Learn from Leung

There is a rare Chinese book that I got from AbeBooks. It’s a compendium of Tony Leung Ka-Fai’s work as a columnist for a Hong Kong newspaper called Wen Wei Po. The book was published in March 2005. Although it’s completely written in Chinese, it has an English title presented on one of the pages: Liang Jia Hui. This is Tony’s Mandarin name. The ISBN 10 code is 7500833369. The reason why Tony Leung wrote a column is because he had difficult finding work after appearing in two Mainland Chinese films by Li Han-Hsiang. The Taiwanese investors who supported the Hong Kong film industry didn’t take too kindly to Tony’s “betrayal” despite the fact that he didn’t make any political statements. Taiwan had a rule that all of his films were not allowed to enter the Taiwanese market, so this is why he later turned down the titular role that John Lone played in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. This was released in 1987 - the same year that Taiwan lifted the ban on Tony Leung, and the same year that he got married.

Confusingly, 1986 was when he had appeared in another film called The Last Emperor (also by Li Han-Hsiang). Before the ban was lifted, Tony had to find other means of work. An editor for Wen Wei Po took pity on him, and invited him to have a regular column called Written with Wisdom. Despite the ban lifted in 1987, Tony continued to write articles until 2008. Although he is an actor, he rarely wrote about his career or industry gossip. This is understandable because he didn’t want to be completely cut off from work as an actor. Ironically, the Liang Jia Hui book was published by a Mainland Chinese publisher. As a writer, Tony had it within himself to become an author of books. He has read many books, both Chinese and otherwise. He also enjoys reading comic books from more than one country, but my article isn’t about this. Since Tony Leung Ka-Fai didn’t want to be completely blacklisted, he is not the sort of writer to criticize a person or a specific group of people. Here are some examples…

There is a saying in early childhood - The cicadas chirp in mourning for the late summer, and the orioles complain about the late spring. It can be seen that the chirping of cicadas is not only ripe but also means that midsummer has arrived and will soon come to an end. When I was young, the chirping of cicadas was always associated with exams. The year I filmed The Last Emperor, I lived in Tuanjie Lake, Beijing. When the summer came, all the cicads in the forest agreed to sing on the same day, which shocked me - an urbanite!

There is a Chinese proverb that goes “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Not long ago, I wrote an article about the invention of electronic paper by the Japanese. When it was published, there were photos of the actual object. I recalled that when I was writing the article, I revised repeatedly, fearing that readers would not understand my description. I really worried in vain. However, it often only takes three or a few days from receipt of an article to publication, and it can even be accompanied by pictures. This shows how diligent the editor is. The editor’s job is to check for the author. Nowadays, it’s okay to use computers to write manuscripts. In the era of fax submission, I believe it is very nerve-wracking just to understand the “dragon flying and phoenix dancing” handwriting.

I am not particularly good at Chinese, and I am often teased by my teachers and friends for thinking in English when writing Chinese, so I always avoid speaking other people’s languages. But this time I couldn’t help but say a few things: What does it mean to “do not rule out the possibility of certain situations”? The possibility of this situation? Radio, TV and newspapers have been saying it over and over again in the past two days. After careful tracking, I found that it came from a spokesperson of a certain department, and everyone just quoted his original words. Radio and television basically broadcast recorded dialogue, which cannot be modified, but why do reporters and editors lazily “print the letter as it is” instead of changing the sentence to “a certain situation may occur”? It is simple and clear. The style that news writing should have! As the Spanish proverb says, “A bucket half full makes the loudest noise,” I can conclude that the sentence “does not rule out…” is a hard translation from English. However, even if I say it in English, it will inevitably sound too pretentious.

My English teacher once taught me to use simple sentences as much as possible. If I have any doubts, read it out loud and listen to see if it feels natural and smooth before using it. The great writer Hemingway wrote long sentences that lasted hundreds of words. However, his usual style was to keep his sentences as short as possible. Whether a person is truly talented or not does not depend on how long a sentence he can write. Wouldn’t it be worse if he shows his weakness due to insufficient ability? Another thing that I hate deeply is “sex” being used as a word for gender.

