Rallying for the missing booksellers and "One country, two systems"

Concerned politicians and regular Hong Kongers gathered at

Admiralty's Tim Mei Avenue to rally for the missing booksellers

and "One country, two Systems" this afternoon

Thousands, some with umbrellas in hand, marched from Admiralty 

to China's Liason Office in Hong Kong over in Sai Wan

While waiting to officially lodge a protest at the Liason Office,

we had to stand in an area where garbage had been strewn -- 

something which gives a good idea of what some folks are willing to do

to make things uncomfortable for peaceful demonstrators

Late last year, four Hong Kong booksellers specializing in books critical of China's political elite went missing.  But it wasn't until a fifth, Paul Lee Bo, also appeared to suffer the same fate on December 30th that people started paying notice and getting really concerned.

For many Hong Kongers, the key difference is that, unlike his four Causeway Bay Bookstore colleagues (whose disappearance he had sought to raise an alarm about), Lee appears to have been abducted in Hong Kong itself by individuals working for -- or who are a part of -- the Mainland Chinese authorities, and without the consent (or even knowledge) of their Hong Kong equivalents.  And if this is the case (which it very much looks like), the Mainland Chinese government has clearly violated the "One country, two systems" legal framework put in place after the 1997 Handover that's supposed to last for 50 years.

This afternoon, I took part in a rally protesting the disappearance of the five booksellers-publishers and the threat posed by the Mainland Chinese government to "One country, two systems".  Together with thousands of other people, we assembled within spitting distance of the still closed-off Civic Square and then made our way, in the kind of peaceful, orderly and civilized manner that has come to characterize Hong Kong political protests, to China's Liason Office in Hong Kong over in Sai Wan.  

Among the more well known faces among the crowd were Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau, Scholarism student activist Agnes Chow, Southern District Councilor Paul Zimmerman and former Chief Secretary Anson Chan.  But by and large, the participants at today's protest looked to be ordinary Hong Kongers out to defend their city and the freedoms they enjoy (but which they are see as being increasingly threatened, notably by the Communist Chinese government).   

Although there were times when the police, in the name of safety and security, temporarily halted sections of the march, it actually was pretty smooth going for the most part.  Thus it was that the section of the heavily policed protest that I was with -- which was within visual range of the march's "head", and which I gauged to be around 20 minutes ahead of the protest's "tail" -- was able to walk from Admiralty to Sai Wan in around two hours.     

When we got close to the Liason Office, however, we encountered a foul stench -- literally.  Someone had strewn filled garbage bags in the area where the protesters gathered to wait for a Chinese government representative to come out from the imposing building to officially hear our demands for the immediate release of the five booksellers and the adherence to Hong Kong's Basic Law.  

Maybe the message behind this dirty deed was that the protesters were/are trash.  But I am more inclined to interpret this action as showing that those responsible are truly scum --  who do not realize that Hong Kong people are far better than they seem to think, and consequently deserve better than has been the case, including the right to not have to live in fear of "the midnight knock on the door", and also the right to have the genuine universal suffrage that the Umbrella Movement made clear that many Hong Kongers want.

Ip Man 3, at long last! (film review)

The Hong Kong poster for Ip Man 3

 

Ip Man 3 (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2015)

- Wilson Yip, director

- Starring: Donnie Yen, Max Zhang Jin, Lynn Hung, Patrick Tam Yiu Man, Mike Tyson

 

In the year that's just passed, the Hong Kong box office increased its takings by 20 percent from the previous year -- but only had one local film in the top 10 list of box office hits.  And in keeping with this trend, pretty much all the movie talk I heard in the Big Lychee the week before I flew off to Amsterdam revolved around Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which had gone on general release here one day ahead of the USA (and on the same day as a bunch of other countries including South Korea, Britain and Malaysia). 

 

Since returning from the Netherlands, however, about the only movie I've heard anyone I've mentioned has been Ip Man 3.  Released in Hong Kong cinemas on Christmas Eve (and due out in selected British cinemas on January 15th, and American ones on January 22nd), this blockbuster crowdpleaser is the long-awaited follow-up to the first two Ip Man movies directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen.  Released in 2008 and 2010, these period martial arts dramas gave the wing chun master who was Bruce Lee's master the Wong Fei Hung and Fong Sai Yuk treatment: i.e., turned the renowned kung fu master into a legendary personality.

