People here eat tofu by first deep-frying it, then drenching it with soya sauce and scallion topping.. which is just the way I love it.. yum!
That aside, yesterday we began work in an area that was previously one of the worst slums with a notorious reputation - the Manila people love to say that in the past when you ask taxi drivers to take you to Baseco they would refuse wholeheartedly, since it was filled with criminals. However, after a devastating fire, a Philippines charity group called Gawad Kalinga (will write more about them. My utmost respect for them.) has been working to convert the slum area into a community village, and it does work. The whole place is very lively, especially in the evening, that it felt great just walking along the streets and looking at people chatting, eating, kids playing all kinds of games, running, rooster and dogs around... It illustrates perfectly well the Jane Jacobs mantra: "Eyes on the street", since almost everyone knows everyone else, and as the result the street feels like someone's living room instead of just a strip for vehicles to pass by.
Work has been quite fun, though for the most part I spent my time drawing cartoon characters for the kids instead of doing fieldwork huhuhu... I love it when they come to me, say words in Tagalog, like "Paruparo!" (butterfly) or "Itik!" (chick), then I would refer to my little Filipino-English dictionary, check out the word, exclaim an enlightened "Ah! ok.." and proceed to draw on pieces of paper or their hands hahaha.. After some time, some of the kids called me "Ateh drawing" huhu.. "Ateh" means big sister in Tagalog. To be honest,I learned basic level of Tagalog, like asking what's your name, where's your school, how many siblings you have,without even realizing it.. thanks to talking to the kids.. I must've looked like an idiotic foreigner trying to chat with 5 kids at once while consulting a mini phrasebook at the same time, but hey it pays off! ;p
That aside.. working the whole day in an area where people are just blatantly poor, then coming back to a comfortable hostel and eating a nice dinner.. I don't know exactly how to behave or what to think.. Selfishly, I'm coping by telling myself that at least during the day I'm working to try and see what we as designers can do for people..but who am I kidding.. That's why I respect the Gawad Kalinga people so much.. I can really see the difference between the living conditions inside the GK villages compared to some of the nearby areas that are still slums, and it's at least comforting to know one can really make a difference with the right model, the right management, and a lot of money. (This last bit is really important.)
About the slums.. Walked through slums around Baseco and it's my first time really going into a slum area.. A slummed-up slum where the ground is made up of rubbish heaps, not soil, and people's houses are assembled from whatever materials they can find.. As an architecturally-trained student, there's much that can be analysed, admired even, since a slum really is an amalgam of people's determination to build, their creativity, economical thinking, and pure survival instinct.. Multiply that by the hundreds, continue adding layers, and you get a large slum like Baseco, Kibera (Africa) or Dharavi (India). Complex, to say the least. Can't say much, I really think pictures say more for these kind of things.
A clumsy farewell, then, readers.. Cheesy as it sounds, whatever your situation is right now -relationship problems, school stuff, family etc etc - just give thanks, just be grateful... because, if you're like me, people like us can't even comprehend how lucky ourselves are...
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Morsels from Manila - part 2
Hmm... I think I should write something interesting about Manila instead of just complaints, and so, here we go. One of the most interesting things about the Philippines, and Manila, is that it was influenced by so many cultures, so many races.. Hence,the resulting cultural amalgam is worth spending some time to tease apart and understand.
A bit of a history lesson: the indigenous Philippines people were very closely related to Indonesians, especially those from Sulawesi, which is just below Southern Philippines. Then came 400 years of Spanish rule, after which the Spaniards sold the Philippines for US$20 million to the Americans.( By the way, the name Philippines came about because the Spanish conquistadors dedicated the islands to King Philip II of Spain.) During World War II, the Japanese took over the Philippines, and after 3 years under Japanese rule it gained independence. (Disclaimer: bits and pieces assembled from conversations with people, including those responding to my very limited Tagalog, so take with a pinch of salt.)
