So nice that we three sisters who were born in Nanjing had a good time in last May to visit the old place where we lived after birth...
That is a big courtyard where it was Kuomintang's general headquarter of combined service and then after liberation, PLA Nanjing military Region Political department used it as dormitory in early 50s..
Here is my picture sorted out for memory:
Looking from the street, the Gate is still looked magnificent. It is the only preserved one while most buildings behind it was dismantled.
This flowerbed is very impressive in my young memory. I remembered that after I entered the gate, turned left and then I could find my home.
This is the old building where we lived, now is also dismantled. This picture was taken by dormitory manager in 80s last century.
We three sisters, each was born in 1950 (Me, in the middle), in 1952(The right one) and in 1954(The left one). More than half century passed. Time really flies!
Standing at the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, we were still holding on the hope and wishes of life.
Xuanwu Lake, a famouse park in center of the city. Inside Xuanwu Lake are 5 isles that are suitable for a scenic walk and contain many small tourist attractions such as Lama Temple, small amusement park rides and the "Temple of Xuanwu Lake God." We used to visit Xuanwu Lake as our home was near it.
We were very happy back home with mother after visiting our birthplace. We have experienced a lot and got to know what life was and now we still like to take an optimistic attitude towards future. As long as there is hope, there is life! Let's smile all the days!
Hope you would share my happiness!
Update: Google is now unblocked. I am sure it's blocking rather than "technical maintaince" since it's working fine with proxies.
Now, Google is almost totally blocked in China. A lot of its products, like Google Reader, Google Mail(GMail), Google Code... is not accessible in mainland China.
What a shame for us. What a shame for the stupid kommunist!
They could blocked Youtube, but they could never block people's creativities!
Here's a very popular video from China recently, by "紫禁双鹤堂zimo" (Zi Jin Shuang He Tang Zimo), a Kuso version of Linkin Park's <In The End>:
After Facebook, Youtube, Plurk, Twitter is now finally blocked in China. Though people have predicted this and I know it's sooner or later, it still make me so sad.
I am a super fan of Twitter and I have got nearly 4000 followers, 70% of which are from mainland China. Now I cannot talk to them and nor can they talk to me. some of our authors and readers are also very active in Twitter.
What a stupid censorship! What a shame!
FYI:
- In the "China Twitter user investigation" I made few weeks ago, more than 70% twitter users from China said they'd keep using Twitter with proxy servers. Only very few of them would consider to join other twitter-like services in China.
- Wikipedia is also blocked today!
- Bing.com and Live.com are also blocked!
- Almost all the Chinese twitter users are spreading #FUCKGFW, #FuckGFW and #fuckGFW around and it soon became the hottest Trending Topics couple of hours later!
I went to south China with 2 sisters for about 2 more weeks and when I came back home I got a pps file from a friend, on which there are great compassion and vows.
They come from the most venerable master Sheng Yen, who was the founder of Dharma Drum Mountain and passed away on 9 Feb, at the age of 80. I select 10 of them, which are both in Chinese and English, to share with other friends here, as I think what Master Sheng Yen said is definately right and practical in life. I wish you would like and keep them!
- 忙而不乱，累而不疲
Be busy but happy, and tired but joyful
- 应该忙中有序地赶工作，不要紧张兮兮地抢时间
Work swiftly in an orderly fashion; never compete with time in a nervous flurry.
- 人生的起起落落，都是成长的经验
All the ups and downs of life are nourishing experience for our growth.
- 山不转路转，路不转人转，人不转心转
If the mountain won't move, build a road around it. If the road won't turn, change your path. If you are unable to even change your path, just transform your mind.
- 不用牵挂过去，不必担心未来，踏实于现在，就与过去和未来同在
There's no need to be concerned about the past or the future. Live fully in the present and you are connected with both the past and the future.
- 智能，不是知识、不是经验、不是思辨，而是超越自我中心的态度
Wisdom is not knowledge, nor experience, nor dialectical excellence, but a selfless attitude.
- 担心，是多余的折磨；用心，是安全的动力
While worry fuels unnecessary torment, carefulness breeds security.
- 超越死亡三原则：不要寻死，不要怕死，不要等死
To transcend the suffering of death, keep to the three principles: never seek death, never fear death, and never wait for death to come.
- 身是菩提树，心如明镜台
This body is the Buhdi-tree. The soul is like a mirror bright.
- 慈悲没有敌人，智慧没有烦恼
Devote wholehearted effort without calculating who does or gains more.
Enjoy your Dragon Boat Festival!
Some months ago, my friend Elliott Ng from the U.S asked me what Chinese LOST fans are thinking/discussing about LOST. I promised to post something here, and as the season 5 is now finished, I think it's time to share something here with you western LOST fans.
The easiest way to know what Chinese LOST fans are thinking about is to analysis the polls held by hot LOST forums in China. I collected some data from ydy.com, 1000fr.com, yyets.net(Some very popular online forums on foreign, mainly American TV series in China) and some of my friends, shared the results as follows:
- Most Chinese LOST fans are male, 18-25. Few of the fans are under 18 or over 30.
- Most Chinese fans think that Kate (42.29%) and Shannon (31.45%) are the most attractive women in LOST. Though Sun is the only main Asian character in LOST, she just got 14.67% votes. Polls held on some other small forums show that there're also a lot of Juliet fans.
- Most Chinese fans hate Michael and Ana Lucia after SEASON 2. In a vote named "Who do you hate most", Michael (45.98%) and Ana Lucia(20.28%) got the most votes. Ben Linus only got 0.8% votes - I think that's due to the date of the poll (2006).
- Most Chinese fans think that Sawyer(54.83%) is the most attractive man in LOST.