 

I don't think that I'll ever forget the first time I saw Donnie Yen burst into wing chun action in the first Ip Man.  He really was that breathtakingly impressive.  And although Ip Man 2 was a lesser film overall than the original offering, the son of another genuine martial arts great (Bow Sim Mark) continued to impress in his fight scenes, with those waged atop a rickety table in the 2010 movie also being able to hold their own in the pantheon of amazing martial arts battles in Hong Kong movies.

 

Yen electrifies once more in Ip Man 3's action scenes expertly choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, including those which has him going up against Mike Tyson (yes, the former heavyweight box office champion!) as well as others.  But this time around, the Hong Kong movie veteran also is able to show off his acting chops -- particularly in some truly tender scenes shared with Lynn Hung, who plays Ip Man's beloved wife Wing Sing -- in a film that contains a significant amount of moving drama along with kinetic action. 

 

In what may well be the final Ip Man movie for both the film's director and star, Wilson Yip appears intent on making a strong case for Ip Man having been a loving husband, caring father and pillar of the community as well as truly great martial arts practitioner.  Consequently, sub-plots in this film include one that relates to Wing Sing's well-being while the main story pertains to Ip Man going to the rescue after the future of the school attended by Ip Ching comes under threat when a shady American businessman (portrayed by Mike Tyson) covets its land and sends his goons (headed by an especially despicable character played by Patrick Tam Yiu Man) to do such as attack the headmaster (composer-character actor Tats Lau) and wreck the school's premises.

 

Taking place in Hong Kong, the action begins in 1959, with Ip Man firmly established in local martial arts circles, with a number of loyal students, and living comfortably with his wife and younger son Ip Ching (while his elder son by 12 years, Ip Chun, remained across the border in Mainland China).  Early on, a cocky young man known as Siu Lung (Little Dragon) to locals -- and Bruce Lee to much of the rest of the world -- is shown having his first meeting with Ip Man; one where the younger man is able to demonstrate that he has fast moves but Ip Man is able to establish that it's he who definitely is the master.   

 

Those who've viewed and remember Herman Yau's Ip Man -- The Final Fight (2013) will immediately get a jarring feeling, like they've entered a parallel Ip Man universe, because of the markedly different presentation of certain details and developments in the real-life individual's life -- with Wilson Ip's film appearing to be less historically accurate than Herman Yau's.  The truth of the matter is that in, and with, all of his three Ip Man films, Wilson Yip seems far more intent on turning Ip Man into a movie legend than adhering to actual historical and biographical facts. 

 

The director further shows his ambition by having both the film and its protagonist make socio-political statements.  Interestingly, those concerning "foreign elements" are done in such a way that even while they outwardly appear anti-Western, they can be "read" in such a way as to be, say, Mainlanders (much as anti-colonial criticism in pre-1997 Hong Kong movies could be seen in films ostensibly much more about Ming or Han vs Qing).

 

In any event, what's clear is that Ip Man 3 comes off best in its action scenes.  And while others (notably the impressive Max Zhang, playing another wing chun master, this one named Cheung Tin Chi) are sometimes given the showier, more fiery moves, it's beautiful to see how Yuen Woo Ping has ensured that it's Donnie Yen's Ip Man who is exemplary at utilizing wing chun's close combat principles when he fights.  

 

In crucial ways like this, the Wilson Yip-Donnie Yen duo easily bests all those other director-star pairs that have brought Ip Man to the silver screen.  Anthony Wong Chau San may have had more gravitas as Ip Man in Herman Yau's 2013 film, Dennis To's Ip Man more erudite in the same director's 2010 The Legend is Born: Ip Man, and Tony Leung Chiu Wai's Ip Man looked stylish in action in Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster.  But there's little doubt that the wing chun sifu portrayed in Yip's films by Yen is the most convincing martial arts master of them all.   

My rating for this film: 8.5   

Amsterdam canal sights, including photos of Amsterdam Light Festival installations (Photo-essay)

If I visited Amsterdam on my own, pretty much the first thing after checking into my hotel would have been to go on a canal boat tour.  But nice person that I am (and yes, I have indeed heard the saying that "self-praise is no praise at all"! ;b) , I waited until my German friend -- with whom I had agree to meet up in the Dutch capital city -- arrived in town to embark on what is one of those "must see" things to do when there.