There is a proverb in the north that says auspicious snow heralds a good harvest. This means that if the winter is bitterly cold, the harvest in the coming year will be good. Therefore, many people use this proverb to wish each other good luck in the market in the coming year. However, this proverb is the experience of the working people, not a Feng Shui theory, and is mainly aimed at the agricultural economy: if the winter is cold enough, the snow will not easily melt and run away, and it will store water in the soil in disguise, and thick snow will protect crops from frostbite. In addition, snow contains nitrogen compounds, which are excellent fertilizers. Therefore, when spring comes, when flowers bloom and it is suitable for farming, the soil becomes extremely fertile and moist. On the contrary, the cold weather helps kill pests lurking in the soil, further creating conditions for a good harvest next year.

Although e-books are convenient, once they become popular, it is conceivable that online piracy and downloading will also become a headache. Just like the singing world is troubled by MP3 today. Although the crisis is an opportunity, it is not easy to deal with. Manufacturers also understand that electronic paper has various limitations, so the focus of promotion is to use it as a textbook, which is indeed a very smart move. In this way, students’ schoolbags will definitely be lighter in weight, and they will not be afraid of being scolded by their teachers for forgetting to bring books. Moreover, in the classroom, etiquette, justice and integrity are all about, and parents will not want their children to use pirated e-textbooks!

There are unconfirmed arguments that laughter can enhance immune system function. The ancients believed that laughter can prolong life, which coincides with what scientists say. Many people probably don’t know that laughter is actually the same reaction as fear: the physiological reactions such as accelerated heartbeat mentioned above are exactly what happens when humans are afraid. When the body receives instructions from the brain, it must make a response. During the laughter response, our bodies will simulate the fear response, which explains why we laugh when others tickle us, but not when we tickle ourselves. Because we don’t know how to respond to the “invasion”, we laugh out of fear, but when we tickle ourselves, our brains have already been reminded and the “surprise attack” effect is lost.

I remember that the little daughter of a friend was different from others. She rarely cried loudly when she was frightened, but always laughed. Adults said that this girl had an extraordinary emotional intelligence quotient (EQ). Looking back now, she might just be a little girl. You are still young and don’t know how to distinguish the signals of laughter and fear. However, there is a school of thought that believes that crying and laughing will exhaust energy and harm the body. Whether laughter is good or bad for the body may be difficult to determine at the moment, but what is certain is that smiling is good for building interpersonal relationships. Being able to laugh off when you are offended or encounter problems is more beneficial! It is better than keeping silent or being tearfully loud.

It is said that Chinese people have two sets of calendars in their body. The Gregorian calendar, also known as the solar calendar, is used on weekdays, and it automatically switches to the lunar calendar. The Cantonese word for lunar calendar (nung lik) is similar to the English expression. It can be used as a conversation aid when teaching children to enhance memory. Hong Kong is an international city. On a normal day, if you suddenly ask someone what day of the month it is on the lunar calendar, most of them will be stunned. However, when big days like the Lunar New Year are approaching, people suddenly use the lunar calendar to travel, travel, and travel. This is true for meeting friends and working. Everyone will say, “I will come to your house to pay New Year greetings on the first day of the year.”

In addition to the calculation of dates, the rhythm of life is also obviously affected. As soon as the twelfth lunar month enters, for some reason, I become nervous about doing things. When I walk on the street, I feel that my pace has accelerated. I can only hear New Year’s music or other routines. Other associations immediately arise in my mind: doing New Year shopping, buying clothes, cleaning, posting Spring Festival couplets, and my nose seems to smell the aroma of fried food and soup, and the whole New Year feeling becomes three-dimensional. Smell is indeed the most important part. No wonder people often mention their memories of childhood food when quoting the French writer Proust’s masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. In fact, our brains can indeed “virtually” create similar smells based on memories. The end of the year is not necessarily busy, but strangely there is still a feeling of busyness. Although it has been almost a century since the Gregorian calendar was changed to the standar calendar, the formation of customs cannot be easily changed (and there is no need to change it).

Receiving 60 spam emails a day may be a trivial matter to many friends, but the author considers himself a rather low-key person: few ordinary friends know my email address, and all official transactions are done through the company’s email address. For forwarding, I only communicate with my company’s email address. I never use my real name when browsing other people’s web pages, and I don’t include a return address when leaving messages on message boards. Therefore, in the past six months, I have received less (not no) spam emails. Those friends who have “widely connected friends” or whose email accounts must be disclosed get more than half of what I get.

