Y Chinese Culture vs. Hong Kong?

I have been wondering the grounds of this pseudo-question of Chinese culture in Hong Kong, even precisely in colonial period. Hong Kong is, after all, let alone the foreign community, a Chinese society.

In his "Chinese Culture in the Hong Kong Curriculum: Heritage and Colonialism" (in Philip Stimpson and Paul Morris (eds.), Curriculum and Assessment for Hong Kong: Two Components, One System (Hong Kong: Open University of Hong Kong Press, 1998), pp. 51-74), Beranrd Hung-kay Lu contends that "[f]rom the beginning, Hong Kong was a Chinese as well as a British colony [I agree]...The Chinese colonists coming to Hong Kong from the neighboring counties of South China, on the other hand, were outcasts from the Chinese empire"

"Both colonies," he argues, "shared a common aspiration with respect to economic gain and a transient attitude with regards to the territory of Hong Kong - home, to which one would return enriched, was elsewhere [very true]...it was a city built by Chinese colonists under British sponsorship. [could't agree more]" (p. 55)

He adds "generations of Hong Kong Chinese pupils grew up, learning from the Chinese culture subjects to identify themselves as Chinese but relating that Chineseness to neither contemporary China nor the local Hong Kong landscape. It was a Chinese identity in the abstract, a patriotism of the émigré probably held all the more absolutely because it was not connected to tangible reality [ironical] ...Nor is it inconvenient for colonialists, of whatever coloration, that this remain so."

Luk draws my attention to T. C. Cheng's "The Education of Overseas Chinese: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong, Singapore, and the East Indies" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of London, Institute of Education, 1949) and I hope that I will have a chance to look it up. Also from the same volume, I found another article particularly interesting and related to my experience in secondary school: Paul Morris, Gerry McClelland and Wong Ping Man's "Explaining Curriculum Change: Social Studies in Hong Kong", pp. 103-124. (originally in Comparative Education Review, Vol. 41, No.1), in which Morris (et. al.) traces the emergence of a new school subject social studies in historical context with reference to the socioeconomic development of HK, and education trends in the UK and USA in the 1970s.

BTW, another paper on this subject. 區志堅：〈香港大學中文學院成立背景之研究〉，《香港中國近代史學報》，第4期（2006），頁29-57。

Attitude towards Inequality

Louise Bamfield and Tim Horton's Understanding Attitudes to Tackling Economic Inequality (London: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2009).

Excerpts from the executive summary: Participants' attitudes towards those on low incomes were often more negative and punitive than their attitudes towards those at the 'top'. Participants routinely drew on negative stereotypes of benefit recipients. Why was that? Two important drivers: 1. a widespread belief about the ready availability of opportunity, resulting in highly individualised explanations of poverty and disadvantage. 2. a belief that benefit recipients will not go on to make a reciprocal contribution back to society through activities such as employment or caring.

In line with subjective self-placement in the middle of the income spectrum, many participants wanted the tax system to treat them differently from those at the top. And in line with beliefs that the 'middle' are under most pressure, they also wanted the benefits system to treat themnot too differently from those at the bottom.

Analysis suggests that much of the UK population subscribes to some type of belief in fair inequality on the basis of desert (in other words, that some inequality is fair because it is deserved on the basis of differential effort and contribution), and, furthermore, that 'egalitarian' or 'inegalitarian' attitudes towards those at the top of the income spectrum need not necessarily be matched by similar attitudes towards those at the bottom.

Japanese or non-Japanese?

Putting Koichi Iwabuchi's illuminating article "Marketing 'Japan': Japanese Cultural Presence under a Global Gaze"(Japanese Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1998, pp. 165-180) on my work desk in the office and in my briefcase travelling between home and office, I finished this interesting piece of pleasure, which reminded of so many days and nights playing Super Mario Brothers of Nintendo with my friends and sister in my childhood. I never realized why Mario do not look Japanese until now. Mario, an Italian plumber, together with many more "non-Japanese" characters, are culturally odourless products intentionally (I reject the idea of "unconsciously") made in and exported from Japan to Asia and the world. The following are some excerpts from the article.

