Hong Kong remembers and awaits the time when justice will prevail in China

Candles held aloft at Hong Kong's Victoria Park at a ceremony

remembering atrocities commited in Beijing 29 years ago

Patiently waiting for the candlelight vigil to begin

earlier in the evening

People reading posters set up in readiness 

 for this evening last night

For much of today, the skies were a threatening dark gray and when I left my apartment to meet up with friends with whom I would be going over to Victoria Park this evening, some rain was falling.  By the time I got to our meeting point, however, there no longer was any precipitation in the air and the conditions turned out to be lovely weather-wise to spend outdoors this evening.

If only the reason why we were assembled in Victoria Park earlier tonight was a happy one.  But rather than be festive or celebratory, we were there to mourn the dead: specifically, those idealists and innocents who sought to change their nation for the better one summer in Beijing 29 years ago and ended up paying the price for thinking not only that their time had come but also believing that the (so-called) People's Liberation Army would never turn its guns and tanks on its own countrymen and -women.

There are people out there who reckon that the annual commemorations are increasingly on the tired side.  And it really is noticeably so that, with each passing year, not only the Tiananmen Mothers but also the witnesses to the Tiananmen Square massacre who deliver messages (sometimes live, other times on video) to those assembled at Victoria Park on the evening of June 4th are growing and looking increasingly old.

At the same time, those who get to thinking that the spirits of those seeking vindication and justice for the June 4th, 1989, massacre victims are weakening are very much mistaken.  In fact, my sense is that, with each passing year, the resolve of people to carry on remembering, and also to resist the immoralities of the Communist Chinese government, actually gets hardened -- and this all the more so when it's so obviously the case that the persecutions have continued, claimed further victims (such as Liu Xiaobo) and are making martyrs of still more innocents (including Liu Xia). 

To those who say that the Communists will never fall from power in China: I will (counter-)state with certainty that nothing lasts forever.  Not the Qing dynasty or any other regime that has ruled the area currently occupied by China at any point in history.  Not the regime of Robert Mugabe, whose 37 year rule over Zimbabwe came to an end late last year; nor the presidency of South Africa's Jacob Zuma, ousted after nine years this past February; nor -- perhaps most shockingly to my mind! -- the Barisan Nasional coalition government whose 60 year rule came to an end after being voted out in the Malaysian General Elections just last month!

Back to Africa again after all these years... :)

Panoramic photo taken on my first morning in South Africa :)

The kind of amazing vistas I was privy to on a road trip

on day six of my recent South Africa visit :b

Lest there be any doubt, of course Puppet Ponyo

was there for the ride and experience ;b

 

Back in the summer of 1986, I went to Africa -- specifically Kenya, the home country of a boarding school friend -- for the first time.  In the decade after, I'd go on to re-visit that East African country, and also spend two years in Tanzania as well as set foot in Zimbabwe and Zambia.  Since 1996, however, I had not been back on the African continent: that is, until a week and a half ago.

 

As with my first visit to Africa, I had the good fortune to be invited to accompany a friend on a visit back home.  After many years of hard work, my regular drinking buddy here in Hong Kong had finished his Masters degree studies and was headed back to South Africa to receive his degree and spend time with various members of his family.  And at Sake Bar Ginn one evening a couple of months ago, he asked if I'd like to go with him on this trip.  

 

Before he had the time to change his mind, I quickly said "Yes, please!"  The truth of the matter is that South Africa is one of those countries I've long wanted to visit -- not least because Nelson Mandela was/is one of my greatest heroes -- and my South African friend's home city of Cape Town just happens to be the number one part of the country that I wanted to spend time in.

 

Before the trip, my friend and I had a number of conversations as to what I wanted to do there, what he wanted to show me as well as were "must do"s as far as he was concerned, and what to expect while there -- bad and good.  Post visit, I will say that I actually didn't get to see or do everything on my list but I also got to see and do a lot more than I had thought would be the case.  

 

Put another way: I ended up going to some famous places but also a number of gems that are beloved by locals but (for some unknown reason or other) haven't been covered much -- if at all -- in tourist guides.  And, as those of you who deign to check out the blog posts I'll be offering up in the next few weeks should soon realize, I really do consider my South African trip to be one of those trips of a lifetime that's chock-filled with the sort of sights and experiences that will stay long in my memory. :)       

Prambanan's apparently often overlooked Candi Sewu

Not a movie set but a bonafide ancient temple!