Well, the presence of all these cultures can be seen in today's Manila. Philippino language has quite a number of words similar or almost similar to Indonesian, for example, 'mahal' also means expensive, 'pintu' (door), 'lelaki' (guy), 'anak'(child), 'nasi' (rice), 'gandum' (wheat) all mean the same things. 'pasuk' = 'masuk' (enter), 'kris' = 'keris', etc.. and they also have a musical instrument they call 'kolintang', the exact same thing as ours. In terms of food.. the snacks and cookies are very similar to Indonesia.. people eat a lot of chips (kerupuk, which here they call 'chicarron') made from rice, cassava, tapioca, corn, jackfruit etc. When I was walking past a market that sold traditional Philippines cakes (kue!) I felt I was right back in Indonesia, it was kinda surreal hahaha...
The Spanish influence is also present in food.. It's common to find people selling 'turron', which is a typical Spanish snack (that I had a good time trying out when I was backpacking in Spain.. aah.. those Gaudi and Calatrava buildings..). Their marks are also imprinted on the design of the Philippines traditional costume (Go ahead, you want to google it don't you), which doesn't look like it belongs to a Southeast Asian nation at all, if you ask me. Until 1985, Spanish language was a compulsory lesson in school.To say "bye" , you can say "adios", and to this day people from Manila are called 'Manileños'.
The Americans.. thanks to their reluctance to learn any other language than English (just a little joke here..) left a very useful legacy: that the average Philippino / Philippina has a decent level of English, with reasonably good pronounciation. From the jeepney driver, waiter, people on the street and even people in the slums, there is no problem communicating in English. Ah yeah, and today when some people saw my totally ang-moh (that's Caucasian for those who don't speak Singlish..) looking German tutor pass-by, they shouted: "Hey Joe! Joe!" hahahaha... (I think it refers to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe - but I'm not sure)
Lastly, the Japanese.. in some parts of Manila, the shop names and advertisements include a lot of Japanese writings.. and Japanese food seems to be quite popular.. but so far that's all I managed to gather....
As for Philippines culture itself, I'm still learning, though actually several incidents convinced me it's just the same as in Indonesia. One interesting point might be, here popular eateries are called 'turo-turo', which means 'point-point', where several containers of dishes are arranged and you just point to what you want. That certainly saves me from learning the Tagalog names of dishes!
And for now, babay! (that's 'bye' in Tagalog)
A bit of a history lesson: the indigenous Philippines people were very closely related to Indonesians, especially those from Sulawesi, which is just below Southern Philippines. Then came 400 years of Spanish rule, after which the Spaniards sold the Philippines for US$20 million to the Americans.( By the way, the name Philippines came about because the Spanish conquistadors dedicated the islands to King Philip II of Spain.) During World War II, the Japanese took over the Philippines, and after 3 years under Japanese rule it gained independence. (Disclaimer: bits and pieces assembled from conversations with people, including those responding to my very limited Tagalog, so take with a pinch of salt.)
Well, the presence of all these cultures can be seen in today's Manila. Philippino language has quite a number of words similar or almost similar to Indonesian, for example, 'mahal' also means expensive, 'pintu' (door), 'lelaki' (guy), 'anak'(child), 'nasi' (rice), 'gandum' (wheat) all mean the same things. 'pasuk' = 'masuk' (enter), 'kris' = 'keris', etc.. and they also have a musical instrument they call 'kolintang', the exact same thing as ours. In terms of food.. the snacks and cookies are very similar to Indonesia.. people eat a lot of chips (kerupuk, which here they call 'chicarron') made from rice, cassava, tapioca, corn, jackfruit etc. When I was walking past a market that sold traditional Philippines cakes (kue!) I felt I was right back in Indonesia, it was kinda surreal hahaha...
The Spanish influence is also present in food.. It's common to find people selling 'turron', which is a typical Spanish snack (that I had a good time trying out when I was backpacking in Spain.. aah.. those Gaudi and Calatrava buildings..). Their marks are also imprinted on the design of the Philippines traditional costume (Go ahead, you want to google it don't you), which doesn't look like it belongs to a Southeast Asian nation at all, if you ask me. Until 1985, Spanish language was a compulsory lesson in school.To say "bye" , you can say "adios", and to this day people from Manila are called 'Manileños'.