The long-held perception of Japan's role in the world stage: "Japan has money and technologies but cannot diffuse its culture" (p. 165)

Japan has been consistently exported its "culturally odourless" products overseas, particularly to Asia. (p. 165-6)

Iwabuchi's use of the term "cultural odour" to refer to "the cultural presence of a country of origin and image or ideas of its way of life are positively associated with a particular product in the consumption process." (p. 166)

The major audio-visual products are three Cs: consumer technologies, such as karaoke; comics; and computer/video games, which "present an imagery in which the bodily, racial and ethnic characteristics are erased or softened." Look at the majority of the characters in Japanese animation. They do not look "Japanese". "Such non-Japanese-ness is called mu-kokuseki." (p. 166-7)

權威．中產

大前研一著；劉錦秀、江裕真譯 ：《M型社會：中產階級消失的危機與商機》（台北：商周出版，2006）。

「大多數人的用錢的方式，仍然被『中產社會意識』拖著走，而未思考應配合自己的收入、改變生型態，因而將錢花在『不是刀口』的事物上。」（頁145-6）

「這種執著的『購屋信仰』，其實就是人人都認為自己是社會的中堅階層此一意識下的產物。』（頁146）

盧建榮的《從根爛起 : 揭穿學閥．舊體制操弄敎改的陰謀》

「我發現高中老師的特點在於，在相信只有一套框架的中國史、中國文化史、或是世界文化史之下，將那套教久的教科書奉若『經』，而以他們日積月累的準備工夫將教科書中每句話、每張圖表都架上許多補充資料，這是他們的『傳疏』，也就是他們的學問所在。」（頁268）

「人性是不堪檢驗的。」（頁38）

Recent readings IX

黃俊傑：〈作為區域史的東亞文化交流史－－問題意識與研究主題〉，《臺大歷史學報》，第43期（2009年6月），頁187-218。

兩項新問題意識：（1）東亞文化交流史中「自我」與「他者」的互動；（2）東亞文化交流與權力結構的互動。三個研究主題：（1）人物的交流；「媒介人物」及其對「他者」的觀察；（2）物品（尤其是書籍）的交流；（3）思想的交流。

黃文樹：〈陽明後學與利瑪竇的交往及其涵義〉，《漢學研究》，第27卷，第3期（2009年9月），頁127-158。

Kit-Ling Lau, "Grade Differences in Reading Motivation among Hong Kong primary and secondary students," British Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 79 (2009), pp. 713-733. Seriously, we face the same problem about reading. Why read? Too much to read.

Sivanes Phillipson, "Context of Academic Achievement: Lessons from Hong Kong," Educational Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 4 (July 2009), pp. 447-468. It confirms the conventional wisdom that "parents, and especially parental expectations, play an important role in children's academic achievement," particularly in girls' success.

Stephen Evans, "The Medium of Instruction in Hong Kong Revisited: Policy and Practice in the Reformed Chinese and English Streams," Research Papers in Education, Vol. 24, Issue 3 (Sept. 2009), pp. 287-309. It finds that teachers in both the Chinese and English streams felt it difficult to fully implement the new language policy of medium of instruction in classroom practice.

Nikolas Gisborne, "Aspects of the Morphosyntactic Typology of Hong Kong English," English World-Wide, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2009), pp. 149-169. Another paper to establish Hong Kong English as a new English variety.

Matthew Rubery, "Play It Again, Sam Weller: New Digital Audiobooks and Old Ways of Reading," Journal of Victorian Culture, Vol. 13, No. 1, Spring 2008, pp. 58-79. How about Chinese audiobooks, like The Story of the Stone alas Dream of the Red Chamber?

John Hoberman, "Medical Racism and the Rhetoric of Exculpation: How Do Physicians Think about Race?" New Literary History, Vol. 38, No. 3 2007, pp. 505-525. "medical liberal responses to the findings of health disparities research frequently use the issue of motivation to effectively exculpate physicians from bearing responsibility for racially motivated diagnoses and treatments. This argument is based on the distinction between conscious (or 'overt') behaviors and other behaviors that are supposed to result from unconscious motives." (p. 512-3) "False assumptions about physicians' immunity to racially motivated thinking help to account for the limitations of the instructional programs in 'cultural competence'..." (p. 513-4)