 

I could easily imagine this central Javanese site 

figuring in an Indiana Jones type movie though...

 

This also is the kind of setting which called for 

Puppet Ponyo to be captured by the camera in! ;b

 

More seriously though, Candi Sewu's main building is one of those 

structures that are impressive from whichever angle you viewed it :)

Pretty much whenever one reads or hears about Prambanan, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site is described as being a Hindu monument.  But within this ancient temple compound -- and, actually, counted as part of the temple complex -- lie Buddhist temples (as is the case with the nearby Candi Plaosan, only on an even grander scale); with the largest and northernmost of these being that known as Candi Sewu.  

In its heyday, the Sewu temple complex was said to have been home to 249 buildings.  But that was 13 centuries ago -- and since that time, Candi Sewu has been witness to the fall of the kingdom whose rulers built it and also has been buried by ash from one major volcanic eruption and severely damaged from at least one major earthquake.  Furthermore, it's suffered from looting over the years by both Dutch colonists and local villagers, with a not a single head left on the Buddha statues found within the compound.

However, when compared to the two other Buddhist temples (Lumbung and Bubrah) located between Candi Sewu and Prambanan's main courtyard (where such as the Hindu temples dedicated to Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu are located), there's much to see -- and be impressed by -- still at Candi Sewu.  For example, whichever side of the temple complex that one approaches from, one will be met with the sight of a large pair of striking-looking Dwarapala (armed door or gate guardians), each carved from a single block of stone.  

Also, even while Candi Sewu's main temple would be dwarfed by the 47-meter-high Candi Shiva over at the main Prambanan compound, it's still no slouch at 30 meters in height -- especially when one considers that its considerable age.  In addition, a walk around this ancient structure (as well as along the walled outer corridor of its high platform) truly helps to emphasize how incredible is this cross-shaped 20-sided polygon architectural plus archaeological gem.

All in all, Candi Sewu's probably my favorite of the temples I visited on the Prambanan Plain.  To be sure, Candi Sambisari was a good place to start, Candi Sari provided balance (as the only non-temple I visited that day), and my initial sightings of atmospheric Candi Plaosan and the majestically tall temples in Prambanan's main courtyard will stay in my memory for a long time.  

But my visit to Candi Sewu truly felt special and magical -- in no small part due to my having been able to enjoy being at this expansive complex in what felt like amazing solitude since so very few people looked to have decided that it'd be worth the bother to walk some 800 extra meters to it from the main Prambanan compound!  Probably not since I visited Great Zimbabwe some two decades ago now did I feel like an intrepid explorer (not just traveller), and so very blessed to be able to have the space as well as time to take in wondrous sights in an atmosphere of such blessed peace and quiet! :)  

Rainbow sightings

Rainbow-like spectrum created
by sun rays shooting a cobweb

Rainbow in the sky over Hong Kong Island
on -- believe it or not -- a rain-less day!

For the many people who still haven't realized that some three-quarters of Hong Kong is countryside (rather than urban concrete jungle) -- and that forty percent of the Big Lychee's land lies within country parks, it can seem ironic as well as improbable that living in Hong Kong has got me increasingly appreciating nature's offerings (including wild critters such as dragonflies, spiders and skinks). But it really is the case that not since I was at Beloit College in Wisconsin and taking courses in geology and environmental biology to fulfill my science requirements have I been wont to observe and enjoy being out in nature as much as I have since moving to Asia's World City.

Still, it's not been only during this periods of my life that I've been captivated by the sight of rainbows (and associated visual phenomena). And it's true enough that the two rainbow spotting experiences I've considered the most memorable have admittedly not taken place in Hong Kong (or, for that matter, at Beloit). Instead, one of these was at Victoria Falls over on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border (where a rainbow was formed by the spray of the largest and most impressive waterfall I've seen in my life to date) while the other involved my catching sight of beautiful double rainbows while on a bus during my visit to Germany last year.

