Chopsticks - the art of simplicity

The humble chopsticks is a very simple thing, just two longish straight sticks, held together in one hand. It can help pick food up accurately and deftly, shovel rice into mouth, stab at fishballs, flick away unwanted bits of food from the bowl, stir soup, etc. And it is easy to clean, even easier to carry around. The entire 10 course dinner (except soup!) can be eaten or slurped up with a pair of chopsticks. Contrast this with eating a full course of Western meal. How much silver lines up around and above our plate? Imagine the washing after that. Or try carrying it all in your handbag.


Chopsticks are the most visible and practical essence of practising the Art of Simplicity.

Sight see Shanghai by Metro

Aha! Now I can conquer Shanghai on my own with this little book in tow. Although all written in Chinese (gulp), I am very excited to be exploring Shanghai's nooks and crannies on foot, by train and trying all the culinary delights!


Listed in the book are 9 lines with over 39 big "must-stopover" and 328 places to eat, shop, see, have fun.


Woohoo, Shanghai here I come with my train travel card in hand. 


(The book on right cost RMB39.80)

2011 resolutions

New year resolution 2011 - to learn the ways of being a Chinese.

One advice received: "强迫你学一门中国国粹，你会学什么呢？

1京剧。Opera

2古典乐器。Classical musical instrument (like guzheng played by the bear?)

3中医 Chinese medicine

4中国水墨画 Chinese watercolour

5麻将。Mahjong

6书法。Calligraphy

7民族舞蹈。Folk dance

8古诗词 poem

9鉴赏古玩。Antiques

10中式烹饪。Chinese cuisine

11相声小品。Comics/sketching

12.中国风水学。Fengshui

13.围棋 Chinese chess

14工艺陶瓷 Ceramics

15变脸；Face changing art

16武术功夫 Chinese kungfu

17周易 I ching

18剪纸 Paper cutting

I wonder who can teach me what?

Dragon lady

I was assured that laid deep within that gaudy gold building along Nanjingxilu Shanghai are the very best Chinese doctors. Climbed up a long flight of stairs (I wonder how the sick and frail do this), was greeted by a few middle aged ladies with out-of-fashion curly hair styles and dressed in white coats that have seen better days. Paid RMB20, was given a number and told to sit in a long dim corridor to wait. I surveyed the surroundings with a sense of trepidation. The walls were plaster boards that looked like it was put up overnight by fly-by-night type of operations. The oldish-looking doctor in the room was spotting Brad Pitt’s type of few day old stubbles (except he was not Brad Pitt by any measure of imagination) and had the same crinkly looking white (once white?) coat on. “This is the best?” I questioned silently and fidgetted in my seat.

My turn soon came. The doctor looked at me kindly and put three fingers across my wrist to listen to the pulse. “Hmmm..” he scratched his three day old beard dreamily. The other wrist, he gestured with his index finger. More “hmmm”. I waited for the prognosis. The doctor shifted slowly in his chair and said to me. “You have…hmmm...what do you call it? Hmmm…inner fire”. I looked back at him and said, “Like a dragon?” A smile, a twinkle and the reply, “Quite so”. “Hmmm” I said, keeping my mouth shut tightly so as not to burn him with my breath.

Through the looking glass

"The I Ching does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it waits to be discovered. To one person, its spirit appears as clear as day; to another, shadowy as twilight; to a third, as dark as night." C.G. Jung on the I Ching -Book of Changes as translated by Richard Wilhelm (1950)

Through regular study of  the 64 hexagrams of I Ching, I have not only gain insights into how a Chinese mind works, but am amazed that 5,000 years after its first written, the words of wisdom in the book is ever fresh in applicability and practicality. It counsels one to be even-tempered and tread carefully, thoughtfully (#10), suggests another to take a step back to view the situation from a wider perspective (#33) and encourages a third to be brave and set forth to make his dreams come true (#46).

But one thing that comes to mind often, I am reminded of Professor Fred Dubee's words "We see things not as they are but as we are" and I wonder if I am reading the I Ching or I am reading my own thoughts mirrored by the I Ching.

Eat not at home

The I-Ching 易经 first made itself known to me some years ago, but no matter how hard I tried to read it for enlightenment, the words were spun so tightly together with references to dragons, forts, princes and sages that it might as well have been written in Aramaic*.


And recently, it once again re-surfaced in my life. Instead of reading it like a novel, this time I asked the book a question and the answer came back so stark and simple that the 5,000 years between us melted away. Gone were the convoluted references to flying dragons or heavenly mountains. At that point in life, I was dithering between an opportunity locally and one overseas. The I Ching simply stated "Not eating at home brings good fortune, it furthers one to cross the great water". I gaped in wonder at the clarity of advice, almost like an instruction barked out by a sergeant to a cadet. And a week later, I packed my bags to "try the food across those waters". 
So far so good. 


Besides the food on this side of the planet seemed to taste better than my homecooked instant noodles anyway!


* Aramaic - considered an endangered language. Cartoon:Hanging on the rack are roast goose, barbeque pork, roast pork, steam chicken, a typical Hong Kong "烧味  siu mei" fare. The cat (me) gives up eating fish (something familiar) to try the new (烧味). Nice.

Tis' the season to be hairy

We used to wonder what's the craze about hairy crabs. All over China during late autumn, these little critters with furry claws (the crabs look like they are wearing dark woolen mittens) sell for as much as RMB100 each. For a crab as big as your fist, surely one must be crazy to pay so much. But hey wait, they are twice to triple the price by the time they make it to the dining tables in prosperous Hong Kong.


This year we decided to travel up north to meet the crabs in their hometown - Yangcheng Lake, about one and a half hours drive from the glittering towers of Shanghai. A small town bordering Yangcheng Lake, Bacheng in Kunshan is lined with, literally, thousands of hairy crab restaurants. Yes, thousands!


Advice received from fellow hairy crab revellers:
1. Choose crabs that are staring fiercely back at you, literally waving their eyes at you at the end of the stalks. Frothing even better.
2. When the dark green crabs turn to tangerine orange in the steamer, it is fully cooked.
3. To eat, peel off the top shell, the bottom half of the back shell. Holding it upside down, make sure to scrape away the grey stuff and remove the heart, a hexagonal shaped white star.
4. Use the vinegar dip. Savour the roe. Mmmm.
5. End meal with yellow wine for the brave, or cups of hot ginger tea for the gentle.


The best season for hairy crabs is from early Sept to late Oct.  

Homecoming

In a humid Chinese factory bigger than 10 football fields, I looked out across the sea of black-haired heads bent studiously over the work bench. Fingers furiously sticking pieces of Nike ticks and bits of material onto a sneaker destined for faraway places. It was there I had an epiphany.


400 years ago, my ancestor(s) mustered up enough courage to sail away from home, seeking a land of gold, never to return. 400 years later, with only a Chinese name on my birth certificate and 6* Chinese characters as my worldly possession and claim to return to my ancestors' motherland, I arrived home. 


What a glorious feeling. What a strange feeling. I suppose the mix feelings is only natural if you have been away for four centuries.


* The 6 characters are one, two, three and my own name written in Chinese which translates roughly (and poetically humourous) as "think of the smiling flower when drinking soup".