The Americans.. thanks to their reluctance to learn any other language than English (just a little joke here..) left a very useful legacy: that the average Philippino / Philippina has a decent level of English, with reasonably good pronounciation. From the jeepney driver, waiter, people on the street and even people in the slums, there is no problem communicating in English. Ah yeah, and today when some people saw my totally ang-moh (that's Caucasian for those who don't speak Singlish..) looking German tutor pass-by, they shouted: "Hey Joe! Joe!" hahahaha... (I think it refers to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe - but I'm not sure)
Lastly, the Japanese.. in some parts of Manila, the shop names and advertisements include a lot of Japanese writings.. and Japanese food seems to be quite popular.. but so far that's all I managed to gather....
As for Philippines culture itself, I'm still learning, though actually several incidents convinced me it's just the same as in Indonesia. One interesting point might be, here popular eateries are called 'turo-turo', which means 'point-point', where several containers of dishes are arranged and you just point to what you want. That certainly saves me from learning the Tagalog names of dishes!
And for now, babay! (that's 'bye' in Tagalog)
Terribly Terrible Taxi Drivers
Day 3 of 11, and sad to say, in my eyes Manila has not redeemed itself.
Most of my disappointment has to do with the taxis.. Readers be warned: Manila taxi drivers do not know Manila streets.. as in, they get lost very often and even the taxi drivers have to ask the police, people on the way, etc to get to the destination. We've taken taxi 4 times, to various destinations, and each time the driver did not know the way. Go figure. Plus, once I saw a taxi with a Phillipina lady stopping by the side of the road, and then both passenger and driver were talking to a policeman and pointing around, asking which way to go.
Wait, there's something worse. The drivers did not actually tell us that they did not know how to go!! It was like, "We want to go Santtillian street" "Sure" but after a few meters the driver would start mumbling to himself, then stopping by and asking people. And what's worse (yes it's just gonna get "badder and badder" from here...) is that you have to bargain for the taxi, even if they had put the meter on... Yep you read that right... So here's my story...
Was going to meet up with a friend in a hostel, and flagged down a taxi. "Do you know how to go to Saint Illian street?"
"Yes.."
Got in to the taxi, driver said, "What street did you say again?"
"Saint Ilian"
"Hm... mumble mumble.. I think I need to ask people, you know..."
"Oh. Ok." *thinking, whatever lah, as long as I get there, and luckily I wasn't in a hurry*
Driver asked," So, how much you want to pay..?"
Me: "Huh?"
Driver: "Because I need to ask around you know.. what about this, 200 pesos?"
This time, it hit me that he was asking me to pay more, probably because we would need to go round and round..
Me: "But you have the meter. It is still running, doesn't matter if we need to ask around."
Driver: "Hah...meter... hah..." *His face was like, 'who are you kidding man..what's the point of using meter..'
Me: "Never mind. Drop me now please, just at the side of the road over there."
Driver: "ok ok, what about like this, you pay 100 pesos?"
At this point I was just super-pissed that I insisted he dropped me at the side of the road, but in the end I agreed to add 20 pesos to whatever price is on the meter, which was 60 pesos. 20 pesos is about 80 singapore cents, and being someone brought up in a well-to-do family, in normal situations I would just pay whatever price is named, since the money would mean much more to the other person than to me. Well, I was just pissed and wanted to piss the taxi driver as well...
Later that night, I took another taxi with some friends, and this time, the taxi driver, again, said he knew where we wanted to go, and agreed to put the meter on, but ended up going round and round, stopping so often to read a map we brought, and speaking to us in Tagalog in a very patronizing tone that in the end I just wanted to strangle the guy.. I even suspected that he pretended not to understand English just so he could go around and charged us higher. (We were kinda directing him since we somewhat know the layout of this part of the city already)
When we got down from the car my friends had to chill me huhuhu... Went to get some drink, and while I was drinking a can of cold beer to cool down (I admit this had to do with my temper that time, the afternoon taxi incident passed through my mind, and I thought, "Wait a minute.. that guy wanted to charge me more because he needed to go around asking which way to go... he WANTED ME TO PAY MORE BECAUSE HE CANNOT DO HIS JOB???! WTH??!"
So yeah. Well I'm sure Manila cannot be judged just from the quality of its taxi drivers, but for now on, I am very negatively biased towards this city. 8 more days to go, let's see.