In the past year, however, I've had two rainbow sightings here in Hong Kong that I reckon are on the special side -- not least because they both occurred on rain-less days. The first of these took place last summer in a wooded area that a friend and I passed through on a hike up to Amah Rock. The second took place on the hot and humid -- but emphatically non-rainy -- day last month that I hiked up Devil's Peak and then down to Lei Yue Mun. More specifically, on my way out of Lei Yue Mun, I happened to glance over across Victoria Harbour and suddenly saw a rainbow in the by-then-not-so-blue late afternoon sky above the Quarry Bay section of Hong Kong Island!

Almost needless to say, I did have my camera with me on both those occasions and thus managed to take shots of the natural phenomena. And while I grant that my treasured snaps pale in comparison to many other rainbow photos on the internet, I still am happy that I managed to take them since it makes it so that I am able to share the sight of those rainbows in this blog entry with other people. :)

Visa-free vs -required travel musings

Himeji Castle -- located in a country (Japan)

which I need a visa to enter

View of Heidelberg -- a picturesque town in country (Germany)
which I can enter without applying in advance for a travel visa

"Where in the world do you want to holiday next?" This is a question I've been asked more than once in recent weeks -- partly because the past couple of weekends have been long weekends for many in the Big Lychee -- courtesy of Hong Kong's public holidays this year including Good Friday (April 22nd this year), the following Saturday, Easter Sunday (April 24th), and the Monday after Easter, May Day (May 1st) and the day after May Day (May 2nd) -- during which many a person I known has flown off for a short vacation.

My reply has honestly been: "I don't know yet". But I'll also admit that I've been considering going on a Scandinavian cruise for the first time ever this year or visiting Venice (not least because of the beautiful photos of the place that can be found in blogs such as Churches in Venice and Trekcapri's) or Vietnam... or returning for another visit to Japan -- only with the latter there remains the bureaucratic hurdle of applying for a visa; something which I won't have to do should I wish to travel to the other destinations I've been thinking of doing.

If the information on Wikipedia is to be believed, a Malaysian passport is ranked pretty high (i.e., number 13 in the world) in terms of travel freedom and visa-free access. And it's true enough that there have been times and places in the world where I've been happy to have had a Malaysian passport -- including when living and travelling in Africa, where I found that Malaysia being a part of the British Commonwealth made it so that I did not need a visa to visit Tanzania (except that I also successfully applied to be a resident of Tanzania proper and also Zanzibar in order to work and live there for two years), Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia (on account of those African countries being fellow members of the British Commonwealth).

Incidentally, I have often recounted the -- in retrospect -- funny experience of how it was that I literally walked across the Zimbabwean-Zambian border by way of the bridge that crosses the Zambezi River close to Victoria Falls because I wanted to see the amazing natural phenomenon from both countries -- and, at the border, when asked by the Zambian immigration official how long I intended to stay in his country, miffed him somewhat by honestly telling him that I just wanted to stay long enough to view Victoria Falls from the Zambian as well as Zimbabwean sides! (Fortunately, the guy wasn't upset enough to deny me entry into his country -- and I spent only a few hours in Zambia before walking back to Zimbabwe later that same day!!)

In contrast, I would not be able to walk across the border between Hong Kong and Mainland China without first acquiring a China visa -- something which I actually don't possess at the current time -- and, in fact, only have applied for once... years ago when I went on holiday to Beijing with my mother! (And for the record: for all of my having now lived in Hong Kong for more than four years, I still have paid a single visit to neighboring Shenzhen...)

On another ironic note: I also require a visa to visit the U.S.A., a country where I lived, studied and worked for close to one and half decades of my life. (Again for the record: I never did apply for a green card, never mind citizenship -- not least because, as I told many a (then) disbelieving American friend, I actually didn't think I would want to spend the rest of my life in that country and would want to leave it one day...)

All this I actually don't mind too much. On the other hand, it's true enough that I wish that Malaysians didn't require a visa to visit Japan. And if that were the case, I definitely would travel to the Land of the Rising Sun more often -- to sample its food and other attractions that I really wish I could conveniently avail myself of... though even with the visa requirements, I do plan to pay visits to such places as Nikko, Kamakura and Shikoku some day soon (as well as already have had the pleasure of visiting such destinations as Mount Aso, Dazaifu and Himeji along with the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo, etc., etc.!)

Visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites

A quiet alley in the heart of the Historic Center of Macau,
the closest UNESCO World Heritage listed site
to where I currently reside

Close-up shot of one of the many buildings in
the Changdeokgung Palace Complex that is one
of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites
in South Korea that I've visited

Alejna of Collecting Tokens asked over her blog: "Have you been to any World Heritage sites? Are there places on the list that you long to visit?" And although I don't think that she was officially declaring the start of a meme, I can't resist but respond to her queries with a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites I've visited (along with a couple of choice photos above):-

• Historic Center of the City of Salzburg (Austria)
• Palace and Gardens of Schonbrunn (Austria)
• Historic Center of Vienna (Austria)
• The Great Wall (China)
• Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang (China) - though, strictly speaking, I've only been to the ones in Beijing
• Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing (China)
• Temple of Heaven, an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing (China)
• Historic Center of Macau (China)
• Chartres Cathedral (France)
• Palace and Park of Versailles (France)
•  
• Palace and Park of Fontainebleu (France)
• Paris, Banks of the Seine (France)
• Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (Germany) - though strictly speaking, I've only been to those in Berlin
• Museum Island, Berlin (Germany)
• Cologne Cathedral (Germany)*
• Speyer Cathedral (Germany)*
• Upper-Middle Rhine Valley (Germany)*
• Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier (Germany)+
• Borobudur Temple Compounds (Indonesia)>
• Prambanan Temple Compounds (Indonesia)>
•  
• Himeji-jo (Japan)
• Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Japan)
• Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara (Japan)
• Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape (Japan)#
• Shrines and Temples of Nikko (Japan)^
• Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (Japan)^
• Historic Villages of Shirakawa-Go and Gokayama (Japan)^^  
• Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area (Japan)~
• National Museum of Western Art -- one of 17 sites that are part of The Architectural Works of Le Corbusier (Japan, etc.) -- inscribed 2016 but visited I visited in 2006!
• Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Japan)+++
•  
• Itsukushima Shinto Shrine (Japan)+++
• Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley (Kenya) -inscribed 2011, but which I visited in 1986!
• City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarter and Fortifications (Luxembourg)+ 
• 17th-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht (The Netherlands)++
• Bryggen (Norway)##  
• West Norwegian Fjords - Geirangerfjord and Naeroyfjord (Norway)## 
• Singapore Botanical Gardens (Singapore) - inscribed 2015, but I visited in the 1980s!###
• Robben Island (South Africa)~~
• Jongmyo Shrine (South Korea)
• Changdeokgung Palace Complex (South Korea) 
• Hwaseong Fortress (South Korea) 
•  
• Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty (South Korea)*** 
• Jeju (South Korea)*# 
• Gunung Mulu National Park (Malaysia) 
• Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia) - of course I have been - George Town is the capital of my home state! :D  
• Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzin, Granada (Spain)*# 
• Cathedral, Alcazar and Archivo de Indias in Seville (Spain)*#
• Historic Center of Cordoba (Spain)*#
• Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid (Spain)*#
• Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct (Spain)*# 
• Old City of Berne (Switzerland) 
• 
  
• Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania)   
• Selous Game Reserve (Tanzania)
• Serengeti National Park (Tanzania)
• Stone Town of Zanzibar (Tanzania) - where I lived for a time, actually!  
• Historic Areas of Istanbul (Turkey)  
• Durham Castle and Cathedral (Britain) 
• Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (Britain)
• City of Bath (Britain) - home for some years now to my sister! 
• Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Britain) - well, bits of Hadrian's Wall, at any rate...
• Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church (Britain)  
•  
• Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church (Britain)
• Tower of London (Britain) 
• Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (Britain)
• Maritime Greenwich (Britain) 
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Britain) 
• Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City (Britain) 
• Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gywnedd (Britain) 
• The English Lake District (Britain)
• Independence Hall (USA)
• Chaco Culture (USA)  
•  
• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (USA)  
• Ha Long Bay (Vietnam)** 
• Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi (Vietnam)**
• Great Zimbabwe National Monument (Zimbabwe)
• Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe)

So... I make that 75 sites (in 23 countries).*# Which leaves a heck of a lot left unvisited. Of these -- to answer Alejna's second question -- there are quite a few I'd love to visit; with the top five being the following:-

• Angkor (Cambodia)
• Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela (Ethiopia)
• Petra (Jordan)
• Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis (Egypt)> 
• Budapest (Hungary)

And what about you, dear reader? (And yes, you should feel free to respond to my query on your own blog or this entry's comments thread!) ;b

*Added post-German 2010 holiday
^ Updated again in February 2012
**Updated once more in December 2013 
^^ Updated once again in May 2014 
***Updated once more in September 2014 
+Updated one more time in December 2014 
# Added and updated once more in May 2015 
## Updated again in June 2015  
### Updated once more in July 2015 
~ Added in October 2015 
++ Added in January 2016 
> Added in May 2017 
+++ Added in October 2017 
~~ Added in December 2017 
*# Added in 2018

10 highlights of my 2008

Best Thrill Ride in the foreground --
and, in the background, Best Natural Sight

In 2006 and 2007, I wrote up "10 highlights of the year" entries. Although I had intended to write my 10 highlights of 2008 before 2009 came along, certain circumstances (including my having to work on the first day of 2009 and that day falling in the middle of the week) have led to my only doing so over the first weekend of the new year. Still, better late than never, right? Well, at least I think so! Hence my going ahead and submitting my "best of" list for 2008 in this here blog post:-

1) Best Book: Once upon a time, I was an Africanist. Although that is no longer the case (along with my thinking that I'd devote my life to being an anthropologist), I actually continue to have strong, emotion-laden memories of -- and interest in -- those parts of that continent that I've spent time in. As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, I also have wondered for years now how it went from being quite a bit better off than Tanzania (where I lived for some two years) when I visited it in December 1995 to the heartbreakingly and nightmarishly benighted place that it now has been for some time. Peter Godwin's When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa (Back Bay Books, 2008) clearly explains as well as describes how the situation deterioriated while also being a very affecting history and story of himself and his family. Tragic but also not entirely without hope, this book really is a very enthralling, highly recommended read.

2) Best Concert: I feel very lucky to have been able to attend -- in a single year -- concerts headlined by such as Joanna MacGregor, Midori, her brother Ryu Goto and Trey Lee. For all of the considerable prowess of the afore-mentioned talents, however, there really is no question for me as to what was the best concert I attended in 2008; not after being witness to Yo-Yo Ma and the HKCO performing. Suffice to say that Ma is a musician who deserves his exalted reputation; with the icing on the cake being how, when performing, he seemed able to enjoy himself, the music that he was producing and the very process of collaborating with fellow musicians.

3) Best Filmophile Facility: Its theatre's screen is not the biggest in Hong Kong and there are movie fans who will scoff at its restrictions against eating or drinking when taking in a movie but the Hong Kong Film Archive is one of the greatest things in the Big Lychee as far as this film geek is considered. This not least because its programmers have allowed for me to view Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1928), Ivan the Terrible Parts I (1944) and II (1958), Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), Zhu Shilin's Sorrows of the Forbidden City (1948), The Dividing Wall (1951) and Festival Moon (1953), and so much more there in 2008 alone!

4) Best Hike: The hike from Wu Kau Tang to Sam A minimally covers a distance of 10.5 kilometers but I'm not sure whether that measurement includes the return leg back and doubt that it includes the walk to take in the Bride's Pool that my two hiking companions on the day and I decided to apend to our hike. Still, it wasn't its length alone that caused this Northeast Hong Kong hike to yield material for not one but three separate photo-essays but, rather, the number of interesting sights (like abandoned villages as well as different geographical and geological situations) that we got to view along the way!

5) Best National Cuisine: There's no denying my love of Penang food and Klang bak kut teh. Nevertheless, my favorite national cuisine in the world actually is not that of my native Malaysia but, rather, Japan. And while good Japanese food can be found in many parts of the world (including Hong Kong, as can be seen by my favorite restaurant in the territory being a yakitori-ya), my latest visit to the Land of the Rising Sun in the summer 2008 -- in particular, the experiences of partaking of such as the Genghis Khan barbecue lunch and ramen dinner in Sapporo and the evening eating marathon in the centre of the kuidaore no machi -- i.e., the city where you eat ‘til you drop that is Osaka -- that is Dotonbori Street -- served to reconfirm that Japanese food really is unparalleled in its native land.

