Bits and Pieces vs 斷爛朝報

Flirting made easy!

2012-01-08T21:21:00.000+08:00

On a grey, cold, and melancholy Sunday afternoon, I was reading the North-China Daily News published over 100 years ago (1882) in my study. Sunlight sparkled my face and cleansed my mind when I was excited by an interesting title listed in the advertisement of Kelly & Walsh on the front page (Monday, 5th June, 1882). It is Charles H. Ross' Flirting made easy: a guide for girls: to which are added several full-length portraits of good, pretty girls and a few others of pretty good girls (London: 'Judy' Office, 1882) with illustrations by Dower Wilson. This is a book for girls and women, and, after all, men.

This illustration is from page 17. (source) The poor little boy is begging for love from the little girl, who is only generous enough to offer her indifference to his passion for her. Poor kid, the first victim. This victim might be Ross himself. He says "I believe young ladies begin to flirt much earlier in life than they used to do when I, who write this, was a good little boy with a huge collar and long-peaked cap."

Unfortunately, this book is not fully available on Gbook or Archive.org. I hope I can have a copy of it. Yet I found a blogger managed to jot down some funny paragraphs from Gbook. Here I quote a few:

The Art of Flirting among Wild Beasts: Women are fond of comparing men to monkeys, which is unjust to the men - or the monkeys. Monkeys are an imitative class and so are men. Many men get married through force of example. Woman ought not to be unkind to man on this account.

I feel sure that that dear girl has been vigorously brought up, and is the possessor of biceps calculated to cause a male weakling considerable surprise. She is not the model maiden of my youth with the bell-rope curls and lackadaisical ways, whom good Miss Primmer was wont to teach that no lady ever crossed her legs, and that no one ever went to heaven who stirred her tea with the snuffers.

And I add some more from what I have found on Gbook:

No, no, no, my dear young lady readers, don't waste the talents that I feel sure you possess upon the desert air, or even upon other young ladies, however appreciative. Don't flock, in fact — no, pray don't flock ! What 's the good?

True. Ladies, don't flock if you want to flirt or to be flirted.

25 of the most beautiful college libraries in the world - because im addicted

2012-01-04T12:32:00.000+08:00

25 of the most beautiful college libraries in the world - because im addicted:

'via Blog this'

停滞の帝国：近代西洋における中国像の変遷

2012-01-03T14:33:00.001+08:00

停滞の帝国

近代西洋における中国像の変遷　

大野英二郎著

発売日　2011/10/20

判型　A5判 ISBN　978-4-336-05440-1

Cコード　0022

定価　7,140円（本体価格6,800円）

近代西洋において、中国はいかに記述されてきたか――。マカートニー使節団、イエズス会、ライプニッツ、ヴォルテール、モンテスキュー、リンネ、アダム・スミス、ヘーゲル、ダーウィン、ニーチェ、ヴェーバー、ウィットフォーゲル……。文化史、思想史、自然科学史を横断し、近代西洋における中国像の変容の意味を探るとともに、近代西洋に特有の思考構造を明らかにする。オリエンタリズム研究の新たな可能性を示す大著。

大野英二郎（オオノエイジロウ）

1953年東京生まれ。東京大学大学院人文科学研究科博士課程修了。パリ第8大学博士課程修了。第3課程博士。現在、フェリス女学院大学国際交流学部教授。専攻は近代フランス文学・思想。訳書にフンボルト『新大陸赤道地方紀行　上・中・下』（共訳、岩波書店）など。

序章　マカートニー使節団
マカートニー使節団／アンダーソンの手記／ストーントンの記録／バローの記録／マカートニーの日記／バローの衝撃

第1部　中国の登場――18世紀初頭まで

第1章　中国の登場
中国と地理的想像力／異界としての極東――マンデヴィル／中国の発見／中国報告の開始――クルス／中国への関心――メンドーサ／イエズス会の宣教方法／驚異としての中国／キリスト教の痕跡／儒教の位置づけ／中国史と聖書／中国史の衝撃――マルティニ／中国文明の欠点　中国の原像――ル・コント／中国礼賛――ライプニッツ／中国礼賛への反論――ルノド／世俗的人間の証言／二種類の証言、二種類の言説

第2章　世界観への組み込み
ヨーロッパ意識の危機／聖書の読み直し――ラ・ペレール／無神論者の徳――ベール／新旧論争――ペロー、フォントネル／進歩の観念と中国／中国思想の不変性――マルブランシュ／普遍史の模索――ボッスエ／中国人バビロン起源説――フェヌロン／中国人エジプト起源説――ユエ、ド・メラン／ロビンソン・クルーソーの視点

第2部　神話の形成――18世紀

第1章　中国の流行
中国の世紀／中国礼賛の戦略――ヴォルテール／中国の不変性――『シナの孤児』／批判装置としての中国――モンテスキュー／聖像破壊――アンソンの『世界周航記』／東洋的専制主義――ブーランジェ、エルヴェシウス／重農主義者の視点――ケネーなど　重農主義者への反論――マブリー／トポスとしてのシナ

第2章　世界の中の中国　　
聖書への疑問――ラングレ＝デュフレノワ／新しい普遍史――テュルゴ／停滞する中国――レイナル／世界史概念の変化――カント／反啓蒙主義――ヘルダー／ヨーロッパ中心主義的偏見――ド・ポー／進歩に対する確信――コンドルセ

第3章　博物学から人類学へ　　
博物学の中の中国人――リンネ／人種概念の成立――ビュフォン／世界の多様性――カント、ド・ブロス　顔面角――カンペル／身体人類学――ブルーメンバッハ／人種の階梯――ホワイト

第4章　ヨーロッパの変容　　
ヨーロッパの変化／人類発展段階説――ケームズ／イギリスの変化――アダム・スミス／繁栄と没落――ファーガソン／産業の発展と自由――ミラー／イギリスの急進主義と中国――プリーストリ、ゴドウィン／終末の予言――マルサス／オリエントの復権――アンクティル＝デュペロン／中国の褪色

第3部　停滞の神話――19世紀前半

第1章　19世紀中葉までの中国観察　　
神話の定着／アマースト使節団／軍事的関心――ロシア人の観察／アヘン戦争まで／プロテスタント宣教師の視点――メドハースト／アジアの中の中国――ウィリアムズなど／骨董的世界から猥雑な混沌へ／中国学の確立

第2章　思想の中の中国　　
世界観の変化と中国／フランス革命の余波――コンスタン／『人口論』をめぐる応酬――マルサスとゴドウィン／産業革命の普及――セイ／世界史と中国――ヘーゲル／インドとの対比――フリードリッヒ・フォン・シュレーゲル、クザン／社会発展と中国――コント／反動思想の中の中国――ボナルド／アジアの中の中国――ジョーンズ、リスト／自由主義思想と中国――トクヴィル

第3章　人種論と中国人　　
近代的人類学の形成／人種分類の中の中国人／独立種としての人種

第4部　神話の変容――19世紀後半

第1章　中国の混迷　　
動乱の連続／変化する中国――ユック／ヨーロッパの変貌と中国の停滞／太平天国の影響――メドウズ／中国の将来――ミチー／太平天国への共感――リンドレー／中国人の流入――白人至上主義の表裏／好奇と同情――トウェイン

第2章　不変性から後進性へ　　
変化の予感――コントのその後／自由主義理論の暗部――ジョン・ステュアート・ミル／アジア的生産様式――マルクス　進歩史観の否定――ランケ　民族論と人種論――ルナン　人種不平等論の唱道――ゴビノー／優生学の視点――ダーウィン／社会進化論――スペンサー／優生学理論と中国人――ゴルトン、ヴァシェ＝ド＝ラプージュ／潜在的脅威としての中国――ピアソン、ル＝ボン／アーリア人の神話――チェンバレン

第3章　変化の胎動　　
中国の進歩――ウィリアムズ再版／中国人論――アーサー・スミス／女性たちの報告／変化の実感――コフーン／40年後の中国再論――ミチー／黄禍論――興隆する日本の影響／頽廃の果て――ノルダウ

第4章　トポスとしての中国　　
中国像の変容／異国趣味――ジュディト・ゴーティエ／愚民としての中国人――『パンチ』誌／植民地主義と冒険小説／中国人の非人間性――ミルボー、コンラッド／義和団の乱と文学――黄禍論と大衆文学／悪役としての中国人／白人の責務――キプリング

終章　西洋の黄昏、中国の黎明　　
決定的変化の生起／西洋文明批判――ニーチェ／近代への懐疑――ヴェーバー／帝国主義批判――ホブソン／中国革命への対応／西洋の没落――シュペングラー／中国の近代化――孫文　懐古的視線――セガレン／異国情緒の残照――プッチーニ／歴史の流れと中国人――バック、マルロー／新生中国の苦闘――スメドレー／『中国の赤い星』――スノー／単線的世界観への疑義――ウィットフォーゲル／新たな中国像を求めて

注
あとがき
考文献一覧
人名索引
図像一覧

source: http://www.kokusho.co.jp/np/isbn/9784336054401/

馴化

2011-10-14T14:15:00.002+08:00

在港大上學，中午時間的太古樓飯堂，難免會碰上一街之隔的英皇書院的學生。

偶然發現前校長梁植穎的《英皇師生愛國愛港情》（香港：明報出版社，2007）。愛國，愛英國，愛中國，愛香港。梁氏介紹超過二百位師生的成就及貢獻。八十載歷史，人材輩出。

關於宋學鵬，目錄上的短短數語，可甚玩味：「教導金文泰港督中文，提高中文老師待遇，馴化金督解決一九二一至一九二六年抵制英貨的中港大罷工。」馴化一字，可圈可點。愛國情操高尚，名副其實。

梁氏引了不許多珍貴材料，包括相片、報章、口述資料等。參考和可讀性甚高。

又，宋氏的藏書今庋藏於加拿大英屬哥倫比亞大學（The University of British Columbia）的亞洲圖書館（Asian Library）。

Singaporean national identities

2011-10-08T00:12:00.001+08:00

National identities are politically forged, culturally constructed, and collectively shared. Young country like Singapore provides sound evidence to prove this claim.

Three cultural impulses, Terrence Chong tells us, are relevant to manufacture authenticity in Singapore. They are 1) the Malay literary movement Angkatan Sasterawan 50 prior to independence; 2) the state-sponsored Confucian ethics discourse during the 1980s; and 3) the romanticization of the working-class 'heartlander' through contemporary popular culture in confrontation with the politics of global capitalism and globalization, which Chong argues that offers the most popular symbols of Singaporean national identity.

Terence Chong, "Manufacturing Authenticity: The Cultural Production of National Identities in Singapore," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 4 (2011), pp. 877-897.

When I left

2011-09-25T17:49:00.000+08:00

Quum subit illius tristissima noctis imago
qua mihi supremum [tempus] in urbe fuit
quum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui
labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis.
(When steals upon me the gloomy memory of that night
which marked my latest hours in the city -
when I recall that night on which I left so many things
dear to me, even now from my eyes the teardrops fall.)

Quoted from the Edinburgh-educated Malaysian Chinese scholar Ku Hung-ming's (1857-1928) quotation in "Days That Are No More" from Chapter3, Book 1, of Ovid's Tristia. Translation from Lo Hui-Min's “Ku Hung-ming: Schooling,” Papers on Far Eastern History, Vol. 37-38, 1988, p. 64.

Recent readings XXVIII

2011-09-13T18:47:00.000+08:00

Modern Asian Studies Vol. 45, Special Issue 2: China in World War II, 1937-1945: Experience, memory, and Legacy. Part I: Experiencing China's War with Japan: World War II, 1937–1945

Rana Mitter, "Classifying Citizens in Nationalist China during World War II, 1937–1941," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 243-275.

Matthew D. Johnson, "Propaganda and Sovereignty in Wartime China: Morale Operations and Psychological Warfare under the Office of War Information," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 303-344.

Andres Rodriguez, "Building the Nation, Serving the Frontier: Mobilizing and Reconstructing China's Borderlands during the War of Resistance (1937–1945)," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 345-376. Rodriguez argues that the notion of 'frontier service' and the 'cultural reconstruction' project propounded by the Chinese anthropologist, Li Anzhai, not only sought the modernize and unify China around a distinct multicultural identity, it was also an important mobilizing force amongst sectors of wartime youth which arguably introduced young Han Chinese to a region which they had hitherto only imagined in the pre-war period.

Felix Boecking's "Unmaking the Chinese Nationalist State: Administrative Reform among Fiscal Collapse, 1937-1945," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 277-301. Boecking contends that from 1937 until 1940, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang) fiscal policy managed to preserve a degree of relative stability even though, by early 1939, the Nationalists had already lost control over ports yielding 80 per cent of Customs revenue. The introduction of war-time fiscal instruments led to administrative changes, which in return created one of the preconditions for the disintegration of the Nationalist state, which facilitated the Chinese Communist Party victory in 1949.

Part II: Remembering China's War with Japan: The Wartime Generation in Post-war China and East Asia

Parks M. Coble, "Writing about Atrocity: Wartime Accounts and their Contemporary Uses," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 379-398. Coble finds that most wartime writing stressed the theme of 'heroic resistance' by the Chinese rather than China's victimization at the hands of Japanese. Exceptions to his approach included efforts to publicize Japan's action to Western audiences in the hope of gaining support for China's cause, and a related focus on the bombing of the civilian population by the Japanese.

James Reilly's "Remember History, Not Hatred: Collective Remembrance of China's War of Resistance to Japan," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 463-490. Reilly examines four historical periods: China's 'benevolent amnesia' on Japan's wartime atrocities before 1982; China's patriotic education campaign from the mid-1980s; the rise of history activism in China in the late 1990s; and the post-2005 reversal in official rhetoric on Japan and the wartime past. He argues that while the party-state retains an impressive capacity to shape the narratives of critical periods of modern Chinese history, Chinese leaders are likely to find themselves increasingly constrained by domestic forces and by external events beyond their control.

Neil J. Diamant, "Conspicuous Silence: Veterans and the Depoliticization of War Memory in China," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 431-461. Diamant argues that the relative silence of authentic military voices in the post-war period can be attributed to several peculiar features of modern Chinese history. The nature of warfare, the absence of a national army, veteran organizations and a consensus over the the legitimacy about the wars, has overshadowed the validity of veteran's claims for a higher political and cultural status. Intellectual elites in various cultural and propaganda offices dominate national war memory presenting a simplistic and artificial rendering of the wars, and marginalize veterans' position to portray war from their perspectives.

Arron William Moore, "The Problem of Changing Language Communities: Veterans and Memory Writing in China, Taiwan, and Japan," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 399-429. Moore analyses six categories of 'memory writing' that veterans used to engage with memory debates: post-war diaries, 'testimonial literature', articles and literary works, surveys and oral histories, memoirs, and paratext. He argues that veterans can only be 'heard' by members of their language community, or by a post-war society that is prepared to 'listen' to their message with little mediation.

六朝 ‧ 香港

2011-09-12T00:21:00.000+08:00

童嶺：〈「鈔」、「寫」有別論－－六朝書籍文化史識小錄一種〉，《漢學研究》，第29卷第1期（2011年3月），頁257-280。照本不動而謄錄者謂之「寫」；部分摘錄且可作改動者謂之「鈔」。

楊孟軒：〈調景嶺：香港「小臺灣」的起源與變遷，1950-1970年代〉，《臺灣史研究》，第18卷第1期（2011年3月），頁133-183。採用流亡／離散（diaspora）群體概念切入，引用CO1030、HKRS檔案、臺灣救總出版品，以及第三勢力在香港出版的兩份主要雜誌《中國之聲》（1951-2）及《自由陣線》（1950-3）

中體西用論的重生？

2011-09-09T00:42:00.000+08:00

中體西用是一種以中學為體，西學為用的理論。中學是指孔子之道，是中國道統文化，生活規範。西方的物質文明，格致製造，有其實用價值。中西學術的主要區別就是道與器，形而上者以道勝，形而下者以器勝。（莊吉發：〈中體西用－－以盛清時期中西藝術交流為中心〉，《史學彙刊》，第26期，2010年12月，頁128）

康熙道：「中國人不解西洋字義，故不便辨爾西洋人不解中國字義，如何妄論中國道理之是非？」......入境隨俗，互相尊重，符合人類文化自然演進的法則。文化人類學派解釋人類文化的起源也主張文化複源說，文化是多元的，深信人類文化依著自然法則演進，人同此心，心同此理，不必一定發源於一地，或創自一人，康熙皇帝的態度是客觀的。（頁137-8）

資料來源：莊吉發：〈中體西用－－以盛清時期中西藝術交流為中心〉，《史學彙刊》，第26期，2010年12月，頁125-178。附郎世寧雍正年間藝術創作活動簡表（頁129-34）。又附乾隆年間平定西域得勝圖銅版畫繪製過程簡表，將稿樣交粵海關發送法蘭西製成銅版畫（1753-1776）（頁163-6）。

Recent readings XXVII

2011-09-05T21:56:00.002+08:00

I am back to Hong Kong for a while and just started to browse through the journals I missed in the summer. Some of them are quite interesting and a few related to my current research interests. They are:

伍伯常：〈隋唐之際的割據勢力－－以貴冑出身的李淵和李密為中心〉，《東吳歷史學報》，第25期（2011年6月），頁1-56。建制內外的力量角力及地緣政治的克服與制約。
何萍：〈英國與武漢國民政府之漢案交涉──以英國領事報告為中心〉，《東吳歷史學報》，第25期（2011年6月），頁187-252。 useful for my research on KW
李朝津：〈清末民初廣東大學學制之發軔〉，《東吳歷史學報》，第25期（2011年6月），頁141-185。1924年成立的廣東大學的政治牽絆。
羅麗馨：〈豐臣秀吉侵略朝鮮〉，《國立政治大學歷史學報》，第35期（2011年5），頁33-74。由侵略史到侵略史觀。
侯旭東：〈東漢洛陽南郊刑徒墓的性質與法律依據－－從《明鈔本天聖令 ‧ 獄官令》所附一則唐令說起〉，《中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊》，第82卷，第1分，2011年3月，頁1-42。

I read several critical reviews of some books I am interested in. It certainly does not do the justice without actually reading the books but it makes sense when I am forced to prioritise my reading lists.

David Lyon's Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009). Using ID cards as the point of departure, the book resonates with Foucault's concepts of biopolitics and governmentality. The finer the granularity of identifying information collected by the state, the greater will be the potentiality for treating citizens differently according to their respective administrative identities. The process of identification entails social sorting.

Joel Mokyr's The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). Why did Britain have an industrial revolution first? Why not other advanced European countries? Because in Britain ideas interacted vigorously with business interests in 'a positive feedback loop that created the greatest sea change in economic history since the advent of culture.' Technological innovation is the prime mover.

Patrick Wright's Passport of Peking: A Very British Mission to Mao's China (OUP, 2010). Wright makes extensive use of diaries, journals, reminiscences, and oral interview with key visitors to the Communist China as early as in 1954. The key visitors include the painter Stanley Spencer, artist-journalist Paul Hogarth, biologist Cedric Dover, sinologist Edwin Pulleyblank, philosopher A. J. Ayer, architect Sir Hugh Casson, MP Barbara Castle, former PM Clement Attlee, politician Anuerin Bevan etc.

George R. Trumbull's An Empire of Facts: Colonial Power, Cultural Knowledge, and Islam in Algeria, 1870-1914 (CUP, 2009). Trumbull examines the views of colonial ethnographers about Islam as monolithic, primitive, and politically dangerous. The Imprimerie Adolph Jourdan in Algiers specialized in publishing works of colonial ethnography, which became widely known in colonial Algeria and France, and those the administration approved were bought for the libraries that existed in most administrative districts of Algeria.

Michael Curtis's Orientalism and Islam : European thinkers on Oriental despotism in the Middle East and India (CUP, 2009). Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, James Mill and John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Max Weber

東南亞女傭做錯了甚麼嗎？

2011-08-21T01:40:00.001+08:00

每天早上，上班沿途穿過一個公園，往往見到一個二十來歲的年輕人，推著坐在輪椅上，似是他的祖父的老人在公園散步。有時，也會看見另一些推著輪椅的是印傭和菲傭，或是她們攙扶著老人散步。

--- --- ---

八月炎夏的香港，正為著外傭爭取居港權的申請資格鬧得焦躁不安。

恰巧，兩年前的八月，我正在讀台灣社會學學者藍佩嘉的《跨國灰姑娘 : 當東南亞幫傭遇上台灣新富家庭》（台北：行人出版社，2008）。我猜想，有關於香港的研究嗎？香港的數量應該遠比台灣多。

他們不是一般的外傭，他們是東南亞女傭。她們是來自東南亞的年輕女性，主要是菲傭、印傭和泰傭，數目幾近三十萬。她們照顧香港三十萬個家庭。假設每個家庭有四口，她們照顧超過一百萬香港人！

她們對香港有甚麼貢獻？

她們照顧我們家庭的起居飲食，清理打掃，三餐煮食；她們照料我們小孩的日常生活，斟茶遞水，接送放學，教導英文；她們照料我們的父母和祖父母，上街散步，推輪椅散心，如厠洗澡。

於是，我們不會做家務，不懂煮食，只會有名人教搵食；我們不再有家教，只會有港孩和港父母；我們不再照顧父母和祖父母，只會在中秋冬至團圓；甚至，我們不再懂得照顧別人，體諒別人。我，就是Boss，就是Master。

她們是別人的女兒，卻不再照顧自己的父母和祖父母，而要照顧別人的；她們是別人的太太或女友，但要照顧別人的男人；她們是別人的媽媽，卻要離開自己的小孩於襁褓，去照料別人的。

她們活該。她們來自東南亞發展落後的國家。她們的國家出賣她們。她們的學歷在本國可獲得的回報比當香港女傭可恥。她們把希望放在香港，但沒有奢望在禮儀之邦邊陲的大都會落地生根。

她們使香港女性打破中國社會傳統賦予女性的價值標準，讓她們可以建立家庭和生育小孩之外，還可以兼顧工作，獨立自主。香港職場上有成就的女性，背後支持著她們的其實不是另一半，而是東南亞女傭，別人的女兒，別人的太太，別人的媽媽。

她們卻無形中加強了我們賦予女性的價值標準，一方面家傭只會是女傭，家務還是得由女性肩負；另一方面只有女傭取代女主人，才能夠釋放香港女主人，即是以四千多的支出換取數以倍計的收入。這算是高倡女性主義的香港的真象嗎？畢竟，這是建基於依賴東南亞女性勞動力來換取香港女性的獨立。

法院即將有判決。不如我們想想，假設就像香港政府恫嚇性的推測，數以十萬計的東南亞人來港，我們如何佔盡利益或商機？畢竟，靈活走位是香港人的優勢。法律界不愁沒有生意嗎？社福界不愁沒有新增的資源嗎？教育界可以不愁殺校嗎？公立醫院可以增加人手嗎？私立醫院會有商機嗎？飲食業有出路嗎？旅遊業會更蓬勃嗎？地產業可以再上一層嗎？可以肯定，關景鴻將會拓展移民顧問版圖到菲印泰。

還有，她們可以使我們的社會更多元化嗎？香港，將會真正成為亞洲國際都會。

The Edinburgh Festival

2011-08-14T06:41:00.000+08:00

This evening I returned to what I wrote a couple of weeks ago as I had walked passed the frantic crowd in the Royal Mile in the afternoon.

The Edinburgh Festival kicked off yesterday (3 Aug). The streets, bars, supermarkets, even the usually deserted food bars are packed with tourists. Young and old, hippies and families. They enslave the city with laughs and noise as if they seek excitement only once a year.
Competition between shows is keen. Part-time leafleters dotted around the box offices and the Royal Mile. What's more? Performers with funny and sometimes weird on stage make-up and costumes give out leaflets in the street to catch the eyes of festival-goers to give them a go.
I received one comedy booklet from one of the official leafleters. I flipped it through and one show caught my attention which I also saw from some advertising boards. It's about how we spend our time. If the average person spends (my thoughts follow):
seven years in the bathroom, I'd never give a snort of disgust when a smelly middle-aged guy walks passed;
four years doing housework, I'm completely convinced that domestic helper is the more sacred job in the world;
six months in traffic jams, I'd understand drink driving is as tempting as Sex on the Beach.
one week eating lasagna, I'd give up making lasagna because I'd spend even more time in making it.

Hongkongness

2011-07-25T03:36:00.002+08:00

Below are some notes of my thoughts in Edinburgh last summer from which I expanded a little bit:

Reflecting on my own identity, I realise that my Hongkongness came into sharp focus when I moved out of Hongkong.
This seems to be a common occurrence for Hongkongers. You don’t necessarily practice your Hongkongness at home over the breakfast table.
But when you move away you are forced to think about whom you are and where you fit.
I have been living in Edinburgh for almost three months, from June to August 2010. I arrived in the city centre with a sense of nostalgia.
It is not because I had came here five years ago. But because of the music of the city, bagpipe music precisely.
Scotland the Brave. It is the most well-known bagpipe music to me and to us, Hongkongers.
Like everyone in my generation and those who lived through the 80s (perhaps even early 90s), I grew up with this song, and many others which I can't quite recall now, played by the bagpipe band of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. Or we got familiar with it whilst we watched Junior Police Call's (JPC) TV programme every weekend.
When I was very young, I never realized the Scottish heritage of British Hong Kong. One day, it struck me in my face when I first came to Edinburgh. When I returned, I felt home.

書展與她

2011-07-23T20:42:00.005+08:00

兩屆書展，人在外地，有點可惜。
夏日書展，納悶中叫人興奮。大家不愁話題，不會寂寞。
話題到處，既是「書」，也是「人」。
從前，書展只會想起馬榮成，也只為他而六點起床去排隊。馬仔畫出彩虹到倚巒看日出。成敗從來不爭朝夕。
現在，大家或許只會想起周秀娜。
離港赴英前匆匆看了一本很有趣的書。粉紅色封面以外，更加吸引我的，是一篇由她寫的序。
她承作者邵家臻的邀請，為他的〈o靚模之亂〉作序：

感謝「o靚模」這名詞令我今年過得十分精彩刺淚，我學了很多，感受更多；
我不是社會學家，也不是教育家，沒有能力去分析或教育這個社會；
作為娛樂圈新人，希望大家可以從我身上得到娛樂，香港人工作壓力不少，開心一下不是很好嗎？
大家都在談「o靚模風潮」會過去，我沒有太在意這事情，反而重視完成手頭上的工作之餘，還有今年的計劃付諸實行。（出自《o靚》（香港：kubrick，2010），頁74-75。）

她距離成功還遠嗎？

my teenage dream...

2011-07-04T06:25:00.006+08:00

After finishing the painstaking Bristol conference paper in a stuffy Saturday and stepping out of the one-mile neighbourhood to make the first tour to the high street in ten days' time in a sunny and breezing Sunday afternoon, I returned home and settled to listen to some Canton-pop 90s musics of a legend whose bold and entertaining songs should deserve more applauds than the unjust criticism he had received over the years. My schoolmates and I had used to make fun. But now I feel overwhelmingly enjoyable and sweet as to recall my teenage memories doing silly and stupid things while pretending to look cool. Then I laughed out loud to myself. After all, it's my teenage years and I grew up with it. Bitter but splendid.