The Black Swan

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (New York: Random House, 2007).

keywords: black swan, Mediocristan versus Extremistan, expert versus pseudo-expert

"philosophy...Wittgenstein...language problems...may certainly be important to attain prominence in philosophy departments, but they are something we, practitioners and decision makers in the real world, leave for the weekend." [emphasis original] (p. xxvi, prologue)

"a very small minority - who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know...the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary." [emphasis original] (p. 1)

"To borrow from Warren Buffett, don't ask the barber if you need a haircut - and don't ask an academic if what he does is relevant." (p. 183)

What are we going to do with the stupid

Reading Michael Hanlon's 10 Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet): A Guide to the Scientific Wilderness (London, New York, Melbourne, Hong Kong: Macmillan, 2007).

"One function that the less bright can perform is to act as society's collective court jester. Think of all those hideous and cruel TV shows designed to showcase the dim for our delectation." (p. 81)

"Today many of them inevitably become the genetic underclass of IQ-challenged unemployables, forever drifting along the crime-driven, drug-using margins of our society. Lots of them are in prison (along with the mad, the sad and the bad)." (p. 82)

"This is the traditional solution of the well-meaning left, to pretend that the stupid simply aren't there. This is dangerous, and harmful, mostly to the stupid themselves. Education policy...By pretending that all children are equal, and having a bitter insistence on inclusivity... the less bright have been left floundering, failed by their teachers who are forced to teach that mythical average child...and by an examination system that rewards only academic merit at the end." (p. 85)

In his long hate list of tiresome beliefs, notions and lifestyles, Hanlon hates the "wisdom of the East" and the "wisdom of the Ancients." I couldn't agree more once I find no difficulty noticing scholars of the East behave to the extreme of the opposite of their pompous and glorious cultural heritage over the table of luxurious Bordeaux red wines whilst showcasing latest LV handbags.

Print is not dead

Just read Jeff Gomez's Print is dead: books in our digital age (London, New York, Melbourne, Hong Kong: Macmillan, 2008).

We live in the world of visual and interactive stimulation. Everything goes online, both downloading and uploading, and most importantly, for free.

Books no longer occupies a significant part of our life as it used to be. Books is dead. Printed books is dead too.

The title of Gomez's latest book might be misleading and self-contradictory for this is a printed book. Gomez contends that publishing is not dead for five reasons, putting books into an art form is another thing, all relevant to talent.

1. Find talent. Talent to find something worth consuming.

2. Support talent. Talent to turn an initial splash into a career.

3. Edit talent. Talent to edit given writers need texts edited (Gomez refuses to use the term writers though, which tends to limit ourselves to a particular format)

4. Expose and market talent. Likewise, talent to market writers.

5. Pay talent. Talent to turn online read count to revenue.

The key to success is, I think, the ability to identify the market. The form of market evolves in unprecedented way so as technology but the market for ideas and innovation is always there and never changes. Identify the niche market now.

讀書＝面子＝尊重？

香港的運動員要學位，足球員要文憑，模特兒歌星都要升學。歌星今日唱歌，上台領獎，抱怨唱歌收入有限，轉眼間，明日變成補習社的代言人。

學歷居然變成不需要以學歷競爭維生的人的工具，以求獲取學位至上的精英主義社會的尊重。「行行出狀元」的比喻，正好顯出社會的虛偽和自欺欺人。

讀書考試的精英主義始終是中國人根深蒂固的觀念，活在每個中國人的基因。補習文化滋生於中國社會，就像青苔找到濕潤的頑石一樣。

剛看完台灣學者林忠正和黃璀娟的〈補習文化〉（《人文及社會科學集刊》，第21卷第4期（2009年11月），頁587-643）。台灣的情況與香港無異。這更令我對中國人的這種讀書至上的觀念深信不疑。不過，我不知道台灣的補習社會否以歌星當代言人。

進一步觀察，將視野於到國外的中國人。中國人去到國外，考試成績也總是比本地人優勝。中國人作為少數族群，人生機會相對比較少；埋頭苦讀，以學業成績定高低，比起強調人脈社交，表達領導的領域上獲得認同，實在容易得多。

