19 October 2006
My dad and uncle are visiting. We're leaving for Guilin, Yanshuo, and Dragon Rice Terraces; so a trip to mainland China #2. It is really great! Also confusing in several ways: Hong Kong feels still new and exciting, but acting like a guide makes it all seem very familiar for me. At the same time I re-experience the newbie excitements through them that I felt when I just arrived; this makes everything seem very new to me. And, then my dad and uncle make Hong Kong more complete as my home and at same time make me miss the homelyness of home. For the first time here, there are dear people again and for the first time here, I miss those that are missing.
Its a nice confusion. Its also a lot of fun.
Labels: Hong Kong
17 October 2006
Why, many Hours
die when I
stray away
too close to
the neon light
all siren's might
is their call,
the fall of my will
as haute culture
shall lure again
me to the mall.
And catched by
my captivator
the escalator
into this crazy maze
their dazing space
full aesthetism
this mesmerism
as cocaine on my brain
they chain this minotaur
hour upon hour.
Labels: Creative Writing, Hong Kong
13 October 2006
Everyone knows about the big future of China. Hong Kong is no exception. But, expectations weigh heavy on the shoulders of the present worker bees.
As some might already know, Hong Kong has a special status, it is called a SAR (Special Administrative Region) due to the recent colonial past. Hong Kong is not China. However, there is a huge influx of people from mainland China and this feeds the lurking "China taking over Hong Kong." Business slowly turns into Mandarin, and the Cantonese speaking people from Hong Kong are straining themselves to learn Mandarin, everything with a view to job security. Mandarin will be the new language of money.
In general, people move from the countryside to the already bursting cities; pursuing their dreams of wealth. Huge flats house many many people on minimum amounts of space. The majority only have a bedroom and go home to sleep. This is the reason that all these supercheap restaurants swarm the streets. The city provides the kitchen. And then, all these people need work. Like ants the less-fortunate are devoted to the most tedious and ridiculous jobs. Some examples: on 4a.m there are streets full of men sitting on the ground folding newspapers; randomly there are cabins with "24 hr guards", my own hall being an example; every 200 metres of the mountain parks has a "gardener" continuously sweeping the paths etc. etc. Work has a different meaning. Surviving has a real meaning. They seem to draw their amazing motivation from the hope and expectation provided by those economic figures. And these numbers do work their magic: money is spend, shops thrive and buildings grow. Really, there is no suffering in the air, the gardeners sweep with a smile, the guards always wave back and every single restaurant is filled with a lively melange of voices.
With all my heart I hope their golden future will bless them all!
06 October 2006
05 October 2006
[below an utterly egocentered post. about mememe. only read when really, really bored. WHEN more interested in HONG KONG, it is boring, long and irrelevant. ]
My (over-) dramatic writing, lack of humour and bitter ideas caused some people to believe I am unhappy here. Whoops. Not my intention.
NoW:
It iz Really AMaziNG here!! WHooo! WOW, Best time of my lIfe!! SeriousLy I AM Definitely in LOOVEE with this Place!! tOO HappY!! happyhappyhappy! WOW. It's just JUST just UnbelievablE!! It's Like like like, just Yum! CRazy City is blOOwing me OUtta My MInd! Just CAN't grasp it ... HappIest TIme in my LIfe!! IncredIBle, FANtasTIc!! do NOT know how to Express it.
so.
these americanized feelings are felt, amazing enough. but they are just ugly in words. and annoying to read. and only dead-n-gone in the gravery of my memory when behind my comp.
so.
so.continuing.the.trip:OUTSIDENESS in RETROspection:
Confession:consider.AuthOR.(NotMartinHimself).A.Robot. -.seriously.Incapable. Of.EMOtionality.-.WHEN.Thinking!! just thoughts and theories. E.G: previous post, I only mean that OUTROspection seems opposed to INTROspection [it's even a BIG cliche already!], when you are thinking, 'the external' appears within your mind; when you see the world, your mind appears in the WORLD. Be Free to ProJecT any feelings YOU would have while experiences anyofthetwo onto these ideas, but !please! do not project them on me.
so.continuing.the.trip:PPL INspection:
Confession:consider.AuthOR.(NotMartinHimself).A.Robot.
-ASOCIAL.:. does.not. like.humans. in.general.:.ONLY.likes.friends. NOT.the.unknown-neighbor!! E.G: if bitching about people from Hong Kong, the label 'ppl from hk' becomes discrimination only when reader connects it with feelings, it is just meant as generalisation and phenomenal analyses and nothing else...
so.continuing.the.trip:HK REspection:
Confession:consider.AuthOR.(NotMartinHimself).EGOcentric. E.G: some just want to read how Hong Kong is. Some just want to know 'happenings'. This is very hard. ONE essential "ENJOYMENT" -that !MORE SHOULD ENJOY!- is twisting/distorting/ REcreating/REforming/reSPECTating the experiences of things: i can only write about these fragmented (re)creatures of intertwined sense&imagination&thinking.
[Agreed: will need to try more REspect for the wonderful hong kong!]
the end.
and a shoe.
Labels: Creative Writing, Hong Kong, Thoughts
01 October 2006
After intensity comes ... just sleep, nostalgic gaming, mountain peaks, books, tracking down Kali's adddress, parent skyping, boats, crabby fisher villages, apocalyptic fireworks, masses of people, bbq porc, bbq porc, everlasting city strolls, Cup Noodle, an essay, doing laundry with my 9th floor view, frog chopping axes, sleep; a lethargic week in Hong Kong.
Note: I now believe that only in times of mental inactivity we are a member of our surroundings. only when we're zombie do we belong to the other zombies. without evaluation only valuation remains. and with a sleeping mind, my eyes just asorb. Is the thinker then really doomed to alienation? is the thinker the eternal loner?
And thus the eternal questioning recuperates from a blow of intense experience. so, I slowly part away from the world agian, and the more I realize the faster I drift.
NoteNote: And yet I do not dare-, I do not need-, I do not want to cry out: 'Stop This', 'Help Me', 'Is there anybody out there?'.
no. I rather drift.