6) Best Natural Sight: I knew things were bad but it's still pretty disconcerting to get statistical confirmation that in 2008, Hong Kong air pollution was the worst since records started being kept. Besides fears of what the air pollution will do to one's physical health, something else I've definitely noticed is how polluted air days are so gray and depressing. On a related note, I also notice how much I psychologically perk up at the sight of bright blue skies. No longer something to be granted, they now are things I truly treasure. Let's just hope that they will not be rare sights a la rainbows (or, even rarer, starry skies) in Hong Kong in 2009... :S

7) Best Sporting Event: No, not something Arsenal-related because 2008 has not been a particularly great year to be a Gooner. (Indeed, I'll state for the record here that the current Arsenal side is the worst under Arsene Wenger ever!) Instead, and even though I was one of those slow to catch the fever, count me as one of those eventually won over by the hype and drama of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So much so that not only did I watch more of the Olympic Games on TV than I thought I would but also ended up doing such as giving people -- and taking lots photos of -- more fuwa than I ever thought I would! ;b

8) Best Television Series: It's true enough that since moving to Hong Kong, I rarely spend time in front of the TV. Indeed, I'll go so far as to admit that I tend to only turn to the TV when I come down with a cold or the flu; and then only after I feel I've spent too many hours resting and/or reading in bed. In short, it's the rare TV show that I'll watch for its own sake. In 2008, that TV show was The Wire (in particularly, Season 5 of the series). So, now that it's wrapped up for good, would recommend suggestions as to what I should turn to next should the TV viewing bug bites once more...

9) Best Theatrical Production: There's no question that the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre's production of De Ling and Empress Dowager Ci Xi is on the old side. After all, the 2008 edition was the fourth revival of a play that was first performed back in 1998. In addition, many of its cast members -- notably its 81-year-old leading lady -- are on the... mature side. But, post catching a performance of this historical drama, can but conclude that old is gold re the production but also its wonderful star, Lisa Lu. (And yes, meeting and interviewing her most definitely was one of the highlights of my time at bc magazine -- heck, my still not too lengthy journalistic career!)

10) Best Thrill Ride: This category has more candidates than usual this year, including the world's largest ferris wheel over in Osaka and rollercoasters over in Ocean Park. But the award has to go to that which I'd also consider to be the best cable car ride I've ever gone on: Hong Kong's Ngong Ping 360 which takes passengers from Tung Chung all the way up to the Ngong Ping Plateau whose residents include that impressive statue popularly known as the Big Buddha. :)

Language and laughter

Yesterday, a piece by one of The Guardian's regular bloggers got me thinking seriously about language and linguistic issues (particularly the value of multi-lingualism versus mono-lingualism). Perhaps in reaction to all that serious thought, I've spent quite a bit of time since recalling linguistic experiences and situations which got me smiling, if not laughing. And since I've not previously written on this subject on this blog, I figure I might as well go ahead and share some of them with you today:-

1) Japan, 1982: Some twenty-four years ago, I paid my first visit to the Land of the Rising Sun in the company of a cousin and an uncle. Early on during the trip, our Japanese guide, who was familiar with Malaysians and Bahasa Malaysia (trans., "the language of Malaysia") cautioned us against uttering the Bahasa Malaysia words for ring and bowl while in Japan.

Our curiosity piqued, we couldn't help but enquire why. Turns out that cincin (pronounced as "chin-chin") just happens to be the word for the male reproductive organ in Japanese while mangkuk ("mung-koek"), in turn, is the Japanese word for the female reproductive organ! So just imagine what would happen, for example, if a Malaysian man were to go up to a Japanese individual and tell the said individual that "I've lost my cincin"!!!

2) Malaysia, sometime in the early 1980s: I had a friend over here in Penang who went off to boarding school in England a few years before me. Although she would return to Malaysia during the longer school holidays, it was pretty obvious from year to year that her Bahasa Malaysia was deteriorating as surely her English was improving.