--- --- ---

I finished the painstaking Bristol conference paper in a stuffy Saturday. In a sunny and breezing Sunday afternoon I stepped out of the one-mile neighbourhood to make the first tour to the high street in ten days' time.

I returned home and settled to listen to some Canton-pop 90s musics of a legend whose bold and entertaining attempts, I think, should deserve more applauds than the unfair criticism he had received over the years.
My schoolmates and I had used to make fun of him and his songs. But now I feel overwhelmingly enjoyable and sweet as to recall my teenage memories doing stupid things while pretending to look cool.

Then I laughed out loud to myself. After all, it's my teenage years and I grew up with it. Bitter and splendid.

...I'm no genius

2011-06-24T04:15:00.000+08:00

I was a big fan of the NBA legendary player Michael Jordan when I was in middle school. I wished I were as gifted as him in basketball, least to say my height or body shape. After all, I am not, and never will be.

Some time ago last October when I was on the way to mainland China, to where my grandparents were born, on the coach I was reading David Shenk's The genius in all of us : why everything you've been told about genetics, talent, and IQ is wrong (New York : Doubleday, 2010).

Intelligence is a process, not a thing. Everyone is born with differences, and some with unique advantages for certain tasks. No one, however, is genetically designed into greatness. Talents are the result of a slow, invisible accretion of skills developed from the moment of conception. We have far more control over our genes - and far less control over our environment - than we think.

Despite appearances to the contrary, racial and ethnic groups are not genetically discrete; and
Gene don't directly cause traits; they only influence the system. (p. 86-7)

So, how to be a genius? Find your motivation, be your own toughest critic, beware the dark side, identify your limitations - and then ignore them, delay gratification and resist contentedness, have heroes, and find a mentor.

Free?

2011-06-15T21:05:00.000+08:00

I often go out of the track and tend to be directed to read some out-of-the-field books at some point while surfing the internet or browsing scholarly works. Fortunately, most of them are interesting and stimulating. Recently I finished two of these.

The first book is Chris Anderson's Free : the future of a radical price (New York: Hyperion, 2009).

"Like it or not," Anderson says "we all live in the Google economy these days in at least some of our life." (p. 183) Free drives out professionals in favour of amateurs. Free tends to level the playing field between professionals and amateurs. (p. 234-5)

It forced me to reconsider the distinction between professionals and amateurs, and read Andrew Keen's The cult of the amateur : how today's internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy (London: Nicholas Brealey, 2007).

In the Web 2.0 revolution, instead of a dictatorship of experts, he claims, we'll have a dictatorship of idiots.

For better or worse, everyone is simultaneously broadcasting themselves on YouTube and/or Facebook; but nobody is listening.

The Web 2.0 revolution is, as Keens argues, the great seduction. We are being deduced by the empty promise of the "democratized" media. The revolution peddles the promise of bringing more truth to more people - more depth of information, more global perspective, more unbiased opinion from dispassionate observers. But this is all a smokescreem.

It is, in fact, delivering superficial observations rather than deep analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgement. The real consequence of the great seduction is less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information.

stock clearing

2011-06-14T00:29:00.000+08:00

From last December (2010):

Since I have come back from Scotland I have been overwhelmed by an avalanche of new classes to teach and piles of untouched lonesome journal articles resting on desk and top of the bookshelves and awaiting me to read and extract after I returned.

It might not be exaggerated to say that with the help of my supportive colleagues and seniors I championed one and a half new courses. Journal articles printed before, some long before, I left are yet to be read. The first semester is coming to an end and boxes of students' paper have been cleaned (though another patch of examination papers are yet to come next week), it is high time to bring them back to life again, and vacant the desk and bookshelves for other latest works to come.

One of the journals that I browsed intensively was New Literary History, which I found very stimulating and illuminating. I skimmed some of them just today.

Sanjay Krishnan's "The place of India in Postcolonial Studies: Chatterjee, Chakrabarty, Spivak," New Literary History, Vol. 40, 2009, pp. 265-280. Partha Chatterjee, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. "Anticolonial though refers to forms of ideology critique that expose as false the colonizer's claim that colonial values are properly enlightened or universal. Postcolonial though is a reflection on the categories and reflexes through which anticolonial resistance takes place. Postcolonial thought asserts that anticolonial resistance tacitly reproduces the culture and values of imperialism." (p. 265) "anticolonial thought is the ideology critique of colonialism, whereas postcolonial thought signals a critique of the anticolonial conformism to the culture of imperialism. Postcolonial though therefore scrutinizes the dominant rules of representation set in motion by knowledge production in academia and beyond." (p. 266)

R. S. Khare's "Changing India-West Cultural Dialectics," New Literary History, Vol. 37, 2007, pp. 223-245. Louis Dumont, Wilhelm Halbfass, Octavio Paz, and Amartya Sen, whose The Argumentative Indian (London: Allen Lane, 2005) has been on my to-read list.

中史。教育。通識

2011-05-01T17:21:00.000+08:00

新高中中史科有退選趨勢。太好了！想起陶傑說過：「〔香港〕中學不教中國歷史，也不教中國詩詞，也好。讓愚蠢成為主流，通街是文盲o靚模，面對這樣的『市場』，我們這些稍識幾個字的，正好冷眼旁觀，劃著火迆，炶一口煙，吐了出來，想想如何從中營利。」（〈熱鬧看風雲〉，《這個荒謬的快樂年代：陶傑散文精選》（香港：皇冠出版社，2010），頁191）此消彼長，其他科目的學生不幸了。本來僧少粥多，現在倒過來僧多粥少，奪A不易了。

聰明的人不會做兩種工作，一是當官，一是教書。前者不討好，有太多不識趣的無知份子不知「父母官」的用心良苦；後者更不討好，上有低學歷低能的前輩，下有更不甚的低學歷低能家長，要教的是低能的學生。區區薪水，如何忍得下氣！

不用靠納稅人出錢，也有足夠能力保送到英國的大有人在。英國的GCSE和GCE沒有這麼創新的liberal studies（美國只有SAT，香港應是錯誤的示範）。英國的英文科還是要讀悶出個鳥來的莎翁。大抵上，考試內容不過是照本宣科，沒有什麼批判性（SAT雖有critical reading和writing，也算不上那碼子的批判，不過發表下個人「愚見」）。

有那一科可以批判一下這個考試和教育制度的嗎？以前讀過通識教育科的同學都不怎麼出色（甚至是低分低能）。為什麼？為什麼會期望通識教育可以教學生「飛天」？人人都「飛天」，誰人在地上行走？歸根究底，批判能力和獨立思考真的是那麼重要嗎？沒有這兩種能力就不可升職加薪嗎？所有專業都需要這兩種能力嗎？教育局或眾人是否把這兩種能力看得太重。真的以為批判能力和獨立思考就是權力（不應譯作力量）嗎？難道還看不穿權力才是界定批判能力和獨立思考的根源嗎？

現在通識科顯示的問題，只是突顯一個由來已久的現象：共識從來就是評分準則的基礎。過去中文作文如是，英文作文如是，人文學科如是，通識科也將會如是。大家都疏忽了問題的核心：社會上有許多有批判能力和獨立思考的人（不好說一定是精英），不都是給高官和大商家（更多是廣告）欺騙，或者說是奈何不了他們嗎？

先進國家如超級強國美國三億人口（是香港的四百多倍），說得上有批判能力和獨立思考者，應該等於香港總人口吧！不都一樣有伊拉克戰爭和阿富汗戰爭，一樣可以蒙騙國人說伊拉克有大殺傷力武器！可見，人的判斷不以批判能力和獨立思考作依歸，立場才有決定性力量。英美大國高明的地方在於不行通識科。香港這一步是自以為是的走錯了路。

Hong Kong education

2011-04-27T12:29:00.001+08:00

Some months ago, I was very into the education of Hong Kong and read a few scholarly articles published before 1997 in the 1980s and a few years after 1997.

Paul Morris's "The effect on the school curriculum of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997," Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vol. 20, No. 6, 1988, pp. 509-20. "the junior secondary syllabus for integrated science was based on the Scottish Integrated Science Scheme. The social studies curriculum...was influenced by a Canadian project." (p. 511-2) I knew I realized this!

"In the case of history, the proportion of the syllabus devoted to the study of Chinese increased marginally from 1972 to 1984. In 1972, of the twelve topics in section A, eight were concerned with the history of China prior to 1949. In 1976 the ratio was seven out of ten and in 1984 and 1987 it was also seven out of ten topics. The focus remained on the period before 1949. The 1988 syllabus has been drastically revised to focus on 14 topics in total, with no discrimination between geographic sections or time periods and with the extension of the time period to allow the study of topics up to 1970. The topics chosen focus on the political history of the establishment of statehood and political independence by the USA, the UK, France, the USSR and China. The new syllabus provides pupils with a more politicized historical framework than was previously the case, and one more relevant to Hong Kong's future." (p. 514)

"In the case of Economic and Public Affairs (EPA)...the only change evident in 1976 were the removal of the term 'colony' and the specific inclusion of a topic concerned with the links between Britain and China." (p. 515)

Discussing the control of school textbooks, the Education Department suggested that "EPA and history textbooks submitted in 1986 should avoid reference to Hong Kong as a British colony...a history text and school atlas should not show Tibet and Mongolia as separate countries prior to 1949." (p. 517)

Paul Morris and Ian Scott's "Educational reform and policy implementation in Hong Kong,"Journal of Education Policy, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2003, pp. 71-84. And:
F. Kan and E. Vicker's "One Hong Kong, two histories: 'history' and 'Chinese history' in the Hong Kong school curriculum," Comparative Education, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2002, pp. 13-89.

Evangelicals and Wal-Mart

2011-04-25T00:09:00.000+08:00

Another article about Evangelicals after reading one about them and Hollywood film Fireproof (2008), it is Rebekah Peeples Massengill's "Why Evangelicals Like Wal-Mart: Education, Region, and Religious Group Identity," Sociology of Religion, Vol. 72, No. 1, 2011, pp. 50-77.

Self-identified evangelicalism is consistently associated with approval of Wal-Mart, while college education is linked to disapproval of it. Interestingly, the same effect does not persist among evangelicals, for whom college education has no consistent, significant effect on the odds of judging the giant retailer unfavorably. Massengill argues that education may function differently for evangelicals than for the larger population, offsetting the liberalizing effects that are typically assumed to accompany attending college.

階級是會遺傳的！

2011-04-22T22:19:00.003+08:00

今日中午和中學同學聚舊上茶樓（那間酒店的中菜廳應該叫茶樓嗎？還不是一樣吵鬧）。舊同學間中，有半年不見的，也有越過十年不見的，更有不知道我已經結婚兩年多，還半摧帶問我何時結婚的。我想，我是太自閉，太潛了。

舊同學有一對「好」子女，為她高興，卻為她擔憂。原來，小朋友不懂禮貌，不會打招呼。母親三摧四請，放棄。幸好，沒有喚我叔叔，舒一口氣。我還是喜歡一句哥哥。舊同學引同事一句育兒口訣，使我為她放心：你急，他不急；千萬，不要急。或許，禮貌是急不來的。長大後，他就會懂。

回家後，看著案上的書，忐忑不安。書是三浦展的《階級是會遺傳的：不要讓你的孩子跌入「下流階級」》（《遺傳》）。年前讀過他的《下流社會》（2005），養老孟司的《傻瓜的圍牆》（2003）和內田樹的《下流志向：為什麼孩子不上學、不工作》，令我對階級向下流很在意。讀到《遺傳》，更覺憂慮。這是一本令父母不安，教師心寒的書。

假如你已經、打算或即將為人父母，想想以下的問題。假如你身邊的人，親戚朋友，也已經、打算或即將為人父母，也設身處地想想。

一、先從父母親的經濟能力和背景設想（由我作為男人的角度出發）：
你的收入高嗎？
父親的收入越高，孩子的成績越好。進一步來說，收入比學歷的影響大。
你認真嗎？有條有理嗎？有禮貌嗎？
父親越認真，越有條理，越有禮貌，孩子成績就越好。
你的太太的學歷高嗎？假如她是全職主婦，她婚前的收入高嗎？
高學歷和曾是高收入的母親，較在意孩子的成績。
她小時侯的成績好嗎？
母親小時侯的成績越好，孩子成績越好。
她的人生觀如何？
事實上，這對孩子的成績影響不大。
成績好的孩子，母親比較有條有理又有趣，通常是有計劃且動作俐落的人。

二、飲食習慣
成績越好的孩子，飲食越均衡，越有規律，母親也越注重營養均衡。反之，成績越差，越依賴便利店的食物。
成績越好的孩子，母親越喜歡做菜。反之，覺得吃東西很麻煩的母親，孩子成績較差。

三、聰明孩子的特徵
你喜歡閱讀嗎？
孩子成績與父親的書籍閱讀量成正比。
你的太太呢？
成績好的孩子，母親常閱讀育兒雜誌。
孩子的生活習慣比成績更重要。越好的生活態度，成績越好。學習鋼琴與成績好壞成正比。成績好孩子偏愛文學與藝術。

四、生活品質
你是否周末休息？
父親周休二日，孩子成績較好。父親有休息時間才能配合孩子學習。
孩子成績越好，親子越常一起去圖書館和博物館。成績越好的孩子，親子交談越多。孩子是否有個人的房間，與成績無關。家庭文化涵養影響孩子的成績。

五、母親的滿意度
孩子的成績是母親的成績。母親的滿意度與孩子的成績成正比。孩子比自己努力，母親的滿意度越高。對孩子越滿意，夫妻的生活滿意度越高。
「母親們似乎並不很期待教育政策的改革，反而比較注重英語、電腦等學習。［而且以孩子成績較差的母親為多］換句話說，母親們並不期待理論性的修改，而是比較重視能實際應用於社會的『實用性教育』。」（頁218）

讀著教育改革和社會結構部份。不禁令我想到，填鴨教育是公平的，學生的成績完全依賴學生的能力和毅力；多元學習是階級的，學生的成績取決於家庭文化涵養。三浦說，社會產業不斷向服務業傾斜，競爭越激烈，越多受薪階層需要周末或深夜工作，使家庭生活品質越來越低，間接妨礙孩子學習能力的發展，形成階級差異擴大和固定的趨勢。

最後，三浦說若將大學比喻為產業，大學也屬於夕陽產業。令我深思。

Britain vs Europe

2011-04-19T15:57:00.003+08:00

It's a great joy to read Richard J. Evans's Cosmopolitan islanders : British historians and the European continent (CUP, 2009), which grew from his Inaugural Lecture as Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge in 2009, his literary skill being one of the major factors. Looking at the bar charts he provides on historians working on domestic or foreign topics (from Medieval to Early Modern and Modern), and non-domestic historians working on European or extra-European topics, across the UK, the USA, France, Germany, and Italy, however restricted to his methodology, I found it very engaging and stimulating and it certainly deserves the explanation and observation given from Evans exquisite pen and, to be fair, defense from the Continental European countries in question.

Evans shows that 44% of British historians work on non-British history, while only 23% of French historians, 15% of German historians and 12% of Italian historians work outside the history of their own country. Evans argues that 'British historians are almost twice or even more than twice as cosmopolitan as historians of other major Western European countries' (p. 12)

One might add that, as a reviewer (Robert Gildea, History Workshop Journal, Issue 70, Autumn 2010, p. 239-45) said, in France a historian of Britain would be employed in a languages department rather than a history department. In his review on Evans's book, Robert Gildea lamented that in France leading academics control high-profile series for publishing houses and when one of his books was turned down for translation by a French publisher the only feedback he received was 'Pierre Nora dit non.' French historians are not only academics; they consider themselves to be the high priests of the Republic whose calling is to defend its principles. Their work often privileges a Jacobin-centralist, gender-neutral citizen approach which marginalizes approaches that may subvert that model.

the historiography and themes debated by scholars of Continental history were far more open and less focused on a narrow set of political questions than it seemed to be in the little British history I did...It was not only insular but seemed to argue about the same political topics with all the paths already charted. There seemed little room for branching out and making new paths. (the Cambridge medievalist, Rosamond McKitterick, p. 167)

In Britain, Leif Jerram, who teaches German History at Manchester, "'the world out there' has expectations of historians that go far, far beyond the formation of the nation. In France, Spain, China, Italy, 'the world out there' does not have these expectations." (p. 7)

Very few non-British historians have made any notable contribution to the study of British history in the medieval period, and few, apart from Americans, to its study in the early modern and modern eras. (p. 10) Andreas Gestrich, Director of German Historical Institutes in London, remarks that "the problem is that present German research on British history is not as strong as British research on Germany." (p. 11) Christopher Duggan, Professor of Italian History at Reading, thinks that "the tradition of studying non-British countries does seem one of the remarkable strengths of British historiography (very few Italian historians, to my knowledge, work on modern non-Italian history)". (p. 5-6)

The French have seldom seen any need to translate history books from English into their own language, since in their view, and with relatively few exceptions, they cover their own history perfectly well themselves. (p. 39) Openness of any kind to foreign contributions to their own history has long been much less common amongst French historians. (p. 36) Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford, comments that there are "a sort of closed-shop of French historian (who also control history series in the publishing houses), who do not want to know what non-French historians think, or think that only French historians understand French history." (p. 39) Robert Tombs, who teaches Modern French History at Cambridge, feels that French culture is not very open to outside influences, at least no compared to British. (p. 38) Peter Jones, who worked in France for many years, notes, "I am struck, even today, by how reluctant the French are to travel and uproot themselves even within their own country." (p. 206)

The frequency of translation of British historical works into European languages is all the more remarkable since it is undertaken on an entirely commercial basis. The German government had for a long time provided subsidies through the Inter Nationes organization for translating German books into other languages, the French government has done the same thing through the Office du Livre, and the Italian government provides a similar service too. (p. 22)

am I permitted?

2011-04-16T12:30:00.000+08:00

the world is divided into people who wait for others to give them permission to do the things they want to do and people who grant themselves permission.

Lynn Seelig's What I wish I knew when I was 20 : a crash course on making your place in the world (New York: HarperOne, 2009), p. 57.

what went wrong?

2011-04-13T14:14:00.000+08:00

We all have experienced failure in one way or the other. There are times when we make mistakes, misunderstand someone, underestimate others, and overestimate ourselves. To err is human. Being wrong is easy. Admitting it is hard.

To use Kathryn Schulz's words, the author of Being wrong : adventures in the margin of error (New York: Ecco Press, 2010), "if you haven't experienced them, you haven't fully lived. As with love and loss, so too with error. Sure, it can hurt you, but the only way to protect yourself from that potential is by closing yourself off to new experiences and other people. And to do that is to throw your life out with the bathwater." (p. 200)

Schulz quotes the New York psychoanalyst Irna Gadd that our capacity to tolerate error depends on our capacity to tolerate emotion that require us to feel something: a wash of dismay, a moment of foolishness, guilt over our dismissive treatment of someone else who turned out to be right. True, we are too exhausted or too sad or too far out of our element to risk feeling worse. Rigidity serves to protect a certain inner fragility. (p. 199)

City class

2011-04-12T11:38:00.001+08:00

My class on City is coming to an end this week. It forces me hard to think about the following questions raised by the urban studies theorist Richard Florida (Who's your city? : how the creative economy is making where to live the most important decision of your life (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2009)):

How do you like the place you're living now? Is it somewhere you really want to be? Does it give your energy? When you walk out onto the street - or the country lane - in the morning, does it fill you with inspiration, or stress? Does it allow you to be the person you really want to be? Are you achieving your personal goals? Is it a place you would recommend to your relatives and friends?
Have you though about moving? If so, what are the top three places on your radar screen? What do you like about them? Specifically, what do you think they offer your? How would your life be different in these places?
Have you ever sat down and compared where you're living now to those places? Honestly, have you given this a fraction of the thought and energy you've given to your job and career prospects, or if you're single, to your dating life? (p. 9)

He gives three key ideas about choosing the ideal cities:

Despite all the hpye over globalization and the "flt world," place is actually more important to the global economy than ever before. (couldn't agree more)
Places are growing more diverse and specialized - from their economic makeup and job market to the quality of life they provide and the kinds of people that live in them.
We live in a highly mobile society, giving most of us more say over where we live. (p. 13)

All the best to you all.

讀陳之藩三

2011-04-11T15:54:00.000+08:00

《劍河倒影》是陳之藩在劍橋大學「攻讀」（時任Fellow）博士學位的三年間（1969-71）寫下的散文，共有十三篇散文（另加序：如夢的兩年）：

實用呢，還是好奇呢？
理智呢，還是感情呢？
明善呢，還是察理呢？
一夕與十年
王子的寂寞
自己的路
圖畫式的與邏輯式的
勇者聲音
古瓶
羅素與伏爾泰－－兼答林語堂先生
風雨中談到深夜
噴煙制度考
不鑄不錯

中國人到劍橋，想不起徐志摩，就會想起李約瑟；前者的浪漫使人沉醉，後者的勇氣令人肅然。〈實用呢，還是好奇呢？〉討論李約瑟。假如說李約瑟中年出家，研究起中國科技史來，是出於好奇的話，「我們反過來問，我們能不能找到一個中國的李約瑟，以半生的時間，淹在南港的書庫裏去研究歐洲的科學史來解答這個問題：『歐洲近五百年的科學發展主要是為了「好奇」。這個假設是對呢？還是錯呢？』」（頁5）陳氏續談：「我掩卷凝思了半天，我想在中國目前還找不出這樣一個『笨』人來。也就是說，在這種笨人不能產生之前，我們所謂的科學，還是抄襲的、短見的、實用的，也就是說，真正的科學是不會產生的。」（頁6）中國近百年的歷史中，沒有多少笨人，也沒有多少人願意當個笨人，更是容不下笨人。

人生的目的是什麼？人生的光榮又是什麼？神甫說：「是見到受餓的人分給他一塊麵包；見到受凍的人，送給他一件衣服。把那個醉倒的人扶住，把那個跌例的人攙起，凡是自己覺得是善的就直捷了當的作出來。人生的光榮，是不踏死路旁快死的蟲，是不摧殘樹下受傷的鳥，是把自己口袋裏的錢分出一半來給一個需要那一半錢的同類！」（〈明善呢，還是察理呢？〉，寫於1969年10月14日，頁 18）

半陰不雨的英格蘭天氣是什麼個樣？陳氏寫道：「如果用畫筆畫呢，兩筆似乎就夠了。先用墨在筆沾點水，在上面一抹，那是天；然後再加點綠在下邊一抹，那是地；這幅灰、暗、冷、清的畫面差不多算完了。當然在這兩抹之間，偶爾有些笨樹，像八大山人之筆所畫的，乍看起來很笨的樹；偶爾有些老屋，像美國那位老祖母畫家所畫的類似童畫的那種老屋。這整幅天氣給人的印象，正似英國人的言談與神色：低沉又暗淡......」（〈自己的路〉，寫於1969年11月21日，頁36-37）

書生憂國，陳氏是典型。「我常常想：我們中國如果有個劍橋，如果出個凱因斯，也許生靈塗炭不至於到今天這步田地。因為沒有真正陶鑄人才的地方，所以沒有真正人才出現；因為沒有澄明清晰的見解，所以沒有剛毅果敢的決策與作為。」（頁56）「那麼，怎樣才能辦出一個劍橋來？校旁挖一條河？多買些茶壺茶碗？教授自掏腰包？學生辯到深夜？我有時感到困惑，有時又感到焦灼！」（〈勇者的聲音〉，寫於1969年12月29日，頁57）

Rider, Elephant, and Path

2011-04-08T14:13:00.000+08:00

how could you move an elephant? Each has an elephant living comfortably inside the mind. Chip and Dan Health tell me how to motivate the elephant, i.e. how to change. I found their recent book Switch: how to change things when change is hard (New York : Broadway Books, c2010) thoughtful and engaging. Here I quote:

For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. Maybe it's you, maybe it's your team. Picture that person (or persons)

Each has an emotional Elephant side and a rational Rider side. You've got to reach both. And you've also got to clear the way for them to succeed. In short, you must do three things:

DIRECT the Rider

- follow the bright spots. Investigate what's working and clone it.

- script the critical moves. Don't think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviors.

- point to the destination. Change is easier when you know where you're going and why its worth it.

MOTIVATE the Elephant

- find the feeling. Knowing something isn't enough to cause change. Make people feel something.

- shrink the change. Break down the change until it no longer spooks the Elephant.

- grow your people. Cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mindset

SHAPE the Path

- tweak the environment. When the situation changes, the behavior changes. So change the situation.

- build habit. When behavior is habitual, it's "free" - it doesn't tax the Rider. Look for ways to encourage habits.

- rally the herd. Behavior is contagious. Help it spread. (p. 259)

The Heath brothers identify twelve common obstacles that people encounter as they fight for change, and provide some advice about overcoming them.

people don't see the need to change. advice: find the feeling, create empathy, tweak the environment.
I'm having the "not invented here" problem: people resist my idea because they say "We've never done it like that before."advice: highlight identity, find a bright spot that is invented here and clone it.
we should be doing something, but we're getting bogged down in analysis. advice: find the feeling, create a destination postcard, simplify the problem by scripting the critical moves.
the environment has shifted, and we need to overcome our old patterns of behavior. advice: create a new habit, set an action trigger, script the critical moves
people simply aren't motivated to change. advice: create a new identity, create a destination postcard, lower the bar, use social pressure, smooth the Path
I'll change tomorrow. advice: shrink the change so you can start today, set an action trigger for tomorrow, make yourself accountable to someone.
people keep saying, "It will never work." advice: find a bright spot, engineer a success, carve out a free space for some who do think it will work
I know what I should be doing, but I'm not doing it. advice: create an Elephant problem, lower the bar, tweak the environment, get someone else involved to spread the influence
you don't know my people. They absolutely hate change. advice: question: how many of your people are married or have a child?
people were excite at first, but then we hit some rough patches and lost momentum. advice: focus on building habit, remind people how much they've already accomplished, teach the growth mindset.
it's just too much. advice: shrink the change, develop the growth mindset
everyone seems to agree that we need to change, but nothing's happening. advice: script the critical move, create the Path, find a bright spot (p. 261-4)

Finally, I am looking forward to visit the book's website: www.switchthebook.com/resources. Their earlier book includes Made to stick: why some ideas survive and other die (2007), which I read some time ago.

animal turn

2011-04-05T20:24:00.000+08:00

I just read a paper by the Geographer Philip Howell of Cambridge about race, space, and prostitution in colonial Hong Kong ("Race, Space and the Regulation of Prostitution in Colonial Hong Kong," Urban History, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 229-248) and then I browsed his website for further information.

