A documentary entitled Never Too Late, and another showing his people's freedom came too late for its titular subject to enjoy! (Film reviews)

  

 People in focus (including director Rikki Choy (2nd from left),

producer Miney Ye (3rd from left) and main song singer 

Gigi Leung (on the far right) at Never Too Late's world premiere 

Never Too Late (Hong Kong, 2025)

- Rikki Choy, director

- Part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program 

 

It used to be that one could look forward to quite a few films having their world premieres at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. This year, however, there are just six of them -- with even its Opening Films (including Chong Keat Aun's Pavane for an Infant) having had their world premieres elsewhere some months ago.  Still, I did catch at least one of them: Never Too Late; a fairly modest and very local documentary produced by Phoenix TV, whose major star power came by way of the song that plays as the end credits roll being performed by singer-actress Gigi Leung.

 

Never Too Late appears to be the feature film directorial debut of Rikki Choy -- and there are aspects of the work that one can't help but think would be handled better by someone with more experience and expertise.  At the same time though, its subject, Hong Kong's natural world and its biodiversity, is something she is familiar with (and looks to have a passion for), having been one of the directors of Phoenix TV’s Hong Kong Nature Stories documentary series.  And ditto re it being something that all of the four individuals whose stories are told in this feature length documentary care very much for in their own way.

 

Human Ip is an artist-poet who has become a farmer and lives in Lai Chi Wo.  Hidy Yu is a model with a love for the sea, who broke up with her partner because she was repulsed by his love for spearfishing.  Fun Hon-shing enjoys what he refers to as "wellness photography" in the wilds of Hong Kong (and is the director of a short film I viewed some time back on the Life (Cycle) of the Hong Kong Newt).  And then there's Anthony Choy, a property agent who likes observing, sketching and painting birds, flowers and many other natural subjects.

Commendably, Never Too Late doesn't shy away from showing such as the contradiction of Anthony Choy's working for a company whose projects could be said to intrude into, and even destroy, some natural habitats and Human Ip being in conflict with some of her neighbors in Lai Chi Wo over their perception and treatment of the feral cows that she loves but others find to be a big nuisance.  We also see that getting too close to nature can result in human pain and animal death.      

In fact, Never Too Late is actually less upbeat overall than its title might imply!  And is less, for want of a better word, propaganda-like than one might expect, given it having the support of official, including government, organizations. It additionally presents a more complex picture than may seem to be the case at first glance; with there being certain social undercurrents that aren't explicitly commented upon -- or are mentioned or alluded to only in passing -- yet are evidently there if you know where to look for them.  

 

In some ways, this mirrors one's experiences with the natural world in Hong Kong: in that, it's actually more pervasive and around you than many may realize; yet it does take a bit of digging, change of perspective and/or wandering and veering off the beaten path, in order to see of it!  Also, no, it's not perfect -- the natural world, Hong Kong itself and the film -- but, all in all, its existence still is worth appreciating. 

 

My rating for this film: 7.0

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (U.S.A.-France, 2024)

- Raoul Peck, director-scriptwriter-producer

- LaKeith Stanfield, voice cast

 

There are two filmmakers who I know served as their countries' Minister of Cultures for a time.  They also happen to be filmmakers whose films I've been bowled over by.  I considered South Korea's Lee Chang-dong's Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002) to be masterpieces.  I feel the same way about Haiti's Raoul Peck's Lumumba (2000) and I Am Not Your Negro (2016).  Thus it was that Raoul Peck being the director of Ernest Cole: Lost and Found was what got me determined to watch this documentary work; not my having any prior knowledge of its subject.  

The story of South African photographer Ernest Cole is one I found moving.  A pioneering black photographer who was born in 1940, he lived through Apartheid and documented it; then moved to New York City to try to escape from it, only to encounter difficulties there, lose his way and, eventually, lose his life -- sadly before Apartheid came to an end, so he never saw Nelson Mandela and his country free.

 

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found has interview footage of its titular character.  But we actually see far more of his photographs than his visage in the documentary.  Black and white photographs that show a cruelly segregated world; one where the whites were privileged and thoroughly aware of it, and the blacks oppressed in ways that look designed to break the spirit as well as hearts.

 

Ernest Cole left South Africa in 1966.  Having secreted his photographs of South Africa under Apartheid with him, he was able to publish House of Bondage: A South African Black Man Exposes in His Own Pictures and Words the Bitter Life of His Homeland Today.  Sadly, to judge by what I saw in the film, he never really was able to produce as good work outside of his home country as he did in it.  It seems that some of his work was lost; as was he.   