新中環 ‧ 舊中環 ‧ 十月圍城

1905年10月15日，中國革命史上風起雲湧的一天。革命領袖孫中山由東京回到他讀書和成長的故地──香港，主持改組革命組織興中會的事宜與宣誓儀式。清朝廷派刺客到香港，行刺孫中山。革命領袖陳少白與革命富商李玉堂合力，派人保護孫中山。這是電影《十月圍城》（以下簡稱《十月》）的故事梗概。

《十月》以大中華地區的一眾影星為號召，以一比一比例重建一百年前的香港中環為賣點。電影公司選址於上海「重現」香港。《十月》耗資約五千萬港幣，耗時一年，佔地約十個足球場。監製陳可辛指出他們嚴格按照史料記載「還原」了整個中環。我認為這可以說是「新中環」──「新的舊中環」。「新中環」不單是《十月》的賣點，也可能是會生金蛋的母雞。陳氏下一部電影Queen’s Road Ripper也會以舊香港作為背景，緊接著的可能是多部以舊香港為題的電影。

對於今日的香港人，一百年前的香港實在太遙遠。香港人的根不在香港。原居民以外，在一百年前已在香港落生根直至現在的香港人少之又少，簡直是鳳毛麟角，較為人熟悉的大概只有何東家族、利氏家族、莫氏家族等。不過，對我而言，一百年前的香港卻是一種莫大的吸引力。

我不是影評人，無意批評電影的觀點和立場，也不想糾纏於其中的時空交錯和歷史事實，譬如清廷有沒有過要刺殺孫中山的計劃（似乎沒有），楊衢雲、陳少白、李玉堂、李重光等人的原型，石板街上的廣告牌「炒面當便」的原文是甚麼，究竟當時有沒有「香港合作社」等等。我真正感興趣的是一百年前皇后大道中以南一帶的面貌。

《十月》以舊中環為舞台，圍繞著石板街（砵典乍街）、皇后大道中、雲咸街、威靈頓街、荷李活道、紀志街、租庇利街、鴨巴甸街、永和街等為背景。陳可幸指重建後的「新中環」有店鋪200間，民居500間，牌匾4000塊。我嘗試就著手邊有的歷史資料，跟隨著電影中孫中山的路線，看看十九及二十世紀之交這一帶有哪些華洋商號。

孫中山從中上環交界的干諾道碼頭抵埗，穿過德輔道西的電車路經永和街進入皇后大道中；接著向東走好一段路，經過石板街至雲咸街上畢打山，至威靈頓街交界西走至石板街南行轉入荷李活道；經過擺花街，行至鴨巴甸街交界北行，入輔仁文社開會。會後向海皮方向行走，沿紀志街行至租庇利街右轉返回威靈頓街下山，進入石板街，穿過德輔道西至干諾道德忌利士碼頭離開香港。

先說皇后大道中。《十月》的路線介乎雲咸街至永和街之間，大約是31號至180號。皇后大道中的西邊幾乎全是華人商號，東邊則是華洋商號雜處的地方。沿著永和街入皇后大道中向東方向行走，兩旁可見同泰和肇豐兩間銀號，何凌記、何廷記等鐘錶商號，往前走有為人熟知的廣昌隆，與端吉銀號在一起，對面有一品樓茶樓，再往前走左側是中央街市，右側有品陛茶樓，附近是成立於1840年，專賣絲綢金銀器的老舖──新盛號。右邊閣麟街口有兩間賣雀的老店（恒芳和遠芳）和華真影相油畫館，對面有售賣各地名茶的裕章盛記。華人經營的影相油畫館都集中於附近，近於中央街市的還有和昌號、容昌號、永祥號、恒昌盛等。

由石板街交界起向東一帶的皇后大道中，華洋商號雜處。華人商號都以售賣洋貨為主，售賣洋服、呂宋（即菲律賓）雪茄和裝訂書籍的華商都開設於此。售賣洋服的有泉興、南盛，較具規模的是經常在英文刊物上登廣告的達昌，售賣呂宋雪茄如義興、惠和等，裝訂西式書籍的如天成、泰昇、祺盛等。洋人商號最著名的有兩間都是由蘇格蘭人開設的公司霍見拿鐘表行（G. Falconer & Co.）和連卡佛，旁邊有售賣珠寶眼鏡鐘錶的播威鏢店（Gaupp & Co.）。這處又是華洋律師辦公室的集中地，華人定例局（即今立法會）議員何啟大律師就在73號，同樣曾任定例局議員的曹善允律師則在相隔不達的39號。有趣的是，華人律師都在皇后大道中的北側，英國律師則在南側，如Wilkinson & Grist在70號，J. F. Reece在62號，H. K. Holmes在54號。