Most of my disappointment has to do with the taxis.. Readers be warned: Manila taxi drivers do not know Manila streets.. as in, they get lost very often and even the taxi drivers have to ask the police, people on the way, etc to get to the destination. We've taken taxi 4 times, to various destinations, and each time the driver did not know the way. Go figure. Plus, once I saw a taxi with a Phillipina lady stopping by the side of the road, and then both passenger and driver were talking to a policeman and pointing around, asking which way to go.
Wait, there's something worse. The drivers did not actually tell us that they did not know how to go!! It was like, "We want to go Santtillian street" "Sure" but after a few meters the driver would start mumbling to himself, then stopping by and asking people. And what's worse (yes it's just gonna get "badder and badder" from here...) is that you have to bargain for the taxi, even if they had put the meter on... Yep you read that right... So here's my story...
Was going to meet up with a friend in a hostel, and flagged down a taxi. "Do you know how to go to Saint Illian street?"
"Yes.."
Got in to the taxi, driver said, "What street did you say again?"
"Saint Ilian"
"Hm... mumble mumble.. I think I need to ask people, you know..."
"Oh. Ok." *thinking, whatever lah, as long as I get there, and luckily I wasn't in a hurry*
Driver asked," So, how much you want to pay..?"
Me: "Huh?"
Driver: "Because I need to ask around you know.. what about this, 200 pesos?"
This time, it hit me that he was asking me to pay more, probably because we would need to go round and round..
Me: "But you have the meter. It is still running, doesn't matter if we need to ask around."
Driver: "Hah...meter... hah..." *His face was like, 'who are you kidding man..what's the point of using meter..'
Me: "Never mind. Drop me now please, just at the side of the road over there."
Driver: "ok ok, what about like this, you pay 100 pesos?"
At this point I was just super-pissed that I insisted he dropped me at the side of the road, but in the end I agreed to add 20 pesos to whatever price is on the meter, which was 60 pesos. 20 pesos is about 80 singapore cents, and being someone brought up in a well-to-do family, in normal situations I would just pay whatever price is named, since the money would mean much more to the other person than to me. Well, I was just pissed and wanted to piss the taxi driver as well...
Later that night, I took another taxi with some friends, and this time, the taxi driver, again, said he knew where we wanted to go, and agreed to put the meter on, but ended up going round and round, stopping so often to read a map we brought, and speaking to us in Tagalog in a very patronizing tone that in the end I just wanted to strangle the guy.. I even suspected that he pretended not to understand English just so he could go around and charged us higher. (We were kinda directing him since we somewhat know the layout of this part of the city already)
When we got down from the car my friends had to chill me huhuhu... Went to get some drink, and while I was drinking a can of cold beer to cool down (I admit this had to do with my temper that time, the afternoon taxi incident passed through my mind, and I thought, "Wait a minute.. that guy wanted to charge me more because he needed to go around asking which way to go... he WANTED ME TO PAY MORE BECAUSE HE CANNOT DO HIS JOB???! WTH??!"
So yeah. Well I'm sure Manila cannot be judged just from the quality of its taxi drivers, but for now on, I am very negatively biased towards this city. 8 more days to go, let's see.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Morsels from Manila
Manila... Touched down around 12 noon.. The Philippines is an amazing sight from above - Manila is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges and well.. for me it seems like the city is surrounded by folded green velvet hahaha..
Anyway, found out that the Clark airport is actually around 2 hours car journey from the actual Metro Manila. Note to self: Do more research when taking budget airlines. Eventually we entered Manila, though.. and hey! I felt like I was back in Indonesia! Almost everything from the weather, the building types, the traffic, the cars, the scenery.... Oh wow.. The only different thing is that signs are in English and Tagalog. Found the hostel, located in quite an interesting area where all the street names are space objects (Jupiter st, Polaris st, Juno st, Orbit st etc). It's actually a studio apartment converted into a hostel, and very cosy! Great first impression of Manila....
