Looking Back at The Year of 2008

It's time to take a look at the year of 2008.

Money: 2008 is definitely not a good year for investors. I was lucky enough to exchange most of my security holdings and mutual funds for cash in the summer of 2008 and avoided huge potential losses. However, I still lose over 100,000 in my pension fund, as most of its holdings were European and North American financial institutions.

Health: I'm generally in good health for the year of 2008. The teeth problems were all fixed after a few trips to the dentist. I was able to exercise more regularly. However, I'm still slightly overweight, mostly due to the failure to resist fine food and snacks.

Career: Static. Considering the insecurities being felt at the tourism and service industries, I felt lucky to still hold this steady and reliable flow of income. The workload isn't very heavy and I got to spend more time with my family. I made at least a couple of enemies at the office and also at least half a dozen friends this year without trying to upset or please anyone on purpose. It's hard to please everyone. Right?

Travel: The opportunity to attend the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008 was the experience of a lifetime. The summer flowers in Hokkaido, cruising in South China Sea, sunset in Xiamen, and numerous trips to Guangdong province and Hong Kong widened my perspectives on life. Through Couchsurfing.com, I was able to meet travelers from Italy, Turkey, the U.S. and the U.K. and experience cultures right here in Macau.

Love: Despite occasional quarrels, the relationship has been quite good. Love and affection is as strong as it had always been.

Lifestyle: I bought wardrobe from French Connection U.K., Columbia, Marks & Spencer, Zara, Uniqlo, Muji, Armani Exchange and Adidas this year. I also bought a Ceska Zbrojovka 75 Standard and a Nintendo Wii as toys. Concerts of Aaron Kwok, Rene Liu, Emil Chau, Jay Chou and José Carreras brought me quite a few memorable evenings.

In Summary: 2008 is OK. I'm looking forward to a better 2009.

The Ugly Chinese Tourists

I went to a Cantonese restaurant for a family gathering on Sunday morning. Four or five middle-aged tourists came in and sat on the table right next to us. They sat down, ordered expensive dishes such as abalone and shark’s fin and Boudreaux wine and enough Dim Sum to feed an army. They bragged about their adventure at casinos, night clubs and luxury shops with a voice louder than The Three Tenors. When they finally left the restaurant with a table full of food and no tips, others at the restaurant looked at each other and felt a sign of relief. When I first heard that the National Tourism Administration of China actually launched an educational program urging Chinese tourists to behave more civilized while traveling outside the border, I thought it's just a joke. After experiencing the astonishing behaviors by Chinese tourists, I'm in full support of this educational program.

A Smile In The Sky

After a satisfying dinner, I walked to the balcony and looked up the sky. Suddenly I saw something quite strange, as if the autumn sky was smiling at me. I wiped my glasses. Yes, what I just saw was true. Two stars and the half moon formed the shape of a smiley face right above my head, as if it's a happy face. It really cheered up the rest of my evening. Or maybe when you are happy mood, everything around you will also share the happiness with you.

Birdcage Over My Head

I went into an ordinary noodle shop in the alley for a quick snack. When I finished the bowl of noodles and looked up the ceiling and saw lights surrounded with traditional Chinese birdcages. I've seen similar stuff at up-scale store such as DelayNoMore selling for over $1,000 each. Then I asked the shop owner where did she bought these lights. She told me that she picked up these abandoned birdcages on the street and thought it's cute to use them to cover the lights. I told her that I felt great just by looking at the ceiling, and her creative mind had really cheered my day and her talent had successfully turned her noodle shop into the mecca of contemporary design. She was so pleased with my words, and gave me a $2 discount on my noodles.

In Memory of Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

The first ever article I read was a short article called Panic in the Sheets, originally published in the December 1991 issue of Playboy Magazine. I was in the last year of getting my undergraduate degree, and homosexuality, dating and AIDS were the theme of the majority of social studies papers during that period. This particular article by Michael Crichton stood out from the rest of crowd by putting forward a clear challenge on the conventional wisdom on homosexuality, dating and AIDS.

In the following years, as I move from one set of office routine to another set of office routine in peruse of a larger paycheck, the untouchable wilderness and inspirational adventures in The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, The Lost World, Prey and State of Fear kept my sanity at night after day after day of senseless paper-shuffling during the day. With his MD received from Harvard Medical School, he challenged my conventional beliefs on a wide range of scientific and social issues, and led me to walk through another process of self-discovery with each of his books.

His death means a lot more than the death of a popular writer. It's like I've lost an old friend.

Professional Audience in Macau?

In certain places in mainland China, when the local government organized official activities such as sports games, cultural activities, they would hire extras to sit in the stands so the show would look good on television and left a good impression to their superiors, although everbody knows that the activity they organized was a complete failure. Hence came the term "professional audience" by Chinese journalists.