Do you think that, except for watching updates, no-one watches the CCTV channels in public places from home? Do you think watching updates is just facing a series of TV screens, and he may be “blind” to the content? As for ordinary residents, the opportunity to watch CCTV signals should be even rarer. If you really think so, then you are wrong: the same mistake I made before I learned that there is a wonderful person in the world who likes to watch CCTV. I guessed that he must be very bored because there is usually no-one on the CCTV screen. Who would have known otherwise. A certain person, Mr. X, lives in a modern apartment with a height of more than 50 floors. There are eight units on each floor, which means that 400 families share three lifts, plus the common platform lifts for each building. Basically, everyone appears on closed-circuit television every moment, so you don’t have to worry about being lonely. Mr. X reminds me of James Stewart in Hitchcock’s classic film Rear Window, a delinquent man who enjoys peeping through other people’s back windows through binoculars.

Hong Kong people like to play Halloween in recent years, and it has become more and more popular. Most people certainly don’t know much about this festival that originated from the Celtic people in Ireland. Most people just follow what others say, buy all kinds of clothes and candies, and disguise themselves as ghosts and go out to play in the streets. It has become a symbol of commercial design and consumerism. Just prey. The simplest fallacy is that everyone wishes each other Happy Halloween, but October 31st is not Halloween at all: the real day is actually November 1st. When I heard a news reporter from a certain TV station say “Today is Halloween,” I was completely confused and couldn’t help but look at him in a new light. The Celtic New Year falls on November 1st.

It is said that ghosts will come out to kill people on New Year’s Eve, so everyone dresses up as a ghost that night, making the evil spirits think they are the same kind. After surviving that night, they are. Just as the Great Flood exists in the myths of different civilizations, the Chinese also have similar legends about the panic on New Year’s Eve: We think “Nian” is a monster that comes out to eat people every New Year’s Eve, so we have Nian stickers on our doors. The peach charm that the beast is most afraid of is burned with bamboo branches to scare it away with the sound of firecrackers. On the first day of the new year, every house opens the door and congratulates each other for another year. The difference is that Chinese mythology chooses to drive away monsters, while the Celtic people pretend to be similar ghosts.

Chinese people also have Ghost Festival, which is now the gradually declining Bonbon Festival. Although both are meant to avoid ghosts, Chinese people tend to give charity to ghosts during the Ghost Festival (not necessarily to buy fear). They do not participate equally and play together. Humans, animals and ghosts have their own boundaries. Perhaps this also explains why the East and West have different views on ghosts. Like ten or eight years ago, many Chinese people today still regard dressing up as ghosts and wearing blood-covered faces as quite taboo. I secretly thought that Halloween could become more popular in Hong Kong. It is really an anomaly. It will definitely happen in the future. It can be classified as a subject of general education. Teachers and students pretend to be ghosts and horses while studying ideas in class. After all, what a joy!

The harm caused by spam emails is well known. However, if there is something more annoying than spam emails, it is probably junk faxes. The author’s company is quite low-key, and not many people know our fax machine number. However, those people have a way of finding your number. When you go back to work after a long vacation, your fax machine will inevitably receive twenty or thirty junk faxes. Most of these faxes are advertisements for atomic printing, copier toner, telecommunications companies, etc. There are also advertisements for real estate companies, travel agencies, courier companies and even snack shops. I don’t know what other people think about forcing others to use white paper and toner. Junk faxes can be called the nemesis of environmental protection.

Most people find spam emails annoying because not everyone has a fax machine at home, but many people have personal computers at home. Spam emails fill up your email inbox and may spread viruses, making them the number one “enemy of the people.” However, the method to deal with it is not difficult. Not so with junk faxes. You have to print it out first to know its contents. No matter whether you use thermal fax paper or ordinary paper plus toner, it is very wasteful. I really doubt how much garbage is created every day in the world because of junk faxes!

Friends in the financial world told me a joke: There is a precious element in the world called gold. It was originally hidden deep underground. Human beings spent a lot of manpower and material resources to dig out the gold, filter it and turn it into pure gold. Then they put it into a vault hidden deep underground, and then spend a lot of manpower and material resources to protect it. If you think this story is ridiculous, it’s time to review your attitude towards life.

