2007/01/04

Inauguration Day in America

Two politicians can claim to be the first. Deval Patrick became the first African-American governor of Massachusetts and Nancy Pelosi was elected the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives.

2007/01/03

Now I am reading Chinese history

Lately I am reading 中國人史綱 by 柏楊 at a more leisurely pace. I borrowed it from the Richmond Hill Public Library. The book covers the history of China from legends of creation to the retreat of the Empress Dowager to Xian when Western military forces invaded Beijing in response to the Boxer Rebellion. Now I am at the beginning of the Ming dynasty and have yet to tackle the Qing dynasty. A few thoughts on Chinese history so far: Lots of bloodshed, one wonders how it relates to Chinese ethnic homogeneity--even so China remains populous and multicultural. Lots of "Dark Ages" (a Western term), one only needs to know the major dynasties, their founders or most significant emperors, i.e. Han Wu-di, Tang Tai-zong, and from the Qing dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong, who were successful--the rest is all decline or disunity. Lots of Confucianism and culture over the centuries; they come and go, sometimes hand in hand, sometimes against each other--the former contributed to formation of a privileged, non-productive aristocracy resistant to any useful innovation, and the latter contributed to various vibrant things we call Chinese, like calligraphy and ceramics, painting and poetry, and songs, operas and novels. This is a book I would buy to keep.

I was busy reading Jin Jong's novels

You will notice that I posted no entries in autumn. Well, I was mesmerized by 金庸, Jin Jong's wuxia novels, 射鵰英雄傳, and 神鵰俠侶, in their latest editions, 2003 and 2004 respectively. I enjoyed particularly the martial arts in the former and the love story in the latter. My first exposure to either novels was in Hong Kong during pre-teens when both appeared as TV series 1981/83 and I hardly watched any episodes. Now a 2006 TV series made in China revived my interest. Bibiana will complain if I re-read them so soon.

Congratulations to Clara and Tommy

Congratulations to my sister-in-law, Clara, who picked a date to marry Tommy in August. Happy New Year and best wishes to them both. :-)

Reaction to the death of a dictator

Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on his first day of work: "Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against Iraqi people and we should never forget victims of his crime," he said. "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide." "As the secretary-general, at the same time, while I am firmly against impunity, I also hope that members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian laws. During my entire tenure, I'll try my best to help member states, international community, to strengthen the rule of law," he said. "The Iraqi people and government have taken their steps to address their past," Ban replied, "and I hope that international community should also understand the stakes and try to build rule of law nationally and internationally."