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）。
Friday, 14 October 2011
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Singaporean national identities
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.
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.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
When I left
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.
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.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Recent readings XXVIII
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.
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.
Monday, 12 September 2011
六朝 ‧ 香港
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）
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）
Friday, 9 September 2011
中體西用論的重生？
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）。
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）。
Monday, 5 September 2011
Recent readings XXVII
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
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
Sunday, 21 August 2011
東南亞女傭做錯了甚麼嗎？
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。
--- --- ---
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。
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。
Sunday, 14 August 2011
The Edinburgh Festival
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.
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.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Hongkongness
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 inEdinburgh
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.
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
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.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)