Scary Picture

I saw this picture at one of the cartoon scholar's archives. It sent shivers up my spine as these are all friends of my granddad during the cultural revolution. He too would not have escaped and would have been humiliated and tortured, likely not to survive that and worse end up with a broken spirit or killed off...

Xitang

So while we went to visit the ancient village of Xitang, the rest of the cultural bureau was reading up on the material we left them with on my granddad and by dinner time it was apparent they had done their homework and were swimming in the information.

Overall the trip to China I think was a success, we had very good meetings with museums, the art academies, no one slammed the door in our face, all wanted to work with us in some way and so now to digest all that as well.

In Shanghai, Mom was too exhausted to face another library and so she slept the whole morning. Her trip involved transportation of all types! They even took a "bread van" from the train station of Jiashan to Xitang before I got there. The van took all the side mud roads to avoid having to pay tolls and they got to see real village life. I think I'll rent a place there and take the kids! We could do day trip outings to Hangzhou and Suzhou, Shanghai seemed way to hectic, maybe we'll just park ourselves there for a week. Or maybe 5 days in each spot...

My impressions of the ancestral home, well its bigger than I thought and the people not as unsophisticated as I thought too. It was a very nice warm welcome, they even gave us the local produce like silk pajama's and a nice thick wool scarf. They are v realistic people and showed the same "can do attitude" that we encountered throughout the trip.

Jiashan

My granddad was born in Shanghai in 1917, his father was born in Jiashan, in one of the articles written by my grandfather, he talks about his father's home in Jiashan, located in a street immediately after crossing "Maiyu" bridge (bridge to sell fish), take a right and walk to the end to a large home.

Well the road now leads straight through, the old houses there have been torn down now and a new development would be put up. The government officials said if we had come 3 years earlier and, they could have at least saved it for a memorial or a building.

Jiashan is situated about an hour from Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou, they have abundant veges and fish and now also factories. The population is about 700,000 people and there is an old city called Xitang just 15 mins away, where they have preserved the lifestyle of the inhabitants.

The government has been trying to promote culture and has built 2 other facilities for 2 other famous people from the area. They are keen to do something with us but I think they are now in shock as to the amount of work he has done and the amount of possibilities...

Our welcome started with a banquet... a big breakfast, a lunch banquet at Xitang and a dinner banquet with the vice mayor (who is in charge of culture). After our meeting which took alot more time than they thought, they cancelled the sightseeing at the economic zone. We did see 2 museums there, the chinese grave is of the famous artist from the Yuan dynasty. The other is of a famous actor. Their first thoughts were to maybe build a research center for my granddad, but they also wanted time to think and digest.

Beijing

Beijing started snowing on saturday about a month earlier than scheduled. The heaters in Beijing are usually switched on on the 15th of November this year the central controlled heating started about 2 weeks earlier. About 3 days after the snow storm (5 inches of snow fall from a cold front and moist front), the energy generating plants started kicking up and the smog also started appearing. Not bad that for the 6 days I was in Beijing we did have 3 days of sunshine.

Luckily I was staying with Sharon and was able to borrow real winter gear, a big coat that I used for several days. Sharon and I also hit the Thai restaurant for hot hot Tom Yam soup twice during this trip.

The one thing I felt about Beijing this time round is how big everything is, the buildings are truly big... One night when we were there, my friend sharon bit into a rock and broke her tooth, there is a mouth hospital emergency room that we headed to around midnight... it was clean and professional and the cost was was only US$ 5 for the consultation.

The picture of the buildings are of the Beijing central library... the cab driver told me its halfway across the city and the subway would be faster so I tried it, the fare is only RMB 2 (less than US$ 0.50) and 20+ stops later I got there. Needless to say the library is humongous.

The stairway has a side ramp for people to push their bicycles up and down the overhead bridge.

Here is the boys at a halloween party with dada who played Mr. mom for 10 days.

Chiffon Cake

We baked a really yummy lemon orange chiffon cake the day before my trip to China. It was so delicious I did not get a chance to take a picture of the finished cake. I didn't get a piece the next morning and have been craving a piece since.