Although I had never heard of the term "professional audience" being used in Macau, something quite strange was spotted at Il Trittico, a collection of one-act operas, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini. Five minutes before the start of the opera by the renowned Italian composer on October 31, only about one-third of the seats were occupied at the auditorium of the Macau Cultural Center. Then a group of teenagers rushed in right before the curtain was lifted. This group of casually dressed audience formed a strong contrast with the rest of the formally dressed audience, since most of them soon fall sleep on their seats 15 minutes into the performance. Some children or first-time opera goer left during the first intermission, however, nobody from this group of dedicated sleepers chose to leave. Finally, the show ended. While I was leaving the Macau Cultural Center, I overheard one of the teenager whispering to his companion, "Don't leave! We haven't collected our pay yet." Then I saw something very strange. Hundreds of teenagers who had been sleeping for three hours during the opera formed a straight line right outside the Macau Cultural Center. Five minutes later, a couple of people came, checked their identification card against a list, and handed each of them an unmarked envelope. "Let's go get some beer," was what I heard from a teenager who took his envelope.

As a long-time opera lover who stood in line since 7 o'clock in the morning and paid hard-earned cash for my tickets, I really couldn't believe what I saw was really happening. How could anyone at the Macau Cultural Institute justify wasting taxpayers' money to hire the professional audience into the auditorium such that they could still proclaim that their unpopular opera production was a success? They money should be spent on promoting classical music or other valuable art forms to the general public, not on hiring sleeping extras to fill in empty seats at the Macau International Music Festival. Not with my tax money!

CM 43953 and CM 49335

I read a couple articles on how the human brain turns words into images and then into meanings. Studies had shown that people tend to read words in the form of a picture. If we could get the shape of a word right, most people could still get the meaning of the word, for example, we could get the meaning of the word "boat" even if it's incorrectly spelled as "baot", especially when the word was placed in a sentence related to fishing or vacation.

However, something quite bizarre happened to me last Sunday. I drove my motorcycle to Mercado de San Domingos to get some fresh vegetables and fruit. When I finished my shopping, I put the key into my motorcycle and tried to jump start the engine and go home. They key was in, but I couldn't turn it. I thought was that maybe some kids had put something into the lock. So I bent over and tried to blow the stuff out of the lock, if there was any. I tried again and it still didn't work. There were a couple other people on their motorcycles waiting to park in my parking space. I could feel the pressure from their eyes as if they were saying, "get the hell out of here, you stupid!" So I put the key in again and almost broke it into halves when turning it with all the energy and force I could find. My faces turned red and I was so mad with this stupid key that I must have swear to the machine. Then I realized that a small crowd had formed around me. I put up my hands as if I was about to surrender, and told the other girl on her motorcycle, "maybe you have to find another parking space, I couldn't start the engine." Just when I was about to call the mechanics at the garage, she said calmly, "why don't you try the other motorcycle?" She pointed to the motorcycle right next to mine.

All of a sudden I felt like being stuck by lighting. I drove a Honda ZX with the license plate CM 43953 on it. And for the 10-minute or so, I had been trying to switch o KYMCO motorcycle with the license plate CM 49335 on it. Oh, my God! That has to be one of the stupidest thing I had ever done.

Chinese Folk Music Concert at the 22nd Macau International Music Festival

On Sunday, October 26, 2008, four indigenous choral and dance groups from mainland China – Tu Brothers and Miao Sisters from Yichang in Hubei Province, Yuxi Nie'er Bamboo Music Ensemble of Yuxi City Cultural Center, The Dong Group from the Dimen Dong Cultural Eco-museum and the Miao Group Dou-Die-Dou-a – literally turned Mount Fortress from an idle structure into a dynamic world cultural heritage. Although I was on an emotional high note watching the beautiful girls from the Yuxi Nie'er Bamboo Music Ensemble and their sexy skirts during the first half of the performance, the primitive yet powerful Dong and Miao music during the second part of the performance truly touched my heart as they were incontrovertible faithful to their history, traditions and spirituality. The large lusheng (bamboo pipes more than 3 meters in length) proved to be a dazzling presence on stage, even when the performer accidentally hit the lighting draws a big round of applause. This definitely fits my definition of a great evening out – great music, culture at a historical monument, and free admission tickets.

Watching Fish at Hotel Lisboa Macau

I was strolling aimlessly during lunch hour - unwilling to rush back to work after stuffing my stomach with a cheap and tasteless lunch box. Then I stopped and accidentally found a newly installed large fish tank at the basement of Hotel Lisboa Macau. I was totally attracted by the beauty of the fishes. I was also impressed by the fact that it's free. I don't have to travel all the way to Ocean Park in Hong Kong and pay a few hundred dollars to look at fish tanks of similar quality. Although I had a rather dreadful morning, the colorful fishes really cheered up the rest of my afternoon. Another great place to kill of my excess boredom. Isn't that wonderful?

Hilary Hahn and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presented a powerful performance of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35 at the XXII Macau International Music Festival on Tuesday, 14 October 2008. The movement on Hahn's passage was inspirational and as it gradually intensifies, reached just right balance of both harmony and thematic contrast between the soloist and the orchestra. When the music concludes with the powerful finale with which it began, everybody in the audience had turned himself/herself into indubitable fan of Hilary Hahn and Bramwell Tovey, conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Four encores at the end of the performance after rounds and rounds of applauses turned an extraordinary night of classical music into a lifetime experience. I'm just glad I was part of it.