Interesting stuff found. He is working on a fascinating project: Social Relations between Humans and Other Animals in Victorian Britain. As a contribution to the 'animal turn', this project looks at the social relation between humans and other animals (humans, we, are animals after all). He says "the 'animal turn' is of significance because by analysing these geographies of human-animal relations, the social relations between human beings themselves can be illuminated, particularly with relation to the nature of the modern social order." The focus of the project is the development of practices of pet keeping. "Pet keeping," Howell argues, "becomes a paradigmatic urban practice, inseparable from the rise of the urban bourgeoisie and emblematic of their values."

It reminds me of a comical urban map of Shanghai in the 1930s showing the whereabouts of famous movie stars and celebrities (perhaps by a tabloid magazine?), in which one of the female movie stars is shown to be keeping a dog in her household, which seems to embody the popular Cantonese saying: living in a western-style mansion and keeping a western dog. How the ideas of pet keeping in cosmopolitan Shanghai had evolved appear to be an interesting area to explore.

middle class revisited

2011-04-04T14:12:00.000+08:00

The Right's culture warriors did not openly attack the economic position of the middle class, but they did attach the university. In doing so, they created the conditions for repeated budget cuts to the core middle-class institution [i.e. university]. More fundamentally, they discredited the cultural conditions of mass-middle-class development, downsized the influence of its leading institution, the university, and reduced the social and political impacts of knowledge workers overall. (italic original. p. 11)

The middle class as an emerging anticonservative bloc (p. 46):

Domain	Challenge	Middle-class bulwark	Emerging nonconservative middle class
Politics	Multiracial mass democracy	Expert rule; no power sharing	Majoritarian democracy; antielitism
Economy	Decline of profits, labor conditions	Market, growth, consumption, deregulation	Planned mixed economy; mass affluence; human needs
Culture	Qualitative, context-specific, cross-cultural knowledge	White supremacism; "cultural deficiency" of other groups	Cultural and social equality; self-development; liberation

Christopher Newfield's Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008).

exams, winners, and losers

2011-03-07T18:43:00.006+08:00

We should rethink the conventional assumption that an undergraduate university course should be full-time at age 18 or 19. Perhaps we could change social norms so that it is usually part-time, made more accessible to more people, and undertaken later? That would reduce the insane pressure that the demands of university entrance at 18 or 19 now put on student at school, a pressure so antipathetic to the ideal of education for autonomous well-being. It would free up those years from 14 or so for pupils to throw themselves into all kinds of worthwhile pursuits - to lose themselves in them. This would be a far cry from the exam-dominated regime they have to suffer at the moment. It would also do something to prevent the education system becoming a device for separating Life's Winners from Life's Losers. (p. 15-6)

From John White's, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education, University of London, "What does it mean to be well-educated?" Think, Vol. 10 (Summer 2011), pp. 9-16.

Apparently, the ideal education system is one thing and the society another. The cruel fact of the society is that it celebrates winners and keep mercy out of the possible reach of losers and is by all means a winner-take-all playground. Pick winners sooner and kick losers not later.

point of view

2011-03-07T11:58:00.004+08:00

After a number of years of teaching and communicating with university students, I found the following observation sound and true.

Most undergraduates arrive on campus with fairly well formed political beliefs. The students drawn to our views are always those who already share them. We put ideas out for consideration. They can take them or leave them. Then we each get on with our lives. (Cary Nelson's No university is an island: saving academic freedom (New York : New York University Press, 2010), p. 14)

Hongkong and others

2011-03-04T15:05:00.005+08:00

鄭宏泰、黃紹倫：〈香港歐亞混血買辦崛起之謎〉，《史林》，2010年第2期，頁1-14。

Shu-Yun Ma, "The Making and Remaking of a Chinese Hospital in Hong Kong," Modern Asian Studies Advance Access, 2011, 24pps. Tung Wah Hospital's role from the bubonic plague in 1894 to the SARS outbreak in 2003.

Flore Chevaillier, "Commercialization and Cultural Misreading in Dai Sijie's Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise," Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access, 2011, 15pps.

Emotions

2011-03-02T12:39:00.004+08:00

Nearly a year ago before setting off to Shanghai and then Edinburgh in May and June respectively, I made a list of papers, not too long I think, to read after the summer.

One of them is "Forum: History of Emotions," German History, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2010, pp. 67-80. The forum was formed by Frank Biess (University of California, San Diego), Alon Confino (University of Virginia), Ute Frevert (Max-Planck-Institut fur Bildungsforschung), Uffa Jensen (Universitat Gottingen), Lyndal Roper (Oxford University), and Daniela Saxer (Universitat Zurich/ETH Zurich).

from cultural turn to an "emotional turn" in cultural studies in light of massive increase in interest in emotions among historians, humanists, and natural scientists.

國民黨在香港

2011-03-01T15:44:00.012+08:00

抗戰以來，香港地位日形重要。僑港同胞數逾百萬。雄於資者富商巨賈、饒於力者技術專才、社會中堅、國中耆碩薈萃於此，盛極一時，潛蓄力量至為豐厚。

惟是分子複雜，意向紛歧，各自為營，漫無中軸。依違之間，端視吸引有如素絲隨薰成染。苟能及早運用黨國力量，收而納之於抗戰建國之一途，無形之中蔚成黨力，效果所至，未可限量。

敵方近亦有見及此，正積極運用其懷柔政策，妄冀與我爭取民眾，廣布諜網，肆意活動。意志薄弱者流，最易墮其殼中，殊屬可慮。夫城可棄，士可焦，民眾萬不可失。此誠千鈞一發之時也。

故香港一隅之在今日，就資源、力源之接濟，儼成重要之後方，而就政治上我敵間之尖銳暗鬥，又隱同緊張之前線。故黨力之及時運用於香港，在整個抗戰方略中實佔重要之成分。

羅翼群、區芳蒲：〈港澳黨務視察報告〉（1939年3月25日)，《朱家驊檔案 ‧ 香港黨務》（檔案2號30-3），台北中研院近史所。引自金以林：〈戰時國民黨香港黨務檢討〉，《抗日戰爭研究》，2007年第4期，頁85。

弟［吳鐵城，港澳支部主任委員］奉總裁［朱家驊］密命來港主持黨務，指導一切，另由中央常會第一一九次會議決推派弟任駐港宣傳專員，辦理關於閩、粵兩省戰區宣傳事宜。此間辦事處已於東日成立，開始工作。印刷公司及報紙亦正在積極籌備，至遲月杪必可出版。港方黨務未能公開活動情形，兄所探知。在此情況之下，對內推動並無問題，而對外名義須預為假定，以求適應環境，庶可推行盡利。（〈吳鐵城致朱家驊快郵代電〉（1939年5月4日），專引自金文，頁89）

總支部對外名義決定為「西南圖書印刷有限公司董事會」（〈高廷梓［港澳總支部書記長。廣東新會人，北大哲學系畢業，哥倫比亞大學博士］致朱家驊函〉（1939年5月22日，專引自金文，頁90）

西南圖書印刷公司作為國民黨宣傳書刊的印刷所，印刷及出版多種書刊，如董顯光的《總裁傳記》（1938），葉靈鳳的《忘憂草：散文隨筆集》（1940），馮焯芬的《政治改造》（1941）。又，國民黨在港機關報《國民日報》（1939-），是於1939年7月成立，陶百川任社長，由攞花街二十五號余大年督印。另外，印行廣東文物展覽會的《廣東文物》（1941）的中國文化協進會，大概與國民黨也有點關聯吧？

又可參考李盈慧：〈淪陷前國民政府在香港的文教活動〉，載港澳與近代中國學術硏討會論文集編輯委員會編：《港澳與近代中國學術研討會論文集》（台北：國史館，2000），頁441-476。劉維開：〈淪陷期間中國國民黨在港九地區的活動〉，《港澳與近代中國學術研討會論文集》，頁477-499。

the fate of the humanities

2011-02-22T22:39:00.003+08:00

The humanities has been in crisis for more than a century. Corporate interests and values are eroding the ideals of the liberal arts and transforming the university into a thoroughly businesslike workplace. Humanists, as I myself am, are always there to defend our values and endeavour to awaken people souls and mind. In his The last professors : the corporate university and the fate of the humanities (New York : Fordham University Press, 2008), Frank Donoghue rightly upholds that the terms of today's hostilities are the product of a long evolution, and that the batter will not end abruptly any time soon. In other words, I would say, it is necessary to forget unrealistic hope and be firm with our values.

At the heyday of American industrialization at the turn of the twentieth century, two prominent industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Richard Teller Crane represented the earliest and sharpest critics of liberal arts education. Carnegie considered traditionally educated students as "adapted for life on another planet" whereas Crane joined him by adding that no man who has "a taste for literature has the right to be happy because "the only men entitled to happiness in this world are those who are useful"; in other words, liberal arts students who pursue "impractical, special knowledge of literature, art, language or history" were not entitled to be so. (p. 4-6)

It's sometimes depressing to teach on the one hand (I hope you know what I mean) ; and, on the other hand, it could also be very fulfilling to teach a handful of serious faces who are eager to learn more about the topic/field you are most interested. Donoghue quotes, from some sources, a few magic moments in the classroom rewarding enough to offset the down side of teaching:

"I love the energy of the classroom and those special moments when I can do something good, when I see their eyes glowing and their faces shining, knowing that I am teaching them, I am doing something worthwhile."

"The rewards of teaching may be intermittent and transparent...It take only one serious inquiry, one student who genuinely wants to know why a certain painting looks the way it does...a single pair of shining eyes in your dim classroom that concels out all the dulled ones...those brief flames in your teaching week are a kind of fuel. They are enough to sustain you from class to class. There are moments when...you feel that you're not speaking into the void the way you thought, that you are having en effect on how people think about life and reading." (p. 64)

The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's survey of incoming freshmen has asked its respondents to rank 20 goals that they hope to achieve by going to college. In 1971, the top three answers were "to help others who are in difficulty" (68.5%), "to become an authority in my field" (66%), and "to keep up to date on politics" (57.8%). In 2001, the survey found that "being very well-off financially" (fifth in 1971) topped the list at 73%, "to help others who are in difficulty" had slipped to 61.5%, while "keep up to date with political affairs" had dropped to 28.1%. What does the change imply? Donoghue rightly argues that today's student, on the one hand, have been forced to approach college as apolitical egoists; and, on the other, they see college primarily as an investment in their personal financial future, the expense of which must ultimately be justified. (p. 91)

讀陳之藩二

2011-02-18T17:22:00.009+08:00

繼《在春風裡》後，我捧起《劍河倒影》和《時空之海》，都是牛津香港版（2003及2004）。

《時空之海》收集陳之藩從上世紀八、九十年代至現世紀初二十多年間，寫於波士頓、台南和香港的散文，所以叫做《時空之海》。

《時空之海》共有十六篇散文（含序）：

一百與一百二十五－－談愛因斯坦致羅斯福的一封信
進步與保守
時間的究竟－－序《愛因斯坦的夢》
三部自傳－－哈代、溫納與戴森
時空之海－－布萊克的一幅畫
鉛筆與釘子
莫須有與想當然
數學與電子
作家與版稅－－塞萬提斯吃什麼，
談忠藎－－今日朝廷須汲黯
談典故－－雪夜燈前．作者答問
河邊古屋
駕快車與開飛機
閒雲與亂想
山色與花光
香港觀感

〈進步與保守〉（1988年6月22日在中央大學畢業典禮上講）中說到：「如果中國文化是犯了滔天大罪的一個罪犯，也需要請一律師為之辯護，這是人類起碼的文明。萬一在辯論中發現了百分之九十九為非，這百分之一的是仍是有存在價值的。因為文明不是忽有一天從天上掉下來，也不是忽有一夕由地下挖出來的；而是多少年多少人的血汗浸漬出來的。誰也沒有權利把它一筆抹殺。（頁5-6）談到胡適之「常常提到，過激的主張也許可以由社會的惰性所中和」。「但胡適之先生沒有預料到的是中國社會的沒有重量。也就沒有惰性，是一群輕飄飄與一種一窩蜂的文化，讓魯迅這種颶風一吹，就大風起兮雲飛揚。」（頁8）

〈時空之海－－布萊克的一幅畫〉（1995年寫於台南）談布萊克（William Blake）那首〈無邪的占兆〉的中譯：

一粒細沙裏有一個世界；

一朵野花裏有一個天堂。

還有

一砂一世界；

一花一天國。

（原文：To see a world in a grain of sand;

And a heaven in a wild flower; 接著是

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.）

〈鉛筆與釘子〉最令人動容，臨書而扼腕。前者是物理學家趙忠堯（楊振寧、李政道等的老師）由回國後在昆明的專業，做鉛筆；後者是工程材料學家陸志鴻在重慶時的專業，做釘子。生物工程學家馮元楨說：「國家眼看就要亡了，回國的學者們，不知道能貢獻什麼可以挽救危亡於萬一」「國家就要亡了，大家能做點什麼對國家才有貢獻，不僅是毫不遲疑的馬上捲起袖子去幹，而且是歡天喜地的鄭重其事的去做。趙忠堯的做鉛筆，陸志鴻的造釘子，只是成千上萬的這類故事之一二罷了。」「馮元楨非常平靜的說。我卻不能像馮教授那樣平靜，我只覺得眼睛越來越模糊。」（頁41）我也慢慢地失去視覺了......

〈莫須有與想當然〉。面對如何對待學生疑似抄襲，陳之藩的一位同事說：「如果你不出你學生是抄來的，你就不能說他是抄來的〔按：這是為人師表的水平不夠〕。你的學生並沒有義務去證明他不是抄來的，這是羅馬法的精神；文明與野蠻的分際，就在這麼細微的差別上。我覺得這是常識，你卻覺得這是個問題，好奇怪！」我也有過受屈的經驗，那個教授真不是一般的平庸。

〈談忠藎－－今日朝廷須汲黯〉。商務印書館的張菊生編《中華民族的人格》，列出公孫杵臼、程嬰、伍尚、子路、豫讓、聶政、荊軻、田橫、貫高諸人，「有的是為盡職，有的是為知恥；有的是為報恩，有的是為報仇；歸根結果，都做到殺身成仁。」張氏寄胡適一冊求序。胡適回覆道：「事蹟不限於殺身報仇，而要注重有風骨、有肩膀，挑得起國家重擔子的人物，故選荊軻不如選張良，選張良不如選張釋之與汲黯。」陳氏列出胡氏所選代表「中華民族的人格」的人物：漢：張釋之、汲黯；後漢：光武皇帝、鄧禹、馬援；三國：諸葛亮、曹操；晉：杜預、陶侃；唐：太宗、魏徵、杜甫、陸贄；宋：范仲淹、王安石、岳飛、文天祥；明：劉基、方孝孺、王守仁、張居正；清：顧炎武、顏元、曾國藩。（頁54-56）

〈河邊古屋〉引維根斯坦說：「語言如同都市的房，有些新的，有些舊的，永遠是新與舊夾雜在一起。」（頁71）

Recent readings XXVI

2011-02-17T23:33:00.010+08:00

Ross Bassett's "MIT-Trained Swadeshis: MIT and Indian Nationalism, 1880-1947," OSIRIS, Vol. 24, 2009, pp. 212-230. Indian MIT-trained engineers, often from elite families, formed a technological elite. What about Chinese American(British? European?)-trained engineers? Top and second tiers?

Grace Yen Shen's "Taking to the Field: Geological Fieldwork and National Identity in Republican China," OSIRIS, Vol. 24, 2009, pp. 231-252. Ding Wenjiang 丁文江 (1887-1936) and Zhang Hongzhao 章鴻釗 (1877-1951)

Mark R. Hayllar's "Who owns culture and heritage? Observations on Hong Kong's experience," International Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2010, pp. 24-40. so-called public-private partnerships often involve just government-private interactions, with government failing in any meaningful way to represent 'the public'

Stephanie Po-yin Chung, "Chinese Tong as British Trust: Institutional Collisions and Legal Disputes in Urban Hong Kong, 1860s-1980s," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 44, No. 6, 2010, pp. 1409-1432.

Fredrik Thomasson, "Justifying and Criticizing the Removals of Antiquities in Ottoman Lands: Tracking the Sigeion Inscription," International Journal of Cultural Property, Vol. 17, 2010, pp. 493-517.

Feng Yi, "Shop signs and visual culture in Republican Beijing," European Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1, Jul 2007, pp. 103-28.

Mohd Hazim Shah, "Historicising Rationality: The Transmission of Rationality and Science to the Malay States under British Rule," Asian Journal of Social Science, Volume 35, Number 2, 2007 , pp. 216-241

Stephen Baker, The Numerati (London : Jonathan Cape, 2008). how our behaviour are turning into behavioural data? how possible it is to model a pool of vast information across disciplines into a click or two?

Stephan Fairs, Forecast: the consequences of climate change, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from Darfur to Napa Valley （New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2008. Chinese translation: 《大遷移：暖化如何影響你我的未來》，傅季強譯，台北：天下雜誌，2009）。thought-provoking.

Mark Lynas, Six degrees: our future on a hotter planet （London : Fourth Estate, 2007. Chinese translation：《改變世界的6℃》，譚家瑜譯，台北：天下雜誌, 2010）。engaging and contentious.

Wayne Lotherington, How creative people connect: or are they just dotty? （Singapore: TimeEdge Publishing, 2007. Chinese translation: 《創意沒什麼大不了》，劉盈君譯，台北：天下雜誌，2008）。 quite inspiring.

黃霑

2011-02-16T14:40:00.009+08:00

抬頭望向書架的最頂層，放在《紅樓夢》（多年前從爺爺的書架上帶來）旁的書有張愛玲的《流言》、《第一爐香》和《傾城之戀》，沈從文的《邊城》，徐志摩的《巴黎的鱗爪》和《再別康橋》，聞一多的《死水》，郁達夫的《沉淪》，老舍的《駱駝祥子》，朱自清的《槳聲燈影》，還有黃霑的《不文集》，大抵上都是十多年來買下的。

當中，除了張愛玲外，我幾乎沒有再次和任何一個作者說過話，只有一個例外，是黃霑。最近從圖書館借來黃霑的另一本專欄書：《未夠不文集》，讀來十分過癮。摘錄下來，共諸同好，也讓自己多過點癮：

生平最討厭八婆。八婆平日不會甚麼，只會搬弄是非，但一旦有人有事，就忽然的變成專家，表演機會不可失；時為婚姻顧問，時為殯儀專家，卻是知識少，意見多，唯恐世界不亂。（〈該死八婆〉、〈想摑八婆〉，頁25-6）By definition, 八婆就是過街老鼠，人人得而誅之。

蝦毛自白。我們，游得再好，也不過是一滴污水裏的蝌蚪而已。在水氹裏稱雄，沒有用。汪洋大海做巨鯨，那才是真行。永遠不會因為是淺水中的蝦毛就以為自己是巨龍。（〈蝦毛自白〉，頁32）引以為戒。

罵人心得。罵人在乎對象、方法、時機，缺一不可。對象有級數之分，不夠的，徒費氣力；宜略低一級，高級的最好，不過可遇不可求。方法應該小題大做，題目做不起來的，不罵為佳。竅門在時機，場面熱鬧，喧聲震天，要忍一忍，等待時候才破口大罵，否則喊破喉嚨，嘥聲壞氣。（〈罵人心得〉，頁34）要學要學。

一味關住茅坑門自我欣賞，必是死症。（〈死症〉，頁39）引以為戒。

發財而不立品，真是罪無可恕。有錢人而不立品的，絕對不少，對這些人，我非常鄙視。（〈看不起自己〉，頁40）我城極多。

不看港聞多日，發覺好處甚多。耳根出奇的清靜，大有眾生攘攘，我獨優遊之概。有了片刻安寧，不必心煩氣躁，惶惶然不可終日。（〈且學鴕鳥〉，頁44）十分同意。

窮賊已經可怕，富賊比窮賊更可怕萬倍。......現在香港也有一群伺機而動的富賊。他們的面孔，仁厚忠誠；他們的內心，黑漆一團。他們懂得利用法律，來偷、來搶、來劫掠。他們懂得利用機會來欺騙，來出老千。這幫富賊，我們要慎加防範，因為他們正在我們周圍，我們稍一疏忽，就會被他們所乘。我們心須萬眾一心，保護我們自己的安全和財富的安全，嚴陣防範香港的富賊。（〈慎防富賊〉，頁108）三十年來，富賊仍然活躍。

香港社會，最近有種相當明顯的趨劫－－有群中上層階級的人在「標尾會」。這群中上層階級，多數是專業人士，有律師、有醫生、有建築師，都是社會上比較幸運的人。這些人，一向生活活在一般水準之上，而在這不安的氣氛裏，他們的表現，在一般水平之下。平時權利享受到盡，急時義務卻絕無打算承擔，真叫人齒冷。......臨危卸責，已經要不得。臨危而趁火打劫，與人渣無異。......這些人想「標尾會」，只是為了想遠走高飛。......在走之前，用盡千方百計，掩著良心去搶掠錢財，來作自己川資，卻實在要不。而此類人，此時此地，為數不少，想起來，令人不寒而慄。（〈無異人渣〉，頁109）人渣處處有。

你的價值，其實只由你未做的事來釐定，完成了的事，一旦完成，實在就成過去。（〈只許前看〉，頁192）放眼將來。

又再讀大前研一

2011-02-15T22:26:00.004+08:00

你真的甘於成為「低IQ社會」中的一員嗎？

國外演講費（交通、住宿等另計）高達五萬美元（！）的大前研一如是問。看過《M型社會：中產階級消失的危機與商機》、《再起動：職場絶對生存手冊》等，這次讀《低IQ時代》（臺北：商周出版，2009；劉錦秀譯）。

全書分成十章，按次為：「低IQ社會」的出現，政府製造的不景氣根源就是「智慧衰退」，全體成為經濟白癡（即使零利率也把錢存銀行的國民），政局和「集體智慧」（在「○x」標識中漂流的國民），網路社會和大腦（網路的不良影響論），沒有欲望的年輕人和學力低下，提升「集體IQ」的教育改革，在「低IQ社會」中誰會得到好處？（官僚機構、外國投資客、投資基金），向勝利組學習（如美國、韓國、德國、歐盟、中國等），及21世紀的教養（地球公民責任）。

「低IQ社會」幾乎是大前對當下日本社會的斷語。大前問：

電視之所以會有那麼多「搞笑」、「猜謎」的節目，是不是因為觀眾的程度變低了？

就因為「大家都說好感動」這個理由，衝進電影院看話題電影，然後對人云亦云的鏡頭也覺得感動就心滿意足的人是不是很蠢？

不念書，只想靠腦力激盪鍛鍊大腦的人是不是很笨？

只閱讀內容簡單的書，是因為日本人的解讀能力倒退了嗎？

在「寬欲教育」和「少子化大學全入時代」的影響下，我們大學生真的變愚蠢了嗎？

大前認為：「坦白說，現在的日本人是白癡」（頁310）；「日本人沒道理、沒原則、沒理念」（頁312）。大前眼中的日本是全世界「集體IQ」最低的國家，是「低IQ社會」，「從小孩到大人都不喜歡動腦」，「充斥『宛如呆瓜的現象』」。我立刻想到，還應該去日本旅行嗎？但是，九級地震後的日本人的秩序井然和守望相助，卻是有目共睹。IQ高，EQ更高。

「的確人人都不喜歡思考。但是『不思考』的人，並不表示就沒有看法。事實上，他們都是有『意見』的。」（頁46）情緒不是意見，卻又主導輿論。「當有一個主流意見浮上檯面的時候，大家非但不去斟酌其中的涵意，還一起醞釀詭譎的氣氛拱出反對的意見。。。最糟糕的是，大家都捨棄意見，而把應該歸類為國民感情的情緒反應當成了輿論，甚至連政治家的一舉一動都明顯是在迎合這些輿論。」（頁49）

日本的經營者厭惡向亞洲學習，沒有上得了國際檯面的經濟人，能夠在國際會議露臉的日本人屈指可數。（頁68-72）大前是鳳毛麟角。

大多數的國民都不用大腦，只知道和媒體一起瞎起哄，嚷著要政府「想辦法」之後，即不斷重複做出把一切都交給上面處理的選擇。（頁92）

現在的日本還有一股「無法了解就攻擊！」的風潮，甚至連媒體都為這種風潮喝采心動。（頁259）

一些成績不佳的新聞記者，就直接在網路BBS上尋找題材。只要一發現有人的發言和某企業的問題事件有關，就會去盯這家企業，然後誇大其辭加以報導。（頁93）香港不會比日本好。

從事大眾傳播媒體事業的人，他們自覺的速度都非常緩慢，因為他們既沒有時間進修，也沒有求知熱情。每天只是若無其事地在報紙上解說資訊。......其實他們的工作就只是在為垃圾加工。（頁213-4）報紙、電視都已經失去了媒體本來該具備的功能了。但是幾乎所有的媒體人直到現在，都還是抱著狂妄自大的態度，認為「我們就是有本事製造輿論」、「我們就是有能力煽動大眾」。（頁214）

大前強調「頭腦就是武器」。這比起說「知識就是力量」有說服力得多。「不要害怕和別人不一樣。一定要牢牢記住，只有捨棄無差別意識，才能夠不被淘汰繼續活下去。」

大前引述自己在一九九九年出版的《一人獨勝經濟學：放棄選擇的日本人》：「自己沒有判斷的基準，只做逢迎大眾的選擇。在《一人獨勝經濟學》的背面，我們看到獨勝者確認大家的需求之後，再將火力集中在一點之上的行為舉止。這是日本人非常危險的國民性。」（頁36）

大前指出「現代年輕人論」（即是所謂一代不如一代的論調）的根本：大部分還是針對沒有欲望、沒有精神的年輕人抒發自己不滿的情緒。......其根本卻是來自大人們內心的焦急。......但是製造出這種年輕人的，卻是包括我在內的我們這些大人。（頁240）

成長於1980年代後半的世代是有小小的快樂就滿足的「少年JUMP世代」。故事的格局非常小；而主角所獲得的勝利，也不是一種社會性的勝利，充其量只是在身邊的狹小世界中所獲得的一種快樂。......這種世界觀「非常內向」......《少年JUMP》製造了大量只想擁有小小快樂的人。（頁252-3）緊接著是「電玩世代」和「手機世代」。

現在年輕人和比自己年長的「前輩」之間的關係，其實已經進入下剋上，不分長幼的時代了。（頁255-6）

最後，大前反覆強調年輕人必需具備的謀生能力，指的是三種神器：英語能力、金融素養和IT知識，再加上領導力。學生在大學時代就必須把三種神器磨得閃閃發光。（頁302-4）

又，作家石渡嶺司引述在大學課堂上，一名學生問；「教授，報告上的答案，網路上找不到......」（《最高学府はバカだらけ : 全入時代の大学「崖っぷち」事情》（東京：光文社，2007。劉錦秀譯作《最高學府笨蛋一籮筐》））

讀陳之藩一

2011-02-13T21:39:00.016+08:00

一、《在春風裡》（台北：遠東圖書，1990）。

從圖書館借來的是1990年遠東圖書出版的版本。書前附陳之藩序《陳之藩散文集》。《陳之藩散文集》含陳氏散文集三種：《旅美小簡》，寫於剛到費城時；《在春風裏》，寫於剛到曼城時；《劍河倒影》，寫於剛到劍橋時。