Anyway, found out that the Clark airport is actually around 2 hours car journey from the actual Metro Manila. Note to self: Do more research when taking budget airlines. Eventually we entered Manila, though.. and hey! I felt like I was back in Indonesia! Almost everything from the weather, the building types, the traffic, the cars, the scenery.... Oh wow.. The only different thing is that signs are in English and Tagalog. Found the hostel, located in quite an interesting area where all the street names are space objects (Jupiter st, Polaris st, Juno st, Orbit st etc). It's actually a studio apartment converted into a hostel, and very cosy! Great first impression of Manila....
... but things kinda went downhill from there.. Took the train to see sunset at Manila Bay (Interestingly, the sunset here is great because the air is opaque due to pollution..). Manila has 3 train lines with the trains looking like KTM (Kereta Api Tanah Melayu from Malaysia). Well, no problem with those, clean and good. Then we reached the Central Manila station.
Hmm... the station itself does not look like a Central Station because it was very dilapidated, and -gasp! - banally modernist.. Walked to Manila Bay, and uhm... reached Manila Bay... and saw a bit of sunset.. and that was it... The thing is, the whole walk consist of a rather barren pavement beside one long, wide concrete road and the so-called landmark buildings are mostly neo-classical cast-concrete entities smothered with pastel-colored paints. (Nothing personal against pastel colored paints.. It's just that I've seen enough of salmon pink and pale yellow Corinthian pillars in Jakarta.) The absence of street food is noticeable, though for the adventurous 'balut' - duck egg with embryo - is very easy to find. Then, there was the smoke, the cars (My apologies for contrasting Manila with the more charming bycicle-laden Vietnam), the smell.. Actually, the smell makes it kinda fun..As one walks, one is really assaulted with various kinds of smells, leaving one's imagination guessing as to what is the source... Hahaha...
As it grew darker, there's not much of street lamps, which, combined with the large scale of roads,pavements and buildings, and the barrenness of it all, creates a rather eerie atmosphere...
Oh, and the last thing... Manila is not a vegetarian friendly city.. not even pescatorian friendly! It was difficult to find vegetable dishes around *tho there's always Subway*. On the other hand, if you love chicken, then this is the place. As we walked along Jupiter st, there was no shortage of billboards with various smiling chicken characters (One of the greatest contradictions in life.. Chickens advertising for places that aren't exactly chicken-friendly..).
The most interesting thing in Manila is probably the jeepney, a special public transport modified from ex- US army jeeps. It's pretty long, and passengers sit in two long lines at the back facing each other while the driver is in front facing the road. Then, when it's time to pay passengers just pass coins from those at the back to those closest to the driver, and each time the driver receives and puts money in a box without really looking.. I wonder if the driver trusts the passengers so much to give the correct amount of money, or he's just got a sixth sense to know if it's correct!
Another good thing would be, everyone here speaks English pretty well, and signs are mostly bilingual, so if you're a traveler that doesn't like to learn a bit of local language (though then I would question your definition of 'traveler'), this is a pretty good place to start.
Well well, for now, that is my impression of Manila.. I know I'm painting a bleak picture of it, and I do hope it will change.. It's Day 1 out of 11, for goodness sake!
For now, though, magandang gabi! *Good night in Tagalog*
Friday, January 29, 2010
On China - Food!
Even considering the risk of diabetes, these things are totally worth it!Well, well.. It's impossible to talk about China without talking about its food *which, Wikipedia will tell you, can be traced back to 400,000 years ago... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_cuisine * I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed the food in China, whether in small restaurants or street stalls, and just in case you are wondering, nope I didn't get any stomach trouble at all.
Actually, street stalls are God-given since the food is so cheap - you can get pretty stuffed for the equivalent of S$1 - and the variety is great. Popular street food changes according to seasons. Since it was winter when I was there, the common snacks include jian bing (which is kind of like flour crepe with egg, spring onion, and wheat crackers inside), bing tang hu lu (the above photo, which is fruits on a stick, coated with sugar. The sugar melts too easily in summer so this is a winter delicacy. And man, when one bites that cold, sweet, crunchy layer of sugar, to reach the juicy mandarin oranges below...owwww...), and hong di gua (baked sweet potatoes.. They use oil drums as an oven haha..)