Of course, she will forever maintain that the incident I'm going to detail here was merely caused by a slip of a tongue rather than any actual significant decline in her Bahasa Malaysia language skills. However, what is beyond doubt is that, one day, when trying to order a coconut drink, she asked a startled waiter not for kelapa (the Bahasa Malaysia word for "coconut") but, instead, kepala (that is, the Bahasa Malaysia word for the "head" -- as in "...of a person") ! :D

3) Tanzania, 1995: Having recently arrived in that East African country, a rather nervous moi went one morning to meet with the head of one of the institutions that I was looking to be attached to during my stay there. Upon my arrival at the guarded entrance to the institution, and anxious to be polite and ingratiate myself, I decided to speak in Kiswahili, the national language of Tanzania (along with neighboring Kenya), rather than English.

Stuttering a little, I uttered what I thought was the Kiswahili equivalent of "I would like to see Mr. Mbago"; only for the guard at the gate to look stunned and then very amused by what he had heard. For, as it turns out, instead of saying "Naomba kuona Bwana Mbago", I had said "Naomba -- and then because of a stutter and a bit of a pronounciation -- kununua Bwana -- again, another small (right?) slip -- Mboga."

In doing so, I thus stated in Kiswahili: "I would like to buy Mr. Vegetable"! (Needless to say, this story soon spread around the institution and thus it came to be that many of the hapless man's underlings got to wickedly plus delightedly calling Bwana Mboga behind his back...) ;(

4) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2005 (or maybe a year earlier): A couple of pieces of contextualizing information are in order before telling this joke. Firstly, Cantonese is a tonal language; so shifts in tone change a word's meaning. Secondly, Kuala Lumpur is a city where a lot of Cantonese is spoken. Consequently, even a non-native Cantonese language speaker like myself is liable to feel obliged to try to speak some Cantonese while there.

Okay, now on with the story: which had me trying to order some chicken giblets to go with my rice and yummy sticky (caramel-like sauce slathered) char siew (Chinese roast pork) at a local eatery on one occasion. Only, when I said "kai kan", I got the tone of the second word wrong -- resulting in my apparently ordering "unnatural sex with a prostitute" (also partly on account of kai (i.e., "chicken") being the Cantonese slang term for "prostitute" as well as being the actual word for a type of feathered fowl)!!!

5) Zimbabwe, 1995: Having saved the longest -- and maybe best -- story for last...After close to a year in Tanzania, I decided that I should reward myself. So off I went to Zimbabwe -- the land of Great Zimbabwe as well as Mosi-oa-Tunya (AKA Victoria Falls); and one which was considerably more prosperous and less troubled then than it sadly is these days -- for a one-week vacation.

For the Great Zimbabwe leg of my visit, I was met at nearby Masvingo airport by a local guide who, shortly after we met, asked me where I was from. At that point in my stay in Africa, I was pretty tired of people not knowing where Malaysia is (or, for that matter, sometimes, what Malaysia was). So I told him that I had come from Tanzania -- something which was partly true since I had gone over to Zimbabwe from Tanzania.

Looking at me, of course my guide laughed. But he stopped laughing when he spoke a few words of Kiswahili to me and I replied back in Kiswahili (a language that I really don't think you can live in Tanzania without knowing some words of and which I had studied for two years before going to Tanzania in 1995).

Then, earnestly, he told me that he had been one of those Zimbabweans who had been a freedom fighter against Ian Smith's Rhodesian regime and trained in Tanzania, where he had learnt some Kiswahili. However, he hadn't had a chance to use his Kiswahili in years. So, he asked, could we speak in Kiswahili rather than English?

These days, I have to admit, my Kiswahili is no longer all that good. Back in 1995 though, I could accede to that Zimbabwean man's request. And so it was that we happily chatted in Kiswahili for the few days that he was my guide.

To bring the story towards its close: All too soon, the time came for us to part. Although he didn't have to, my guide escorted me all the way into the departure area of Masvingo's tiny airport whereupon we bade our formal farewells to each other. Then he took his leave. However, on his way out of the airport, another Zimbabwean man went up to my guide and spoke a few words to him that caused him to roar with laughter and return to where I stood to share the joke with me.

For, as it turned out, the other Zimbabwean man had seen and heard my guide and I conversing in Kiswahili, then proceeded to say to his fellow Zimbabwean -- no doubt on account of my physical features and the improbability of someone with them knowing an African language -- as he passed by: "I didn't know that you could speak Japanese..."!! :DD