A couple of pics from my trip to Hokkaido - mostly in the city of Sapporo. Unlike metropolitan cities like Tokyo in Honshu, everything is so much more tranquil here.
The oldest clock tower in Japan.
A main park in the city centre of Sapporo, at dusk. The structure in the middle is some sort of electric tower built by National (electronics) that looks a lot like the Eiffel Tower without the digital time display.
A "soup noodle area" that covers a whole street with ramen and udon eat-ins. Strangely enough, directly next to it is the red light district. It actually is literally metres away. I suppose this food-and-nude package does the trick in Japan.
A lavender field in a greenhouse, in Furano.
Me - in front of a dormant volcano. Not to mention numerous hot springs nearby with a lot of them out in the open - I can't get enough of them.
Ishiya chocolate factory in session. They manufacture and sell the famous brand of Shiroi Koibito chocolates - personally, I thought it was quite a letdown; the main product, to me, tasted rather like sweet milk biscuits than anything like biscuits with a chocolate filling.
The Baak Zee Luen Yun (Shiroi Koibito) chocolates in their packaging. They taste nowhere near as good as they look.
The choc factory also displays a lot of antiques. This is an archaic filing cabinet for exhibition and which apparently contains an FBI drawer. The FBI must have had so little work to do in the past.
Numerous antique toy displays. This was one of my favourites - I used to have quite a few of these Thomas toys when I was a kid. They lacked a TMNT set though.
A typical taxi in Sapporo - with an awkwardly positioned pair of rearview mirrors.
Me - next to a sign near a mini lake district area.
Just read through a ton of old entries on Xanga and regained a bit of incentive to update.
Two days ago, while I was waiting to enter the departure gates at Heathrow, I bumped into a number of XBCs (or "X Born Chinese" where X is British, Canadian, American, Australian etc.) just like a lot of us are. For the first time in my life, I've never felt so distant from this identity. At the same time, I had feelings of disdain. Perhaps due to greater political awareness and having a particular uni lifestyle which exposes me to a different sphere of influence, which does not only consist of those from similar backgrounds, I realised how uncultured many XBCs are.
Many XBCs are simply imitations without a proper identity (speaking of which, The Joy Luck Club comes to mind which illustrates this though not completely). While sitting at the Starbucks in Terminal 3, I overheard a conversation between a Canadian BC girl and a local British guy at the next table. This girl went on and on and on about how Western she is and that she hates "stupid Chinese" values or people or whatever, as if it impresses the white bloke. This went on for about 30 minutes; it was astounding. Now, I'm not prejudiced against Asian female and white male relationships; it's just that I despise those who are whitewashed AND disrespectful to one's own heritage. I felt disgusted not at what she said, but at the realisation that a lot of XBCs had always harboured such attitudes which I never really took into account before until now.
At the airport lounge, while queuing and waiting for boarding, this British BC girl behind me chatted up a local HK-er with a British accent and before long, the former proclaimed proudly that she could only speak English and that she had always refrained from learning Cantonese. Once again, the pride of being Westernised reared its ugly head.
There's absolutely nothing to be proud of if you only speak English or if you are completely Western. It makes things worse if you disrespect your ethnic origin. You're not living in your own country (of ethnicity); you're considered an ethnic minority; you're prone to face racism or discrimination at some point in your life; you're risking being treated as a second-class citizen all the time. You also have to put up with many racist citizens and racist political parties and their supporters (the British National Party, the National Front etc. in the UK which actively promote an all-white Britain and violence against non-whites). And yet, with all this - as if White Supremacism/Nationalism isn't enough - you blindingly associate and pride yourself as being some sort of pirated version of Western/white while you bash your own ethnicity at the same time. Absolutely pitiful. Some people are in serious need of a wake up call.
It amazes me that some XBCs are so blinded by their ignorance as to kowtow white people for the sake of their skin colour at every opportunity even though they don't give them any ounce of respect in reciprocation - either that or they enjoy being mistreated or are masochists. (Let's not even begin to talk about positive prejudice towards Western people, despite what history has laid down: America, Australia...) All that exposure to movies, music etc. has been so deeply hardened into their mind such that they perceive of themselves as white, even in front of a mirror. It makes me so sick to see these "imitations" and white wannabes who go for everything Western. So sick up to a point of wanting to disown the identity of being an XBC. Alternatively, I might consider regarding XBC as an invalid identity, while splitting it up into two categories: Chinese or whitewashed.
Law propositions have a great affinity to the King's Indian Defence against the Four Pawns Attack, though Black must start with a little more force in order to suay any gambling audience in support of the player if they were to bet.
Last year, I used to think the propositions were in the form of hypermodern or flank openings. Then I also realised that the Sicilian Defence does work in a way although not very well, but it was closer to home. The Alekhine would be suicidal and would leave the audience putting all the dough on White.
So much for precision on a premeditated opening - it looks like the middlegame and endgame, including some of the sequences, must also be kept in mind. The only room for thought in playing out the pieces on the alternating squares would lie in the captures, all of which must aid a convincing checkmate. Playing for a draw used to work for many a time, but now it's all different.
Pittman: I'm still in the UK; won't be back in HK until the summer. I'll see you then.