Although it's undoubtedly a super touristy activity, I definitely can see the allure of canal boat tours -- in that they do provide their passengers with a different view of Amsterdam from that to be had when one's on land.  At the same time though, it's definitely pretty much impossible to miss seeing Amsterdam's canals even when one doesn't take a canal boat tour -- and they can be pretty picturesque when viewed from land, particularly when the annual Amsterdam Light Festival is taking place! :b
 

Some buildings along Amsterdam's canals are newer than others,

and some vessels on them are more seaworthy than others! ;b

 

An unexpected sight: a floating Chinese restaurant

amidst other Amsterdam sights!

 

A stretch of along Herengracht -- the canal along which the

Museum Willet-Holthuysen is located -- that's more "classic" looking

 

When the sun shines and the sky is blue, 

Amsterdam can be very photogenic indeed :)

Fans of Puppet Ponyo rest assured: of course 

she went along for the canal boat ride with us! ;b 

 

A canal landscape which includes the Westerkerk (which is

Rembrandt's final resting place) and Anne Frank House

 

A canal cruise boat passes in between Victor Vicsek's

Talking Heads installation which is part of the Amsterdam Light Festival

 

Central Amsterdam night landscape featuring Massimo Uberti

and Marco Pollice's Today I Love You installation

The Museum Willet-Holthuysen and the 17th century Amsterdam canal house in which it's located

A painting of the canal house in which the second museum

I visited in Amsterdam is located, and its neighbors 

 

The original 17th century stained-glass windows of the 

house's second floor octagonal-shaped back room

 

These statues of Roman goddesses adorn 

the house's grand central staircase!

 

After the serious experience of visiting the Dutch Resistance Museum, I decided that some (relative) frivolity was in order.  So after a late lunch at the brasserie located just next door to the museum which I ended up spending slightly more than four hours in, I walked over to the historic house on Herengracht, considered to be the most important canal in Amsterdam and part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage-listed 17th century canal ring, which is home to the Museum Willet-Holthuysen. 

 

Constructed in the late 17th century as a double canal house (i.e., one that's twice the size of the usual canal house built in the area), the edifice that houses the Museum Willet-Holthuysen was bequeathed to the city of Amsterdam, with the proviso that it'd be preserved and turned into a museum, in 1895 by Louisa Holthuysen.  The childless widow of Abraham Willet, she had inherited this house and its contents from her father in 1858, and had much of it redecorated after her marriage to Abraham Willet, an avid collector of arts and crafts like his wife.

A visit to the museum gives a good idea of how luxuriously prosperous Amsterdam residents of the 19th century were able to live.  One of three historical canal houses in the city whose original interiors are still visible, it reminded me of the 18th century Georgian House in Edinburgh New Town that I visited decades ago -- in that both these historic house museums were able to give an idea of the tastes of their long-gone owners as well as their class and times.

 

An only child with a liking of pet dogs into adulthood, Louisa Holthuysen collected paintings of animals as well as flowers.  Her collection is displayed along with her husband, who regularly held "art viewings" in a designated "club room" for his friends and turned a small room in the house into his personal mini-museum.  Also in their collection is a piece of furniture with a depiction of an East Asian woman in what was supposed to be a kimono, only since it was done by a European contemporary of theirs, doesn't look like any actual kimono I've seen! 

 

At the time of my visit, some sections of the Museum Willet-Holthuysen were being worked on -- and I found myself wondering whether I should have gone instead to the Museum van Loon, which my Frommer's guidebook had described as having less contents than the Museum Willet-Holthuysen, or the Museum Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis, located on Keizersgracht like the Museum van Loon but whose existence my Frommer's guidebook hadn't mentioned!  But the die had been cast and I decided that seeing one historic Amsterdam canal house was enough -- especially since there's so much else to see in the Dutch capital that's home to more than 40 museums, among other things! ;b

Amsterdam's thought-provoking Verzetsmuseum (AKA the Dutch Resistance Museum)

Words to live by at the Dutch Resistance Museum

The museum's displays include a book that was turned into 

a secret hiding place for a resistance fighter's pistol

The museum also shows how prams were used to hide

resistance fighters' weapons 

Given Amsterdam's reputation as a hedonistic city where recreational drugs can be easily procured and prostitution is legal, I can understand why people tend to react with disbelief when I tell them that the city's main attractions for me were its museums.  But that really was the case -- and thus it was that on my first full day in Amsterdam, I actually went and visited not just one but two of its more than 40 museological establishments!