皇后大道中與德己立街交界前有成立於1870年的絡興號，專賣廣東上海絲綢象牙銅器瓷器金銀器。旁邊就是最高法院和郵政局。步行至此雲咸街口的花市，左前方是畢打街口上經常被批評為阻塞交通的鐘樓。雲咸街是印刷報館和文化藝術的集中地，王鋼在他的《圖說雲街滄桑1840年代–1960年代》說之甚詳，不在此贅。雲咸街的特色還不止於此，就是各國領事館曾經雲集於此。在雲咸街口遠眺左側是Club Germania（德國會所），德國領事署就在裡頭。1901年，沿著雲咸街的領事官辦公室有日本（14號）、比利時（39號）、葡萄牙（47號）、巴西（47號）、荷蘭（53號）。這裏還聚集了許多葡萄牙人。同年的人口普查顯示，葡萄牙人佔全香港歐洲人（約6,000人）的三分一（約2,000人），僅次於英國人（約3,000）。葡萄牙人是當時香港乃至東亞出版業的翹楚，在雲咸街經營的印刷館有Hongkong Lithographic Co.、Hongkong Printing Press（香港印字館）、Eastern Printing Office（東興印字館）、Victoria Lithographic Works等，葡萄牙語周報O Porvir也是在此印刷，至於其他印刷報館往往也有葡萄牙人擔任排字工人。

由雲咸街右轉威靈頓街，至石板街一帶，華人木匠、理髮師（譯作光彩店）和轎舖都集中於此。左側有售賣木器的和生號、萬成號，旁邊有理髮師悅盛號、順興泰，木匠萬成號側連著三間是專賣籐轎的裕德號、義祥號和裕和號。

從石板街轉入荷李活道，迎面會見到印度人商號Framjee Hormusjee & Co.，旁邊是另一間印度人商號H. A. Asger & Hajee Esmail。荷李活道是印度人商號的集中地，沿路還有好幾間，好像是Jeejeebhoy & Co.（譯作之之杯）、Tata & Co.（譯作打打）和Talati & Co.（譯作打剌的）。《十月》中提及的《中國日報》，其辦公室就在前方的92和94號。

荷李活道與鴨巴甸街交界是孫中山曾經就讀過的雅麗氏醫院，側鄰的百子里是輔仁文社舊址。輔仁文社取自《論語‧顏淵第十二》：「曾子曰：『君子以文會友，以友輔仁。』」同一時間的上海租界，剛巧也有一個由外國人組成的活躍文化組織，其中文名字也是取自這一句，名為：文友輔仁會。它的英文原名Shanghai Literary and Debating Society，由英國傳教士艾約瑟（Joseph Edkins）與偉烈亞力（Alexander Wylie）於1857年在上海成立。

由鴨巴甸街東轉入紀志街，再經租庇利街返回威靈頓街，穿過皇后大道中入石板街。孫中山在左側（21及23號）會見到西餐廳Criterion Restaurant，名字應該是來自倫敦因阿瑟‧柯南‧道爾爵士在內創造出福爾摩斯偵探故事的同名餐廳。孫中山最後穿過德輔道西至干諾道德忌利士碼頭，抱著悲壯的心情順利離開香港。

「新中環」接待了電影公司的投資者和海內外的好朋友。我也希望有機會一訪「新中環」，也期待著去電影院觀賞《十月圍城》。對於香港電影人願意用大量金錢和時間投資重建百年前的香港，我可以樂觀地說香港電影業不會被邊緣化。

Chinese or English

Seriously, I can't help but ask my friends who write only Chinese: how many readers you could reach if you write only Chinese, if not simplified Chinese or English?

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2010啟示：中產窮人論，everything reduces to self-content middle-class poverty.