Porpor's adventure : Chongqing

It's not perfect and can be better, but good enough to have a good time. It's was drizzling yesterday. The top half of bright yellow taxi was clean, but the lower half was yucky. The road was muddy and we have to be careful not to be splashed. On top of that we have to wait a long, long time, more than half an hour for a taxi!

Took us almost an hour to reach the library - traffic jam amd detour. Since I did not fix an appointment, it was fine. The librarians were there and nice, so everything turn out fine. The museum had the float that was in the parade with the usual propaganda stuff. The museum woman was impressed by Huang Yao's book, which had the forward by Feng Yuexiang. Apparently he is popular in China.

They are all nice people and seem to be helpful but I am not expecting much. I think we do have enough material to make an impressive brochure for selling Niubizi exhibition. O, yes, the library welcomes exhibition of yeh2's work. Chongqing is the place for war resistance materials and exhibitions. But the city is so big, and spread out, not sure about how many people will turn out. The visitors of the museum appear to be tourists mostly.

The librarians told me there may be more materials on war resistance in Baipei, a place Huang Yao had also mentioned. It's 50 km away. After the morning experience to the library, I will wait for my friends to find out first whether it's worth going.

The rain fanally stopped and we went for a walk in the neighbourhood. There is a big bus station nearby, and we can see many people from farm. In fact we met many young people on the way, and they were from the farms. The vegetables are fresh and big. So are the fruits. The apples have apple smell! Many types of persimons. crunchy ones and small round soft delicious ones. We visited Walmart and the spread of fruits, vegetables, wines, tea, life fish etc is very interesting. Even has rambutans and durians. It is not big but with a great varieties of goods.

The food here tastes like what your friend, Christine, cooked for us in S. Africa - spicy and numbing the tongue and lips, lots of oil too. We finally managed to get a very good simple hot, mostly vegetables meal for lunch. We saw some dishes spread out on the table and asked for the same thing. They turned out to be the worker's lunch- delicious. Saw a deer hanging upside down outside a restaurant just now. Don't think I will be able to eat deer for a long, long time.

The people love their babies. Many of them have bamboo baby basket on their backs, but the toddlers were toddling around, chubby and rosy cheeked.

We even visited a lauching of new apartment complex. Very impressive. The guard stood like a soldier, saluting people going to view the apartments. It's about 200K for 60-70 sq m apartment and the whole area is nicely landscaped. No way do I want to live in Chengdu or Chongqing, I want my blue sky.

Porpor's adventure : Chengdu to Chongqing

A bit of background, porpor is hitting interior china in search of material that my granddad has done, hopefully the libraries will yield a few books, ie we have about 15 of the known 35 items he has done... when the boys are older we may do this trip as well, starting with the origin of the journey from shanghai inland. Porpor flew from KL straight inland with 3 other adventurous and courageous friends! ready for local adventure... bubby take note of food, we will go someday!

"Got into Chongqing from Chengdu by train. Interesting ride through many, many tunnels. The railway station just open late 2007, very impressive!

Met a young man of 20 yrs old from farm area. He started working 3 years ago for less than a hundred yuan (US$15), but now drawing 3K (US$ 500) a month in a spare part manufacturing factory. Good for him. China has opportunities for people with not much education. China has good future!"

Porpor's adventure : Chengdu

Porpor arrived on Thursday last week...

"we opened and account in Bank of China. So now don't need to carry much cash around. Anyway Chengdu seems to be a safer place than KL. Girls walking along the streets not hanging on to their handbags. The sun cannot be seen and the sky is overcast all the time. Yesterday there was a bit of sun and the taxi driver told me it was a good day! The plants seem dusty and when I rub the leave it is dust! Don't know how people can live without clear sky and clean air. Don't think Marcia would like it.

Been to the archive-no info. They only keep info on crimes.

Museum just moved to its new location earlier this year in a big park. It has trees, ducks in lake, people fishing in murky water. The museum is having an exhibition of the great painter, since the last 500 years. Zhang Dachien must have left a big collection of his copy of Dunhuang Cavepaintings to the museum. I got the email address of the person to contact in the museum.

The library has 5 of yeh2's books which we also have.