Another thing I cannot forget is the dumplings.. I had some dumplings stuffed with egg and chinese chives, and these hot, steaming dumplings just make you forget that outside the temperature is below freezing ;p Lots of stir-fried vegetable dishes available, and contrary to popular believe, you can find things that are not too oily / uses so much seasoning. Well, but it is true that Chinese food contains quite a lot of oil and sugar. One of my favorite drink in China is 'peanut milk', which is like soybean milk, just made from peanuts. It's sold in bottles and dang, they really didn't hold back on the sugar.. It tastes great, though.. Had a discussion with a friend on whether Chinese people will get diabetes and other diseases due to all this unhealthy food.. The thing is, most Chinese people I see are really not fat, considering the things they eat. Or maybe they just didn't eat as much as us, over-excited tourists who patronizes so many snack stalls we passed by in the name of winter survival.. Am suprised I wasn't really chubby by the time I got back..
Anyway, my moment of revelation about Chinese food came when my Beijing friend brought me to a commercial food court (Actually, the place looked like it is under Singapore management.. and the brand name is the same, I think it was Food Junction). Thing is, the place only has Chinese food and each stall specialises in a different Chinese cuisine, from different regions.. You've got Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Sichuan etc, and that's when it hits me that so far I've been lumping an amazing variety of cuisine into one banal category- "Chinese food"- which clearly doesn't do it justice. I mean, it's a bit like lumping Italian, French and Spanish cuisine into one and calling it 'Western food'.
Actually, street stalls are God-given since the food is so cheap - you can get pretty stuffed for the equivalent of S$1 - and the variety is great. Popular street food changes according to seasons. Since it was winter when I was there, the common snacks include jian bing (which is kind of like flour crepe with egg, spring onion, and wheat crackers inside), bing tang hu lu (the above photo, which is fruits on a stick, coated with sugar. The sugar melts too easily in summer so this is a winter delicacy. And man, when one bites that cold, sweet, crunchy layer of sugar, to reach the juicy mandarin oranges below...owwww...), and hong di gua (baked sweet potatoes.. They use oil drums as an oven haha..)
Another thing I cannot forget is the dumplings.. I had some dumplings stuffed with egg and chinese chives, and these hot, steaming dumplings just make you forget that outside the temperature is below freezing ;p Lots of stir-fried vegetable dishes available, and contrary to popular believe, you can find things that are not too oily / uses so much seasoning. Well, but it is true that Chinese food contains quite a lot of oil and sugar. One of my favorite drink in China is 'peanut milk', which is like soybean milk, just made from peanuts. It's sold in bottles and dang, they really didn't hold back on the sugar.. It tastes great, though.. Had a discussion with a friend on whether Chinese people will get diabetes and other diseases due to all this unhealthy food.. The thing is, most Chinese people I see are really not fat, considering the things they eat. Or maybe they just didn't eat as much as us, over-excited tourists who patronizes so many snack stalls we passed by in the name of winter survival.. Am suprised I wasn't really chubby by the time I got back..
Anyway, my moment of revelation about Chinese food came when my Beijing friend brought me to a commercial food court (Actually, the place looked like it is under Singapore management.. and the brand name is the same, I think it was Food Junction). Thing is, the place only has Chinese food and each stall specialises in a different Chinese cuisine, from different regions.. You've got Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Sichuan etc, and that's when it hits me that so far I've been lumping an amazing variety of cuisine into one banal category- "Chinese food"- which clearly doesn't do it justice. I mean, it's a bit like lumping Italian, French and Spanish cuisine into one and calling it 'Western food'.
Talking about Western food, as much as you can, DO NOT eat Western food in China, because it's expensive and totally not worth it. I had a really lame tuna panini one night in Starbucks just because I was wondering whether Starbucks, as a famous Western brand, can serve decent Western food in China. (Answer: nope) Oh, and according to my friend, the only place to get decent coffee at a reasonable price is McDonald's. I didn't crave coffee when I was in China so I really don't know, but there you go.
But hmmm.. if you ask me if I crave some egg and chive dumplings right now....