- 95.59% of Chinese fans think that Ben Linus is cleverer than Charles Widmore.
- 93.81% of Chinese fans prefer to watch the original TV (with subtitles) rather than a dubbed one.
- In a poll named "Which one will Kate choose", Sawyer got 51.37%, Jack got 34.91% and the rest (13.72%) think that Kate would choose neither.
- In a poll named "Who is the key people in LOST", John Locke got 35.39% in a lead, then are Jack (18.86%) and Walt(15.03%). Ben got very few votes.
- In a poll named "Who do you want to stay with on that island", Jack got 70% FTW.
- Most Chinese fans would NOT push the button when the count down reaches the end if they were the LOSTies.
- Most Chinese fans think Locke or Ben should be the leader. The reason for Locke is "He never complained to others" while the reason for Ben is "He always has a plan".
- 72.8% of Chinese fans think that Ben killed John for some unknown reasons. 7% think that Ben is just for stealing the information from John.
Though with lots of participators, those results above are the polls since 2005. They should represent the most condition here in China, especially for the past years but not for the current condition and the future. As the TV series goes on, there are lots of new comments on this series. For example, after the Jacob finally appeared in the Season 5 finale, there were also a lot of comments saying that LOST is just another story of "神仙打架，百姓遭殃" (Gods fight, human disaster). And more and more fans started to doubt that the writer of LOST would never explain his show gracefully on a scientific basis.
Though I've been attracted by LOST for so much, I have to admit that Prison Break in China is much more popular than LOST. I don't know why. Maybe most Chinese people love stories like the Shawshank Redemption - They are restricted/censored too much to be so non-harmonized:)
However, there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes, just enjoy the show for yourself :)
(The pictures of Jack Shepherd below are from http://voote.com/)
We were discussing statistics when my American colleague told me about a story of his friend's family. Whenever they travel by air, they break the family up and take different planes. My American colleague thought that this made no statistical sense, that is, the chances of a plane to crash isn't going to change.
However, the chances for the whole family to perish from air crashes do become significantly smaller, considering that it takes all the planes the family members take to crash for the whole family to decease, and I guess this is what makes sense for that family. Yet I have another idea: it would be a tragedy for anyone of the family to survive the accidental death of other intimate members, and it is far more comfortable (at least for me) to go along with my family, alive or dead, which means, taking the same plane would be the 'rational' choice for me, as we can they live and die together.
My colleague laughed hard. He'd never looked at the problem from this angel before. But he admitted that my opinion made sense to him.
And so much as I'd like to generalize for the East and the West, this opinion might be just mine and mine alone. What do you think? Will you device a strategy to outlive your family, or would you rather be with them, for eternity?
Just want to share some BBQ photos (taken yesterday). I have always appreciated HKUST for setting up a BBQ place at the beach for students. You can book the stove on student intranet. Everything is just so simple.
In these photos, one GG is an exchange PhD students. The other people except me are MPhil and PhD students from the same CS lab. For me, I'm a guest invited by my friend.
I'm also going to commence my MPhil from this summer in the next two years. By that time things will get much more intense compared with current student life. However, I think no matter how limited the time is, don't ever be an otaku. When feeling tired, try to go out, meet friends and get relaxed. That's surely better than just staying in dorm beside the laptop :-)
I learnt the trait of independence from my mum, who gave me lessons in person on how to be steely and independent when I was a child girl. Even though we had a lot of quarrels in my adolescence and I was strongly against her dominating parenthood, I eventually turned out to be an independent person – exactly like her, as my dad described.
My mum is a capable woman who can always effectively arrange everything in order. She’s recognized as successful by her co-workers, but pitiful woman in marriage from my stand. I swore that I would never be in the same tragedy like her when she crying heavily on my shoulder and complaining my dad’s coldness. I don’t wanna judging her too much, but the masses of my parents’ problems originated from her hard characters in large extent.
So I always have doubts on IS BEING TOO INDEPENDENT A GOOD THING?
Independence is defined by me as being independent characteristically, economically and emotionally. Characteristically, I always do things on my own (not in study or jobs) if I assure that I’m able to handle them well. In fact, I’m not too shy to ask for help but for the reason of avoiding to be other’s burden. Economically, I get used to make clear with friends in moneys, even with intimate friends. Emotionally, I tried to not get involved in any relationships too much if there seems no future.
Ironically, sometimes It’s hard, and also sad for me to work towards these rules. As I was told by my ex that he felt like I didn’t need him by my side because of my strong independence, I felt like something was breaking deep inside of my heart. I didn’t expect that intention of avoiding of being someone’s burden would result in the sense of distance.
remark: The vote regarding "Am i an independent person?"
Obviously, from the above vote on my xiaonei.com page (it’s like “Chinese facebook”), entitled “Am I an independent person?”, majority of my friends (89%) responded YES while the rest 11% considered NO.
“You can’t bear loneliness, can you?”, one of my intimate friends said, ”That’s why I thought you’re not independent enough, especially in the subject of emotions.”
“It’s nature that showing steely side to strangers but weak side to close friends. Take it easy.”
……
Yes, In most cases, I’m indeed an independent person. However, is it a good thing or bad? I’m still not quite sure about it. Or maybe it depends on persons you’ve met – if he/she would appreciate your independence.
Well, I'm glad to announce that my third plugin for WordPress – WordPress Comment Digg is now offically released, via the platform of ifgogo.com – a group of funny bloggers from China. Download Link on WordPress.org.
Thanks to Jun He, who helped me with a lot coding with MySQL and PHP. Here are some screenshots:
The live demo:
The Option page:
The mangement page:
