his visa offshore, perhaps in Germany. He also tried to apply for a Chinese citizenship but failed. China only allows naturalization when a person makes ‘special contribution’ to China or has close relatives as Chinese citizens. Apparently the government was not convinced that what Mr Loewe did was a ‘special contribution’ to the whole nation. Mr Loewe was forced to remove all the entries from his blog and leave a message stating that he is neither a credentialed teacher nor a volunteer.

The Chinese Internet community has a very strong reaction toward this news. The story was interpreted as; Mr Loewe’s blog touched a sensitive issue in China (left behind children) and annoyed the authority so he was forced to leave. People blame the government for this decision and wrote hundreds of articles online to criticise the government. Then these articles were shared on SNS websites so more people believed it was the government which to blame. (Click here)

I admire what Mr Loewe did to the Chinese kids and his contribution to local community. However I believe this time it is not the government which should be blamed. The immigration law is very clear about visas and citizenships. The government has no position to change or break the law just to appeal some interest of some people. (However I believe the law should be modified under proper procedures.) Moreover, the government should regulate the education system by issuing credentials to qualified teachers. Kids in primary school should not be taught by teachers without credentials. In this case, Mr Loewe is not holding any form of credential which allows him to teach in China. His teaching activities have breached the law and regulations.

Can you image a Chinese citizen coming to Australia, volunteer for the community for four years without any kind of certificates, and then asked for a citizenship? Go home. Out of question. Then why should people blame Chinese government for doing same things?

It should be pointed out, that Chinese government should put more money into education system. Moreover, the whole exam-directed system should be changed. I think they are why people are so angry in Mr Loewe’s case. Only by achieving those, kids in rural communities can enjoy the same rights with kids in the city.

798 - Warehouses in Beijing

In the last entry I reviewed the warehouses in Melbourne (click here to read more). In Beijing, where deindustrialization also takes places, there is a similar spot.

The place is called 798. It is a factory with dozens of warehouses. The name doesn't mean anything but only a series number in the Red Days when 'the whole nation is a chessboard' of Mao Zedong. You can even find Factory 797 or something similar nearby. In those days China tend to have a preference of name public facilities in series numbers. In Beijing they have No.1 No.2 high school and the order didn't stop even it knocked No.101. (No.101 High School is actually a good one. It locates at the corner of the site of the Old Summer Palace, which is burned by British and French troops during the Second Opium War.)

Factory 798 or 798 Art Zone is what this place is famous as. Wikipedia told me technically 798 only refers to one of the complex within this factory. It became so famous that even the most conservative English text books in China from People's Education Press contained an artical about it.

I don't want to go through the history about this place because Wikipedia provides more information than you need. I've been to 798 only twice, not much compared to thousands of artists who live there and hundreds of thousands of Artsy Youth (文艺青年，简称文青) who consider 798 as their Mecca (no offending to muslims). However I'd love to share some experience of my visit.

So the ideal time to visit 798 is a dusted and polluted weekend in Beijing which is dusted and polluted as any other usual weekend. The Beijing Bus Company apparently didn't appeal to the popularity of 798 therefore only less than 3 bus lines were operated in that areas. Or maybe they are in a secret treaty with 798 authority which encourages more people arrive there by car or taxi, in this way they can purify their audience by how much they earn and want to spend.Otherwise you have to spend hours in transiting metros, lightrails and buses.

798 contains of graffiti and sculptures, most of which are political pop themed. They reflecte the crazy old days and examine the spirit and soul of the captilism-lized communism China. There was a painting in 798. The background was Tiananmen square, the policital centre of Red China. There were a group of figures, eyes covered, dreamwalked randomly on the square under the portait of Mao Zedong. The meaning was obviously. There was a sculpture. A naked kid was standing, with eyes covered by a pair of red palms.

Critics complained that such artistic were created in favour of 'International anti-China Sentiment. However government didn't ban them at all.

There are also several permanent exhibitions in 798. The famous one is the Nike Factory. Nike is the top sports brand in China and is the symbol of the youth lifestyle. The young Chinese city kids are proud of their Nike sneakers and other outfits. Nike launched in China with the help of the image of Michael Jordan. When I went to 798 there was a special exhibition in Nike Factory about the all the Jordan basketball shoes Nike made. A typical pair Jordan basketball shoes costs about ￥1,000, while the average income in China nationwide is ￥2435.75/month in 2008. （Data from National Bureau of Statistics of China) You now know why Nike is pursued by Chinese city kids.

Another one is UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. I don't know much about it.

 Nike Factory

In China toilets are called WC.

Warehouses in Melbourne: Rebirth after Deindustrialization

If Melbourne has nine souls, then warehouse is one of them.

They spread around all over the city. And the suburbs. What they were designed for is never a concern of the customers who enjoy the coolness of the atmosphere. I guess they were used as factories which were each moved to Dandenong or China. Or as storehouses which stored things people don't need anymore (cassettes maybe). Then with the deindustrialization of inner Melbourne, these warehouses became abandoned. Some of them were demolished, while some survived under several waves of urban redevelopment.

Warehouses are bigger than normal business premises with better lightnings and less obstacles when it comes to decoration. Therefore it is perfect for galleries, cafes, cool restaurants and other similar stuff you can image. Today I even went to a warehouse sales for a well-known clothes brand in Collingwood, the centre of coolness. To me it looks more like a theatre with all the seats upstairs and a big stage in front where the changing rooms were set up. Jeans and tops are displayed on long tables in the hall and cool people just walk around.

Then we went to another place called Litter Creatures Dining Hall on Brunswick st, Fitzroy. It is surrounded by the Brunswick st neighbourhood and still stands out among the awesome. The menus are printed on rough paper. Bill folders are just children reading books like Donald the Duck, etc. Btw the waiters/waitresses were too cool that the bill should have been requested for at least three time before it was delivered. The lighting is supreme and background music is wonderful.

Another place I really recommend is called 1000 Pound Bend, locating on Little Lonsdale st. I don't it has a website. Nor a phone. Nor a name card. It just doesn't need any. The waiters are so casual that even if you forgot to pay nobody would bother you. There are several review about this place. Click here and here. My friend Dan even did a video review, which it is Chinese and English bilingual. Dan was little bit concerned about the way how this place will make money. While I don't really worry about it. They have now an Asaki exhibition and they hold functions every now and then.

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Melbourne is soooo sunny today that I had to take some photos.

1000 Pound Bend Cafe

ADMIRAL Movie Review: A Rehabilitation of White Russian

Admiral, a blockbuster of Russia in 2008, tells a story about the rise and fall of Kolchak, a leader of white russian movement. He went to the Russo-Japanese War, WWI, then became the commander of the white russian army in the russian civil war. After 'liberating' several major cities, his army was not several hundred kilometres from Moscow, the red capital. Lenin then started his propaganda to launch a counterattack of some 200,000 people, most of which are workers and peasants. Then Kolchak was defeated and sentenced to death.

A movie about a civil war is always sad. Especially this one. The Red army fought so hard against the alliance of former upper classes. But what for? Ten years later, most of them were wiped out by Stalin.

The movie, of course, didn't say anything good about the Red army. It seems that they were a group of bogans wanting the power. While the White army represents the elegancy, the beauty, the order and the courage. There was one scene in the movie that when all the ammunition run out, the White army just march to the fierce gun powers with their bayonets.

The movie, however, didn't say a work about the dictatorship and brutal about this commandar. It didn't say anything about the strategy he used at all.

Kolchak was never rehabilitated in Russia. Two requests have been denied by court.


I'll talk more about the White Russians. After russian revolution, the people who were 'revoluted', who were normally military officers, nobility, the rich, fled overseas. Some of them went to China. Harbin, a major city near China-Russian border, once was full of Russians. These russians then had difficult times in the Japanese occupation time in the puppet state Manchukuo. Many left China and went back to Russia, only to be arrest in the Great Purge. Others who remained then found them to be sent back after WWII when Russian army won the war and liberated that city.