After all this running around, we visited the place where all tourists must go -jinli place. It has easily over a hundred of small shops for tourists. Over priced but hardly any 2 sell the same stuff. Marcia would love that. It was night, the place was transformed and the lights were inviting.

Today, we visited the Jianchuan Museum. It lives up to the images it has in its website. There are quite a number of Feng Zikai's cartoons about lives of people in the war in the museum about the Sichuan army. Actually the whole place is relaxing and lovely, minus the lousy air. It's located 1 1/2 hrs from Chengdu in a farming area near a small ancient town. There is also another exhibition site about the homes of some rather well off military families. But we didn't have the time to see that also, as the bus had to leave for Chengdu by 4.30pm. I did meet a young lady who works the the museum who was doing a survey. They are trying to develop into an international museum. Met a few Sichuan university students who will help me look for Huang Yao's things. They are learning English and needs practice. I think the place is too far away.

We are staying in a backpacker's place, so it's lively and with lots of young people. It spartan, but safe and the reception is very helpful.

Tomorrow we are going to Chongqing by a medium speed train ie 3 1/2 hrs. There should be more material there."

What Ike and I do while...

Nate is in Jewish Sunday School... We took a big walk to the national library, saw some interesting sculptures near the art museum and then went into the national museum and at the spiral staircase, ike turned it into a race track. They really should have a natural history museum here, imagine big dinosaur bones!

With the prospect of watching star wars, the deal was for nate to do well in jewish school and boy did the teacher say she was impressed by him when he applies himself.

Porpor is in China

and she is alive! she arrived in Chengdu last thursday and has been to several libraries. She last reported in from Chongqing, where we had hoped to find some new material that we do not have (our best bet) but unfortunately, it has not yielded anything that we do not already have. I think we just have to accept that there will be some material we will never reencounter and be grateful for the ones that did survive.

Here is a cute snake as an art piece in a mall, I am quite enjoying all the different art pieces that are now all over the city. Very nice!

International Day

at school, the kindy kids had a carnival (think evil doughnuts... we contributed a challah to the lunch for the kids). Here's nate with his best friend, pasquale and ike with his sister, elizabetta.

Since they were off school early.... mama took them to the zoo, here is nate with julian and pasquale on the pull boat thing.

Deepavali 2009

We were invited to Aunty Vini's house for deepavali where the boys took a nap and stayed up till it was dark, they played with loads of sparklers. The holiday fell on a sat which means monday was a school holiday and Pasquale kindly invited us on his dad's speedboat. We sped to his private beach (a reclaimed island off Singapore). The boys had a great time.

After that in the afternoon we went bowling. I don't know where I get the energy to go on but these guys really can do it.

Dada and nate started that weekend on Star Wars.... a movie per weekend, they are up to episode 4 now, where anakin becomes darth vader. Now how cute is this new wii game? they use lego star wars characters as the players...

Here is my only herb doing well at the kitchen sill, a parsley of sorts.

Finland here we come...

For those who have not heard... well we are moving to Helsinki, it was announced on friday. Loren got promoted to SVP but we get to stay in Singapore till mid of next year and then there is only about 18 months left in his contract and we can move back? Am quite happy and grateful for the time in singapore, I feel we have made some head way on the 2 things we wanted to achieve here. The boys chinese are improving daily (so is mine! I now speak to them more often in chinese). We are on the hunt for a chinese tutor / nanny / helper to bring to Finland.

My granddad's stuff is also on track and we will have alot more in place before we leave. I am off to China early november for a series of meetings.

So, anyone with any advice on how to dress for the Finnish weather, more than welcome to drop me a line. Any hand me down skates? ice hockey gear for a 5 year old?

Aaron the giant was in town this week and the boys enjoyed climbing all over him, I must go and get that shot loren took... dada and Ike at the St. Regis pool where Aaron is staying.

Here's deepavali at the school. The boys did an indian dance, tho ugh ike just sat there. Here are the boys after knocking each other out at boxing.

Loren's Blog

For those who want to follow Loren's blog (I think he was inspired by Mitch's Six Pixels of Separation)...

http://shouhealth.blogspot.com

Nate's rollerblading classes

He now has Caden in his class... with that and ice skating (which we did on monday and I have sore arms from pushing 4 kids around on their ice support bars), those two are getting quite competitive and thus learning to skate quite quickly. The most diligent is actually sage and she will probably outdo those two boys.