 

Perhaps not coincidentally, it feels like Ernest Cole: Lost and Found also lost its way somewhat midway through.  I consequently found the latter half of the film to not be as compelling as the first half.  Even the bombshell revelation late in the documentary that a collection of 60,000 negatives was found at a bank vault in Stockholm in 2017 and given to his heirs leaves more questions, and feelings of dissatisfaction than any sense of joy or relief.  

I must say though that the end dedication to people in exile everywhere emotionally impacted me quite a bit though -- as it got me thinking of exiled Hongkongers who left because they didn't feel they could be safe in their home city and/or chaffed at the injustice that exists in it, yet left their heart here even while they moved thousands of miles to try to make a new life in a different continent.

 

My rating for this film: 6.0

The sad, the ludicrous and the inspirational in contemporary Hong Kong

  

Freedom (graffiti and otherwise) can be hard to see in Hong Kong

 

Some months back, a friend and I were talking about a political prisoner she knows and has visited in jail.  When she voiced her worries that he might die in prison, I didn't know how to comfort her; this not least because the possibility does exist.  Here's the thing: a number of Hong Kong's political prisoners are not in the best of health.  And it's also the case that some of them are not only senior citizens but also facing the prospect of lengthy, even life, sentences.  

 

Just look at the ages of some of the Hong Kong 47, which ranges from individuals in their 20s all the way to the late 60s.  And then there's Jimmy Lai -- whose son, Sebastien, was quoted in an AP article that came out yesterday as saying "I don’t want to see my father die in jail. He’s 75, he’s in prison, he does risk just dying. It is very worrying". 

As readers of the piece are informed, reminded, Jimmy Lai "has been in detention since he was arrested in 2020 under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing. The Hong Kong businessman faces up to life in prison if convicted. He has already been sentenced to five years and nine months in a separate case.  He also is a former media mogul who has a whole host of people waging a campaign to free him (albeit, sadly, thus far to no avail).

 

At the other end of the spectrum are political prisoners who are not household names and considerably younger in age -- yet also have got caught by Hong Kong's web of (in)justice thanks to their involvement in the anti-extradition bill-turned-pro-democracy protests.  Individuals whose names we only learn about if their cases are so ludicrous, and/or the verdicts involving them so unjust, that they end up being reported by news outlets.

 

Take, for example, Carrie Lui, a 30-something-year-old woman who has already served the nine month sentence that she was given but had sought to appeal her conviction anyway, only to be denied that opportunity at the Court of Appeal.  In view of the far lengthier sentences that many Hong Kong protestors have been given or are facing, hers doesn't sound all that harsh on the face of it.  But consider this: her nine month sentence came about after she was found guilty of possessing articles with intent to destroy property because she was found to have three spanner -- yes, SPANNERS -- on her at the time of her arrest in Central on November 13th, 2019!

 

As per the Hong Kong Free Press report on her case: "Lui’s legal representative said on Thursday that the District Court had erred in refusing to consider Lui’s testimony. During the trial last October, Lui testified that she was on the way to Central that day to meet her colleagues, and that she took three spanners from a toolbox with her because she needed to adjust lighting appliances." (Lui is a designer by trade.)  "She said she also wore a mask to protect herself from tear gas."  Something that, frankly, many people were doing at the time since the police was unleashing so much tear gas in Hong Kong at the time!

 

"Her representative added on Thursday [i.e., yesterday] that videos showed that the scene was quiet at the time of the offence and that there was no violent behaviour observed. Therefore, Lui did not necessarily know that people were taking part in illegal acts. She also stayed on the pavement and avoided the roads, her representative said."  (Reading that last line made me nostalgic... for a time -- which really existed not that long ago! -- when we truly believed that doing such would help us to stay on the right side of the law.)

 

Another case that has caught people's attention is an on-going one involving a pair of students who have pleaded not guilty to rioting near a university campus in late 2019.  Fan Tsz-suet and To Mei-yi were Hang Seng University students at the time of their arrest on November 12th, 2019.  Early that day, some 10 to 20 people had set up roadblocks outside Tate’s Cairn Tunnel, which Hang Seng University's campus is located close to.  After the police arrived at the scene, people sought to run away upon catching sight of them.  

 

Among the people bidding to flee from the police were Fan, who was heading in the direction of an academic building, and To, who was making her way towards a university dormitory.  The prosecution has admitted that " There was no evidence that Fan and To engaged in any violent acts".  Yet they are on trial for rioting, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years (although jail terms delivered for District Court cases -- which is the level of their trial -- are capped at seven years)!

 

Truly, when you look at the details of many of the cases involving "rioting", "sedition" and the national security law here in Hong Kong, the "crimes" don't seem to merit the punishments being meted out to those found guilty of them.  Take Wong Yat-chin, the 22-year-old former convenor of Student Politicism (a now defunct pro-democracy student group), who just came out of prison after serving a 2 year sentence for chanting protest slogans on the street that were deemed to "incite subversion".  