Russians in Shanghai was a different story. Days were tough in this big city so some women ended up with being prostitutes. Others who were well-educated joined Ballet groups or orchestra. After WWII however, red China forced them to leave. Some of them fled to Australia and other countries.


In addition, the movie shows how wonderful the Russian rail network was. Simply there was train from every major city to every major city. Taking trains in winter is an extragvagance. The whole world was covered by snow while the carriage is warm as spring.

image: here

 The love story, I have to say, is pretty boring. The last scene apparently was set to dedicate to the Titanic. However it seems the director failed to develop the love story further and I don't see any relationship between the love story and the main story line.

Trip to Charlton

Charlton is a small country town in northeast Victoria. Perhaps halfway between Melbourne and Mildura. It was so small that the Shire of Charlton was abolished and merged into the Shire of Buloke.

What makes Charlton famous is its the Charlton Feedlot, a huge feedlot with some 23,000 cattles which is the largest one in Victoria. It is the reason I came to Charlton: we have a research project in Melbourne University ragarding the greenhouse gases emission from feedlot.

Campared to its size, Charlton has a few motels. One of which even was fully booked that we had to change to another one. It was a motel at the fringe of the town, making it the first stop from the farm. The backyard of the motel connected to a big farm and the paddocks runnning all the way up to the horizon.

I generally don't enjoy work. But working on field is so much pleasure, except for the flies and exposure to the sun. I feel so close to the sky which is right there around me, reaching to the very verge of the land. Clouds stretch out in the sky from all directions effortlessly. Birds glide over the water surface, which reflects rays of sunlight into goldness.

The night is a magic gift. Especially at twilight, the last drop of sun lingers at the far reach of the horizon, colouring the strips of clouds into sunset glows, purple, blue, orange. Looking above, it's alright dark, sapphire sky embedded with stars. When sunlight becomes invisible, the Milky Way reveals with all the constellations. The land, the houses and ourselves are enfolded into the sphere of twinkling eternities, and dreams, embrace us.

(Image from http://charlton.vic.au/)

Malaysia Journal 4 - Chinese off the Southern Seas

Southern Seas, or Nan Yang (南洋), is a Chinese term for South-East Asian countries. One or two hundred years ago when wars and difficult times were occuring in China, migrates from this country, especially from her coastal provinces, began to embark on journeys across the South China Sea to seek opportunities in the under-populated lands.

After WWII, the immigration flow stopped due to the independence of these countries and the rise of nationalism. However, the Chinese culture has still been retained and Chinese people can easily be identified. In Malaysia, Chinese account for some 23% of the total population, though it has been decreasing since the emigration of Chinese to North America and Australia, and the lower birth rates of Chinese compared to Malay and Indians.

Though having heard of the size of Chinese population in Malaysia before the trip, I was still amazed at the popularity of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects I had overheard on streets in Malaysia. There are Chinese signs everywhere. Menus are written in Chinese sometimes even in an Indian restaurant. Chinese newspapers can be found at major newsagents. People talk to you in Chinese if you look Chinese enough. To be honest I was quite annoyed when asked about where I came from in China because I　KNEW they had never heard of my city, not even my province. Why bother asking? Anyway I had to explain to them where exactly my province is.

-Is it near Shanghai or Beijing? 

-Beijing. 

-So is it north or south? 

-It's in Northern China but south of Beijing. About three hours drive. 

-Oh yes I went to China in 2005 and I've been to.. blah blah blah

Well I don't mind sharing my hometown with fellow Chinese people. But it's just TIRING!

So anyway, I think most of the Malaysian Chinese were originated southern coastal Chinese provinces such as Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, etc. Their mother tongues were Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka and other non-Mandarin Chinese dialects. Thanks to the wisdom of local Chinese community leaders, they began to adopt Mandarin as a lingua franca among local Chinese communities. They have been teaching Mandarin and simplified Chinese characters in school for a while, maybe since 1990s. The uniformity of Chinese dialects in Malaysia is perhaps less than in Singapore, where any Chinese dialects other than Mandarin are prohibited in public broadcasting, but of course better than in Indonesia. In Suharto-era Indonesia, under the 'New Order' scheme, no Chinese was allowed to be taught at school. Even Chinese books were not allowed. This strict policy made most Indonesian Chinese unable to speak Mandarin nor write Chinese. I recently interviewed a local Indonesian Chinese student about how she learnt Mandarin. She said her family hired a tutor to teach her, while the lingua franca of local Chinese community is Hokkien.