Here is Ike waking up after a nap and is smiling but trying to pretend he is still in the grumpy I just woke up mood... who won't be smiling, getting cuddled up close and comfy to Aunty Lilin! Here is one of Lilin's banners for her new Loopz product (I didn't have my marker pen otherwise, she would have a moustache... maybe I can do that via Adobe Illustrator, heh heh). Loren has tested it and gives it high marks!

Saturday BBQ

We had a BBQ at Pasquale's home... here is his dad, slicing the head off a frozen champagne bottle... he did open quite a number of vintage champagnes for us (thanks! carmelo!), the kids had a great time running around and playing, while the adults ate al fresco... too bad it had to end!

Here is a shot of my tomato, I think the crows got bored of eating the flowers, we have about 6 coming.... our mango trees are also beginning to fruit... mangosteens and rambutans are back in season! yay.

Nicest Play place found to date

is at Pasir Ris and run by NTUC, too bad its so far but they have a really good facility for kids to climb, jump, skate... and for the parents, massage chairs and even a room for a snooze!

Ike interested in the multi colored balls... having a surreal experience!

Ike's report card...

So we read his report card and are wondering if they are writing about the same kid... just 3 months ago, he scored everything in the bottom percentile... and now he's way up there??!! Did 3 months make such a difference? maybe that road trip? Maybe the synapses have kicked in??? In any case, here is what the teacher's say...

Ike is Superb when it comes to counting and he loves showing his friends how to count. Ike loves to read story books and he is also very good at retelling a story in front of the class. He loves predicting the outcomes of stories and talks in full sentences.

Apparently he's also not whispering as much... he's been commended as a good team player (maybe its time to start him on ice hockey?), he is unsure if he is a lefty or righty and is curious about computers (huh! at least not crying anymore when its computer time).

I guess at 3 something must kick in in their development??

Nate has continued scoring on the high end of the spectrum and I am starting to wonder if the school is challenging enough for him, though he says he is very happy there. His cousin who is the same age can spell one to thirty... and tried to get nate into a spelling contest... nate spelt one as, W-E-N. Not bad first try I thought... a different perspective then O-N-E.

Ike still crashes out in the afternoon for a little nap and has a cough now. Kids in school have been getting sick. Hope he doesn't succumb.

Singapore Discovery Center

Took the boys here on sunday. Felt quite sluggish after the moon festival, must be the digestion of the mooncakes or just all that excitement!

Nate said he got punched by a kid in school... the bruise is alot darker and blacker now...

The black and white image is the boys on TV, I should have take a video, Ike was talking and talking and talking, when given the microphone!

Mid Autumn Festival

It was a drizzly day, so the full moon did not make its appearance... I also could not hang the bulk of the paper lanterns out on the trees... nor could the kids go on a little neighbourhood walk... but moving the car, there was enough space in the garage for the usual chaos.

I was quite happy buying my huge and rather costly pomelo's from chinatown (the phone is placed there as an indication of size), from a man who only sells there twice a year. He says I will be back for years and years to come as its is an IPOH pomelo and it is sweet and juicy, I even placed them high on my cake stands in the middle of the buffett spread... well the verdict... sigh not great. The cheap pomelos were much nicer. Next to the pomeloes is our giant guava fruit from the tree. Hope Jin has found a way to eat it. We both have gained weight from munching on moon cakes.

Olivia made really yummy dumplings and oven baked spring rolls that turned out really nice too. The satay was ordered. The kids liked lighting their sparklers and I must remember to buy the smokeless ones next time! at one point there was smoke slowly making its way out of the pine trees, I thought the tree may be on fire! We had one casualty... Caden got burnt by a sparker and is probably never going to use one again.

Someone brought the whistling type and that was a bit exciting... the kids kind of enjoyed taking their little lanterns around but the candles sure burn out quickly.

Oh and that is olivia with the host of the amazing race, Alan Wu, who is Jonas and Sage's dad. Its quite funny how everywhere we go with Lilin and Alan, they get stopped by people who want to take photos with them.