「有位臺灣大學的同學搜集了六種《劍河倒影》的盜印版給我看，我看著紅紅綠綠大小不一的各種盜版苦笑了半天。」（序（寫於1973），頁1。斯文盛哉！）

「我在學生們的影子裏，看到我的過去，在家長們的叮嚀中，看到我的未來。在時間的長流中，往日的記憶與來日的夢想，似乎同時呈現在這校圃的空間裏。」（〈幾度夕陽紅〉（寫於1958年6月1日），頁9）

「一個時代，總應該有個把言行高潔的志士，如果沒有，應該有個把叱吒風雲的英雄，再沒有，也應該有個把豪邁不羈的好漢，如果連這類屠狗的人全找不到，這個時代就太可憐了。」（〈願天早生聖人〉（寫於1961年8月19日），頁18）

「我把這本書［勞倫斯的《查特萊夫人的情人》］放在案頭已兩年了。它也有其類別。我把它併入老子的《道德經》，華茲華斯詩集，盧梭的《懺悔錄》，普希金的《奧湼金》與陶淵明的集子。這固然是一種不倫不類的組合。尤其在教會學校教書，修士同事們看見我的書架上有這麼一本書，難免不皺皺眉，又搖搖頭的走開。......［學生問為何把《查特萊夫人的情人》與華茲華斯詩集放在一些。陳之藩答道：］這一堆書，都是我的偏好。它們是同類。這個類可以叫做『憤怒的反抗與微弱的呻吟』。」（〈週末〉（寫於1962年1月5日），頁36）

陳氏兒時在街頭賣對了，作「晨昏三叩首，早晚一爐香。」（〈春聯－－祝適之先生七十生日〉（寫於1961年聖誕節），頁43）在後方上學時，在宿舍貼上：「萬里山河唐土地，千年魂魄晉英雄。」（頁44）

「在小時候，每當冬夜，我們一大家人圍著個大圓桌吃飯。我總是坐在祖母身旁。祖母總是摸著我的頭說：『老天爺賞我們家飽飯吃，記住，飯碗裏一粒米都不許剩，要是糟蹋糧食，老天爺就不給咱們飯了。（頁46-7。頗似何柄棣在自傳《讀史閱世》中記述他小時候的經歷）......幾年來自己在奔波，掙了幾碗飯吃，作了一些研究，寫了幾篇學術文章，真正作了點事以後，才有了一種新的覺悟；即是無論什麼事，得之於人者太多，出之於己者太少，因為需要感謝的人太多了，就感謝天罷。（頁48）......創業的人，都會自然而然的想到上天，而敗家的人卻無時不想到自己。（頁49）......我們回頭想一想，五六十年來的中國比我七八歲時的思想能強幾何！史家如果寫這五六十年來的我國歷史時，一定命名為狂妄而幼稚，無法與無天的時代。（頁49）......沒有做任何真正的事，沒有建任何真正的功，自然而然不會有謝天感覺。（頁50）」（〈謝天〉寫於1961年除夕），頁46-50）

談胡適與丁文江的交誼：「［他們］交誼到了一種境界，白話文就不中用了。他們避暑十日暢談古今，相別時的依依不捨，胡丁兩先生並沒有作白話詩，而是抄了元白的舊詩並套作了元白的絕句。（頁61）......我想自丁先生死後，胡先生所看得起的人沒有什麼了。他變成一個熱鬧中最寂寞的人。......友朋之情，過於手足；短歌之哀，甚於痛哭。」（〈第二信－－紀念適之先生之二〉（寫於1962年3月2日適之先生大殮日），頁63）

「一個性情最柔的詩人，受了嚴酷的考證訓練，把一個最配作詩人的胡先生給扼殺了。這是胡先生的悲劇。至少是我以為是個悲劇。沒有詩人的國家是沒有星光的夜。沒有星光的夜，只是沒有夢的黑暗而已。」（〈第三信－－紀念適之先生之三〉（寫於1962年3月3日），頁72）

「不客氣說，這幾十年的中國的大學教育有個大毛病，就是太重視留學生，太不注意自己所培養的人才。似乎是未出過國的，都是飯桶；更似乎是凡出過國的都是能臣。這已不是留學生不留學生的問題，這實在是八股文的復活。正是《儒林外史》上所說的，『沒有功名哪個給你宮兒做。』留學生的確能開眼界，長知識的。可是並不是唯一的標準，不能出國而能努力的也得給他們一些機會，至少也得給他們一些希望。（頁94）......人才全給活生生的壓死了。（頁95）......從政府到學校，天天在嚷沒有人才，而人才就在面前。並不是出了國才是人才，也不是出了國才會教書，才會作研究。不是沒有人才，是沒有識人才的眼睛，不是沒有良馬，而一些根本未見過馬的人自欺為伯樂而已」（〈第五信－－紀念適之先生之七〉（寫於1962年3月9日），頁95-6）

「適之先生，天上好玩嗎？希望您在那兒多演講，多解釋解釋，讓老天爺保佑我們這個可憐的國家，我們這群茫然的孤兒。大家雖然有些過錯甚至罪惡，但心眼兒都還挺好的。大家也決心日行一善，每人先學您一德，希望您保佑我們。」（〈寄－－紀念適之先生之八〉（寫於1962年3月11日），頁109）

《女學報》

2011-02-12T14:46:00.007+08:00

讀Yong Z. Volz的"Going public through writing: women journalists and gendered journalistic space in China, 1890s-1920s" (Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 469-489)，引發對於光緒二十四年六月上旬（1898年6月24日）創刊於上海的《女學報》（Chinese Girl's Progress）的興趣。

無錫市圖書館藏《女學報》一至八期。第一期封面列出主筆名單，計有十八人（第八期所見有二十人）：

晉安薛紹徽女史、金匱裘梅侣女史、番禺潘道芳女史、明州沈和卿女史、上虞蔣畹芳女史、武進劉可青諸女史、暨丁素清女史、皖江章畹香女史、京兆龔慧蘋女史、江右文靜芳女史、南海康文僩女史、貴筑李端惠女史、臨桂廖元華女史、邗江睢念劬（第一期封面缺「念劬」二字？）女史、梁溪沈靜英女史、梁溪沈翠英女史、古吳朱蒔蘭女史、上海潘仰蘭女史

告白曰：

......函寄上海西門外文元坊本報館查收。......

.一中國女學書，善本甚少。本館同人購譯東西洋女學書外，又編纂白話淺文諸書，以餉海內。茲以報尾擬續附女學書一頁。先將潘仰蘭所演，劉可青所繪《中外古今列女傳》出，以作巾幗師範之資。

......

Chinese men more romantic

2011-02-10T22:50:00.014+08:00

Are Chinese men more romantic than Chinese women and, in general, the Chinese more idealistic than the Americans?

Based on two empirical investigation in American and Chinese college/university students, a study finds that in the North American sample (n=693), men, as compared to women, were more willing to marry without love, were more ludic and agapic but less erotic and pragmatic in their love styles, and were less likely to view emotional satisfaction as important to the maintenance of marriage. Whereas the Chinese sample (n=735) shows that Chinese men were more romantic and storgic than Chinese women, but less likely to believe in destiny or fate concerning love. Chinese men were also more likely than Chinese women to view physical pleasure as important for maintaining marriage. In general, the Chinese had both a more idealistic and a more practical approach to love than the Americans.

Source: Susan Sprecher and Maura Toro-Morn's "A Study of Men and Women from Different Sides of Earth to Determine if Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus in their Beliefs about Love and Romantic Relationships," Sex Roles, Vol. 46, No. 5/6, Mar 2002, pp. 131-47.

intelligent design

2011-02-09T22:21:00.005+08:00

let us face it: not being able to answer a question is no excuse for giving an answer that is false. I think that contemporary biology supports the claim that intelligent design is a false answer (Emile Zuckerkandl's "Intelligent design and biological complexity," Gene, Vol. 385, 2006, p. 4)

Being urged to keep an open mind about whether there has or has not been biological evolution is a comical invitation. It is equivalent to being urged to keep an open mind about whether the earth is flat or round, to consider that matter critically. (p. 3)

in the case of the phenomenon of evolution intelligent design not be presented as a scientific alternative, because it isn't. Intelligent design is a consideration extraneous to science that cannot affect science in the slightest. The effects of the results of science on religion are in some ways considerable, if slow in making their way; the effects of religion on the results of science are nil and can only be nil. (p. 3)

The observations in question definitely do not suggest that living systems have been built up thanks to the insights and decisions of a master engineer. Rather, the observations testify to a vast amount of continuous tinkering by trial and error with macromolecular interactions. The results of this tinkering are often retained when they can be integrated into the organism's functional whole. But why would God tinker? Doesn't He know in advance the biological pathways that work? Isn't a tinkering God one who loudly says "I am not"? And why would He say so if He existed? (p. 10)

Source: Emile Zuckerkandl's "Intelligent design and biological complexity," Gene, Vol. 385, 2006, pp. 2-18.

三民主義和中華民國到底誰個的本事大？

2011-02-08T23:27:00.008+08:00

透過探索一個時代變遷邊緣之微觀社會情境，可以體察人們的行為如何一方面受種種社會規範與結構的約制，一方面又顯現個人的選擇與創造力。

中研院在1929及1933年分別進行川西及湘西邊疆民族考察。考察員訪問一名喇嘛，報告寫道：「楊喇嘛既知道孫中山，並且聽說過有蔣介石，但不知有南京也。更可惜的是他問我們道：『三民主義和中華民國到底誰個的本事大？』」

資料來源：王明珂：〈國族邊緣、邊界與變遷－－兩個近代中國邊疆民族考察的例子〉，《新史學》，第21卷第3期（2010年9月），頁1-54。（上文來自頁19-20，轉引自黎光明、王元輝，《川西民俗調查記錄1929》，頁106。）

tropical medicine

2011-02-06T23:17:00.009+08:00

Tropical medicine is the branch of modern medicine that deals with endemic diseases widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, such as malaria. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (1898) and the London School of Tropical Medicine (1899) in Britain are two eminent examples dedicated to fighting against tropical disease. I recently read an article related to this: G. C. Cook's "Charles Wiberforce Daniels, FRCP (1862-1927): underrated pioneer of tropical medicine," Acta Tropica, Vol. 81, 2002, pp. 237-250.

The story begins from Dr. Patrick Manson, who founded the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1899, to Charles Wiberforce Daniels, who was one of the earliest pioneers of tropical medicine. Daniels became Director of the new Institute of Medical Research in the Federated Malay States from 1903 to 1905 during which he released Observations on the disease of British Malaya (Studies from Institute for Medical Research, Federated Malay States, No. 3, Part 1 & 2, pp 66) and The Outbreaks of rinderpest in Selangor, 1903 & 1904 (Studies from Institute for Medical Research, Federated Malay States, No. 3, Part 4, pp. 19), which were published by Kelly and Walsh in Singapore in 1904. (K & W, which is my focus, also published Hamilton Wright's Malarial fever of British Malaya (Studies from Institute for Medical Research, Federated Malay States, No. 1, Vol. 1, pp 98) in 1901)

Not for profit?

2011-02-05T12:23:00.003+08:00

what do we choose between an education for profit-making and an education for a more inclusive type of citizenship?

A few weeks ago William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies and Director of Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard, came to Hong Kong to give a public lectures titled The Chinese Century? Consumption, Production, and Education for China's New Middle Class, as one of the three public lectures on history and business in China 2010-2011 at the Central Library (others could be found here). At the end of the lecture, Kirby emphasized the importance of liberal arts and its tradition at Harvard, which I found very inspiring as I was reading a relevant book on the subject. I was quite inclined to talk to him about this after the lecture but being home too late was not an wise option (it was about 8.30pm).

The book is Martha C. Nussbaum's Not for profit: why democracy needs the humanities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).

Nussbaum quoted Harvard's president Drew Faust: "Higher learning can offer individuals and societies a depth and breadth of vision absent from the inevitably myopic present. Human beings need meaning, understanding, and perspective as well as jobs. The question should not be whether we can afford to believe in such purposes in these times, but whether we can afford not to." (p. 124. originally from "The University's Crisis of Purpose," New York Times Review, September 6, 2009, p. 19)

This thought-provoking book is divided into seven chapters: 1. The Silent Crisis; 2. Education for Profit, Education for Democracy; 3. Educating Citizens: The Moral (and Anti-Moral) Emotions; 4: Socratic Pedagogy: The Importance of Argument; 5. Citizens of the World; 6. Cultivating Imagination: Literature and the Arts; and 7. Democratic Education on the Ropes.

In 2006, a prestigious American university was to hold a symposium celebrating a major anniversary, a centerpiece of which was to discuss the future of liberal education. The president, however, changed his mind because he thought a symposium on liberal education would not 'make a splash,' he changed the focus to the latest technological achievements and their roles in generating profits for business and industry. (p. 5)

Nuassbaum reminds us, as the author of the foreword, Ruth O'Brien, Professor at the Graduate Center in Political Science and American Studies at CUNY, said "great educators and nation-builders understood how the arts and humanities teach children the critical thinking that is necessary for independent action and for intelligent resistance to the power of blind tradition and authority. Students of art and literature also learn to imagine the situations of others, a capacity that is essential for a successful democracy, a necessary cultivation of our 'inner eyes.'" (p. ix) "A democracy filled with citizens who lack empathy will inevitably breed more types of marginalization and stigmatization, thus exacerbating rather than solving its problems." (p. x) "Neglect and scorn for the arts and humanities", Nussbaum warns, "puts the quality of all our lives, and the health of our democracies, at risk." (p. xi)

Modern democracy requires a strong economy and economy and a flourishing business culture. This economic interest requires us to draw on the humanities and arts to promote a climate of responsible and watchful stewardship and a culture of creative innovation. (p. 10)

We are facing a worldwide crisis in education, which sees economic growth as the primary goal of education. Nations all over the world is "producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand the significance of another person's sufferings and achievements." (p. 2)

"educator for economic growth will do more than ignore the arts. They will fear them. For a cultivated and developed sympathy is a particularly dangerous enemy of obtuseness, and moral obtuseness is necessary to carry out programs of economic development that ignore inequality. It is easier to treat people as objects to be manipulated if you have never learned any other way to see them." "Art is a great enemy of that obtuseness, and artists...are not the reliable servants of any ideology, even a basically good one - they always ask the imagination to move beyond its usual confines, to see the world in new ways." (p. 24-5)

"if we have not learned to see both self and other in that way, imagining in one another inner faculties of thought and emotion, democracy is bound to fail, because democracy is built upon respect and concern, and these in turn are built upon the ability to see other people as human beings, not simply objects." (p. 6)

"All modern democracies," Nuassbaum says, "are societies in which the meaning and ultimate goals of human life are topics of reasonable disagreement among citizens who hold many different religious and secular views, and these citizens will naturally differ about how far various types of humanistic education serve their own particular goals." (p. 9)

"abilities...are at risk of getting lost in the competitive flurry, abilities crucial to the health of any democracy internally, and to the creation of a decent world culture capable of constructively addressing the world's most pressing problems. These abilities are associated with the humanities and the arts: the ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a 'citizen of the world'; and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person." (p. 7)

"the ability to imagine the experience of another - a capacity almost all human beings possess in some form -," Nuassbaum argues, "needs to be greatly enhanced and refined if we are to have any hope of sustaining decent institutions across the many divisions that any modern society contains." (p. 10)

the spirit of the humanities are "searching critical though, daring imagination, empathetic understanding of human experiences o many different kinds, and understanding of the complexity of the world we live in." (p. 7)

Science "is a friend of the humanities rather than their enemy." (p. 8) So are technology, engineering, business, and social sciences.

what abilities will it need to produce "humane, people-sensitive democracy dedicated to promoting opportunities for 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in its citizens?

- The ability to think well about political issues affecting the nation, to examine, reflect, argue, and debate, deferring to neither tradition nor authority.

- The ability to recognize ellow citizens as people with equal rights, even though they may be different in race, religion, gender, and sexuality: to look at them with respect, as ends, not just as tools to be manipulated for one's own profit.

- The ability to have concern for the lives of others, to grasp what policies of many types mean for the opportunities and experiences of one's fellow citizens, of many types, and for people outside one's own nation.

- The ability to imagine well a variety of complex issues affecting the story of a human life as it unfolds: to think about childhood, adolescence, family relationships, illness, death, and much more in a way informed by an understanding of a wide range of human stories, not just by aggregate data.

- The ability to judge political leaders critically, but with an informed and realistic sense of the possibilities available to them.

- The ability to think about the good of the nation as a whole, not just that of one's own local group.

- The ability to see one's own nation, in turn, as a part of a complicated world order in which issues of many kinds require intelligent transnational deliberation for their resolution. (p. 25-6)

what schools can and should do to produce citizens in and for a healthy democracy?

- Develop students' capacity to see the world from the viewpoint of other people, particularly those whom their society tends to portray as lesser, as "mere objects".

- Teach attitudes toward human weakness and helplessness that suggest that weakness is not shameful and the need for others not unmanly; teach children not to be ashamed of need an incompleteness but to see these as occasions for cooperation and reciprocity.

- Develop the capacity for genuine concern for others, both near and distant.

- Undermine the tendency to shrink from minorities of various kinds in disgust, thinking of them as "lower" and "contaminating".

- Teach real and true things about other people (racial, religious, and sexual minorities; people with disabilities), so as to counter stereotypes and the disgust that often goes with them.

- Promote accountability by treating each child as a responsible agent.

- Vigorously promote critical thinking, the skill and courage it requires to raise a dissenting voice. (p. 45-6)

又讀陶傑

2011-02-03T22:50:00.009+08:00

最出色的論點是「後底乸縱仔」，送他／她一程。警語。繼之有：

「〔香港〕中學不教中國歷史，也不教中國詩詞，也好。讓愚蠢成為主流，通街是文盲o靚模，面對這樣的『市場』，我們這些稍識幾個字的，正好冷眼旁觀，劃著火迆，炶一口煙，吐了出來，想想如何從中營利。」（〈熱鬧看風雲〉，頁191）

「一個錯別字流行的社會，亦以行政管理的科學邏輯來分析：這個地方，思想必定粗糙，頭腦一定簡單，而且喜歡互相政擊，一個小六程度的女明星出書錯別字多，即刻有一群中一程度的學者爭相挺身矯正，以示自己高人一等－－這種社會，證明財富分配極度不公平，有許多人以懷才不遇自居，有很深的挫敗感，心理不平衡。」（〈熱鬧看風雲〉，頁192）

出自陶傑：《這個荒謬的快樂年代：陶傑散文精選》（香港：皇冠出版社，2010）。

globalization

2011-01-31T16:06:00.004+08:00

"It looks as if globalization renders the study of language and literature necessarily pluralistic and multiplies the dimensions that texts and genres can have at one moment" (p. 497)

"the overwhelming economic identity of 'globalization' values one of the translation functions over the other: the promotion of language transparency and/or the hegemony of a single language. This economic identity of globalization does not urge the formation of grounds for language interaction or exchange. English is promoted by social and economic elites as the standard, and other languages are to be translated toward English not the other way round." (p. 498)

"Globalization is what is taking place in Abu Dhabi and Doha and not what is taking place in the study of language and literature in the West. We may notice that in general in Education City [several American universities have set up educational outposts there], the Western humanities are not taught. Rather, 'English skills' are taught in the interest learning Western practices of business, engineering, and medicine." (p. 513)

But what about the globalized study of language and literature? The Chinese and Japanese know English, but do the Americans and British know Chinese and Japanese?Do universities in the West spend millions of dollars on translation studies? Is there any sign of viewing the language of East and West as working simultaneously in both parts of the 'globe' to create mutual understanding?...The 'globalized' study of language and literature has been taking place as long as universities have existed, while ultimately acceding to narrow, ethnocentric, and jingoistic practices, thus canceling the very purpose of the broad studies.' (p. 513-4)

from David Bleich's "Globalization, Translation, and the University Tradition," New Literary History, vol. 39, 2008, pp. 497-517.

"By the twentieth century it could be argued that consumerism had become a state project, the protection and defence of consumers' interests having become a legitimate and central aspect of a government's responsibilities to its citizens during an era of expanding democracy. Consumption, or the right to enjoy its pleasures, had become an entitlement to citizen who had made sacrifices in two world wars and expected a share in the societies being reconstructed in their name in late 1940s and 1950s." (p. 213-4)

"Marx argued that modern capitalism creates a fetish of the commodity, the product becoming a hieroglyphic which we seek to decode to understand the labour relations behind it." (p. 218)

from Matthew Hilton's "The Death of a Consumer Society," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 18 (2008), . 211-236.

Governmentality

2011-01-28T15:14:00.006+08:00

Recently I read two articles on governmentality, which I first learned from Patrick Joyce in Manchester several years ago. It recalls my refreshing memory of our seminar on governmentality and I was the first being asked about it.

Bronwyn Davies and Peter Bansel, "Governmentality and Academic Work: Shaping the Hearts and Minds of Academic Workers," Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010, pp. 5-20. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of neoliberalism, and its practices of shaping individuals through specific modes of government in order to analyse the phenomenon of the market oriented, audit university, the authors analyse the discourse taken up by managers and academics.

Stephanie Rutherford, "Green Governmentality: Insights and Opportunities in the Study of Nature's Rule," Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2007, pp. 291-307. I need some more time to read this through and through. Rutherford highlights three key aspects of governmentality - its analytics of power [disciplinary power], biopolitics [ecopolitics], and technologies of the self and subject formation. From this article, I was introduced to Philip Howell's "Race, space and the regulation of prostitution in Colonial Hong Kong," Urban History, Vol. 31, Issue 02, 2004, pp. 229-48.

儒學，成德之學？

2011-01-26T00:41:00.010+08:00

「一個人可以建構一套道德形上學，但並不表示他自己可以過道德的生活。在我長時間所接觸講中國儒學的人之中，如早期的熊十力先生，接下來的唐君毅先生、牟宗三先生，以及到今天很多講新儒學的人，其中真正做成德之學的非常之少，真正能下決心化掉自然人的慾望、有自我改造的強烈意志以及成聖成賢的意志選擇的，只有唐君毅先生。......就儒學而言，建構理論是一回事，而自我改造是另一回事，然而現在卻有所渴淆，將主體性的形上學與成德之學當成一回事，於是似乎講一套道德形上學就已足夠。事實上，講一套道德形上學對儒家基本的目的是不夠的，因為儒家基本的問題是在自我轉化以成聖成賢，不只是構造一套形上學理論。」（頁199-200）

出自勞思光：〈對中國哲學研究之省思－－困境與出路〉，《中國文哲研究通訊》，第20卷第2期，頁193-202。（原文為2009年10月8日為慶祝本所成立20周年所舉辦之系列專題演講。）

再讀《史記》一

2011-01-24T15:28:00.005+08:00

日者「分別天地之終始，日月星辰之紀，差次仁義之際，列吉凶之符。」

「夫卜者多言誇嚴以得人情，虛高人祿命以說人志，擅言禍災以傷人心，矯言鬼神以盡人財，厚求拜謝以私於己。」（《史記。日者列傳》，頁3216-7）

Recent readings XXV

2011-01-22T22:56:00.008+08:00

王承文：〈晚唐高駢開鑿安南「天威遙」運河事蹟釋證－－以裴鉶所撰《天威遙碑》為中心的考察〉，《中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊》，第81本，第3分（2010年9月），頁597-650。

「近十多年來，中國加強了環北部灣地區的開發，並將其視為中國西南內陸地區通向東南亞與世界的門戶和橋樑。二○○七年，中國正式成立了環北部灣經濟開發區。中外學術界也不斷重新審視環北部灣地區的歷史和現，甚至直接將北部灣稱為「亞洲小地中海」。但是，從總體上來看，學術界對古代嶺南西南部歷史的研究還相當缺乏。......」（頁642）

為什麼如此明目張膽地為政治服務的學術文章會再現於《史語所集刊》？

Mei-Fen Kuo, "The Chinese Australian Herald and the Shaping of a Modern 'Imagined' Chinese Community in 1890s Colonial Sydney," Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies 南方華裔研究雜誌, Vol. 2, 2008, pp. 34-53.

Alan Hunter, "Soft Power: China on the Global Stage," Chinese Journal of International Politics, Vol. 2, 2009, pp. 373-398.

Rey Chow, "Reading Derrida on Being Monolingual," New Literary History, vol. 39, 2008, pp. 217-231.

專欄書

2011-01-19T23:43:00.004+08:00

香港專欄書多，專著少。專欄作家往往一躍而成為著書者。

沈旭暉在新作《國際政治夢工場III：中華魅影 : 從電影看國際政治》（香港：圓桌精英出版社，2010）的後記（？還是跋？忘掉了）寫道：

「文章結集和專欄要是沒有分別，問題就大了。」（頁248）

如是說，坊間有大問題的多到數不清，結集與專欄有分別才是有問題，否則就不叫做專欄書了。

Meaghan Morris and others

2011-01-16T19:20:00.012+08:00

Guided by Meaghan Morris, I read some articles related to Cultural Studies. Here are they:

Meaghan Morris's "Humanities for taxpayers: some problems," New Literary History, Vol. 36, No. 1, Winter 2005, pp. 111-29. "The pressures of civilizationalism are palpable in Hong Kong, where every local student comes into the classroom having been trained to divide the humanities into 'Chinese X' on the one hand, and 'World X' on the other." (p. 126)

Meaghan Morris's "From criticism to research: the 'textual' in the academy," Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, Sep 2006, pp. 17-32. 'who needs whole persons in Hong Kong?', the University has an answer supported by findings in the USA: business does. Corporate managers seek that famous 'well-rounded personality' in potential employees, and by this they mean a mix of cognitive, presentational and social skills. (p. 23)

Meaghan Morris's "Teaching versus research? Cultural studies and the new class politics in knowledge," Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2008, pp. 433-50.

Eva Tsai, "Learning to labor: thesis supervision and academic work in the graduate school,"Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2008, pp. 451-68.

Kimburley Wing Yee Choi, "Consumption: Why does it matter in cultural research?" Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, Sep 2006, pp. 50-73. Hong Kong family consumption of Disney products, movies and English-language educational kits. I love this! Just look at the conversation between Kim and one of the subjects. Interviewee: "we know so clearly the limitations of people living in Hong Kong. You must have professional skills to survive in this globalised world...For me, children need to leave Hong Kong because, you know [the job market of] Hong Kong will get saturated after twenty years. If they don't have the ability to go outside Hong Kong, their development will be more limited than ours." (p. 65)

Bronwyn Davies, Michael Gottsche & Peter Bansel, "The Rise and Fall of the Neo-liberal University," European Journal of Education, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2006, pp. 305-19. Quoted from an Australian scientist "Teaching assessment is a joke. It's a bit of window dressing and it happens I do very well at it, but that's just my good luck in a way and I don't mind it. But, I don't think anyone could seriously think that we assess teaching now. We just go through the motions." (p. 315)

Bronwyn Davies, "The (im)possibility of intellectual work in neoliberal regimes," Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, Vol. 26, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 1-14.