Malaysian Chinese cuisine is as wonderful as it is famous for. Hainan Chicken Rice is probably one of the best-known dish from strait-settled Chinese. It was brought by immigrants from Hainan Island. (It is a remote island of China. Think about Tasmania to Australia.) The story was when Hainan people arrived in Malaysia and Singapore they found the jobs were taken by pioneers from Guangdong and Fujian. So they had nothing to do except be a cook. The dish is a combination of tender chicken and oily flavourful rice.

Malaysian Chinese contribute a lot to the formation of Chinese communities in Australian and other Western countries . Especially Australia which is a geographical neighbour of Malaysia. During my visit, a lot of people I talked with had some connection with Australia. They have either friends or family members living in Australia.

Cheap Airlines: Bargain with Hassle

Melbourne Grand Prix finished last Sunday. The team of Virgin Company, being the parent company of Virgin Blue, however, couldn't even make to the end. It was said because the fuel tank of the car was designed too small as the engineers miscalculated the fuel needed.

Apart from the misfortune case in Grand Prix, Virgin Blue has been awarded as best low-cost airlines by a number of different organisations. It is Australia's second largest airline. Unlike most low-cost airlines, Virgin Blue has an award-winning frequent flyer program, Velocity Rewards. It was the first in Australia providing 'any seat, any time' reward redemption. Its International subsidiary, V Australia, has been successfully operated since 2009 when the first flight between Sydney and LA took off.

Jetstar, Tiger airways are the other two domestic/international low-cost airlines in Australia. They have reduced the domestic air fares dramatically and stimulated domestic travel. They reasonably punctual and reliable.

However, not all cow-lost are that easy to be trusted. One of the biggest low-lost airlines in the world, Air Asia, announced the suspension of flight between Kuala Lumper and Tianjin last year. The route has been suspended for about three months due to 'weather conditions'. Customers who had booked tickets were given fully refund however no further subsidies were placed. As the decision was announced only a month before the suspension date, it was more costly to re-book another ticket from other airlines. Customers were complaining this decision on its official website as well as other forums. Similarly, some flights between Chengdu and KL were cancelled, with a full refund into passengers' accounts.

Sometimes, things can even go worse. At least passengers can get a full refund from AirAsia and they were given advanced notification. Viva Macau Airline, which is an ambious new-born Macau-based internation low-cost airlines which offers cheap route from Macau to Melbourne, Tokyo, Jakarta, Hanoi and several other cities, got its business license of air carrier revoked by Macau authority. The airline was not able to pay its fuel bills, which lead to hundreds of passengers stranded at the airport. There were total 33 flights been cancelled before its license been revoked. Refund plans are announced and some 1,300 cases were received.

Oasis Airlines, an ex-Hong Kong based low-cost airline, ceased its operation in 2008 after it went to bankrupt. Several other cases can be found in China, where civil aviation is highly regulated and competition is heated.

Despite all these risks, cheap airlines are surely providing more opportunities for passengers having lower budget to travel. What we need is a better regulated market which can prevent this hassle from happening.

Flow, aka how I am planning to re-encounter with happiness

Today I took an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) test in RMIT in the morning. During the test I read a invaluable article in the reading setion. It was about the way in which we could achieve happiness.

Hapiness, is such a deep word that we are trying to avoid in a conversation. (Ni Xing Fu Me? Are you happy about your life?) I personally experienced several periods of unhappiness and of course am eager to pursuit such a mood.



The article in the IELTS test cited a term 'Flow' in a psychological manner. Such term refers to the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.(WIKIPEDIA) Staring at the colourful chart on its wikipedia page, I somehow rememorized the story of Rainbow Flower, a childhood classical. For those who have not been aware of this story, it was about a kind girl who received a rainbow flower from an elder lady. The flower has seven petals and each of them could fulfill a wish..... It was a beautiful story that I loved it so much.