Before his imprisonment, Wong Yat-chin had stated that "his group Student Politicism wants to “bring hope to people” as the space for activism shrinks due to the national security law."  While already in prison but before his sentencing, he had written a letter to a friend exhorting people to ""Breathe well, think well, live well, continue to choose and insist on doing the right thing. Let's walk the unfinished journey with our heads up."    

 

Upon his release on Wednesday, Wong was reported as saying about Hong Kong that "I'm inseparable from this land....I'll try my best to stay here & share its joys [and] sorrows."  Truly, I'm in awe -- that he appears to have emerged from prison being able to still think, believe and assert this.  

 

When reading about the likes of him, and Jimmy Lai, I can't help but thinking of the following lines from Nelson Mandela's favorite poem, Invictus. 

I thank whatever gods may be

  For my unconquerable soul...

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

And long may that continue for these incredible people, and many others who really f**king love Hong Kong.

Lee Cheuk-yan delivers a lesson on standing up for what one believes and not giving up on International Students Day

Information for those wishing to write to Lee Cheuk-yan

 

On International Students Day two years ago, the siege of PolyU (AKA Hong Kong Polytechnic University) began.  Like the battles waged on the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus that preceded it, this event (which has been captured on film and documented for posterity in such as the critically acclaimed Inside the Red Brick Wall) has left deep scars in the psyche of many Hong Kongers.  

 

One measure I had of this occured a few months ago one evening when a friend I was walking with in the vicinity of the PolyU campus broke down and started crying at the sight of the red brick walls (that had been stained blue by the blast of water cannons back in November 2019).  Especially since he's usually on the stoic side, his reaction was pretty shocking to me.  I guess still waters run deep and all that.  And what tore further at my heart was when, even as the tears rolled down his cheeks, he expressed his fear that all our efforts (at attempting to make our voice heard and the government listen to us, etc.) had been in vain.  

 

Instinctively, I rushed to assure him that it hadn't all been in vain, that the "war" was not yet over, that things are not yet written in stone.  When he looked at me sceptically, I pointed out that these kind of things take time and, also, that a whole bunch of other people had not yet given up.  

 

That evening I didn't cite those seeking vindication for the June 4th, 1989, massacre were still determined to do so some 32 years on -- even if it means, in some cases, going to jail for their beliefs.  But, yeah, I was thinking of them as exemplars, along with Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life in prison (including on Robben Island) but did eventually emerge from it not only as a free man but also one who would see his dream and goal of ending apartheid realized.

 

On the subject of those determined to remember the Tiananmen Square massacre and honor its victims, five key members of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China appeared in court today at a trial involving their involvement in last year’s banned June 4th vigil.  Electing to plead guilty to the charges, today was their opportunity to have mitigation speeches heard.  

While Richard Choi, Leung Yiu-ching, Simon Leung and Wu Chi-wai opted to have their lawyer deliver the pleas, former Hong Kong Alliance chair Lee Cheuk-yan dismissed his legal representative ahead of the court session and gave his own submission.  The following are excerpts from his emotional speech (and is very much worth reading in full):  

To begin, I want to thank the people of Hong Kong who kept the promise of 1989, all 31 years ago. In the face of suppression, they persisted, honouring the memory of the June Fourth Massacre in Victoria Park with their candlelight. Your Honour, the people of Hong Kong who took part needed no person or organisation to incite them. If there was a provocateur, it is the regime that fired at its own people.

For 31 years, our unyielding memory and unrelenting conscience drove us to keep the promise, persisted in honouring their memory, demand truth and accountability, and carry on the pursuit of freedom and democracy of the Chinese people...

 

Influenced by localist ideas, some question the principles of the Hong Kong Alliance, but we all recognise the necessity to uncover the truth of and demand accountability for the June Fourth Massacre. The participation of the youth explains why the attendance of the vigil rose to the hundred thousand in the past decade...

 

For 30 odd years, the candlelight of the June Fourth vigil symbolised the practice of peaceful, non-violent resistance. Why should the Police prohibit the assembly and prosecute its participants? We are all followers of Gandhi’s idea of non-violent struggle, hoping to bring democratic reforms to Hong Kong. Now that I am imprisoned as Gandhi was, I will learn to be as fearless as Gandhi was...

 

Despite setbacks, we are steadfast in our belief that the universal values of freedom, the rule of law, human rights and democracy that we have been struggling for will one day take root in Hong Kong and China. And on that day, we will be able to console the souls who came before us. (My emphasis)

A tension-relieving Christmas Day hike in Tai Tam Country Park (Photo-essay)

I spent a good part of last night feeling tense after seeing a Facebook post from a journalist friend signalling how upset he was and learning from another friend that the area where the Office for Safeguarding National Security is located was crawling with cops.  Scanning Twitter and other news sources, I found that the police were indeed out in force in various parts of Hong Kong and that the Department of Justice -- not content with Jimmy Lai being under de facto house arrest and having bail conditions that included the media mogul deleting his Twitter account -- had filed for an urgent hearing at Hong Kong's top court in a bid to return him to jail.

 

As it turned out, the Court of Final Appeal will only hold the hearing next Thursday (New Year's Eve), three days after the adult members of the "Hong Kong 12" are tried in a Shenzhen court on charges involving their having illegally crossed into Mainland Chinese waters.  So Jimmy Lai was indeed able to spend Christmas at home.  

 

As for me: I spent a few hours of this Christmas doing what has become a festive ritual of sorts for me (as well as have found to be a great way to relieve tension and stress): hiking; this year, on my own, unlike previous ones.  With today's daily new case number at 57, I am hoping that Hong Kong's fourth Wuhan coronavirus wave will soon subside and I'll not feel obliged to socially distance so much.  Hopefully, the new tougher quarantine rulings (which includes an outright ban on anyone coming in from South Africa) announced late last night also will ensure that there won't be a fifth wave coming anytime soon even while I do feel for those Hong Kongers stranded overseas after the Hong Kong government effectively closed the territory's borders to all but residents in Mainland China and Macau...

 

Minutes after entering Tai Tam Country Park, I came across this 

wild boar nosing through the contents of a rubbish bin it had upended!

 

It was a cloudy but not all that cold day this Christmas

 

Visibility was less high than I'd have liked but the air

still fresh enough in the middle of the country park

 

Upon seeing that the main trails were more crowded

than I would have liked, I opted to go on the less well known 

trails -- and was rewarded by quiet and calm scenes :)

An unprecedented Chinese New Year flower spotting in December!

 

Seeing as exercise is good for relieving stress, I decided 

mid hike to add a climb up Violet Hill to today's excursion!

 

At this point in the hike, I already had passed one trigonometrical station

and decided I didn't need to go up to another on another of Violet Hill's peaks ;)

 

Near the end of what turned out to be a satisfying hike, with sightings 

of buildings that showed that I'd be returning soon to "civilization" :)

Assorted musings on Human Rights Day 2020

Against the odds, things sometimes can look and feel

pretty normal still in Hong Kong

 

The fact of the matter is that, amidst it all, 

life still is going on...

 

In what can seem like another lifetime, I used to think that the front page news in Hong Kong often resembled that of a small town; this especially because there was so little violent crime (that single females felt completely safe being out and about after dark as well as in broad daylight, in alleys as well as on main thoroughfares) but, also, the political shennanigans that took place didn't seem to have such big effects on the territory (or be deemed all that (internationally) newsworthy).

 

Especially since last year, however, that is no longer the case.  Gone are the days when wild boar excursions would be the major talk of the town (even while they still definitely do venture out of their natural habitat to pay visits to the heart of the city!).  Heck, even the Wuhan coronavirus has been pushed out of the limelight by certain actions on the part of the Hong Kong police, judiciary or Carrie Lam this year.

This is not to say though the pandemic is not a concern of Hong Kongers.  Today saw yet another triple digit day of new daily cases: 112, to be precise; with the much-derided dancing and singing cluster up to 702 in the number of infected individuals that are part of it.  In addition, today saw the coming into effect of the latest round of social distancing restrictions which have upset many people, not least because they often seem less logical than geared towards penalizing businesses and regular folks as well as stamping out protests.

Compared to previous days (including the first two of this week and a good number last week), the past two have been relatively free of political upsets.  But it's really a measure of how much Hong Kong has changed -- and worse its political situation has become -- in recent months that it's not earth-shatteringly unexpected now for political activist Agnes Chow -- who, remember, had zero convictions before last week -- to get denied bail again (as happened yesterday), this time ahead of the hearing of her appeal against her 10 month jail term for her involvement in an anti-police brutality protest back in June 2019.  

The past couple of days also have seen Hong Kongers take time to pause for breath and do such as look back and question why Agnes Chow's compatriot, Joshua Wong, was singled out for the treatment meted out to him at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre prior to his actual conviction.  Sadly, however, we know that the worst is not yet over because, also in recent days, there have been rumblings of the Hong Kong government doing such as examining “loopholes” in the city’s laws against the spread of "misinformation".  

 

Actually, the fact of the matter is that the threat to Hong Kong will remain as long as China feels free to go about doing the things it's been doing for some years now.  Like enslaving a good number of its own people.  (Pretty ironic for a country whose national anthem tells folks to "Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves", right?)    

 

Looking across the still existing Hong Kong-Mainland Chinese border: Ahead of Human Rights Day (i.e., today), Mainland Chinese human rights lawyers and their families were prevented from venturing out of their homes.  There also has been disturbing news about a citizen journalist who reported about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and has since been detained for over six months now in a Shanghai facility.  More specifically, while staging a hunger strike, she has had a feeding tube forcibly inserted and her arms restrained to stop her pulling it out.  Truly, as was stated in The Guardian piece reporting this: "The Chinese government’s crackdown on activists, dissidents, and human rights works appears to have worsened this year."  

 

At the same time, it's not like they have not been acting badly for years now.  After all, it's ten years to the day that Liu Xiaobo was not able to be present at the ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize that he was awarded.  With his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest in addition to his being in prison at the time, Liu Xiaobo's prize was placed on an empty chair in Oslo's city hall -- for the first time since 1936, when the German journalist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky was stopped by Nazi authorities from travelling to the Norwegian city.

 

Seven years later, Liu Xiaobo died while under guard at a hospital in north-east China, making him the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in custody since von Ossietzky died in a Nazi concentration camp.  Back on July 13th, 2017, I didn't imagine that just a few years later, Hong Kong would have political prisoners of its own.  Touch wood that they will stay well and emerge out of prison to glory a la Nelson Mandela -- though pretty please don't let any of them have to spend even one tenth of the amount of the time (27 years!) behind bars that he did!

Targeted protests may bear fruit!

The limestone quarry on Robben Island where prisoners, 

including Nelson Mandela, used to toil daily

 

Close to three and half decades ago now, I was a pupil at a boarding school in England.  At the time,  Nelson Mandela was serving his time as a political prisoner in South Africa, and protesting against Apartheid in South Africa was a really big thing.  Even at my school, where the Torygraph was the newspaper of choice of many of my peers as well as the teaching staff, there were many supporters of that political movement.

 

Full of passion to do something for the cause, a number of my classmates discussed doing such as boycotting fruits and other goods from South Africa.  After a friend from Lesotho (who was the person whose home was the closest to South Africa of any of us) opined that doing such things would end up hurting farm workers and such more than the government, some of us decided against this action.  

 

Alternatively, it was deemed a good thing to boycott British organizations that did business in South Africa.  So one fine day, I went to the local branch of Barclays Bank, which had investments in that country, to close my acccount with it and then walked across the street to put my money in a rival bank.  And of course, I didn't have much (as I was still just a student, after all!) -- but I like to think I did manage to make a small contribution to Barclays' eventual decision to withdraw from South Africa not too long afterwards!

 

Fast forward to present-day Hong Kong and, well, I am indeed still taking part in political actions, including as recently as two evenings ago.  Contrary to what the more conservative of my friends (who look upon me as quite the radical) appear to think though, I actually don't go to every single political protest in town.  For example, I didn't go to the three protests that took place this weekend -- including the anti-extradition bill march over in Kowloon today that attracted over 230,000 participants!

 

This may sound funny (now) but my reason was that, as today's protests was billed as an attempt to explain to Mainland Chinese visitors to what the anti-extradition bill protests are about and I can't speak Mandarin/Putonghua, it didn't make sense for me to go!  Put another way: I really thought that today's was going to be a fairly small protest and would involve protesters actually going up and doing such as trying to engage Mainland Chinese visitors in actual conversation along the route!     

 

While it wasn't quite like this, there are indeed reports of march participants directly addressing Mainland Chinese and seeking their support.  In the process, there was indeed a lot more Mandarin/Putonghua utilized at today's protest than any other one that Hong Kong has seen in recent years.  And considering how Cantonese is the language of choice of most Hong Kongers, this arguably is as surreal a state of affairs as -- or an even more surreal situation than -- the anti-extradition bill rally held on the eve of the recent G20 Summit in Osaka during which 10 different languages ended up being spoken!     

 

Something else that is quite something to realize is that there really (still) are a lot of people who remain willing to turn up to protest against the extradition bill.  Put another way: public opinion has not turned against the protest and protesters in wake of the events that took place late on July 1st.  And today, this protest may have won the understanding, if not the support, of a number of Mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong.

Some thoughts on this day that inevitably brings back memories of events that took place many years ago now

Two candles burning at a memorial vigil

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I reconnected a couple of years ago with an old school friend who I had lost contact with for decades.  Now connected on Facebook, I received an alert this morning that today was her birthday and promptly sent her happy bday wishes.  Around the same time that I did so, I got to realizing that today's the 17th anniversary of what has come to be known 9/11 and remembered as a day that majorly changed the United States of America, if not the world.   

As someone who's now in her fifth decade of life on earth, I've invariably accumulated a lot of memories: many good, some not so great; many of a personal nature, others of which I share with many others, including people I don't personally know; some of which revolve around events which took place far away from where I happened to be when I heard about their having occured, yet had quite the psychological and emotional impact on me.     

John Lennon's murder.  The Challenger explosion.  The Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.  The fall of the Berlin Wall.  Nelson Mandela's release from prison.  Leslie Cheung's suicide.  The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake (which also included terrible tsunami and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi).  And, of course, 9/11 -- which, together with what's often referred to in Hong Kong as 6/4 -- probably impacted me the most of all.  

Although there were other reasons why I eventually decided to leave the USA (on July 4th, 2003), the role played by 9/11 is not to be under-estimated.  I think that many people living in America were scarred forever by the terrible events that occured that day in New York City, Washington, DC., and in the air over Pennsylvania.  And, to this day, I'm not sure that many people (including members of the US government) have learnt the right lessons from what happened on September 11th, 2001.

Among other things, the experience and memory of 9/11 has left many of us with some really irrational fears and loathings.  A New York resident I know who saw the planes hit the Twin Towers with her own eyes told me about how, on a recent visit to Hong Kong, she asked for a room change after being assigned a hotel room with the number 911.  In turn, I told her how I -- who saw the Twin Towers fall in real time, even if "only" on TV -- refuse to live, to the perplexity of various Hong Kong property agents, in an apartment located higher than the 12th floor.

And then there's the fear and distrust, if not outright loathing, that many Americans have come to have of foreigners, especially Muslims.  Among the things I will never forget being told in the months after 9/11 was -- and this by an undergraduate at an Ivy League university -- that Americans wanted to study anthropology (which he saw as the study of foreigners) in order to better understand the enemy and defeat them.  Around that time was when I decided that maybe it was time for me to leave the USA; whereupon I did, and returned to my home country -- one with a Muslim majority but also a sizeable non-Muslim population with whom they regularly interact.     

More than incidentally, the friend I have whose birthday it is today is indeed Malaysian, and Hindu.  When we were in secondary school, her family would open their house on Deepavali to the likes of me and her other friends who would happily go there and be fed delicious food by her grandmother.  Among our group of friends were a Malay Muslim, whose house we would in turn visit and get fed at when Hari Raya Puasa came along.  And those friends would, of course, visit my family home during Chinese New Year to eat (and get ang pow)!

Remembering those times makes it so that this September 11th, I have been having happy, not just unhappy, thoughts today.  I really wish 9/11 never happened.  And while I don't think the memories of September 11th, 2001, aren't going to go away nor become less upsetting any time soon, I also really do hope and wish that people will be able to let go of their irrational fears and hates, especially towards other people, eventually and sooner rather than later.

Hong Kong remembers and awaits the time when justice will prevail in China

Candles held aloft at Hong Kong's Victoria Park at a ceremony

remembering atrocities commited in Beijing 29 years ago

Patiently waiting for the candlelight vigil to begin

earlier in the evening

People reading posters set up in readiness 

 for this evening last night

For much of today, the skies were a threatening dark gray and when I left my apartment to meet up with friends with whom I would be going over to Victoria Park this evening, some rain was falling.  By the time I got to our meeting point, however, there no longer was any precipitation in the air and the conditions turned out to be lovely weather-wise to spend outdoors this evening.

If only the reason why we were assembled in Victoria Park earlier tonight was a happy one.  But rather than be festive or celebratory, we were there to mourn the dead: specifically, those idealists and innocents who sought to change their nation for the better one summer in Beijing 29 years ago and ended up paying the price for thinking not only that their time had come but also believing that the (so-called) People's Liberation Army would never turn its guns and tanks on its own countrymen and -women.

There are people out there who reckon that the annual commemorations are increasingly on the tired side.  And it really is noticeably so that, with each passing year, not only the Tiananmen Mothers but also the witnesses to the Tiananmen Square massacre who deliver messages (sometimes live, other times on video) to those assembled at Victoria Park on the evening of June 4th are growing and looking increasingly old.

At the same time, those who get to thinking that the spirits of those seeking vindication and justice for the June 4th, 1989, massacre victims are weakening are very much mistaken.  In fact, my sense is that, with each passing year, the resolve of people to carry on remembering, and also to resist the immoralities of the Communist Chinese government, actually gets hardened -- and this all the more so when it's so obviously the case that the persecutions have continued, claimed further victims (such as Liu Xiaobo) and are making martyrs of still more innocents (including Liu Xia). 

To those who say that the Communists will never fall from power in China: I will (counter-)state with certainty that nothing lasts forever.  Not the Qing dynasty or any other regime that has ruled the area currently occupied by China at any point in history.  Not the regime of Robert Mugabe, whose 37 year rule over Zimbabwe came to an end late last year; nor the presidency of South Africa's Jacob Zuma, ousted after nine years this past February; nor -- perhaps most shockingly to my mind! -- the Barisan Nasional coalition government whose 60 year rule came to an end after being voted out in the Malaysian General Elections just last month!

Travelling to and in Japan during the winter low season

Spotted close to the Peace Memorial Park

over the miraculously rejuvenated city of Hiroshima

 

 

 Quiet station along a train route less travelled...

 

Japan as I've never seen it before in real life -- covered in snow!

 

Way before my South Africa trip last month, I had booked flights that would take me to Japan and back in late January.  After having waited until last October to visit Hiroshima, I could hardly wait to return to the city whose regional culinary specialties rival -- and maybe even surpass -- that of Osaka, whose kushiage and microbrew beer I absolutely adore, as far as I'm concerned.  (Now if only this western Japanese city had a Funassyiland, like Osaka, Tokyo or Funassyi's hometown of Funabashi...!) 

 

So when I saw a good deal for flights to and from a part of Japan that's less than one and a half hours away from Hiroshima by shinkansen in the early part of 2018, I decided to go for it.  Coupled with a great JR West rail pass, I planned out an itinerary that would have me spending some time in Hiroshima but also travelling to a few other places: a few of which I'd previously been to but also a few of which would be "virgin" territory for me.

 

Something else that'd be new for me would be travelling to and in Japan in winter.  Days before the trip, I remained hopeful that, despite the reports of this winter in Japan being colder than usual, I would not see any snow during my trip.  But as it turned out, I saw snow falling every day bar one of this recent Japan visit -- and that one day where I didn't see any of the white stuff actually was day one of the trip (which is particularly ironic considering that it was the same day that Tokyo recorded its largest snowfall over a single day in years)!

 

For the most part though, the parts of Japan that I was in wasn't too affected by the snow or accompanying record cold temperatures.  For example, while I took close to 10 train rides in my one week in the country, I only experienced delays (caused by the falling snow, or anything else for that matter) on two of them; and neither of them added more than an hour to my journey time.  And while there were times when it was distinctly chilly outdoors, most of the indoor spaces that I spent any good amount of time in were comfortably warm -- more so, in fact, that my apartment in Hong Kong in winter!

 

In addition to the good flight deal that I got, one other motivation for visiting Japan at this time of the year was that it's the low season for tourism.  Starting from the flight over, where I saw many empty seats around me on the plane, I had a good feeling that I'd not see the kind of crowds that I was not all that happy to encounter at such as Todaiji's Daibutsuden and the path leading to it in Nara last October or Asakusa's Sensoji the previous fall.  And so it proved, and so much so that I must admit to thinking that, even with the snow and all, winter actually may be a great time to visit the Land of the Rising Sun after all! :)

10 highlights of my 2017 year

Did you know you can get this close to

the great Torii of Itsukushima Shrine?! :O

One of many sunsets I enjoyed photographing from 

my new favorite sunset photography spot in Hong Kong :)

I did a lot of travelling outside of Hong Kong in 2017.  I made three trips back to Penang and made one more visit to Japan this past year.  I also visited Indonesia and South Africa for the first time ever in 2017.  Oh, and I spent the better part of a day in Macau last year too.  I guess it stands to reason then that many of the highlights of my 2017 involved experiences that occured outside of the Big Lychee.  

At the same time though, I want to make clear that my love for Hong Kong remains pretty strong -- and it remains the best place that I've lived in by a long chalk to my mind.  In addition, I think it says a lot that Hong Kong has always figured in all of the annual highlights lists that I've compiled since beginning this blog: including this current one as well as those for 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 all the way back to 2006 (the year before I moved to this part of the world).

1) Best book: As a lover of crime novels, I'm no stranger to being transfixed by a veritable page-turner that causes me to stay awake far beyond my supposed bedtime.  But it's far less often that a non-fiction work will feel so hard to put down that it will literally cause me to lose sleep.  Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is that one of those very rare works.  The absolutely gripping story of his childhood and coming of age in South Africa, it also is a wonderfully loving tribute to his mother.  Parts of it made me laugh (as one might expect of a book written by a famous comedian) but other parts made me cry and touched me so very much.   

2) Best concert: Last September, I heard and saw the very talented pianist, Yuja Wang, performing live with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.  I also was in the audience for the orchestra's very fun Musical Ping Pong concert in June.  But my absolute favorite concert that I got to attend in 2017 took place earlier still in the year and featured another bravura performance by my favorite classical musician for some years now, violinist Ning Feng.  Amazingly, I managed to get two front row seats for a friend and myself for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's Jaap & Ning Feng concert in April and had an unimpeded view of the guest soloist at work that left me in absolute awe of his nimble figures and absolute mastery of his instrument of choice.

3) Best drive: Very early on during my visit to South Africa, I got to realizing that it is a jaw-droppingly beautiful land.  My first full day in the country began with a visit to a stunning beach and included a scenic car ride along Chapman's Drive that had me "oo-ing" and "aah-ing" for much of the way.  Amazingly though, a few days later, I was driven along another stretch of coastal road that I actually think offered up far more stunning views.  And yes, I thank my lucky stars that I was in a passenger seat when we went along Clarence Drive because that way, I really got to admire the spectacular scenery that kept on revealing itself in front of as well as on either side of the car I was in for miles and miles!        

4) Best exhibition: Most of Macau's visitors go their to gamble at its casinos.  I, on the other hand, am more likely to spend time there wandering around its historic center and sampling its very culinary offerings.  This past year though, the primary attraction for me in Macau was Our Sanrio Times, a mega-exhibition geared towards fans of Hello Kitty and other luminaries in the Sanrio stable, including my first Sanrio love, Winkipinki -- and anyone who doubts that I was genuinely thrilled by what I saw there really should have been there to hear the excited squeals that inadvertently emanated from me more than once over the course of the two hours or so that I spent at this kawaii event!       

5) Best film: I viewed 71 new films for the first time in 2017 but the highpoint of my movie-going year actually involved viewing a 1954 film that I saw for the first time as an undergraduate at Beloit College.  I knew the first time I saw it that Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai was a bona fide classic but I feel that I actually appreciate and love it so much more on my second viewing: decades later and on a much bigger screen than previously.  Put it another way: this epic work doesn't seem to only have stood the test of time but its greatness may become more apparent the older it is -- or the older and more mature its viewer becomes!

6) Best hike: Not counting the mini-hikes to and out of Cheung Chau's Tung Wan Tsai (Coral Beach) as part of my monthly beach clean-up efforts, I went on a total of 24 hikes last year in Hong Kong.  Of these, my favorite has to be that undertaken one beautiful day in April and involving my going along a trail that I hitherto hadn't realized existed, part of which was on an old military road way up in the northern New Territories.  Seeing that part of the route had my group passing through a section marked off in the relevant Countryside Map as a firing range, it seems like we were dicing with danger that afternoon!  So I'm not sure if I should or will venture to -- and through -- that scenic area again but, if truth be told, I'm glad to have done so at least once now!                

7) Best place to be at high and low tide: For my first ever visit to Japan's sacred island of Miyajima, I made sure to be at Itsukushima Shrine when high tide came along and was duly rewarded with some pretty incredible sights.  Without really planning to, I also happened to be in the area when the tide was so low that I was able to walk up to the shrine's great Torii, observe that there were oysters on it and actually touch it with my hands.  In doing so, I felt blessed for the second time that day; with the first having been at high tide when I totally "got" why Miyajima has long been ranked among the top three scenic places of Japan (nihon sankei).    

8) Best place for Golden Hour and sunset photography: Back in May 2015, I visited Matsue and found that sunset photography is a major thing there.  Inspired by what I saw there, I actively sought out prime sunset photography spots in Hong Kong upon my return -- and found a couple over on the western side of Hong Kong Island.  Still, while the Sai Wan Swimming Shed and Kennedy Town's Western District Public Cargo Area (aka Instagram Pier) certainly do have their fans, my personal favorite actually is further to the east: over at Lei Yue Mun, particularly in the vicinity of its Tin Hau Temple; with the photos I've taken there, particularly one hot June day last year, showing why this is.         
9) Best museum: The Osaka Museum of History was never high on my list of museums to visit in Japan.  Neither was it high on my list of Osaka attractions to check out.  But one super rainy day in Osaka last October, I decided to head over to that not particularly famous museological establishment and came away completely bowled over by the artistry of its exhibit designers and creativity of its curators in fashioning beautiful and interesting exhibits despite not having all that many ancient and historical artefacts to work with and display.  Highly recommended as a place to visit even on fine weather days, it truly is a museophile's delight! 

10) Best UNESCO World Heritage Site: I visited seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites in four different countries in 2017.  Japan's Itsukushima Shrine was pretty amazing and a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial can't be anything but a seriously moving experience, as is a visit to South Africa's Robben Island.  Meanwhile, it says a lot that I always feel like I find something new to admire whenever I visit Macau's Historic Center -- and I will always feel a special connection with George Town because, well, it's my home state's capital city!  Still, it's the Indonesian UNESCO World Heritage sites of Prambanan and Borobudur which really took my breath away -- and the ancient Buddhist monument of Borobudur where I happily spent several hours, including ones that were early enough in the day for me to see the sunrise from what felt at the time like the top of the world! :)