My DC trip

I'm in DC for a week. A lot's happening. A lot for me to do, and a lot for me to think about. I'm trying to capture all that I can. This is a really diverse group that I'm with this week: some of them young Americans, some young Chinese first time in the U.S., some Chinese diplomat, some American diplomat, some Chinese university presiendts, some U.S. university presidents...

Whatever it is, I know I'm going to cherish this experience. And, this is, again, proof of my philosophy - you never know what's going to happen to you. Just keep your mind open; get yourself prepared; & pay attention to opportunities knocking on your door. Good things will follow.

Indeed. What marvelous experience.

I'll talk more about what happened to me this week after I get some rest.

當愛變成害

除了父母溺愛孩子的經典例子,其實一個人太愛一個地方,也可以令它受到傷害.

我家現居的這個德州小鎮, 是本州兩所最著名學府之一的所在地, 這大學不但在州內吃香, 在國內國外也有點名氣,尤以工程,農業,工管及獸醫學系等最享負盛名, 在多個全國排名中也名列前矛.

本校非常注重傳統,加上歷史悠久,校園多個角落都藏著段段動人故事.學校另一與別不同之處是學生對學校的歸屬感及忠誠度是罕有地高,舊生每年足球季節從老遠跑回母校觀看球賽,捐助學校各項不同發展與科研項目,更是見怪不怪.但最令我詫異的是畢業後留在校內工作的學生人數之高,以我粗略估計,大概有八成的行政職位,都是由舊生擔當的.

舊生回饋母校,為母校服務,理論上是求之不得,但在我這一年間的冷眼旁觀,卻發現這現象往往是令學校不能達到應有的進步的最大障礙.由於本學是公立大學,所以學生一般來自州內各個城鎮,要知道德州除了Houston, Dallas 及Austin三個大都會,其他地方都是...唔...比較鄉下,而且德州人出名不愛外遊(我們常笑說,Texans認為到Oklahoma己是出國了!),世界觀自是比較狹窄了.

有很多舊生為了留在本鎮及本校工作,很多都不惜自降身價,拿著學士甚至碩士學位的當份文員工作並不是新鮮事.本來循漸進不是問題,問題是這些人從未向外闖,也沒有準備向外闖,於是在毫無鬥心之下愈做愈欠衝勁,愈做愈不成器.而且這些忠心的舊生,一畢業便在同一所機構工作,一做便是十多二十年,從未接觸過其他工作方式及可能性,難免是會給培養成墨守成規的一群.

看著一代又一代的舊生留校工作,然後開口埋口我校怎樣怎樣優勝,,聽著聽著,很有點亂倫的感覺.

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有時候我跟這裡的中國留學生閒談,言語中會感受到他們很不屑美國傳媒對中國的種種評擊,覺得他們是有意眨低中國.每次我都只有婉轉的告訴他們,中國的確有很多地方需要改善,若果我們不多作檢討,最終受苦的還是中國人.

這又讓我想起我工作的這所學校的舊生--過份保護,往往只會適得其反.愛與害,有時的確是一線之差.

Mid Autumn Festival Pictures 中秋剪影

Another cheating post - pictures from a couple of weeks ago on the Mid Autumn Festival. A friend came over & had dinner & a mini celebration with us. This is the first year Genghis really enjoyed playing with his lantern. And, he loves mooncakes like I do! Good boy!

遲來的中秋節相片...

My Rock Star Wannabe

這兩個多星期忙得可以,沒閒暇沒心思寫文章,只好出賣小兒玉照充撐場面!亞仔乖,幫媽咪頂下檔!
Wait till he's a teenager...

Interesting Article on Newspapers in the U.S.

A friend forwarded this to me and I think it is absolutely funny, and, to the purpose of generalization, true. I wonder what the list will look like if we're comparing newspapers in China...Anyone want to give it a try?

Demographics of American Newspapers

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country, but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country . . or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happens to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. The Sacramento Bee is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.

好心做壞事

今天上班時,看到一位仁兄騎著電單車在路上穿梭,仔細一看,他在掛車牌的位置,放了一個牌,牌上寫著一句大意是"不要殺生,改吃素吧"的標語(忘了原文是甚麼),然後頭盔上又印了一句"Meat is cruel"之類的口號(也是忘了原文是甚麼),我和老公看了,相視而笑.