So back to the topic of happiness. I realize that the process of achieving personal goals are at the same time gaining happiness. Diet, gym, exercise, language study and so on... By achieving such goals, you will have a Flow in you and you are happy.

Lonely Planet Has Come to Town

A whole new series of Lonely Planet, who keeps on ripping off its fellow Australians to feed people in UK and US, has arrived in town. They are now on sale in Augus & Robertson Bookstore, with an amazing price of $51.99, which is such a discouraging behaviour that made me more determined not to buy ANY books in Australia. I do care about the carbon offset of long distance international postage, but I also care about my bank account which is on the verge of deficit on the arrival of the bill of university tuition fee.

(US version of Discover. Pic from Lonely Planet Official Website)
However such behaviour does not stop me from entering the bookshop and have a little look of the book. Obviously lonely planet has launched their new campaign by inserting a little cute bookmark introducing their different series of travel guides. And the new one, Discover, has been defined as the book suitable for people who "focus time and planning on those can’t-miss experiences". For me, it looks like a country version of Encounter guides, which were in full colour and such such.

I assume that as the emerging of more and more full colour travel guide books, lonely planet is seeking a way to survive. Country guides are probably for those who will stay in a country for a long time and set their steps on every small town with less than 2,000 people and enjoy every restaurant and hostels around the country, while Discover guides are for fast-pace travellers, who would rather plan their itinerary ahead based on the photos and descriptions of the travel guide.

I happened to have bought a Country guide of Japan from Amazon UK at £8.99 the day before yesterday, after a desperate hunting of suitable travel guide of this country. I would certainly have bought a discover guide instead if I knew, for I will only be in Japan for two weeks and I need a simulation of photos and full colours. Unfortunaly, this is life.

One more thing, the guides have been pubulished as two versions, AU and UK version (red cover) and US version (green cover). I wonder why. Spelling?

AU and UK version of Discover. from Lonely planet official website.

Malaysia Journal 3 - Books, CDs and Movies

Books

The bookstores in Malaysia, especially around KL, are so to my taste. They have large collections both of English and Chinese publications. Especially Chinese publications, they are from China(mainland), HK Taiwan and even local Malaysian and Singaporean presses. It is very hard in mainland China to buy books published in HK or Taiwan, especially when the books are politics-related.

There was one bookstore in PJ (a district near KL), called Popular Book. (大众书店）It's kinda of interesting to realize there was no Bahasa Melayu on this website, only Chinese and English. The company was established in 1984 and now have some 60 store around Malaysia. Asian Weekly (亚洲周刊), a HK based international Chinese magazine, publishes weekly Chinese book bestseller lists from leading bookstores among Chinese speaking cities, among which Popular Book stands for whole Malaysian Chinese Literature.

Another bookstore I visited was Kinokuniya (纪伊国屋书店). It was a Japanese based global bookstore chain. It was located at Level 4, KLCC. It was such a big store that you couldn't even miss. Interestingly, the Chinese books are far more than the Japanese books in that store. Kinokuniya also operates a store in Sydney and said to be the biggest in Australia. Borders, a British bookstore chain, is also very popular in Malaysia. They also have large Chinese collections.

The books in Malaysia is very cheap, compared to Australia, who has stupid publication restrictions which are supposed to aim at protecting local publication industry. The Chinese publications are also reasonably priced, taken exchange rate factors into account.
CD

There I went to a lovely CD store in KLCC, in which you can first happily and later a little embarrassed ask the shop keeper to test the CD for you. You can pick up any of the CD and present to the shop keeper and they will unpack the CD and lead you to the CD player even though you don't want to buy it. So after listening to half a dozen of CD, I bought four local Malaysian albums which I supposed were nowhere else could be found in other countries.

I always remember in an Indonesian movie I have seen, there was a female singer in a bar at KL, her voice was so beautiful and I believe she was singing in Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Indonesia, which two were basically the same. So I requested several albums contained Bahasa Maleyu. I was amazed at the popularity of English songs, though. It seemed very hard to find an indie or acoustic album totally in Bahasa Maleyu.