This is the Ten Commandments of Dog Raising hanging outside a pet shop in Japan. It seems that the shop owner is not just a businessman who only wants to make money, but treats pets as commodities. Someone who knows Japanese translated it into Chinese and circulated it on the Internet. As a dog owner, I felt very touched after reading it. I sincerely recommend it to friends who are raising dogs, especially those who are planning to keep a dog as a pet. I don’t understand Japanese and cannot proofread the original text, but I have made some modifications to the Chinese version. This is purely to make it more fluent, and I do not intend to delete other people’s translation results and take it as my own….

1: Before you take me home, please note that my life span is about ten to fifteen years; if you abandon me, it will be the greatest pain for me.

2: Please give me some time to understand what you require of me.

3: Trust me! This is very important to me.

4: Please don’t stay angry with me for too long, and don’t lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your entertainment, your friends, but you are everything to me.

5: Please talk to me occasionally. Even if I don’t understand what you say, I enjoy having your voice accompanying me.

6: You have to know that no matter how you treat me, I will never forget it.

7: When you hit me, please remember that I have sharp teeth that can crush the bones of your hand. I just choose not to bite.

8: Before you scold me for being uncooperative, stubborn or lazy, please think about whether there is anything that is bothering me; is it because I don’t get the food I deserve? Is it because I haven’t run in the warm sunshine for a long time? ?Or maybe it’s because my heart is too weak or I’m too old.

9: Please take good care of me when I am old, because one day you will grow old too.

10: When I am about to go through the most difficult journey, please never say: “I can’t bear to watch.” or “It happened when I wasn’t there.” As long as you are with me, everything will be fine. Become simple and easy to accept and please never forget that I love you.

The difference between buying books online and buying books in bookstores is that it is more difficult to stimulate the desire to buy books online. If you already know which book you want before buying, buying books online is undoubtedly convenient. However, readers do not necessarily have goals in advance when buying books, and many times there are situations where you look around and look here and there, originally just looking for one book, but end up buying a lot of them. Putting the entire book on the internet gives customers a chance to preview it, which is not good news for traditional bookstores. However, in addition to complicated procedures, copyright issues also need to be taken into consideration when putting the entire book online, and it is not easy for publishers and authors to convince.

Hong Kong’s population is aging increasingly, and young couples are reluctant to have children, resulting in a decrease in the proportion of children in the population. The immediate effect is that there is a shortage of primary school students. Schools must do everything possible to attract students, otherwise there will be calls to kill the schools.

It has long been established that the Chinese were the first to drink tea. Although the British are also world-famous for their love of tea, the English word “tea” is the pronunciation of the word in the Fujian dialect (“te”). At that time, the British smuggled tea seedlings for export and wanted to cultivate them themselves to break China’s monopoly. They chose Darjeeling on the Sino-Indian border, which had a similar climate to the place of origin and was within the sphere of influence of the British Empire, and Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) to set up tea gardens. Darjeeling and Ceylon black tea are still the best teas to this day. The British learned to drink tea from China, but they drink it in a unique way. They like to add milk and sugar, or drink it with lemon slices, which is very different from the Chinese who just enjoy the aroma of tea.

Hong Kong people also have the habit of drinking afternoon tea. Milk tea and lemon tea are collectively called “Western tea” to distinguish them from the traditional Tang tea. However, when it crosses the Huai River, it becomes orange. There is another way to drink British milk tea in Hong Kong. Although gentlemen and ladies still drink its “high tea”, the working people and ordinary people are popular in drinking “Dai Pai Dong milk tea”: the tea ingredients are a combination of Chinese and Western ingredients, including sirloin (another name for Sri Lanka) black tea, Pu’er tea, mixed with rose tea and more. It is said that different teachers have different secret recipes. After all kinds of tea are brewed, they are filtered through a silk-stocking tea separator. The finished tea is fragrant and smooth in taste. Adding high-sweetness condensed milk, it becomes a unique tea walk. The only option for customers to add sugar is Dai Pai Dong milk tea.

Another drink unique to Hong Kong is called “Yuanyang”, which is one part milk tea mixed with one part coffee. Its taste is mellow and unparalleled. It is said that it originated in those days when the working class needed a refreshing drink, and milk tea alone may not be enough, so this drinking method was invented. As for whether it was an idea from the host of a certain big pai dong, or a special request from a customer, it cannot be tested. Tea was spread from China to the west and became milk tea and lemon tea. Then it was spread back to the east and processed into Dai Pai Dong milk tea and Yuanyang. Can it be regarded as the earliest returnee group?