回到公司,又看到了紐約時報一則新聞,內容大致是保護動物團體Peta開展了一個以吃肉會導致global warming為主題的宣傳計劃.


我自知太貪吃,一定不會做素食者,但我並不會岐視素食者,而且身邊也有不少只吃素的朋友.可是今天碰上的兩件事情,讓我想起了一句話:"好心做壞事".何解?我深明那位騎鐵馬的男子跟Peta一樣,都是希望引起大眾關注愛護動物的重要,前者的做法,我認為並無不可,但後者嘛,就讓人感到有點強辭奪理,嘩眾取寵了.


吃肉本身是不會導致地球升溫的;大量及不當的飼養方式才是global warming的原凶.Peta這趟亂扣帽子,便令人非常反感了.


就像其他葷食動物一般,吃肉是人的本能,所謂一物治一物,我們只是食物鏈上的一員,並不應因為吃肉而感到罪咎.換個角度看,蚊子散播登革熱,我們殘害蚊子,難道我們就是喪盡天良嗎?


是,我知道那頭牛那隻雞那尾魚沒有對我們造成生命威脅,但若果我們以人道的方法飼養然後屠宰牠們,我實在看不出有何不當.


或許,以上這些廢話都是我為自己貪吃而編出來的謬論,或是我作為中國人所以深信四腳朝天皆可食的詭辯,更有可能是我的思想太backwards,根本看不出事實的真相.但我敢肯定Peta這次市場攻勢,必會惹人反感,結果令人認定保護動物團體只求激進,妄顧現實,吃力又不討好.


好心,有時是會做壞事的.

暱稱

我手可以寫我口,但我這人天生不善辭令,永遠不能我口講我心.

平日一般社交應對當然沒有問題,但一旦要表達內心情感,我便會舌頭打結.有幾杯酒到肚壯膽還勉強可以,沒有的話,只好把說話都吞到肚裡了.

我是個追求社交和諧的人,所以最怕出口傷人,說話時總愛顧左右而言他,毫不蕭灑.故此我最愛與爽快敢言的人交朋友,一來是這些人性格一般可親,二來是希望自己有話說不出口時,也有他們替我出口嘛!

不要說我跟朋友未必能暢所欲言,更令人難以置信的是,我跟丈夫結婚五年多,還是不知該怎麼稱呼他.不知怎的,我實在不能接受自己喚他作honey, baby之類的暱稱,但叫他的名字又太生外,我有時索性叫他"喂"便算了.

行為或肌膚上的親暱我是完全沒有問題的,我和他在公眾場合拉手,親咀也不會感到尷尬,但就是不能大大方方的喚他作親愛的.奇怪的是,我也不怕對他說我愛你,但暱稱嘛,偏偏就是說不出口.

這算不算是phobia的一種?我也不清楚,但總認為這怪異行為是我內心某種不安的投射,可是到現在仍然找不出答案,有時也會讓我感到點點困惑.

My Other Self

Okay. I have finally decided to launch a separate blog devoted for knitting.

The name of the blog is Spinning My Yarn. And it is up and running! Please visit my other self and release the knitter in you!

Cool chicks knit! Yay!

雲吞

雖然正寫是餛飩,但我還是喜歡廣東的寫法--一口把雲吞進肚子裡,多詩意啊!

自少愛吃雲吞,但母親大人嫌麻煩,從來不會自己包,只會到街市買,或者索性到食店吃.

到我中學時開始有家政課,第一樣老師教我們做的便是雲吞.那周未趕緊在家動手做, 母親吃後大讚不絶--我媽是個最偏私的食評,但凡是我做的東西,她只會說好.也許我便是在她不斷鼓勵下對煮食愈來愈有興趣,愈煮愈有信心了.畢業以後,便很少自己開灶,更遑論要包雲吞了.

兩年多前開始,我又再動手包雲吞.一來因為所需的材料在一般洋人超市也不難買到,甚為方便;二來是雲吞真的像雲一樣軟綿綿,我的孩子未足一歲,我便開始餵雲吞給他吃,見他吃得開心,我便做得暢快.

有兩款雲吞是我最愛做的,第一款是以免治豬肉加上上海白菜,喜歡的話也可加上少許雪裡紅吊味.以蔬菜做雲吞餡料,最重要是先把菜切碎,然後抓一把鹽與之拌勻,待數分鐘,水份會從菜中流出,把水隔去,不妨再用手擠出更多水份,那煮出來的雲吞便不會水汪汪不夠味.

另一款是以魚肉加紅蘿蔔,魚可以是任何白肉魚,我喜歡用朧脷,因為就算不是游水鮮魚,味道也還算鮮,而且骨大易去.做法跟上述的菜肉餡大致相同,紅蘿蔔同樣要以鹽抓過,隔去水份, 再跟魚肉碎拌勻便可.

還有一款雲吞我是相當愛吃的,可惜現在也很難找到了,那就是錦滷雲吞了.還記得兒時愛跟媽媽兩份吃一客,我最喜歡在橙紅色的酸汁中尋寶,魷魚啦,雞肝啦...

不要說在這荒蕪德州難找到錦滷雲吞,就是在香港也不是隨便找到.要自己做,又沒有食譜照版煮碗,無計可施下,唯有得個恨字.

Racist, really?

I was reading this article just the other day. It's basically about a Canadian who tries to figure out why he is often called a racist. And then last Monday, something happened that makes me think about one more time this issue called racism.

So what actually happened? It's not that big a deal, really. But a group from a major oil company in Vietnam took a visit to where I work. One of the group members was extremely rude, and my colleague, who's a relatively young lady who grew up in Texas and didn't have a lot of experience working with people from other cultures (Well, in Texas, you're a foreigner if you're from California. Imagine that.). She got a little offended by the Vietnamese guy because he kept asking her to take pictures for him in a very rude manner - no thank you or please, & gesturing instead of speaking. I was suspecting this made her think that Vietnamese are very rude in general. And, because of how she reacted, it's easy for an outsider to think she is discriminatory toward Vietnamese.

It is, of course, unfair to make generalizations like this. But at the same time, it is easy if this is your only encounter with people from that culture. Depending on the context, an individual does not only represent his/her self, but also the family, community, and culture that one is from.

Is she racist? Or is the rude Vietnamese guy racist? Probably neither of them are. But I can see it would be easy for anyone to think they are because of what happened.

I remember when I was in Hong Kong, my foreigner friends would complain to me that Chinese are racist. I never understood why. I think Hong Kong people are generally not racist. They're just discriminatory to people with no money.

Is it racist to call a Caucasian gweilo/gweipor (ghost man/ghost woman)? I genuinely don't think so. When we say gwei, we don't really mean anything bad about the westerner we're addressing to. It's just a name that we've been using for so many years that it's hard to change.

My husband is black. When we're in Hong Kong, some people would call him haak gwei (black ghost). At first, I felt a little uneasy about the name. But after a while, I realize that it's just a name that distinguishes him from other ghosts.

One time when we were driving in Houston, we asked a passerby how to get to China town. This person was obviously not very educated. He gave us the directions and then he said, "You'll see a lot of Chinamen there."

So was he being racist? Probably not. I know some Chinese get really upset about the name Chinaman. But I think, at least in this incident, that the guy was just using a phrase that he knew. He didn't know better. What did he know about racism, honestly? When he was giving us directions, he looked nothing but genuinely eager to help.

It's a fine line between racism and otherwise. But in the U.S., I feel like some people are using every chance they get to accuse someone of being racist so as to take advantage of it.

Take the N-word for example. It's okay for a black stand-up comedian to address himself by the N-word, but if any white person say an African-American (This term is itself problematic. My husband hates it. He's of African heritage but is from the Carribeans. So he never considers himself an "African".) is an N----, it's an absolute no-no.

Especially in the U.S., I think a lot of politicians are using the race issue as a tool to get what they want.

It's easy to say someone is racist, but before we make the accusation, we should really think about the motives or reason behind the obvious.