Movies

Malaysia is definitely heaven for a movie bug like me. American, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian..... original soundtrack and English-Chinese double subtitle. The prices for student were so cheap (only about RM10 - CNY 20 or AUD 3.3) that I watched 4 movies in total during my stay in Malaysia.

I saw a local Malaysian film which was such a novel experience to me. It was about a poor street boy whose daily activity was racing motors with mates and delivery mails as a job. Then accidentally appointed to be temporary boyfriend of his beautiful rich boss, whom he secretly loved. The boss was from a rich family and her friends were all sort of upper class. After several up and downs the two fell in love and.... Well, personally, I don't think they will live happily ever after, which the movie tried its best to convince its audience. During most of my stay I interact with local Malaysian Chinese and barely spoke to Malay unless I have to. So the movie showed me a different view of Malaysia which really was a pleasure. An interesting phenomenon in this movie is that not a single woman wore a headscarf, which I though was a requirement of Melays.

Great Ocean Road

After being in Melbourne for almost 2 years, today I finally grasp a chance to visit the Great Ocean Rd.

The road was being constructed since 1918, after World War I. 3000 soldiers were back from Europe and apparently had nothing to do in that period of time. Therefore they were assigned to build such a road in a manner to memorize the soldiers who died in the war.

It took about 12 years for the road to be completed, then it became a tourism hotspot of Victoria. Hundreds of thousands of tourists came to boost the local economy every year. Honestly I was very impressed by Australian involvement in WWI, whose continent the fire of war didn’t reach at all. Everything they did in the war was for England - their motherland.

Then I heard a terrifying story about how a ship from England crashed to the cliff a hundred years ago. Only two survived. They now develop this area as a tourist attraction which I do not appreciate at all. I have to admit I am a little suspicions and concerned about the welfare of the passed-away.

The scenery, I’d say, is fascinating. However I am not sure if it is fascinating enough for one to sleep in a van for 7 hours ups-and-down on the rugged road to just have a look of the stuff which they could find on every website.

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Malaysia Journal 2 - Baba Nyonya

How lazy I was to hold this topic until a month after my visit to Malaysia! Writing journal is never a easy job, especially when writing about something you don't really know about and in your second language.

Baba Nyonya (峇峇娘惹 in Chinese) refers to the descendants of the Chinese who immigrated to Malaysia during 15th and 16th. It was used as a term to separate the Chinese arrived in Malaysia after that time. Before 1960s, Baba Nyonya were considered as Bumiputra (literally means 'sons of earth', referring to native Malaysian people, predominately Malay ethnic), and enjoyed all the privileges as in the law. However the violence between Chinese and Malay in May 13 Incident (1969) and promoted the implementation of a group of policies in favour to created more opportunities of Bumiputera, and therefore reduce the economical power of Chinese Malaysians. The definition of Bumiputera then narrowed to Malay people and several other indigenous Malaysian ethnic groups.

The term of Baba-Nyonya originally means Grandpa and Grandma, while Baba refers to the male and Nyonya female. This race is considered as upper class in Malaysian society. They could speak English, Malay and Chinese so that they could establish business relations with each of the groups. Their loyalty to British Crown during colonial time and their social connections accumulated a huge amount of fortune for them.

Baba-Nyonya was famous for their astonishing architecture, costumes and customs. Their lifestyle was influenced by both Chinese and Malaysian cultures, and, on degree, Western cultures. They lives were extravagant in whichever way. It is said that they must have 12 dishes in every dinner. Considering their sizes of family, I am little convinced. The traditional clothing for Nyonya is Kebaya, a traditional Indonesian clothing. It now can be found on the Air Attendants from Singapore Airline.

Now Baba Nyonya has lost its status as the policy is no longer in favour for them. Many of them has immigrated to Singapore, North American, Australia and New Zealand. Some of their mansions are kept well as a place for ancestor memorial or a meseum. They are a nice place to visit and to take photographs. Especially wedding photographs.

Kitten of Nyonya.

A Combination of different cultures

Ancestral Hall