Yongbing Liu, "The construction of cultural values and beliefs in Chinese language textbooks: A critical discourse analysis," Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, Vol. 26, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 15-30. The discourse of cultural values and beliefs are constructed from five different perspectives, namely, concentration and diligence, respect for authority (government leaders and elders), modesty and tolerance, collective spirit, and honesty. (p. 19)

Richard James's "Students and student learning in mass systems of higher education: Six educational issues facing universities and academic leaders" a seminar paper presented for Mass Higher Education in UK and International Contexts, 29-30 May 2007, Surrey. 1. student diversity and changing expectations; 2. student engagement and patterns of paid work; 3. student preparedness and academic standards; 4. effective teaching and learning for large cohorts; 5. the renewal of teaching and learning spaces and the 'churning' of ICT; 6. multiple forces influencing curriculum renewal.

Mitchell G. Ash, "Bachelor of what, master of whom? The Humboldt myth and historical transformation of higher education in German-speaking Europe and the US," European Journal of Education, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2006, pp. 246-67.

Rosemary Deem, "Conceptions of contemporary European universities: to do research or not to do research," European Journal of Education, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2006, pp. 281-304.

Monumenta Nipponica

2011-01-12T23:24:00.004+08:00

Sometime ago I read two three-decade old articles on Monumenta Nipponica. They are:

Edward R. Beauchamp's "Griffis in Japan: The Fukui Interlude, 1871," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Winter, 1975), pp. 423-452. In 1870, "In the former [Yokohama], there were approximately 2,000 foreigners, half of them Westerns, half of them Western military and security forces, while Tokyo sheltered only 100 Westerners, including two or three women. (p. 427) and

Masuzo Ueno's "The Western Influence on Natural History in Japan," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 19, No. 3/4 (1964), pp. 315-339. "Another Englishman who co-operated with Blakiston in the study of Japanese birds was Henry J. S. Pryer (1850-1888). Born in London, Pryer came to Yokohama in 1871 to become a secretary in the firm of Adamson-Bell & Co., and remained there until his death in 1888. In his leisure time he devoted himself to the collecting of butterflies, on the basis of which hobby he published in 1886-1889 a book in three parts, Rhopalocera Nihonica, A Description of the Butterflies of Japan. [Yokohama: Printed at the office of the "Japan Mail;" published by the author]." (p. 334)

林奕華 VI

2011-01-11T22:32:00.016+08:00

月前喜讀林奕華的作品，繼《等待香港：青春篇》、《等待香港：娛樂篇》、《等待香港：女人篇》、《娛樂大家：電影編》、《娛樂大家：明星編》之後，第六本，也是最後一本，是《娛樂大家：文化編》。

「香港的主流文化一向都是理所當然的男性中心，並且是草根式的（我的說法是『麻甩』）。」（〈借森美小儀選舉事件測試我們有幾男性中心〉，頁20）（粗體為我加）

「時下很多女性用cheap［即賤］來形容其他女性，或以它來警誡自己不能犯下cheap的錯誤，...一不能太容易被得手，二是假設男性總不會為任何東西要求自己，所以女性若是千依百順，她就不會得到男人對她的珍惜。...那些條件比她［自己］好的女性，都成了可能搶去她的幸福的敵人，因為她們比她積極，比她主動，比她cheap（賤）。」

「男人歧視女性，是覺得『她』除非全無姿色，不然一定會『引人犯罪』。女人歧視女性，則是在認同男人的觀點外還往同性多踐踏一腳：把自己不能達社會預設的『美麗』的憤恨，藉對消費揭秘和醜聞發洩在女藝人身上。」

「女人何必為難女人？答案太簡單了，都是一個『性』字惹的禍－－如果女人都有機會活出更多面相、更多自我、更多自信，社會對於女藝人的態度便不會受到單一和狹窄化的『性感』標準所框死。」（〈給香港女藝人的信〉，頁104-6）

「香港是個連國際學校學生都較易惹麻煩的社會－－英文講得好與自主意識比較強的年青人對大多數人總是有著莫名威脅。」（〈塊肉餘生記之Great Expectations〉，頁112）

「香港的文化特色之一，就是廣東人說的『一時唔偷雞，馬上做保長』。」（〈抄與炒〉，頁156）

「香港人重視名牌，但更擁抱香港人的草根性。」「香港茶餐廳看似不過是港人的地道飲食風格，其實，我們的娛樂也可以很茶餐廳。」（〈演唱會香港式〉，頁158）

「選擇是自由的體現，香港人的文化特色之一，是『爭取不要選擇的自由』。即是，怕麻煩。就如上餐廳一般，AB餐以外頂多來個C...香港人因此非常歡迎一眾品牌電影，讓湊熱鬧心理成了上戲院的最強推手。」（〈新片開畫的日子〉，頁284）

「這裏沒有尊重戲劇的傳統。」(〈香港不是倫敦〉，頁287）

「整個社會的信念都是建立在（一）生活的目標是賺錢；（二）賺錢的目的是提升身份地位；（三）身份地位的意義是可供比較和炫耀；（四）炫耀是因為欠缺自信等等一系列價值觀上...」「香港真是一個『人民最愛忘記』的城市。」

「香港就是香港，口頭上的一傳十十傳百容易，真要拿起筆為歷史留下見證卻沒有多少人願意做和做得到。」

「恨我們不是沒有文化，而是文化不被容於文化。」(〈商業與藝術〉，頁296-8）

「香港文化的一大特色－－除了『女人喜歡為難女人』...還有『文化人喜歡為難文化人』。回頭一想，有此現象也是理所當然不過，因為『女人』和『文化人』有著一個共通點，就是特別易犯『眼紅症』。」

「香港人的口頭禪之一是『駛唔駛呀？』（有需要嗎？），言下之意就是能不要求就不要求自己。〈文化人何苦為難文化人〉，頁346-7）

trophy kids

2011-01-08T16:43:00.016+08:00

A professor asks, "how do you hold students for a two-hour class when they have two-minute attention spans?" (Ron Alsop's The trophy kids grow up : how the millennial generation is shaking up the workplace (New York: The Wall Street Journal, 2008), p. 142)

Alsop's inspiring book contains 11 chapters: The trophy kids; Great expectations; Apron strings; Take your parents to work; How am I doing?; Checklist kids; Master jugglers; Free to be me; Recruiting in cyberspace; Dream jobs; and A generous generation.

Alsop outlines the traits of the four generations in the workplace:

traditionalists (1925-45): patriotic, dependable, conformist, respects authority, rigid, socially and financially conservative, solid work ethic.

baby boomers (1946-64): workaholic, idealistic, competitive, loyal, materialistic, seeks personal fulfillment, values titles and the corner office.

gen Xers (1965-79): self-reliant, adaptable, cynical, distrusts authority, resourceful, entrepreneurial, technology savvy.

millenials (1980-2001): entitled, optimistic, civic minded, close parental involvement, values work-life balance, impatient, multitasking, team oriented.

"We have to understand that millennials simply view the world differently from us, and try to adapt to them," an enterprise recruiting and retention director said, "we need to give them a voice in the organization and learn to work with them, not against them." (p. 8)

Weekend reading

2011-01-07T23:24:00.008+08:00

In France, homeland of l'exception française, where cultural diversity was built into the country's very system and people's souls, only 900 authors can claim an income of more than 16,500 euros a year from all of their titles. (Martine Prosper, Édition, l'envers du décor (Paris, 2009))

This weekend's leisure reading was the author of The business of books : how international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read (London: Verso, 2000) André Schiffrin's Words and money (Argent et les mots) (London: Verso, 2010).

Unfolded by a more-than-ten-page introduction that closely links words and money, the topics of the book, and asks alternative possibilities for the traditional publishing media, Schiffrin observes that "[s]urely no capitalist in his or her right mind would invest in a bookstore these days, or in a publishing house, on in a newspaper."

The book is divided into seven chapters. They are: 1. The future of publishing; 2. The Norwegian example; 3. Films and movie houses; 4. Helping the bookstores; 5. The future of the press; 6. Saving the press. It closes by the conclusion: technology and monopoly.

Words and money is definitely worth reading for the up-to-date tough situation of the publishing and press industries in the major western countries such as America, Britain, France, and Germany. The recommendation for the government is intervention by favourable aid at all levels, financially and legally, to save from small independent bookstores to major newspapers against large globalized conglomerates. At the individual level, I think, do not enter the industries.

Some excerpts from the book:

The current economic crisis revealed that the really big money wasn't coming from the mundane activity of making actual, tangible goods and then selling them. (p. xiv) tipping point for alternative means of production and wealth accumulation

None of these changes [practical changes due to the ethos of profit maximization across a wide range of professions] were due to the internal demands of these professions. Indeed, they are contrary to the needs of the practitioners and their clients. But they are part of the inevitable monetization of modern capitalist society, which allowed for no exceptions and was ravenous in its demands....Even though their system collapsed, many of its proponents have continued to defend it and have returned to their former practices and their obscene remuneration. (p. 5) what else and where else can they do and go?

In Japan, overall sales of newspapers are 624 papers per thousand persons, two and a half times greater than the US figure (p. 67) unbelievable.

There is a strong French tradition of self-censorship where the government is concerned. (p. 70) really?

News coverage, both in France and in the US, is solidly white. (p. 71-2) how true?

The book also introduces to me Florence Noiville's J'ai fait HEC et je m'en excuse (I Went to Business School and I'm Sorry) (Paris, 2009) in which she shows how the major thrust of the curriculum at France's leading business school is not to show how business or the economy works, but to teach its students how to maximize profit, partly by firing as many people as possible. (p. 7-8)

Recent readings XXIV

2011-01-05T00:20:00.004+08:00

The new semester just began. I barely had time to maintain the blog and I can only list the recent readings here:

John Griffiths's "Were there Municipal Networks in the British World c. 1890-1939?" The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 37, No. 4, Dec 2009, pp. 575-597. Griffiths contemplates the significance of British world publications such as the Municipal Journal, in the facilitation of British world progressivism and its role in formalising networks.

Deirdre H. McMahon's "'Quick, Ethel, Your Rifle!': Portable Britishness and Flexible Gender Roles in G.A. Henty's Books for Boys," Studies in the Novel, Vol. 42, Nos. 1 & 2, Spring & Summer 2010, pp. 154-72. Henty's imperialism cultivates a portable notion of British identity, in which young boys and girls can go to any part of the globe with their Britishness not only intact but enabling them to survive in foreign lands.

Siân Nicholas's "'Brushing up your empire': Dominion and colonial propaganda on the BBC's home services, 1939-45," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 31, No. 2, May 2003, pp. 207-230. The BBC's Empire Service was created in 1931 and in Nov. 1939 it was incorporated into a general comprehensive Overseas Service, including North American, African, Pacific and Eastern Services.

Simon Potter, "Communication and integration: The British and dominions press and the British world, c.1876-1914," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 31, No. 2, May 2003, pp. 190-206.

Aled Jones and Bill Jones, "The Welsh World and the British Empire, c.1851-1939: An Exploration," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 31, No. 2, May 2003, pp. 57-81.

Clare Anderson's "'The Ferringees are flying - the ship is ours!': The convict middle passage in colonial South and Southeast Asia, 1790-1860," Indian Economic & Social History Review, Vol. 42, No. 2, 2005, pp. 143-86. convict ship mutinies. One case from Hong Kong to Singapore and Penang on General Wood from Dec 1847 to Jan 1848, on which there were 92 convicts. On 3 Jan, convicts successfully seize ship after leaving Penang and attempt to navigate to China. Murder Captain Stokoe, third mate and four lascars. Wreck ship off Cambodia. Nineteen convicts tried by Singapore criminal sessions, 3-5 Apr: 3 executed, 23 life transportation to Bombay. Twenty-seven more tried on 4 June: 3 executed, 24 life transportation to Bombay.

Jonathan Hyslop's "Steamship Empire: Asian, African and British Sailors in the Merchant Marine c.1880-1945," Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2009, pp. 49-67. Hyslop interprets the steam empire as a set of overlapping webs, comprising the shipping companies, British diasporic labour and Indian Ocean seafarers

Recent readings XXIII

2011-01-03T18:23:00.008+08:00

Romain Garcier's "The Placing of Matter: Industrial Water Pollution and the Construction of Social Order in Nineteenth-Century France," Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 36, 2010, pp. 132-42. "'Pollution' brought together various strands of water research (especially water analysis, bacteriology and hydrology) but also served as the foundation of a discourse on industrial responsibility...The co-production of pollution science and nineteenth-century industrial order explains why industrial water pollution was allowed to go unabated...water pollution was regulated informally and industrialists were able to claim rivers as legitimate places for industrial matter against challenges brought up by other social actors.

Min Zeng (曾敏) & David Watkins's "Adaptation of Mainland postgraduate students to Hong Kong's universities," CERC [Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education] Studies in Comparative Education, Vol. 27, 2011, pp. 343-373. The topic is not new, neither its findings. "As students from a Confucian heritage culture, the informants respected their supervisors as knowledgeable authorities and tried to avoid challenging or questioning their authority." (emphasis mine)

Michael H. Lee, "Internationalizing universities: comparing China's Hong Kong and Singapore (1996-2006), CERC [Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education] Studies in Comparative Education, Vol. 27, 2011, pp. 283-315. By the end of 2005, Singapore's universities had 50,000 international enrollments and it has anticipated that at least 100,000 more non-local full fee-paying students would be studying in Singapore by 2012. Hong Kong is lagging well behind!

橫田文彥：〈1950年代～1980年代香港新聞廣告文に含まれる廣東語表現〉，《中國文學研究》，2006年12月，第32期，頁60-76。《華僑日報》、《星島日報》、《明報》；醫藥及飲食廣告。抽離歷史脈絡，無異於資料排比而已。

千野拓政：〈香港の夢はどこに？──張愛玲、映畫、アイデンティティー──〉，《中國文學研究》，2006年12月，頁46-58。

洪濤：〈英國漢學家與《楚辭．九歌》的歧解和流傳〉，《漳州師範學院學報(哲社版)》，2008年第1期(總第67期)，頁57-67。

顏榴：〈民國時期印象派概念的流傳和書籍的傳播〉，《中国美術館》，2008年第8期，頁81-88。

karaoke capitalism

2011-01-02T13:28:00.003+08:00

We live in the world of karaoke capitalism (KC) where individual choice is endless. But this costs, either cash or competence. In the economy of KC we need to face the ultimate choice: copy or create.

Karaoke copycats look alike - read alike - think alike. If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking. For some people, probably the majority of the population, imitation is enough. We are Mr. and Mrs. Average.

We live in the world of individual. All over the world, people are beginning to exercise their right to express themselves even though no one is paying attention to anyone.

You may think life is full of chance. Let's face it. The game of chance is over. Individualism represents the triumph choice over control and the victory of selection over chance. Satisfaction is based on choice.

KC is not open to all however. Money talks and, you like it or not, shapes our lives. Please help ourselves to find meaning in moneymaking.

The democratization of information should not be mistaken for the democratization of power just like the democratization of luxury good should not mistaken for the democratization of tastes. Information makes real sense only when you are capable of understanding it. Power is transferred from those who control information to those who control knowledge.

Knowledge is perishable. You need to exploit your skills right now, or at the best moment. Today, there is a best-before-date on people and their skill.

More opportunities come with an increasing number of responsibilities. Power structure is being reshaped. Power is shifting from the rule-takers to the rule-breakers and rule-makers.

People do not dislike change, but being changed. To succeed, we need more, not fewer non-conformists.

Meaning is no longer given by state or church. Materialism rules. More than ever people seek self-expression and self-identity through their their purchases. The gap between haves and have nots is increasing between as well as within countries. It is increasingly difficult to have a life while also making a living.

Forget about normal. Abnormal is the new normal. Indeed, we live in a world of double economy, a binomial society, a polarized world of wealth and poverty, opportunity and misery, luxury and low-cost. Either you make an input or you become an output.

In the world of KC where virtuous and vicious realities are the alternatives on offer - capital and competence versus change; opportunities versus responsibilities; liberty versus duty; individual splendor versus loneliness.

Modern cosmocrats outsource the family to have more time to work. In Hong Kong, working parents tend to outsource day-to-day nurturing of their children to barely paid maids who virtually have no emotional and ethical connection with the family in general.

Do whatever you want, but make sure that you are really good at it - world-class. Competence will buy you choice.

Education boosts the depth of the skills needed while competition simultaneously decreases the durability of knowledge.

Stories translate information into emotion.

Technology doesn't make you less stupid; it just makes you stupid faster.

We gamble because our lives have become overly predictable and safe.

The 10 commandments of karaoke leadership:

1. Thou shalt not display your feathers to demonstrate your all around brilliance and beauty.

2. Thou shalt not walk unto the wilderness blindly, but open your eyes and those of others.

3. Thou shalt not count the pennies at every turn.

4. Thou shalt value values and live them purely and unequivocally every day.

5. Thou shalt loveth all and all will love you back

6. Thou shalt know the inner-most sanctums of your customers as well as your own backyard.

7. Thou shalt cast out the rule book of bureaucracy.

8. Thou shalt giveth out carrots as you would have carrots given to you.

9. Thou shalt not engage in acts of self-congratulation.

10. Thou shalt depart toward the door before you are forced or asked to do so.

Source: Jonas Ridderstråle and Kjell A. Nordström's Karaoke capitalism : daring to be different in a copycat world (Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2005).

I am back

2011-01-01T21:32:00.003+08:00

I really need to get back to my primary field after strolling along different genres for stimulation, inspiration and, admittedly, refuge. By all means I returned and started reading some essentials and related works, and found many useful journals and articles.

Sarah Bilston's "'It is Not What We Read, But How We Read': Maternal Counsel on Girls' Reading Practices in Mid-Victorian Literature," Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol. 30, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 1-20.

Karen Junod's "The Lives of the Old Masters: Reading, Writing, and Reviewing the Renaissance," Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol. 30, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 67-82.

John L. Kijinski's "Respectable Reading in the Late Nineties: H.D. Traill's Literature,"Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol. 25, No. 4, 2003, pp. 357-72.

Jonathan Mulrooney's "Reading the Romantic-period Daily News," Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2002, pp. 351-77. The newspaper and its primary means of rapid geographical dissemination. A growing number of nineteenth-century British readers who imagined a relation to public life through the medium of newspapers.

Annika Bautz's "Scott's Victorian Readers," Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol. 31, No. 1, March 2009, pp. 19-29. Bautz considers the degree to which Sir Walter Scott's novels were available to Victorian readers by looking at numbers and kinds of editions produced for sale and making comparison with Scott's contemporary Jane Austen.

Mandy Reid's "Racial Profiling: Visualizing Racial Science on the Covers of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852-1928," Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol. 30, No. 4, Dec 2008, pp. 369-87. Reading the history of Uncle Tom's Cabin's covers shows us how the changing visual representations of racial differences depicted by the covers functioned as a crucial vehicle for disseminating and normalizing key transition moments in the history of contemporary racial science: the supplanting of monogensis by polygensis as the leading theory of human origins, the impact of evolutionary theory on anthropology, and, finally, the reframing of "race" in eugenics discourse.

Koos Kuiper's "the earliest monument of Dutch Sinological studies: Justus Heurnius's manuscript Dutch-Chinese dictionary and Chinese-Latin Compendium Doctrinae Christianae (Batavia 1628)," Quaerendo: A Quarterly Journal from the Low Countries Devoted to Manuscripts and Printed Books, Vol. 35, No. 1-2, 2005, pp. 109-39.

Priscilla Coit Murphy's "'Down with fiction and up with fact': Publishers Weekly and the postwar shift to nonfiction," Publishing Research Quarterly, Vol. 14, Fall 1998, pp. 29-52. statistics and graphs.

George Leslie Mackay

2010-12-31T15:08:00.008+08:00

Rev. Dr. George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901, 馬偕 or 偕叡理) was the first missionary commissioned to Formosa by the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

He left San Francisco for China on 1st November 1871 and it took him nearly two months to arrive in Takow (now Kaohsiung) on 29th December, during which he also visited Yokohama, Hong Kong, Canton, Swatow (in which he met Rev. George Smith), Kit-yang [揭陽?], and landed Tamsui on 9th March 1872.

Reading on board. It is very interesting for me, as a cultural historian, to look at his two-month voyage on which he kept reading works about China and the Chinese intensively and extensively. Below are some excerpts from his recently published diaries.

3 Nov (Fri) 1871: Read Mr. Williams' [?] Years in China [?] (1)

6 Nov (Mon): Read "Observations on China and the Chinese" by N.L.S. Smith. (1)

7 Nov (Tue): Finished reading "China and the Chinese" and began "Social life of the Chinese" by Rev. Justus Doolittle. (2)

9 Nov (Thurs): Read away at "Social life amongst the Chinese (?) (2)

10 Nov (Fri): Still kept reading Doolittle's work. (2)

11 Nov (Sat): Read Nevius on China, also Doolittle. (2)

15 Nov (Wed): Read Doolittles 2nd vol. (2)

17 Nov (Fri): Began to Read 'Middle Kingdom' by S. Wells. Williams. (3)

20 Nov (Mon): Read 'Middle Kingdom'. (3)

21 Nov (Tue): Read Dr. Speer's 'China and the United States?" (3)

24 Nov (Fri): Read 'Visit to China' by Rev. Geo. Smith. (3)

1 Dec (Fri): The roughest day on our voyage -- ate no food, read no books, and Simply vomited - (4)

5 Dec (Tue): Hong Kong. Very early in the morning entered between land on each side. Winding Serpent-like and at 8. A.M. saw the British flag away up on the top of a Peak, Soon entered broad Sheet of Water surrounded by hills. also houses rising in rows above each other on the side of a high hill. Hong-Kong at last. Went below and thanked God for His care and goodness. Went ashore. Met a man Dr. Eitel who asked "Are you Mackay?" (5)

6 Dec (Wed): Remained all night with Dr. Eitel the man who accosted me on the Street yesterday. It seems Dr. Maxwell told him to be on the lookout for me -- At 8 A.M. took steamer for Canton... (5)

8 Dec (Fri): ...arrived in Hong Kong. Went to the German Mission. Saw 40 girls who sang "There is a happy" (5)

Upon arriving in Formosa:

25 Jan 1872: ...Went over sections of MacGowan's book - (English and Chinese dictionary of the Amoy dialects 1883) [? then he frequently drilled on MacGowan] (11-12)

5 May 1873, he wrote "up to this date from the day I landed at Tamsui I gave medicines to one thousand and twenty three (1,023)." (82)

Source: Mackay's Diaries : original English version, 1871-1901 (馬偕日記英文版, 1871-1901年) (Taipei: Altheia University (真理大學), 2007. Trans. & eds. by Reestablishing Committee of Mackay's Diaries, Neng-che Yeh, Chih-Rung Chen, etc.).

Does race matter?

2010-12-30T12:38:00.003+08:00

What matter most in a multiracial metropolis, like London and Hong Kong?

Yes, for better or for worse, it remains to be race. Race still matters, and matters more than anything else in a world where multiracial/multiethnic/multicultural ethos continue to grow.

We do have our ways to identity ourselves in terms of race and ethnicity.

Society 'corrects' the ways in which we perceive ourselves and think about race and ethnicity in terms of appearance, skin colour, friends, tastes, etc. Even if we wish "to deny/assert legitimacy of ethnic and racial labels and constructs, or resist racial categorization, the wider societal gaze," the sociologist Miri Song argues, "could make it very difficult for... [us] to remain insulated from racial discourses which assign people to various racial categories."

Miri Song's latest article "Does 'Race' Matter? A Study of 'Mixed Race' Siblings' Identifications" (The Sociological Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2010, pp. 265-85) investigate the ways in which mixed siblings perceive and think about race and differences in racial, ethnic, and religious identification within their families. She asks the role of race and the recognition of difference play in sibling relationships and in family life more generally.

Some of her subjects considered themselves British and ethnicity a "side detail" while to some others physical appearance was the basis of judgement from others which tended to make it impossible to derogate race or ethnicity in their lives.

"People just stereotype me and most Black people on a daily basis. They have their preconceived ideas and prejudices," one respondent reported. One of the respondents who looked White said "When we [his younger sister, Jane, and he] were at school, I used to feel guilty because I never experienced the racism that Jane [who looked Asian because of skin colour] did. I used to see her crying about it as a child."

One interviewee confidently noted "I can blend with any group and I find that I do not get discriminated as a non-White individual...If I felt that my future prospects were being affected by my race I would diplomatically ensure that whoever was getting in my way received a verbal slap and then find another path to where I want to go. My life is not defined by what other people want to let me do."

Recent readings XXII

2010-12-29T15:46:00.004+08:00

T. H. Barrett with Antonello Palumbo, "The mystery of the precious seal of the ruler and the origins of printing," Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2007, pp. 115-30. It may be that in future Daoist materials will prove to contain more useful materials for linking the use of seals to early printing.

Dŭsica Ristivojevic, "They Are Just like the Generations Past: Images of Chinese Women in the Women's Missionary Periodical Woman's Work in China (1884-1885)," Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2008, pp. 143-161.

Due to accessibility problem, Ristivojevic focuses on only four issues of Woman's Work in China (vol. 7(2), 8(1)-(2), 9(1), 1884-5), which was published by Kelly & Walsh? "Chinese and non-Chinese sinologists, in and out of China, in my view should not be unselectively criticized for using the term 'Westerners' as if that is a matter of negligence, oversimplication, and essentailization." (p. 144)

Four constructions of Chinese women: (1) despicable Chinese women who had shown no interest in complying with the Christian religion; (2) Chinese schoolgirls and women-students going through a process of conversion who are portrayed as having been risen from the depths of spiritual, mental and moral darkness, but are seen as constantly in danger of regressing to their degrading non-Christian tradition; (3) Chinese Christian women who are represented as a highly positive mirror image of Western men; and (4) upper-class Chinese women beyond the reach of women missionaries' but occupying a specific place, in the created imaginary, where the liberty of their converted/convertible lower-class sisters is deprived of and indulging in opium consumption.

When foreign advisers such as Edwin Dun came to Japan, they brought much more than their expertise: They brought deeply rooted opinions about the promise of modernization that, when integrated into the Japanese education system, work place, political values, and attitudes about the natural world, laid the foundation on which the modern Japanese nation would be built. political, social, and cultural values and attitudes about the natural world.

Source: Brett L. Walker's "Meiji modernization, Scientific agriculture, and the destruction of Japan's Hokkaido wolf," Environmental History, Vol. 9, No. 2, Apr 2004, pp. 248-74.

B. Luyt, "Colonialism, Ethnicity, and Geopolitics in the Development of the Singapore National Library," Libraries & the Cultural Record, Vol. 44, No. 4, 2009.

D. G. Davis, Jr., "International Trends in Library History," Libraries & the Cultural Record, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2010.

L. M. Han, "The Beginning and Development of the Raffles Library in Singapore, 1823-1941: A Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century British Colonial Enclave," Library & Information History, Vol. 25, No. 3, Sep 2009.

T. Weller, "An Information History Decade: A Review of the Literature and Concepts, 2000-2009," Library & Information History, Vol. 26, No. 1, Mar 2010.

Gabriel M. Wilner, "The Mixed Courts of Egypt: A Study of The Use of Natural Law and Equity," Scholarly Works, Paper 210, 1975. For future use

English Next II

2010-12-28T16:16:00.004+08:00

Following the post on English yesterday, I quickly flipped Graddol's English Next India: The future of English in India, which is free to download on the British Council's website.

Again, it is very informative and enjoyable. I found some similarities between India and Hong Kong, both being former British colonies for more than a century. Take an interesting example here:

In August 2009, the Indian television channel CNN-IBN carried out a "State of the Nation" poll, which showed ambivalence about English that 87% feel that knowledge of English is important to succeed in life and 54% feel those who can speak fluent English are superior whereas 82% feel that knowing the state language is very important and 57% feel that English making us forget our mother tongue. Adding to these, 63% feel jobs should be reserved for those who speak the state language?

If a similar poll could ever take place in Hong Kong (anyone knows?), how far the results would be different from India?

English Next

2010-12-27T18:45:00.006+08:00

Last week, I read a recent column on English Today titled "Will Chinese take over from English as the world's most important language?" (Vol. 26, 2010, pp. 3-4.). Questions of this kind, like "Will China take over the role of the US to become the world's sole superpower?", tend more often to draw anxiety and resistance than discussion and negotiation. The author, David Graddol, gives a fresh discussion saying that the next future of English probably is a language of different regional patterns of English-knowing bilingualism, and no single language taking over the role of English as a global lingua franca.

Graddol, coincidentally, is visiting my university in the Department of English. Not long ago in early November, he gave a public lecture titled "The Future of English in Hong Kong", in which he discussed the strategic importance of English to Hong Kong’s future economy. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the lecture, which I think should be of great interest to us all in Hong Kong.

He aroused my interest to read further on this topic and I just scanned his English Next (London: British Council, 2006) at the time when I am writing this post and shall now turn to his latest English Next India: The future of English in India (London: British Council, 2010).

lovely sunflower eggs

2010-12-26T16:44:00.006+08:00

Back in the days while I worked nine-to-five, I used to have breakfast with two sunflower eggs in my favourite nearby restaurant to kick off the blue Monday.

One day, I found something strange with the egg yolks. It looked gorgeous, more yellow than ever before. I thought, happily, the restaurant changed the egg supplier.

If you, like me in this case, find your restaurant's brilliant decision one day, you should be happy, shouldn't you?

You shouldn't. Because it might be the result of a vitamin mixture added to the hens' feed that changes everything.

It is possible, and practical, to add artificial colouring to the grain to enhance the hue of egg yolks. Martin Lindström, a very successful branding consultant, instead of doing so, which he considered unethical, helped his Saudi Arabian client identify the vitamin mixture that would produce yolks from light yellow to middling-yellow to the passionate yellow, and all the variations in between.

From his book, Buy.ology: truth and lies about why we buy (New York: Doubleday, 2008), I also found something more interesting to carry on and took pride of while being told that the pink-product boom was ignited by the Hong Kong company VTech, which manufactured pink laptop and made an unexpected success in the market.

Buy.ology is a book about marketing and science, neuromarketing technically, which explores "the subconscious thoughts, fellings, and desires that drive the purchasing decisions we make each and every day of our lives". Lindström brilliantly presented to us a lot of interesting stories, experiments and investigation, which stimulate us, as consumers, to think about our subconscious buying behaviour.

a banquet

2010-12-25T00:49:00.010+08:00

On April 15, 1952, the Encyclopaedia Britannica Corporation hosted a celebratory banquet in New York City's luxury Waldorf Astoria Hotel situated on the prestigious Park Avenue in the heart of midtown Manahattan.

Noteworthy invitees included Connecticut Senator William Benton; Hollywood film "Code" enforcer Will H. Hays, prominent businessmen Alfred Vanderbilt, Marshall Field, Jr., and Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Dinner speakers were the University of Chicago's Chancellor, Lawrence Kimpton, University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins, Professor Mortimer J. Adler, and Senator Benton. Attendees included Jacques Barzun, Scott Buchanan, William Gorman, Richard McKeon, and Mark van Doren.

The publisher announced the publication of the 54-volume Great Books of the Western World. Attendees feasted on prime rib and inspected "Founders Editions" of the set's two-volume Syntopicon and introductory volume, The Great Conversation. Subscribers had earned a $500 each, to get the set published.

The editorial board was not in the hope of achieving a "universal swindle" (selling art as trinkets), or to effect the "abolition of the individual" in favour of the "mass man," but for the practical purpose of instilling intellectual virtues by a thorough exploration of the history of Western ideas. The most important thing was to democratize the great books idea, and that meant maximizing accessibility to the great books for readers o varying intellectual backgrounds.

Source: Tim Lacy, "The Lovejovian roots of Adler's philosophy of history: authority, democracy, irony, and paradox in Britannica's Great Books of the Western World," Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 71, No. 1, Jan. 2010, pp. 113-137.

a coffee story

2010-12-24T12:09:00.008+08:00

Not everyone can afford a luxury car, luxury holiday or a luxury meal but everyone can afford a luxury coffee.

I practised running with a good friend yesterday and we talked about ground coffee. It all started a few weeks ago I decided to make ground coffee drinks instead of instant ones in the office.

I was gulping down a cup of freshly ground coffee to kick off the morning on Christmas Eve while I was to finish reading Sahar and Bobby Hashemi's Anyone can do it: building Coffee Republic from our kitchen table: 57 real-life laws on entrepreneurship (Oxford : Capstone, 2002), which I also shared with Joyce, who is in her fledging handmade jewellery business.

The sister and brother team who built Coffee Republic generously tells their intriguing story of leaving their most sought-after professions (lawyer and Ibanker) and swimming in the ocean of entrepreneurship, which is, Bobby says, the best business school in the real word, offers us thoughtful and instructive laws on entrepreneurship.

law 1 (above all): forget about the swashbuckling 'Richard Branson' type (you don't have to be a genius to be an entrepreneur)

law 2: entrepreneurship is not a personality trait (don't take it personal)

law 3: behaving like an entrepreneurship is a process anyone can learn (anyone can do it)

law 4: passion will activate your entrepreneurial qualities (24/7 jobs need real passion)

law 5: you don't need skills or expertise (all you need is to act)

law 6: anyone can do it - but does everyone want to? is entrepreneurship your sort of thing? (yes, anyone can do it)

law 7: warning: success is not all that easy to come by. the failure rate is 99% (let's face it)

law 8: so decide for yourself what to do. you have to make the decision and only you can do it (it's all on you)

law 9: you can't be a half-hearted entrepreneur (commitment!)

law 10: don't bother if you're just in it for the cash (don't chase after money. let money chase after you, their father said)

law 11: your idea doesn't need to be new, original or revolutionary (you have to be creative though)

law 12: remember that entrepreneurs are different from inventors (again, you don't have to be a genius to be a entrepreneur)

law 13: be your own first customer (buy yourself before selling to customers)

law 14: don't approach your idea with money in mind. money doesn't turn on your light bulb! (not the first thing at least)

law 15: make sure the business idea suits you (the business is an extension of you)

law 16: an idea not acted upon is worthless (act is the only action word here)

law 17: entrepreneurs do not procrastinate (act now!)

law 18: commitment is generated by working on your idea (again, act!)

law 19: market research is nothing more than a massive fact-finding mission (live it, sleep it, and breathe it)

law 20: follow the Zulu principle (anyone can become an expert about anything)

law 21: when it comes to market research, do it yourself (it's your business, not others')

law 22: inspiration is all around you (inspiration is as close to you as your iphone)

law 23: do not give the game away. be discreet (this is very important)

law 24: call as many people as you can bear to - there's safety in numbers (don't give up)

law 25: don't be selective. go to everything (possibility lies somewhere you never thought about)

law 26: become a regular of the competition (to learn from the competitors)

law 27: formal customer surveys are out! (it's worthwhile quoting what Henry Ford said: "If I had asked customers what they wanted they would have a faster horse.")

law 28: the 80:20 rule (be bold)

law 29: it's your recipe for success (that's is a business plan)

law 30: it's a structured brain dump, and brain dumps need structure (if you can't write it, you don't know it)

law 31: a business plan is your calling card. it gives you external credibility (much more than a name card)

law 32: raising money is the first critical sale you have to make (spend/raise before you earn)

law 33: strike a fine balance being conservative and ambitious (yin and yang)

law 34: write a plan you can beat (anyhow, write it)

law 35: 90% of start-ups are financed by the guts, creativity and faith of the founders (guts)

law 36: be prepared for rejection and disappointment (rejection is nothing to be ashamed of)

law 37: the success of your idea depends on the quality of your implementation (implementation is the key)

law 38: the quality of your implementation is what will set you apart from the competition (quality implementation)

law 39: you are still swimming against the tide (you'll need to grow a thick skin)

law 40: the resources won't be there so you have to fill the gap between what's out there and what you need (creativity counts)

law 41: credibility has to be earned. you have a 'liability of newness' (credibility doesn't grow on trees)

law 42: the devil is in the detail (there is no such thing as a minor detail)

law 43: the bootstrapping rule. 2+2=5 (doing and knowing come hand in hand)

law 44: you can do anything, no matter how monumental, if you break it down into the small, manageable chunks (piece by piece)

law 45: success happens when preparation meets opportunity (the twins of success)

law 46: there is a lot to be said for the naivety of entrepreneurs. the importance of being clueless (like swimming in the ocean)

law 47: don't expect customers to flock in. success is not an entitlement (good things take time)

law 48: it won't be easy at the beginning. you need stickability (never give up)

law 49: keep focused (don't be defeated by "I told you so")

law 50: it's a marathon not a sprint! look after yourself (it's meant to be tough)

law 51: there is no plateau - you either go up or down (evolves or die)

law 52: a warning - monitor your speed. growth can kill (lots of recent cases)

law 53: you will need to adapt and tweak your original concept (the need to change)

law 54: bootstrapping is not a long term strategy. time to upgrade your resources (be prepared to change)

law 55: go with smart money. angels bring in experience as well as money (investors might join at some point)

law 56: don't just accept the first cheque you are offered - bringing in an investor is like inviting someone to live in your home (be very discreet)

law 57: don't get too many small investors on board (be focused)

the key was: for better or worse, they acted. their best advice is: start working immediately

At some point or other, I was deeply touched by the monumental passages about how they managed to turn their ideas into a business, the moment they secured the first loan and the triumphing email, the first day of opening and excitement, the bottle neck of the first few months, the persistence test, the media coverage, and even their departure from the business...

It's more than a book of self-help business book; it's a book of brilliant and touching story of successful business.

Why are we not rational?

2010-12-23T17:11:00.007+08:00

Why would Harvard Business School MBA students pay as much as $204 for a $20 note?

The deeper the hole we dig themselves into, the more we continue to dig.

Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

If you think you know how you think, you'd better think again!

Alan M. Webber

This week I am enchanted by a thoughtful and compelling book on behavioural science: Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman's Sway : the irresistible pull of irrational behavior (New York : Doubleday, c2008).

The hidden currents and forces that lead us to make irrational decision include loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid possible losses; thus we overreact to perceived losses), value attribution (our inclination to imbue a person or thing with certain qualities based on initial perceived value; thus we undermine invaluable evidence and information), and the diagnosis bias (our blindness to all evidence that contradicts our initial assessment of a person or situation; thus we listen only to our ego self).

Hong Kong Man

2010-12-22T00:40:00.001+08:00

In his informative paper published during the start of negotiations between Great Britain and China on the future of Hong Kong in the early 1980s (Hugh D. R. Baker's "Life in the cities: the emergence of Hong Kong man," The China Quarterly, Vol. 95, Sep. 1983, pp. 469-479), Hugh D. R. Baker discusses several key areas of Hong Kong, such as housing, family size, education, health care, industry, and entertainment. "In a highly urbanized, industrialized, large-scale enterprise, skill-hungry economy it is not enough to be born into a particular family or language group. Hong Kong life is hectic and highly competitive and bears little resemblance to Trollope's 'horrible' but non-metropolitan description." (p. 471-2) More important, he describes the rise of Hong Kong Man, who are "go-getting and highly competitive, tough for survival, quick thinking and flexible. He wears western clothes, speaks English or expects his children to do so, drinks western alcohol, has sophisticated tastes in cars and household gadgetry, and expects life to provide a constant stream of excitement and new openings. But he is not British or western (merely westernized). At the same time he is not Chinese in the same way that the citizen of the PRC are Chinese...Admiration for the empathy with his compatriots Hong Kong Man certainly has, but he also now has pride in and love of the society which he has created through his own determination and hard work. He gives little credit to the Union Jack under which his success has been nurtured, and he is not necessarily happy at the prospect of the five-starred red flag presiding over his activities. Hong Kong Man is sui generis and the problems of the territory's future are more difficult to resolve because of it.

Next article to follow: James L. Watson's "Rural society: Hong Kong's New Territories" (The China Quarterly, Vol. 95, Sep. 1983, pp. 480-490). "Older residents of the villages I know best (San Tin and Ha Tsuen) were more familiar with Guangzhou and the larger market towns of Dongguan xian than they ever were with Kowloon or Victoria." (p. 482)

Recent readings XXI

2010-12-21T11:53:00.004+08:00

Jens-Uwe Guettel, "From the frontier to German South-West Africa: German colonailism, Indians, and American westward expansion," Modern Intellectual History, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2010, pp. 523-52. The United States was regarded as a "model empire" to German liberals. Guettel argues that positive perceptions of American westward expansion played a major role both for the domestic German debate about the necessity of overseas expansion and for concrete German colonial policies during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

大久保英哲 (Okubo Hideaki)：〈近代日本体育史における林正十郎「木馬之書」(推定1867年)の意義〉 (On the historical meaning of "Mokuba no Sho" [The Book of Wooden Horse] written by Hayashi Shojuro (presumption in 1867) for the history of physical education in modern Japan)，《体育学研究》 (Research of Physical Education)，卷38 (Vol. 38)，第3號 (No. 3)，1993，頁157-173。 Hayashi Shojuro (1824-1896) was formerly a professor of Reench at Kaiseisho, National Academic Institute. He translated the French Army's textbok on gymnastics instruction Ministère de la guere: Instruction pour l'enseignement de la gymnastique (1847) into Japanese as「木馬之書」(The Book of Wooden Horse), which is held at 金沢市立図書館.

Glenn Timmermans, "Sir George Thomas Staunton and the Translation of the Qing Legal Code,"Chinese Cross Currents, Vol. 2, No. 1, January-March 2005, pp. 26-57.

日下翠 (Kusaka Midori)：〈香港漫画考〉 (A study on "Hong Kong cartoons")，《比較社会文化：九州大学大学院比較社会文化学府紀要》(Bulletin of the Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University), 第10卷，2004，頁1-14。

日下翠 (Kusaka Midori)：〈中国「新漫画」事情〉 (Chinese "new cartoons" as a new cultural form)，《比較社会文化：九州大学大学院比較社会文化学府紀要》(Bulletin of the Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University), 第8卷，2002，頁17-26。

Richard C. Powell, "Geographies of science: Histories, localities, practices, futures," Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2007, pp. 309-29. Powell argues that different geographies of science are emerging considering a broad range of engagements with spatiality by historians, sociologists, anthropologists and posthmuanist practice theorists.

Mona Domosh, "The world was never flat: Early global encounters and the messiness of empire,"Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 34, No. 4, 2010, pp. 419-35. Singer Manufacturing Company's archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

Andrew Godley, "Selling the sewing machine around the world: Singer’s international marketing strategies, 1850–1920," Enterprise and Society, Vol. 7, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 266-314. absence of China market?

Diarmid A. Finnegan, "Natural history societies in late Victorian Scotland and the pursuit of local civic science," British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 38, Iss. 1 , pp 53 -72.

Falk Muller, "Johann WIlhelm Hittorf and the material culture of nineteenth-century gas discharge research," British Journal for the History of Science, article advance, 34pps. stimulating and interesting.

Chinese Pidgin English (CPE)

2010-12-20T12:47:00.006+08:00

A friend of mine, Si Jia, Associate Professor in the Department of History, Fudan University, recently published an article on Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries in the latest issue of Chinese Culture Quarterly (《九州學林》), published by the Chinese Civilisation Centre, City University of Hong Kong, in which I also contributed a review article on a recent work about British sinology (熊文華's 《英國漢學史》).

Her paper triggered me to look into the growing body of research on pidgin language and a scholarly journal in the genre: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, from which I read some interesting discussion on varying scope of pidgin and creole language relating to the Chinese language. They are:

Bao Zhiming and Khin Khin Aye, "Bazaar Malay topics," Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2010, pp. 155-71. It's a shame that I know nothing about Malay though my aunt and her family live, study and work in Malaysia.

Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews, and Geoff Smith, "China Coast Pidgin: Texts and contexts," Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2010, pp. 63-94.

Jeff Siegel, "Chinese Pidgin English in southeastern Australia: The notebook of Jong Ah Siug,"Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2009, pp. 306-37. A 80-page notebook written in a form of English by a Chinese gold miner, Jong Ah Siug (Zhongshan, 1837 - Melbourne, 1900), who arrived in Victoria around 1855. Ruth Moore and John Tully's A Difficult Case by Jong Ah Siug: An Autobiography of a Chinese Miner on the Central Victorian Goldfields (translated and annotated by the authors, with a historical introduction) (Daylesford, VIC: Jim Crow Press, 2000).

Ronald I. Kim, "California Chinese Pidgin English and its historical connections," Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2008, pp. 329-44. Sources: a collection of telegrams sent among Chinese immigrants to and from Downieville, Sierra County in 1874; legal testimony from the trial of The People of the State Califronia vs Ah Jake, Defendant on 23 October 1874;The Chinese Must Go: A Farce in Four Acts, a drama by Henry Grimm of San Francisco, published in 1879.

Roman Shapiro, "Chinese Pidgin Russian," Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2010, pp. 5-62. existed at the Chinese-Russian border since at least the 18th century. rare primary and secondary sources. It is shame that I don't read the Russian language.

Haggis again

2010-12-19T22:58:00.008+08:00

Elizabeth Buettner's 'Haggis in the Raj: Private and public celebrations of Scottish in Late Imperial India,' The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 81, No. 2, Oct. 2002, pp. 212-239.

Philip Constable's 'Scottish missionaries, "Protestant Hinduism" and the Scottish sense of empire in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century India,' The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 86, No. 2, Oct. 2007, pp. 278-313.

Robert Anderson's 'Ceremony in context: the Edinburgh University tercentenary, 1884," The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 87, No. 1, Apr. 2008, pp. 121-145.

James Huntley Grayson, "Basil Hall's Account of a Voyage of Discovery: The value of a British naval officer's account of travels in the seas of eastern Asia in 1816," Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2007, pp. 1-18. Basil Hall's, a Scot of the petty nobility (baronetage) of Scotland, eldest child Eliza Jane (1825?-1856?) was the mother of Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935).

Tamson Pietsch, "A British sea: making sense of global space in the late nineteenth century," Journal of Global History, Vol. 5, 2010, pp. 423-46. The paper offers detailed discussion of the journeys of James Thomas Wilson (1861-1945), a young Scottish medical student in Edinburgh who between 1884 and 1887 made three voyages to China and one to Australia, whose letters to his parents are held in the University of Sydney Archives. His biography could be found in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online here. In Hong Kong, in 1885, "Wilson was delighted by the Chinese New Year celebrations, marvelling at the rich and gorgeous clothes: 'But the colours! Brilliant & various they are'...In Shanghai, he procured a Chinese guide and 'paid a visit to the Chinese city - Shanghai proper'. (USA, JTWP, P162 6/1, 16 February 1885; 25 February 1885)

history of medicine

2010-12-18T17:33:00.002+08:00

Although I am a layman of history of medicine, I recently surfed a related journal, Social History of Medicine. Here are some articles interested me most.

Pierre-Yves Donzé, "Studies abroad by Japanese doctors: A prosopographic analysis of the nameless practitioners, 1862-1912," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2010, pp. 244-260. Between 1862 and 1912, no fewer than 763 Japanese doctors trained abroad in western universities. China context?

M. Cristina Zaccarini, "Modern medicine in twentieth-century Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian and Sichuan: Competition, negotiation and cooperation," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2010, pp. 338-355. China Christian Advocate, Chinese Medical Journal, and Chinese Recorder.

Mark Emmanuel, "Viewspapers: The Malay press of the 1930s," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2010, pp. 1-20. a revisionist contribution to the bourgeois public sphere in Colonial Malaya.

Ryan Johnson, "Colonial mission and imperial tropical medicine: Livingstone College, London, 1893-1914," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2010, pp. 549-66. The Scot physicians Patrick Manson (1844-1922) and James Cantlie (1851-1926) were among the earliest lecturers.

Willemjin Ruberg, "The letter as medicine: Studying health and illness in Dutch daily correspondence, 1770-1850," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2010, pp. 492-508. letter writing as social practice approach. It should be noted that new approaches often stereotyped their predecessors to emphasise their own innovative aspects. From the social history of medicine in the 1970s against a traditional medical history which concentrated on the celebrated of great doctors and their discoveries and instead studied patients as well as the daily practices of medicine to the rise of the cultural history of medicine, in the 1990s, with an increasing interest in the social construction of disease and the body, which focused on textual and discursive analysis and examined the making of meaning, studying language, power and the construction of medical categories. Ruberg also draws my attention to Frank Huisman and JohnHarley Warner (eds.)'s Locating Medical History: the stories and their meanings(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) and Willem de Blécourt and Cornelie Usborne (eds.),Cultural approaches to the history of medicine : mediating medicine in early modern and modern Europe (New York, N.Y. : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

how Confucian are YOU?

2010-12-17T11:58:00.001+08:00

From time to time, I am astounded by rumours about certain highly distinguished and widely known professors of Confucianism/Chinese philosophy jumped the queue at a bus stop in campus considering himself the first in a non-existent queue solely for professors or literally sneered at (via email) a perspective postgraduate student who was unable to study with him due to family responsibility.

They, of course, might be misunderstood or mistaken, or even in their highest esteem were teaching students invaluable lessons of life. Yet, this is life. They are still considered professors of Confucianism/Chinese philosophy.

After all, is it not possible to measure/categories/label Confucian actors, or strong/weak Confucians? A distinguished scholar and his team tell us why it is possible.

I strongly recommend interested (or disinterested; you will be inspired) researchers of humanities and social sciences (sciences and engineering too; interdisciplinary is a discipline) of Chinese (or non-Chinese; you will also be enlightened) decent living in Chinese (or non-Chinese; we are living in a multi-cultural world, ain't we?) societies should read the following scholarly article on contemporary Chinese and ask yourself a big question: how Confucian I am, by using the yardstick of the researchers suggest. Have a go. Confucius will be pleased.

Tak Sing Cheung, Hoi Man Chan, Kin Man Chan, Ambrose Y.C. King, Chi Yue Chiu, Chung Fang Yang, "How Confucian are contemporary Chinese? Construction of an ideal type and its application to three Chinese communities," European Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, Oct. 2006, pp. 157-80.

Given that normative and behavioural orientations derived from Confucianism may still guide Chinese behaviour as a consequence of processes of social reproduction across generations, they seeks to question to what extent and in what respects is Confucianism still relevant for understanding Chinese society, and endeavour to contemplate a methodical tool for the measurement of Confucianism; in other words, they attempt to construct the ideal type of Confucian actors and distinguish between formal and substantive values in Confucianism. The big question of the paper is to ask "How Confucian are contemporary Chinese?"

In searching relevant entry of this paper, I found, from the leading author's (Tak Sing Cheung) website, surprisingly (without any mention in the English paper) that he also wrote a similar Chinese paper on this topic in 2001 titled 當代華人有幾儒？儒人理念型的構造及大陸、港台三個地區的調查分析，in 《社會理論論叢》，第1輯，頁151-172。

Recent readings XX

2010-12-16T11:52:00.002+08:00

Daniel Cook, "Bodies of scholarship: witnessing the library in Late-Victorian Fiction," Victorian Literature and Culture, article advance, 2011, 19pps. the library nineteenth-century Chinese fiction.

Andrew M. Stauffer, "Digital scholarly resources for the study of Victorian literature and culture," Victorian Literature and Culture, article advance, 2011, 11pps. very useful.

Anthony Webster, "The development of British commercial and political networks in the Straits Settlements 1800-1868: The rise of a colonial and regional economic identity?" Modern Asian Studies, article advance, 2010, 31pps. Scottish merchants in the SS.

Sabine MacCormack, "Pausanias and his commentator Sir James George Frazer," Classical Reception Journal, Vol. 2, Iss. 2 (2010), pp. 287-313. Sir Frazer was born in Glasgow. It reminds me of the Chinese scholar Xu Dishan, who had applied Frazer's comparative and anthropological method to his studies on Chinese religion.

Jan van der Putten, "Negotiating the Great Depression: The rise of popular culture and consumerism in early-1930s Malaya," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2010, pp. 21-45. illustrated Malay commercials includes the Singapore-based Fraser and Neave Company.

Timothy P. Barnard, "Film Melayu: Nationalism, modernity and film in a pre-World War Two Malay magazine," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2010, pp. 47-70. The magazine was written and produced by Utusan Melayu Publications, Ltd., one of the strongest advocates of Malay nationalism in the late 1930s an early 1940s, in Singapore and printed at the Shaw Printing Works.

Terence Chong, "Manufacturing authenticity: The cultural production of national identities in Singapore," Modern Asian Studies, 2010, 21pps.