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The ChinaMania continues...
classic Beijing snapshot.. ahh..*Newsflash: Dissertation topic on Beijing, approved! Well technically it's about informal landscapes, but Beijing is chosen as a case study. Which means.. I can spend lots of time reading about a subject that totally fascinates me while calling it 'research' hehehe.. Now this is what you call 'work smart' *
Anyway, the more I read about China and Beijing, the more I want to try and live there, be a part of it all.. And the more frustrated I become when reading about all the destruction of cultural heritage that's going on.. And, on the grounds of cultural revolution alone, the more I hate Chairman Mao...
I can't pour in the jumbled up thoughts in my mind, but basically, the Cultural Revolution screwed China upside down by destroying traditions, destroying urban fabric, destroying appreciation of imperial China and the wealth of culture, beauty and refinement that it represents.. The maxim of the 'revolution' is to destroy the Four Olds - Thoughts, Culture, Customs, and Habits. I just find it ironic that the bits that should be preserved, like appreciation and pride for China's imperial history and the architectural manifestations is brainwashed away, while bits like corruption (which was rampant towards the end of imperial rule) came back right away after the Revolution and is still deeply ingrained. Talk about disastrous failure.
I've fallen in love with the hutong, no denying it. My view might be the naive, romantic outsider view that sees it as a very unique way of life that deserves to be preserved while the very people inhabiting these hutongs think they are sub-standard dwellings and want to move away to modern apartments. Then again, it is possible to make these places beautiful AND comfortable as well, it is a matter of political will and whether people view heritage as something important. I mean, look at all the famous European cities.. Paris, Rome, Venice.. what gives the city character are all the old buildings, and I don't mean the landmarks like Colosseum, but just the typical old housing.. Beijing is in the process of gutting itself and dang, few things are more painful than seeing something you love in the process of self-destruction..
I guess for now, I'll just have to accept that China and perhaps *though I hope not really* the majority of its people do not care about the priceless, irreplaceable architectural heritage that it is thoughtlessly destroying. After all, if the existence of rundown, neglected hutongs is still sinonymous with poverty, it is unfair for Chinese people too. Guess what I gotta do is be very, very passionate about saving the heritage I just fell in love with, and hope this passion infect as many people as possible..
On a side note, I read about an overseas American tycoon that started buying up old buildings in Beijing so that the government and developers cannot raze them.. He went to the extent that he took apart an old building in a soon-to-be-destroyed area and reconstructed it piece by piece somewhere else.. Wow.. The hua qiao blood in me is boiling already!
"A measure of any great city is its potential for accidental discoveries, those places without entrance fees and tour guides that make you want to stay longer in hopes of finding the next one. Despite the advanced stage of the Old City's destruction, Beijing still held this attraction."
- Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing
"Medicine is the only field that keeps fighting against the very reason for its existence."
- Bro DB quoting from somewhere..
"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."
- Thomas Hobbes
*When I read the quote above, I was stunned for a while, because.. well because it's so true! I've never thought of curiosity as a kind of lust.. but there really is no better way of expressing that chasing after, lusting after, knowledge and answers..*
__
A bit of update on life:
- I realised that I love travelling because I get to meet all sorts of interesting people, and I realise also that hey, am I that stupid that I can't find ways to meet interesting people in Singapore? So, did some stuff, and... life in Singapore is promising to be lots of fun at least for now..
- A surefire way to meet someone interesting: promise to yourself that wouldn't get involved in anything, with anyone, and really mean it. As soon as you do that, BAM! Temptations start coming. Tsk, that's life.
- Bro DB quoting from somewhere..
"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."
- Thomas Hobbes
*When I read the quote above, I was stunned for a while, because.. well because it's so true! I've never thought of curiosity as a kind of lust.. but there really is no better way of expressing that chasing after, lusting after, knowledge and answers..*
__
A bit of update on life:
- I realised that I love travelling because I get to meet all sorts of interesting people, and I realise also that hey, am I that stupid that I can't find ways to meet interesting people in Singapore? So, did some stuff, and... life in Singapore is promising to be lots of fun at least for now..
- A surefire way to meet someone interesting: promise to yourself that wouldn't get involved in anything, with anyone, and really mean it. As soon as you do that, BAM! Temptations start coming. Tsk, that's life.
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