Stanislas Dehaene's Reading in the brain : the science and evolution of a human invention (New York : Viking, 2009). "The uniqueness of our species," Dehaene says "may arise from a combination of two factors: a theory of mind (the ability to imagine the mind of others) and a conscious global workspace (an internal buffer where an infinite variety of ideas can be recombined). (p. 9)

方法不對

2010-12-15T09:17:00.000+08:00

上星期讀到新牢騷集的推薦，我從教育學院圖書館（經館際互借）借來竹中平藏的《方法不對，學什麼都沒用》（台北：遠流，2009年，張鳳譯）。

除了牢騷先生摘錄竹中引佐貫利雄的說：「不管幾個笨蛋加在一起還是笨蛋！」（頁83）之外，我也拈出一些有意思的地方出來。

矩陣學習座標：有範圍而作為武器的學習：記憶的學習；有範圍而作為連結人與人的學習：興趣的學習；沒有範圍而作為工作的學習：記憶的學習；沒有範圍而作為連結人與人的學習：人性的學習。（頁32-4）十分有用的分類。

真正重要的情報畢竟還是掌握在人的手裡。（頁79）對極了！

畢竟，對文化或藝術而言，如果沒有贊助是無法發展的。對於新興事業也是一樣。（頁88-9）一般來說，有文化／知識的人總是不願多付點金錢扶助文化／藝術事業。

知識生活必須建立在健康之上……熬夜或睡眠不足絕對是知識生活的最大敵人（頁91）緊記！

日本其實是「考試經歷社會」，而不是「學歷社會」。日本企業重視的只是「你考上了哪裡」而已。（頁110）發人深省。

逛街就是要東張西望。（頁145）對極了！

大學生水評不斷下降嗎？京都大學經濟學教授吉田和男認為這樣說是不對的。他說：「這個社會已經進步到連笨蛋也可以上大學的豐衣足食年代，這應該是好事。」（頁157-8）下學期上課用。

風一吹，水桶店就賺錢？（頁164-5）大膽思考。

學習都是孤獨的。能夠解救這份孤獨感的，就是夥伴們的相互鼓勵。（頁185）吾道不孤。

點對點，線連線的思考習慣。知識或情報連結成線，而每一條線再相互交織成網，進而發展成立體空間。（頁186-8）極易也極難。

現在的年輕人都只看到我三十歲以後的經歷，那可是我在二十幾歲的時候，所擁有「雜務經驗」才可能做到的。（頁193）「能被利用於雜用」，就表示到哪兒都派得上用場，是一種實用性很高的技能。……只會做一件事的人，幾乎亮無例外的，都不敢承擔風險。（頁194）每個人都應該有的過去。

「和每個人都要成為好朋友」是孩童時期才必要的理論。（頁202）贊同！

學習是知識經濟時代的基本能力。（頁205）眼見不少同輩都已拒絕學習。

林奕華 V

2010-12-14T14:59:00.001+08:00

第五本是《娛樂大家：明星編》（2008）

香港明星不只給香港人提供「成功」的幻想，他們也是全球華人綺夢的對象。然而，不論這些圖騰帶來多少正面負面的影響，香港的明星效應到底是一個城市二十年的日月精華，一旦物換星移，當他們的光芒隨著老化的老化，青澀的青澀而無法將魅力順利交捧和換班；香港，作為華人夢工場的大招牌，恐怕也無可避免的要轉掛在另一個屋簷下。（頁2）

香港的新一代女明星女藝人，沒幾個不愛以「天真無邪」形象示人，造成她們被慾望的層面相對狹窄－－少了膽色，自然欠缺生命力。（頁3）

熟悉香港演唱會模式的觀眾都知道，「性感」元素雖然從來不缺，但尺度永遠是以衣服布料多寡來定；歌手本來應該散發的性感氣息－－也就誘惑觀眾對她產生慾望的力量－－卻常常借助可以穿得更少，肢體動作更大膽奔放的舞者來「代班」。原因是大部份香港人對「性感」總是愛彼為難：看是想看，但又害怕被指為咸濕，是以女歌手才要極力避免扮演引人犯罪的角色，只好把精神和肉體分家來順應觀眾的人格分裂－－露此露那跟她個人氣質無關，也就是露完一大輪之後，身上那件不過是肉色的緊身衣。（頁22）

我們的電影通常只反映一種文化、一種趣味，那就是「草根」。港產片的主旋律是黑社會片，黑社會不見得只是拍給黑道中人看，但觀眾買票入場，肯定有著對低下層的「男人們」內心種種對壓迫別人與被壓迫、反抗和妥協有強烈認同和興趣。（頁29）

都怪香港不是日本，女明星只能靠商品而不是個人作品的流行度來維持人氣，這種生存方式解釋了為甚麼了為甚麼我們的天空上越來越少女明星。（頁30）

香港是一個對「早熟」有著莫明熱衷的地方，尤其在娛樂卷。（頁45）

林奕華 IV

2010-12-13T16:29:00.001+08:00

第四本是《娛樂大家：電影編》（2008）

一個不要求自己，另一個不要求自己對別人要有要求，然後便切安好，沒事發生，直至這個同流關係在承受不了過多沒有人願意承擔的責任而破裂時，一切已經太遲了。（頁40）

「想像」自己對物質要求很少、生活態度簡單、做人單純沒機心，又因為自認是滄海一粟，對別人自然沒有威脅等等。這些想像，無一不是現實中香港人的相反：貪小便宜、喜歡不勞而獲、恐懼自己與別人不同，更恐懼別人比自己優勝，因而不惜採取集體排斥、打壓創意等等手段的精神面貌。（頁42）

香港影人最擅長的，是以「搵食艱難」作為「主題」，製造大量你死我亡互相逼害。（頁55）香港電影一直宣洩的焦慮，其實是來自對金錢、地位和身份求之不得的恐懼。（頁56）暴力，乃香港電影的金鎖匙。有時我想，把港產片裏的動作鏡頭剪在一起，可會佔去香港電影全部膠片的三份二？（頁57）

一切以「搵食」（為兩餐）為出發點的愚昧或迷失都是不應被苛責的，因為那便是「平凡人」的人生。當整個社會都是趨向「不要跟別人不同時」，「不平凡」使是要與大眾為敵。在香港生活的人不難隨時聽到以下的幾句話：......「凡事都沒有絕對，一切不過是觀點角度問題，見仁見智罷了。」它們的受歡迎程度，反映出香港人的集體信念便是沒有信念。（頁72）既不想活得平凡，但又只想（能）當個平凡人是香港人的終極矛盾，因為香港人既既想享受不平凡所帶來的好處，但又不希望承擔不平凡者要承受的責任。（頁74）

林奕華 III

2010-12-12T16:40:00.003+08:00

第三本是《等待香港：女人篇》。

書如其名，這本書就像一個成熟的女人。手上從圖書館借來的《女人篇》，莫名其妙地有一陣陣香水的餘韻。

想起小時候，有買拍紙簿的嗜好（不是習慣）。買的不是一般單調沉悶，只有線和格的拍紙簿，而是色彩斑爛，設計獨特，有時有點誇張，在上邊寫字卻連字都被頁上的色彩和線條淹去的拍紙簿。可以是史樂比，也可以是沒有公仔的。

第一次開卷，那股突如其來的襲擊，仍然在記憶之中。每次開卷，都好像走近一個噴滿香水的成熟女人，芬香撲鼻，再加上書中圍繞著一個又一個女性，無疑會引人遐想。每次掩卷，女人身上的香氣沾滿雙手，令我難以忘懷之餘，又不忍把留在雙手上久久不散的餘韻洗去，著實有點可惜又可恨。

說是書中自有顏如玉，未免有老土之嫌。每次翻頁之際，一剎那間香氣四溢。回過神來，香氣又回歸到書頁之上。

「香港女性對待自己的形象和吸引力，有可能將經歷史無前例的轉變：由以往急趨步向成熟，改為刻意將小女孩階段無限期的延長。這種趨勢其實與一發不可收拾的瘦身風氣配合無間......她們追求的不是智慧的累積，而是深受社會推崇的『無知』。」（〈少女是無知旳好？〉，2002年11月，頁13）

「大多數的『香港女人』均願意相信『身體就是本錢』......最重要的，還是『財不可露眼』。......香港女人不習慣被人『看』，說穿了，是不喜歡成為別人想入非非的對象。於是，『眼啒啒』與『嘴藐藐』的女人走在街上比比皆是，也矚目驚心！......香港女性太uptight了。......『香港女人』的前途......想結婚，想生孩子，想拍拖......問題的源頭會不會是『香港女人』的類型在過去十年已變得越來越少？而最主流的一種，剛巧又是男人們避之則吉的『婆仔』？......她們並不知道怎樣去celebrate自己的sexuality.....『香港女人』的前途其實也有點像現在的香港：明明處於不太有利的境況，卻不懂得與時並進，反而繼續『幸福』不是來自個人的努力進取，而是由於她是不折不扣的『小女人』！真的要衝出困局另覓新天，我認為『香港女人』必須摒棄『幸福』與『小女人』之間的等號。」（"Re-inventing Hong Kong Women", 2003年3月，頁19-20）

「『女人』根本就想每日看上去都是簇新的，且不管這渴望是否會教她們看來像不斷被重新包裝上的貨品。」（"I Shop, Therefore I am", 2003年4月，頁23）

「香港女性之中，還是喜歡cutie的多一點。」（〈妳為什麼喜歡去東京？〉，2003年8月，頁33）

「在我們的社會裏，『看不起模特兒』是被很多女性認為理所當然的－－她們全都是『出嚟行』，出賣的也只是那個『殼』，根本無血無肉，遑論靈魂。......近似同仇敵概的『看不起』其實不過是出於防衞心理。一來是恨自己欠缺與她們爭長短的條佚，二來是妒忌她們光靠炫耀外表便能享受到各式特權；至於第三，則是擔憂這些模特兒們，在不知不覺間，已在男士的心裏播下了『標準「美女」』的種子，變相地道的香港女孩：覺得自己不夠完美。」（〈出嚟行的女人〉，2003年9月，頁35-6）

「這個城市一日復一日地意圖以購買外國名牌來清洗身上的鄉氣與寒酸氣，然而效果每弄巧反拙－－都怪社會上有權力的決策人大多是『平民』出身，又或當有了權力之後，他們的慾望還是太『平民化』了？」（〈美齡與愛玲），2003年10月，頁48）

「年齡身份模糊化的普及文化潮流，正改寫香港人對『女孩』的定義。......眼下這股女孩子不願長大的潮流，可會是香港女性既想成為慾望對象（因此受人注、喜愛），但又不要與性扯上直接關係（害怕承擔長大的責任）的體現？」（〈為什麼女人不願意長大），2004年3月，頁58-9）

「女人所以得不到幸福，理由是『這世界還有其他女人』，所謂『其他』，更多時候，原來是她不滿意的另一個自己。」（〈瓊瑤〉，1999年7月31日，頁67）

「終身致力向上爬的香港人，誰都可以轉瞬變身，身份升級不難......可會身是中產，心卻依然草根？」（〈依然草根〉，2000年3月24日，頁86）

「在我眼中，黃碧雲是很沒趣的寫作人，因為她缺少想像力，沒有幽默感。是的，我認為她沒有才華。連英文裏的considerable talent，我都認為沒有。......我認為黃能有今天的地位，是她完全切合一般文學愛好者對『文學（家）』所抱存的幻想（對我來說，是定見）－－寫作使作者的痛苦受到正視......『受苦』，一直是黃的『主題』（抑或『風格』）......黃的文字，如果是苦澀，是苦瓜的皮，並未苦到肉和核心。」（〈皺眉女子〉，2000年8月18日，頁139）

「要在香港討論『何謂「平庸」』......會惹人白眼的。......很多人不是不想受到注意（例如被羨慕），而是希望它可以得來容易一點、現成一點，毋須千山萬水，汗流浹背。......學歷就是知識就是財富就是社會地位就是權力－－當這方程式漸變成社會上近乎唯一的一條食物鏈時，我認為集體的平庸便順利誕生。」（〈一種宿命〉，2000年8月22日，頁142）

林奕華 II

2010-12-11T00:17:00.003+08:00

第二本是《等待香港：娛樂篇》。

林奕華引述荃灣某中學副校長在接受有線娛樂新聞台時，解釋為何全校要在周會『悼念』梅艷芳：「佢有創意囉！形象百變吖嘛，百變即係創意囉！」林奕華認為香港人的感情有兩個特點：一是香港人的感情是浮誇的、膚淺的、虛假的、abusive的、容易受人影響的；二是香港人的感情（sentiments）是由香港娛樂圈塑造出來的。(〈是這樣的嗎？〉（2004年1月），頁18-19)

「香港年青人對於濱藝人物的認識和接受程度，其實主要還是靠『匙羹飼養』（spoon-feed）而不是自動自覺地吸收。或，事情可以反過來看，『匙羹效應』不只存在於大眾與演藝圈之間，它根本就是香港人的成長模式，近年甚至出現愈是年輕的香港人愈是缺乏個性的普遍現象。......要在香港取得『大眾』的認同以至歡心，我認為有一點非常重要：這個人的出身最好是中下階層，即『草根』。......你甚少會在港產片以至電視劇中看見『中產階級』的生活狀況－－但是，你卻可以說它是個不折不扣的反映：這社會其實沒有『中產階層』。表面上有著中產收入的香港人，當中許多的價值觀念仍然是由草根的心態來操控。」（〈成為張艾嘉〉（2004年3月），頁51-52）

「健康的性感」其實是說「性感得來很乏味」，因為性感應該帶有一點沉溺，一點神秘。（〈雕塑未完成－－吳彥祖為什麼性感〉（2003年9月），頁73）

林奕華引用湯禎兆的〈Twins撒嬌求免責〉：「我們都慣了有楊千嬅之流砍手對歌藝一貫馬虎看待，每次早已慣了以『駛唔駛咁認真』（用不用得著這麼認真）來故混過關」（〈劉德華是下屆香港特首，為什麼不？〉（2003年6月），頁77-78）讀著這遍文章的時候，碰巧電視正放映著《國產凌凌漆》，袁詠儀對著身負槍傷的周星馳，也用上看同一樣的說話。又，林在結尾氣道：「追求『與別人沒有不同』（香港做普通人！）已成為香港年輕一族的普遍理想。」（頁79）

「香港文化的一大特色，乃眾所周知的一窩蜂。......香港的演員只會演自己，而不懂得演角色。......港產片『多見明星，少見演員』」（〈明星後遺症〉（2005年5月），頁84）

林氏認為「本地電視文化對香港人素質下降的問題大有『貢獻』」，所以「我們便有理由要求每個人正視自己與TVB的過去、現在與未來。」它「的確就是助長香港人以被動來面對無力感的一台巨型機器。......骨子裏卻是香港人最樂意跟隨的模階。......我們的手腳早已不受控制，因為我們的思想叫TVB。......香港人在眼界和胸襟上的狹窄，無疑是受到『腦袋』－－TVB的壓縮所影響。......過去二十多年無綫為香港製造了整整兩代的愚民（滿足於低層次精神生活的一些人）」（〈我和無綫電視的恩恩怨怨（第一章）〉（2003年10月），頁93-95；第二章在2004年4月，頁96-98）

林氏指電視劇是人民質素的當下反映。在面對電視劇每況愈下，日趨平庸，印證了他一直重覆「我們是活在『崇尚平庸』的時代裏」；「香港人對『人生』的概念，一直都是從電視劇得來的。」「在無綫戲劇組負責人的眼中，邊看邊鬧與愈鬧愈看正正就是無綫劇集與香港觀眾再也正常不過的『受虐與施虐關係』」。林奕華再引用一位大學講師一番義正詞嚴的說話：「搵食很重要啊！我唔食我隻狗都要食！」林批評他「完全忘記了自己是一名菁英－－我說的菁英，不是『身份』，而是『角色』－－也即是在領了學位，拿了高薪之後必須對社會履行責任的人。但是，在我接觸過的好些大學生和講師之中，不乏不肯承認，甚至刻意否定自己是『菁英』的人－－......一旦領受了這名銜，許多責任將排山倒海而至，不是說推便推得了的－－例如......『犧牲小我，完成大學』。」（〈沒有帝女那有花〉（2003年5月），頁99-103）

「由社會對傳媒你抄我抄的無限容忍可見，香港人從不覺得抄襲貓有何不妥。」「我一直懷疑無綫編劇人人都有一本手冊，裏面註明那些場合該有那些對白和行為。」「一個很『香港人』的信念：為了逃避壓力，必須先將責任架空，由對事情（還是自己？）沒有要求開始。」（〈隔世救不了未來》（2004年7月），頁110）

林奕華 I

2010-12-10T17:30:00.005+08:00

早陣子不斷在看林奕華的書，看了不下五本。他的觀點有些與別不同的地方，算是有創見，也有偏見和定型的時候。不過，總括來說，還是很有摘錄的價值。

第一本是《等待香港：青春篇》。

〈我看創意教育〉（2005年2月）「香港的新一代若凡事繼續只看功利和短期收益，多與少一門有關『藝術』的學科，對改變香港的前景，恐怕幫助不大。」（頁10）

〈等待香港〉「香港年青人都是不喜歡在公開場合表達意見的。」（頁11）

「『每個人都有自己的煩惱，沒必要再加添煩惱』，除了是他個人的『信念』，也得到另一些同學的支持，其中一位很有信心的說：『當社會上大多數人都是這樣想，我不明白為何它還會是一個『問題』（problem）？如果我不把它當作『問題』（question）來思考，那又有何不妥？』」（頁13）

「同學們喜歡用『平凡』來界定自己－－例如，『我覺得一個平凡人比較適合我，這是我的選擇，有甚麼不妥？』－－但它既可能不是一種選擇（包括形容自己『平凡』的人，會因受到『不平凡』的人的威脅而及早扼殺他們的生存空間），也可能與平凡無關，不過是被人們利用它來掩飾自己的平庸。平凡和平庸的差別，在於前者是生活的取向，後者卻可以被統治者藉著經濟、政治手段來達致對人們的思想控制。其目的是讓人們滿足於低層次的生活權利，因而失去對自己的要求，於是整個社會變成千人一面，不獨會自動減少異類的聲音，就是有人『與別不同』，也不用勞煩統治者和他的管理班子把他攆出去－－羣眾自會互相監察，再把少數不一樣的人排擠、消滅。」（頁15）

〈大學生的八卦與功利〉（寫於2003年9月22日）。八卦：對娛樂新聞的興趣與師奶愈拉愈近。「今天某藝人被捧上神枱，大家其實已在等著看他下地獄。」（頁17）功利：只願意對一件事情付出心力。林奕華問「為什麼他們〔大學生〕會有那許多事情不知道，未曾聽過，甚至不想知道，連聽也不想？為什麼有那麼多的大學生會以對很多事情『不感興趣』為榮？（頁18）

又與大學生有關。「大多數二十上下的人們，是如何守口如瓶，惜『發問』如金，連帶你向他們提出，『問題』都避之則吉。」「有一次我對某個妥協的建議表示不敢苟同，差一年才大學畢業的某君連隨板起面孔教訓我：『那麼，你就是扼殺自己的市場！」（〈個別〉，1999年12月17日，頁106）翌日寫成一篇〈市場〉。「〔一位大學生說〕：『此乃市場定律，你若與它背道而馳，便被淘汰。』」「社會已成功地教曉年青人『接受現實』（及有義務強迫別人也一樣）。」（頁107）

林奕華經常接觸年輕人。他們認為「『個人』才是世界的中心，所以有很多在表面上是幫助或鼓勵他們學習公民責任的機會，都會變成向上爬的梯階。他們亦會因此而一日比一日的功利起來‧‧‧‧‧‧譬如『學習』，也會先談條件：『學咗對我有咩好處先？』」（〈好的學生〉，2001年5月22日，頁154）又是第二日，寫成〈有咩好處先？〉。學習是投資，可帶來立竿見影的成效。他歸咎於我們的某些共通性格－－「自私、功利、短視，懶惰、反智、反思考－－典型的『香港人』。」學習的目標是成功，卻忘卻了學習應該包括失敗，失敗又變相鼓勵我們摸索的作用。「大家只會希望盡快『出廠』－－完成被賦予能力的工序，正式成為有價的商（產）品。」（頁155）

French Colonial History

2010-12-09T22:09:00.009+08:00

Glanced a few articles in French Colonial History.

First of all, it is Takao Abe's "What determined the content of missionary reports? The Jesuit Relations compared with the Iberian Jesuit accounts," French Colonial History, Vol. 3, 2003, pp. 69-83. The former refers to the mission in Canada in the first half of the seventeenth century, the latter in Japan in the second half of the sixteenth/early seventeen centuries. Abe argues, by comparing them, that one cannot entirely count on the published official reports to reveal each priest's profound personality and ideas, especially about non-Christian people; and however personal the written observations may appear to be, the thematic and interpretive descriptions were influenced more by the interests of the Jesuit mission as a religious order than by personal initiatives.

Secondly, Christina E. Firpo's "Lost boys: 'abandoned' Eurasian children and the management of the racial topography in colonial Indochina, 1938-1945," French Colonial History, Vol. 8, 2007, pp. 203-221. The French colonial government's "use" of abandoned Eurasians to augment the colony's white presence amounted to social engineering for the purpose of managing the racial order, and they, who were recognized as social pariahs in the 1930s but later considered French, were used to bolster white authority and domination.

The third one is Ronald S. Love's "'A Passage to China': A French Jesuits perceptions of Siberia in the 1680s," French Colonial History, Vol. 3, 2003, pp. 85-100. Père Philippe Avril (1654-1698)'s, who departed in 1684 on an expedition to find an eastward passage to China but was rejected by the Qing authority to traverse Chinese inland and thus returned six years later to Europe not having found a path to the East, Voyage en divers états d'Europe & d'Asie, entrepris pour découvrir un nouveau chemin à la Chine (Paris: Claude Barbin, Jean Boudot, and George et Louis Josse, 1692), which was translated into English in 1693 titled Travels into divers parts of Europe and Asia, Undertaken by the French King's Order to discover a new way by land into China (London: T. Goodwin, 1693). Having met Père Philippe Couplet (1623-1693) at Paris in 1684, Avril might have met the widely-known Chinese convert Michael Shen Fu-Tsung (Miguel Shen Fuzong), who was brought with him to France in 1684 and later became a Jesuit.

Next one is Frédéric Roustan's "Français, Japonais et Société Coloniale du Tonkin: Exemple de Représentations Coloniales," French Colonial History, Vol. 6, 2005, pp. 179-204. Nice postcards. Japanese residents in Indochine were 192 in 1912, 161 in 1915, 316 in 1925, 234 in 1938 while in Hong Kong were 881 in 1909, 1149 in 1912, 1555 in 1915, 1649 in 1925.

Last but not least, it is Matthew G. Stanard's "Selling the Empire between the Wars: Colonial Expositions in Belgium, 1920-1940," French Colonial History, Vol. 6, 2005, pp. 159-178. To popularize the Belgian Congo.

history of science and seriality

2010-12-08T21:49:00.008+08:00

Nearly finished the special issue of the History of Science of the latest titled "Seriality and scientific objects in the nineteenth century".

Nick Hopwood, Simon Schaffer and Jim Secord, "Seriality and scientific objects in the nineteenth century," History of Science, Vol. 48 Pt. 3/4, No. 161, Sep./Dec. 2010, pp. 251-285.

Volker Hess and J. Andrew Mendelsohn, "Case and Series: Medical Knowledge and Paper Technology, 1600–1900," pp. 287–314

Nathan Schlanger, "Series in Progress: Antiquities of Nature, Numismatics and Stone Implements in the Emergence of Prehistoric Archaeology," pp. 343-369.

Chitra Ramalingam, "Natural History in the Dark: Seriality and the Electric Discharge in Victorian Physics," pp. 371-398.

Alex Csiszar, "Seriality and the Search for Order: Scientific Print and its Problems During the Late Nineteenth Century," pp. 399–434.

Marianne Sommer, "Seriality in the Making: The Osborn-Knight Restorations of Evolutionary History," pp. 461–482.

why I love Edinburgh, sometimes?

2010-12-07T00:01:00.008+08:00

Two papers made me to.

Robert W. Rix's "Oriental Odin: Tracing the east in northern culture and literature," History of European Ideas, Vol. 36, Issue 1, Mar. 2010, pp. 47-60. Thomas Percy (1729-1811). It draws me to The Percy Letters (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944-88), which are not available locally but in Edinburgh (hooray! will meet them soon in the coming summer), and James Watt's "Thomas Percy, China, and the Gothic," The Eighteen Century, Vol. 48, No. 2, 2007, pp. 95-109.

Ruth Scurr's "Inequality and political stability from Ancien Régime to revolution: The reception of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments in France," History of European Ideas, Vol. 35, Issue 4, Dec. 2009, pp. 47-60. Another paper leads me to some further readings; they are Kenneth E. Carpenter's The dissemination of The wealth of nations in French and in France, 1776-1843 (New York : Bibliographical Society of America, 2002), which is, again, not available in HK but in the NLS.

Additional reading: Brian Dolan's "Second opinions: history, medical humanities and medical education," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 393-405.

Japanese spirit, or Yamato damashii

2010-12-06T22:31:00.005+08:00

Today's list: Richard Reitan's "Völkerpsychologie and the appropriation of “spirit” in Meiji Japan"(Modern Intellectual History, Vol. 7, issue 3, Sep 2010, pp. 495-522), which resonates with the conception of Yamato damashii 大和魂, drew me to reconsider the Japanese translation strategies toward European texts in favour of their articulation of the Japanese ethos in relation to Chinese context and led me to rethink the publishing sphere of the late-nineteenth-century Japan particularly in Tokyo.

Reitan's article also brought me to two important works: Nitobe Inazo (ed.), Western Influences in Modern Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931) [HK none], and the French social psychologist Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931)'s The Psychology of Peoples (Les Lois psychologiques de l'évolution des peuples, 1894), which divided humanity into four groups: the primitive, inferior, intermediate, and superior races, the Japanese and the Chinese being in the intermediate category, was translated three times into Japanese: Rubon shi minzoku shinrigaku, trans. Tsukahara Msaji (Tokyo: Ikuseikai, 1900); Kokumin shinrigaku, trans. Kokmin kyoiku gakkai (Tokyo: Kinshodo, 1900); and Minzoku hatten no shinri, trans. Maeda Chota (民族発展の心理. Tokyo: Dai Nihon bunmei kyokai, 1910). It is intriguing to note that, as Reitan told us, Chota's translation edited out all references to Japan.

社會科學通識叢書

2010-12-06T17:17:00.015+08:00

由香港中文大學社會科學院籌劃，馬傑偉及吳俊雄主編，香港中文大學香港亞太研究所及香港教育圖書出版，一套八冊的《社會科學通識叢書》。力求與時並進的通識系列。

葉蔭聰：《為當下懷舊：文化保育的前世今生》（香港：香港中文大學香港亞太研究所，2010）。批判論述

陳智傑編著：《開拓通識：知識份子的香港路》（香港：香港中文大學香港亞太研究所，2010）。

許寶強：《限富扶貧：富裕中的貧乏》（香港：香港中文大學香港亞太研究所，2010）。批判論述

馬嶽：《香港政治發展歷程與核心課題》（香港：香港中文大學香港亞太研究所，2010）。民主派論述取向

梁麗娟：《媒介之都：縱論大眾傳播與社會》（香港：香港教育圖書公司，2010）。複述主流菁英的偏頗，又有反中亂港之嫌。談美女經濟：「背後支撐的是一套違反自然定律及傳統價值標準的審美觀，目的是要男男女女追逐一種非自然及不可能單憑個人能力可達到的標準」（頁5）二元分野：沿襲一直以來文人〔或稱菁英操控〕和商人辦報對立的陳腐論述（頁34-5）；完全市場導向和傳統編輯導向新聞的對立。（頁42-4）誤導性問題：「為何香港不像外國一樣有足夠的質報讀者？」何若總要以只有區區七百萬人的香港與外國比高低？（頁48）自相矛盾：「只要有高要求的用戶、高質素的媒介製造者，才能催生高質素的傳媒。」與由菁英操空及市場導向何異？知識判偽，我非專業，談何容易？感性抵抗廣告，媒體收入何來？道德抵制，輿論根本被媒體操控，如何抵制？美學欣賞，何以強要平民成菁英？何不揭櫫媒體監察和撻伐媒體？大眾傳媒，本是互相競爭。大眾媒體，本是大眾消閒娛樂，偶有論評，不過而已。

馬傑偉、曾仲堅：《影視香港：身份認同的時代變奏》（香港：香港教育圖書公司，2010）。

陳效能：《性通識：本性權利與道德爭識》（香港：香港教育圖書公司，2010）。

吳俊雄、張志偉、曾仲堅編：《普普香港：閱讀普及文化2000-2009》（香港：香港教育圖書公司，2010）。

spatial turn

2010-12-05T18:03:00.007+08:00

'Spatial turn', the idea of place and space, of place as social practice and of placing as a process in accounting for the uneven movement of ideas over space and time may help provide some precision and strengthen connections between geography and history. (Withers, p. 638-9) I have been recently intrigued by two related articles:

Robert J. Mayhew, "Geography as the eye of Enlightenment historiography," Modern Intellectual History, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2010, pp. 611-27.

Charles W. J. Withers, "Place and the 'Spatial Turn' in Geography and in History," Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 70, No. 4, October 2009, pp. 637-658.

And drawn to the following references, some of which might look too hard for me:

Diarmid Finnegan, ‘‘The Spatial Turn: Geographical Approaches in the History of Science,’’ Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 41 (2007): 369–88;

Tim Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).

John Agnew, Place and Politics (Boston: Allen and Unwin, 1987).

John Agnew and James Duncan, eds., The Power of Place (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990).

Nicholas Entrikin, The Betweenness of Place: Towards a Geography of Modernity (London: Macmillan, 1991).

Lynn Staeheli, ‘‘Place,’’ in A Companion to Political Geography, ed. John Agnew, Kathrynne Mitchell and Gerard Toal (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 158–70.

Edward S. Casey, The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997),

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).

Lewis Holloway and Phil Hubbard, People and Place: The Extraordinary Geographies of Everyday Life (Harlow: Pearson, 2001 and, as part of a series concerned with ‘‘Re-Materialising Cultural Geography,’’ Tom Mels, ed., Reanimating Places: A Geography of Rhythms (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).

J. E. Malpas, Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

J. E. Malpas, Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006).

Robert Sack, Place, Consumption and Modernity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).

Robert Sack, Homo Geographicus (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).

Marc Augé, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (London:

Verso, 1995).

sociology frenzy II

2010-12-04T00:36:00.003+08:00

Race frenzy

Becky Francis and Louise Archer, "Negotiating the dichotomy of boffin and triad: British-Chinese pupils' constructions of 'laddism'," The Sociological Review, Vol. 53, No. 3, Aug 2005, pp. 495-521. a thought-provoking article about race, gender, and discourse.

ill-conceived stereotypes of the Chinese as collectivist, conformist, entrepreneurial, deferent, and conforming to Confucian values, and the Chinese pupils as uniformly ‘good pupils’.

"the discourses of ‘the good Chinese pupil’ and ‘Chinese value of education’ were frequently drawn on by pupil respondents [80 British-Chinese pupils, 48 girls and 32 boys from Years 10 and 11, i.e. 14-16 years old], with the result that the pupils often presented British-Chinese manifestations of ‘laddism’ as unnatural as 'infected' by 'others' and mild versions in comparison with pernicious ‘others’ [British]"

Given their "finding that teachers tend to stereotype British-Chinese boys as non-laddish, obedient, 'good pupils', Francis and Archer found that "a majority of teachers presented a dichotomous view of British-Chinese, being that the vast majority are seen as diligent and obedient, and as not expressing 'laddish' behaviours," which resonates with traditional, if not imagined, stereotypes of the Chinese in general, "except in a small minority of cases where 'bad' Chinese boys (often 'infected' by Anglo and African-Caribbean working-class boys) are frequently associated with Triadism."

Teachers tends to position British-Chinese as good pupils, but not ideal pupils, which derives from the dominant construction of the ideal pupils as active, questioning, challenging, and 'naturally brilliant'; traits which are ascribed as masculine and as white and middle-class. British-Chinese pupils, in a way, are positioned as feminised.

Francis and Archer found that "both teachers and some British-Chinese pupils saw 'laddish' British-Chinese boys as having been 'contaminated' by (working-class) white and black boys". "[S]ome teachers", Francis and Archer observed, "appeared to apply an orientalist view of the Chinese as a homogeneous mass uniformly conforming to industrious Eastern values and tyrannous family expectations".

If time allows, I would pick some of the references cited in the article below.

Ang, M. (2001) On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West, New York: Routledge.

Archer, L., (2002), 'It's easier that you're a girl and that you're Asian: interactions of 'race' and gender between researchers and participants' Feminist Review, 72: 108-132.

Archer, L. & Francis, B., (2005) ‘‘The never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: Teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 26, No. 2, Apr. 2005, pp. 165-182.

Chau, R. & Yu, S., (2001), ‘Social Exclusion of Chinese People in Britain’, Critical Social Policy, 21 (1): 103-125.

Francis, B. & Archer, L. (2005a) British-Chinese Pupils’ and Parents’ Constructions of the Value of Education, British Educational Research Journal, 31 (1) 89-107.

Song, M., (1997), ‘‘You’re Becoming More and More English’: investigating Chinese siblings’ cultural identities’, New Community, 23 (3): 343-362.

sociology frenzy

2010-12-02T15:41:00.011+08:00

Japan's hikikomori and Manchester's gay village

The Japanese education system is single track, rigidly organised and highly pressured. There are few second chances or alternative routes. In many western societies, however, there are frequently second chances and alternative routes. A process of drift is socially acceptable and can occur without long-term damage, whereas in Japan it is a process that is often viewed with suspicion. (Andy Furlong, "The Japanese hikikomori phenomenon: acute social withdrawal among young people," The Sociological Review, Vol. 56, Issue 2, May 2008, pp. 309–325.)

To be cosmopolitan is to be educated or sophisticated; to be a cosmopolitan one has to have access to a particular form of knowledge, able to appropriate and know the other and generate authority from this knowing; thus cosmopolitanism is conceived as a particular attitude towards difference. (Jon Binnie and Beverley Skeggs, "Cosmopolitan knowledge and the production and consumption of sexualized space: Manchester's gay village," The Sociological Review, Vol. 52, Issue 1, February 2004, pp. 39–61.)

Elite frenzy

John Scott, "Modes of power and the re-conceptualization of elites," The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1: Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp. 27-43.

Michael Moran, "Representing the corporate elite in Britain: capitalist solidarity and capitalist legitimacy," The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1: Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp. 54-79.

Paul du Gay, "Keyser Süze elites: market populism and the politics of institutional change," The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1: Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp.80–102. the rise of market populism, elite of anti-elitists, elitist denial, and irresponsibility.

Charles Harvey and Mairi Maclean, "Capital theory and the dynamics of elite business networks in Britain and France," The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1:Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp. 105-120. interesting.

Dave Griffiths, Andrew Miles and Mike Savage, "The end of the English cultural elite?" The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1: Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp. 189-209.

Alan Warde and Tony Bennett, "A culture in common: the cultural consumption of the UK managerial elite," The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1: Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp. 240-259.

Shinobu Majima and Alan Warde, "Elite consumption in Britain, 1961-2004: results of a preliminary investigation," The Sociological Review, Volume 56, Issue Supplement s1: Remembering Elites, May 2008, pp. 210-239.

What makes capitalism work?

2010-12-01T16:50:00.003+08:00

Jagdish Bhagwati's "What makes capitalism work?" in Michael Kinsley with Conor Clarke,Creative capitalism : a conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other economic leaders (New York : Simon & Schuster, 2008; Chinese translation: 《從貪婪到慈悲：啟動金字塔底層的商機》，李芳齡譯，台北：天下雜誌，2009), pp. 190-2.)

Capitalism flourishes when one of the following five conditions exist:

1. the poor do not envy or resent the rich because they believe in the myth that the too can get rich;

2. even if the poor do not buy into the upward mobility myth, if the rich do not flaunt their wealth by practicing an ostentatious style of living;

3. the poor feel that the riches are deserved or legitimate;

4. wealth is not used for instrusion into politics;

5. last but not least, the rich spend their money not on themselves but on social projects.

Recent readings XIX

2010-11-30T21:06:00.011+08:00

陳政成，姚偉雄編：《通識．消費：大學生的文化考察個案》（香港：光出版社，2008）。大學生功課。

許寶強編：《重寫我城的歷史故事》（香港：牛津大學出版社，2010）。深入淺出。

劉若英：《我想跟你走》（台北：大田，2006）。感情豐富，文字優雅嫺熟。

公共專業聯盟：《機會之都？！：香港中產萎縮研究報告》（香港：公共專業聯盟，2008）。問題徵結：僧多粥少。

游博清、黃一農：〈天朝與遠人－－小斯當東與中英關係（1793-1840）〉，《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》，第69期，2010年9月，頁1-40。搜尋游博清：〈英人小斯當東與鴉片戰爭前的中英關係〉，收入周振鶴編：《跨越空間的文化：16-19世紀中西文化的相遇與調適》（上海：東方出版中心，2010）；吳曉鈞：〈阿美士德使節團探析：以天朝觀的實踐為中心〉（國立清華大學歷史研究所碩士論文，2008）；常修銘：〈馬戛爾尼使節團的科學任務：以禮品展示與科學調查為中心〉（國立清華大學歷史研究所碩士論文，2006）；劉熾楷：〈第一次改革後之英國國會與1839-1842年中英戰爭的關係〉（香港珠海大學中國歷史研究所博士論文，1991）；Lydia Luella Spivey, "Sir George Thomas Staunton: Agent for the British East India Company in China, 1798-1817" (M.A. thesis, Duke University, Durham, 1968); Zhang Shunhong （張順洪）, "British Views on China: During the Times of the Embassies of Lord Macartney and Lord Amherst, 1790-1820" (Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1990); Tsao Ting Man, 'Representing China to the British Public in the Age of Free Trade, c. 1833-1844' (Ph.D. thesis, State University of Hong Kong, Albany, 2000); Glenn Henry Timmermans, 'Sir George Thomas Staunton and the Translation of the Qing Legal Code,' Chinese Cross Currents, Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2005, pp. 26-57.

Jimena Hurtado, "Jeremy Bentham and Gary Becker: utilitarianism and economic imperialism,"Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2008, pp. 335-357.

Michael V. White, "Sympathy for the devil: H. D. MacLeod and W. S. Jevons's Theory of Political Economy," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 26, No. 3, Sept 2004, pp. 311-329.

Donald E. Frey, "Francis Wayland's 1830s textbooks: evangelical ethics and political economy,"Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2002, pp. 215-231.

Gregory Moore, "Nicholson versus Ingram on the history of political economy and a charge of plagiarism," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 22, No. 4, 2000, pp. 433-460.

Recent readings XVIII

2010-11-29T11:02:00.008+08:00

程光煒：〈從夏氏兄弟到李歐梵、王德威－－美國「中國現代文學研究」與現當代文學〉，《中國現代文學》，第15期（2009年6月），頁127-150。

王德威：〈「新中國未來記」－－21世紀版陳冠中的《盛世》〉，《中國現代文學》，第16期（2009年12月），頁1-12。

Michela Bussotti 米蓋拉, "Editions of Biographies of Women as Examples of Printed Illustrations from the Ming Dynasty," 明代坊刻古籍版畫－－以《列女傳》版本為例， Chinese Studies 漢學研究, Volume 28, No. 2, Jun 2010, pp. 169-224.

馬雅貞：〈商人社群與地方社會的交融－－從清代蘇州版畫看地方商業文化〉，《漢學研究》，第28卷第2期（2010年6月），頁87-126。

樊學慶：〈「剪髮易服」與晚清立憲困局（1909-1910）〉，《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》，第69期（2010年9月），頁41-78。

陳弱水：〈臺大歷史系與現代中國史學傳統〉，《臺大歷史學報》，第45期（2010年6月），頁117-154。第一代赴臺任教的中國歷史學者，皆出身世家，留學歐美。徐子明（1888-1972），江蘇宜興人，出身世家。1908年美國威斯康辛大學就學，畢業後赴德國海德堡大學攻讀中古史，1913年獲博士學位，回國任教於北京大學。姚從吾（1894-1970），河南襄城人，出身望族。1923年留學德國，繼而任教，1934年始回國，任教於北大。李宗侗（1895-1974），河北高陽人，出身高門。1916年入巴黎大學，先學化學，後轉西洋古史，1924年返國任職於北大法文系。沈剛伯（1898-1977），湖北宜昌人，家世應不錯。1924年獲官費往英國倫敦大學攻讀埃及學和英國史，1927年歸國任教於國立武漢大學。劉崇鋐（1897-1990），福建閩侯人，門第顥赫。1918年走美國威斯康辛大學，學習西洋史，畢業後走哈佛大學，獲得碩士，再轉往哥倫比亞大學和耶魯大學，研究歐洲史和美國史。1923年回國，任教於南開大學。第二代留學歐美者有張貴永（1908-1965），浙江鄞縣人。1929年清華畢業，1930年留學德國，1933年獲柏林大學博士學位，轉赴英國研究，1934年歸國任教於中央大學。李定一（1919-2002），四川銅梁人。1942年畢業於西南聯大，中日戰爭後留學英國政經學院。

Gregory A. Barton & Brett M. Bennett, "Forestry as Foreign Policy: Anglo-Siamese Relations and the Origins of Britain's Informal Empire in the Teak Forests of Northern Siam, 1883-1925,"Itinerario, Vol. 34, Issue 2, 2010, pp. 65-86. forest officer in colonial HK?

Adam Clulow, "European Maritime Violence and Territorial States in Early Modern Asia, 1600-1650," Itinerario, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2009, pp. 72-94. VOC, EIC, Mughal India, and Tokugawa Japan.

Lissa Roberts, "Situating Science in Global History: Local Exchanges and Networks of Circulation," Itinerario, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2009, pp. 9-30.

Elizabeth Green Musselman, "Indigenous Knowledge and Contact Zones: The Case of the Cold Bokkeveld Meteorite, Cape Colony, 1838," Itinerario, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2009, pp. 31-44.

Antonella Romano and Stéphane van Damme, "Science and World Cities: Thinking Urban Knowledge and Science at Large (16th-18th Century)," Itinerario, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2009, pp. 79-95.

Portia L. Reyes, "Eyes on a Prize: Colonial Fantasies, the German Self and Newspaper Accounts of the 1896 Philippine Revolution," Itinerario, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2008, pp. 105-133.

Barbara Meisterernst, "The Syntax of hou 後 in Temporal Phrases in Han Period Chinese," The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, Vol. 20, No. 4 (2010), pp. 503-533.

Laura Hein, "Modern Art Patronage and Democratic Citizenship in Japan," The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 69, No. 3 (August) 2010, pp. 821-841. 脇村義太郎

Ewout Frankema, "Raising revenue in the British empire, 1870-1940: how 'extractive' were colonial taxes?" Journal of Global History, Vol. 5, 2010, pp. 447-477.

Isobel Armstrong, Victorian glassworlds : glass culture and the imagination 1830-1880 (OUP, 2008). Although glass is 'an antithetical material' (p. 11), it was central to Victorian culture. Glass was everywhere, from windows, mirrors and greenhouses to telescopes, cameras and so on. Armstrong sees 'a period through glass'.

Jacqueline Young's 'Rewriting the Boxer Rebellion: The Imaginative Creations of Putnam Weale, Edmund Backhouse, and Charles Welsh Mason,' Victorian Newsletter, Vol. 114, 2008, pp. 7-28. Young examines Weale's edited Indiscreet Letters from Peking (9th ed., 1906) and his Wang the Ningh: The Story of a Chinese Boy (1920), Bland and Backhouse's China Under the Empress Dowager (1912), and, last but not least, Mason's The Chinese Confession of Charles Welsh Mason(1924).

Recent readings XVII

2010-11-28T21:19:00.011+08:00

Christian F. Rostbøll's 'The use and abuse of "universal values" in the Danish cartoon controversy," European Political Science Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2010, pp. 401-422.

Nasar Meer, Claire Dwyer and Tariq Modood's 'Embodying nationhood? conceptions of British national identity, citizenship, and gender in the "veil affair",' The Sociological Review, Vol. 58, No. 1, 2010, pp. 84-111.

Simon Locke's 'Conspiracy culture, blame culture, and rationalisation,' The Sociological Review, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2009, pp. 567-585.

Eduardo Posada-Carbó's 'Newspapers, politics, and elections in Colombia, 1830-1930,' The Historical Journal, Vol. 53, No. 4, 2010, pp. 939-962.

Daniel M. Stephen's '"Brothers of the empire?': India and the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-25," Twentieth Century British History, 2010, advance access, 25pps. Stephens examines the reactions of Indians to the Exhibition, which provides a key to understanding how 'race' was increasingly a subject of contestation and negotiation between Britain and colonized subjects, and illustrates how changes in 'racial boundaries occurring in imperial culture were a response to challenges mounted by colonized people. Have a look of W. K. Hancock's Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs (OUP)

Jack W. Chen, 'Blank spaces and secret histories: questions of historiographic epistemology in medieval China,' The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 69, No. 4, Nov 2010, pp. 1071-1091.

Elisa Giunchi, 'The reinvention of shar¯ı‘a under the British Raj: In search of authenticity and certainty,' The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 69, No. 4, Nov 2010, pp. 1119-1142.

Anthony E. Clark, "Early modern Chinese reactions to western missionary iconography,"Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 30, 2008, pp. 5-22.

Dana Irwin, "Sheikhs and samurai: Leon Roches and the French Imperial Project," Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 30, 2008, pp. 23-40.

Richard Bradshaw, "Victim of colonialism or model of colonial rule? changing Japanese perceptions of Egypt, ca. 1860-1930," Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 31, 2009, pp. 143-163.

Rickw W. Law, "Runner-up: Japan in the German mass media during the 1936 Olympic Games,"Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 31, 2009, pp. 164-180. The case of China in foreign mass media in the past?

Natalia Starostina, "Engineering the empire of images: constructing railways in Asia before the Great War," Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 31, 2009, pp. 181-206. railway construction in Indochina and Yunnan, e.g. the pont sur Albaletriers (Crossbow Bridge) by French engineers' "civilizing mission".

Wei Lin, "The Southern dynasties (420-589) Buddhist caves at Qixiashan, China," Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 31, 2009, pp. 254-261.

Rosanne Trottier's 'Intellectual property for mystics? considerations on protecting traditional wisdom systems,' International Journal of Cultural Property, Vol. 17, 2010, pp. 519-546.

Michael F. Brown's "Culture, property, and peoplehood: a comment on Carpenter, Katyal, and Riley's 'In defense of property'," International Journal of Cultural Property, Vol. 17, 2010, pp. 569-579.

Kristen A. Carpenter, Sonia K. Katyal, and Angela R. Riley's 'Clarifying cultural property,'International Journal of Cultural Property, Vol. 17, 2010, pp. 581-598. Carpenter et al. propose the ideas of sovereignty and stewardship on the protection of indigenous cultural heritage/property.

Daphne Voudouri's 'Law and the politics of the past: legal protection of cultural heritage in Greece,' International Journal of Cultural Property, Vol. 17, 2010, pp. 547-568. Voudouri quotes Handler that 'retentionists' often 'defend their position by deconstructing the national identity of their opponents - claiming, for example, that modern Greeks are not 'true descendants of ancient Greeks...[without] simultaneously willing to call into question their own nationalistic claims to cultural superiority. In other words, retentionists are quick to condemn the parochial nationalism of their opponents, but rarely question their own more imperial nationalisms, which they mask in the name of internationalism.' ("Who owns the past? History, Cultural Property, and the Logic of Possessive Individualism," in Brett Williams (ed.), The Politics of Culture (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), p. 71) The paper also draws me to James Cuno's Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage (Princeton: PUP, 2008) and Whose Culture: The Promise of Museums and the Debate over Antiques (Princeton: PUP, 2009) and David Lowenthal's The Heritage Crusade and the Spoil of History (Cambridge: CUP, 1998).

Deluxe IV

2010-11-27T00:11:00.003+08:00

So, "What do the rich do now?" a Hollywood producer friend asked her. For the ultimate in lingerie, the rich go to Alice Cadolle in Paris. The really rich still buy and wear couture, which runs from $20,000 for a basic suit to $100,000 for an evening gown. The really rich do not attend the couture shows for they don't even have to show up to shop. They, "who are richer than air," crossed the oceans by private jets for fitting. The women who buy couture don't want to be identified with actresses. More than a couple of these new fortunes live in China. In the United States, the rich shop at Giorgio Armani. For jewelry, the rich prefer custom-made. For handbags, the order Hermes. Yet they also shop at outlets. (p. 331-334)

Luxury was a successful niche business. But when luxury changed its target audience to the cost-conscious middle market that shops when flush but stops cold when times get tough, it made itself dangerously vulnerable to recessions. "Without tourism, Hong Kong," Joanne Ooi, president of East from Seventh Ltd., a wholesale showroom in Hong Kong for Western designers trying to break into the Asian market, "is only a city of six million inhabitants. How is it going to support nine Prada stores?" (p. 264)

She also interviewed Kenneth Fang, the chairman of Fang Bros. 肇豐, a company taking orders from luxury brands to produce knitwear in Guangdong, who took over the luxury Scottish cashmere knitwear company Pringle in 2000. (p. 226-32)

Counterfeiting. Santee Alley, Los Angeles, where fakes are sold, attracts everyone, including judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, affluent people from Newport Beach, and even the wives of the police. It confirms the old saying that "consumers don't buy luxury branded items for what they are, but for what they represent." Good fakes now represent socially the same thing as real.

Thomas recalled what she witnessed in the posh Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, where she saw a chic New Yorker in her fifties, well dressed in a designer pantsuit, good jewelry, and Chanel sunglasses. The woman asked the chief at the concierge desk, "Where can I buy a good fake Roles? You know, a really good fake." (p. 279-80)

Luxury has become democratic. Everyone could enjoy a taste of it, from lipsticks to ready-to-wear gowns. In today's luxury industry, outlets make good business sense: they sell goods that the movie stars, the flagships, the ads, and the billboards flack to the masses, but at a price that the masses can actually afford, sometimes in bulk. (p. 247)

Outlet shopping has formed part of our life. When luxury brands themselves go mass-market, however - selling a full range of goods in ubiquitous boutiques, outlets and duty-free stores and on their own Web sites - they undermine their well-crafted message. They become an everyday occurrence, a common presence. They aren't a luxury anymore. (p. 259)

Deluxe III

2010-11-26T00:27:00.009+08:00

Why women fancy handbags? Handbags are visible on the body and give the wearer the chance to brandish the logo and publicly declare her aspiration. They are the easiest luxury fashion item to sell because they don't require sizing or trying on: you look at it, and if you like it, you buy it. "It's easier to choose a bag than a dress," Miuccia Prada told her, "because you don't have to face the age, the weight, all the problems." For brands, it is easy money. Unlike shoes and clothes, there are no leftovers because there are no sizes. "Everyone can afford a luxury handbag, Karl Lagerfeld said. Handbags "make your life life more pleasant, make you dream, give you confidence, and show your neighbors you are doing well." (p. 168)

The luxury brand handbag is a study in globalization: hardware, like locks, come from Italy and China (primarily Guangzhou); the zipper comes from Japan; the lining comes from Korea; the embroidery is done in Italy, India, or northern China; the leather is from Korea or Italy; and the bag is assembled partly in China and partly in Italy. The sourcing is sometimes as questionable as the true provenance of the bag. (p. 202)

Luxury brands deny outright that their bags are made in China make their bags in China. Thomas visited a factory in Guandong province and she had to promise the manufacturer that she wouldn't reveal the brand names. Each brand made the manufacturer sign a confidentiality agreement stipulating that he could not reveal the fact that he produced their products in China. (p. 197)

Vouge China is among the most popular fashion magazine in China, selling about half a million copies every month. The editor Angelica Cheung said, "Most Chinese buy luxury as a status symbol rather than taste. They like logos. The want people to know the are carrying something expensive. You see people walk into stores and say, 'Where is this brand from? Italy? Must be good!" They can't pronounce the names and they don't know where it comes from. The just want it because it's expensive." (p. 303)

"Chinese people," said Tom Doctoroff, director for JWT advertising in Shanghai, "will gladly spend a price premium for goods that are publicly consumed. But it's like buying a big glob of shiny glitter. They know which brands are famous, but they can't tell you the difference between them in terms of quality or design. [They buy] to burnish their credentials as someone of the modern world by stocking up on a year's supply of prestige." "These people," explained Wang Lianyi, an expert in comparative cultural studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "are rich economically but lacking in basic manners, and they are not very fond of their own reputation," and they "not only want money, they want people to respect them in the future." (p. 307)

Deluxe II

2010-11-25T00:16:00.003+08:00

"Luxury," said Cristiane Saddi, a customer of Daslu, Sao Paolo, Brazil, "is not how much you can buy. Luxury is the knowledge of how to do it right, how to take the time to understand and choose well. Luxury is buying the right thing." (p. 345-6)

"Luxury is exclusivity - it is made for you and no one else has it," Francoise Montenay, Chanel's president for Europe, explained "at a minimum, it must be impeccable. Maximum, unique. It's the way you are spoken to, the way the product is presented, the way you are treated."

French actress Leslie Caron once said: "It was as important to be well dressed at it was to be educated, have good manners, eat well." (p. 29)

"Most of the designs have been around for almost a century and are coveted not because they are in fashion but because they never go out of fashion." (p. 172)

In Japan, parasite singles are very common; they are unmarried university-educated women, ages twenty-five to thirty-four, who worked in good-paying jobs - as secretaries, teachers, executives and lived with their parents. Living with parent without worrying about household expenses, they have a large amount of disposable income and impressive economic power. (p. 79) Parasite singles are also becoming very common in Hong Kong too.

Luxury fashion is a clubby world - designers all know each other, many intimately so, support staff such as press attaches and assistant designers move freely from one company to another, everyone dines in the same restaurants and vacations in the same locales. They refer to themselves as "the fashion tribe." Individualism has given way to homogenization, not only among stores within a brand but also among brands themselves. They tend to hire the same architects and use the same design tricks to get crowds into the stores and try to avoid leading the way for fear of alienating customers. (p. 90)

The former designer for Gucci Tom Ford said "luxury fashion brands today are too available, everything is too uniform, and customer business is too pedestrian." "It's like McDonald's: the merchandise and philosophy behind it is very similar. You get the same hamburger and the same experience in every McDonald's Same with Vuitton...The world was becoming a global culture." (p. 325-6) So much so the book is covered by the New York artist Tom Sachs's Prada Value Meal (1998), which converts McDonald's-style value meals Prada's logo wrap, on the dust jacket.

If there is one thing that has changed in luxury in the last thirty years, it is the single-minded focus on profitability. Since the tycoons have taken over, however, the primary objective to produce the finest products possible has been replaced by a phenomenon Thomas call the cult of luxury. Today, luxury brand items are collected like baseball cards, displayed like artwork, brandished like iconography. Luxury tycoons have shifted the focus from what the produce is to what it represents. (p. 41)