Some folks may find it strange that I chose the Verzetsmuseum (AKA the Dutch Resistance Museum) to be the first museum I visited in the Netherlands but I thought it'd be a good place to go get contexualizing information prior to visiting the much more well known Anne Frank House (which my German friend and I had prebooked visits to for the day after).  And so it proved, with the Verzetsmuseum offering up a plethora of stories and facts about life in the Netherlands under Nazi occupation from May 1940 to May 1945.

Although its name might get one suspecting that it's going to be full of propaganda and tales of Dutch heroics, the Dutch Resistance Museum actually goes all out to give a more balanced picture of events -- and is all the better for this being so.  From the outset, it makes clear that after they found themselves under Nazi rule, people had the options of adapting or collaborating as well as resisting -- and that, in fact, resistance was actually the least popular option for many for the most part; with reasons being given for this ranging from it being by far the most difficult and dangerous option to many of the Nazis' directives and drives (such as the issuing of identity cards), at least initially, having appeared to be rather innocuous rather than obviously evil and wrong.

Something else that I greatly appreciate about this history museum was how it strives to put its visitors into the shoes of the people who lived under Nazi rule more than 70 years ago now.  One way it achieves this is by posing questions which come across as relevant today.  Another way it does so is to show how various individuals came to make the decisions they did (to adapt, collaborate or resist) using a combination of rational thought and emotion while thinking about themselves and/or others. 

At the same time, even while making it understandable why some people opted to not actively resist against and oppose the Nazis, the museum's curators also have shown the societal results of people not having done so as much and earlier than would have been ideal.  The sending of some 140,000  Jews living in the Netherlands to concentration camps and their deaths, the sending of around 20,000 (other) Dutch nationals to labor camps in Germany, and the execution of some 2,000 members of the Dutch resistance are among the horrific statistics of the Second World War.    

Still, what truly elevated the Dutch Resistance Museum for me is that its coverage actually extends beyond the Netherlands during World War II to also include the Dutch colonies -- and, in the case of what was known as the Dutch East Indies and now is Indonesia, through to 1949.  More specifically, as a special exhibition (which runs through to April 3rd) shows, after experiencing what it was like to be under foreign rule, the Dutch got to realizing that they were viewed as foreign oppressors by some people -- and that their own nationals were capable of atrocities and war crimes too.

Hailing as I do from neighboring Malaysia and having had more than one anthropology professor whose specialist area was in Indonesia, I had been acquainted with the dark side of Dutch colonialism before my visit to this museum.  But while I was not surprised to learn that Dutch colonialism was problematic, I did find it refreshing to see a Dutch museum openly acknowledge this and, along the way, deliver the universalist message that often we are all too fallibly human even when we'd prefer to be looked up to as righteous heroes, but that wrongs can be made right if we actively work to make it so.   

Eschewing marijuana but going for jenever as well as beer in Amsterdam

There are lots of drugs legally on offer in Amsterdam...

...but Puppet Ponyo and I opted to spend more time in

brown cafes and other bars, rather than coffeeshops

 In particular, I very much enjoyed drinking

jenever as well as beer in The Netherlands :)

"Are you going to try taking marijuana?"  That was the question more than one person asked me after I told them that I'd be heading over to Amsterdam in December.  My honest answer to those wondering is: no, truly!  I must admit that there's a part of me that was tempted but, as weird as it sounds, I find the smell of marijuana terribly off-puttingly sweet as well as strong.  

Also, I worry about the effects that the drug has on me; given that I've heard that some people cry when they're high as well as marijuana failing to have an effect on some people rather than getting them all mellow and giggly, like in the ideal case.  In addition, it's really not like this would have been my first chance to try marijuana, given that -- among other things -- I attended a seriously "granola" liberal arts college in the US; and I will state for the record that I've attended a pot party (though I didn't necessarily inhale during it) in my sophomore year at college!         

So, rather than aim to visit an Amsterdam coffeeshop, one of my goals when visiting The Netherlands' capital city was to spend some time hanging out in a "brown cafe" -- where coffee, not marijuana, is served but, also, more potent stuff such as all manner of alcoholic libations!  And an old "brown cafe" -- in particular, Cafe Hoppe, which has been in operation since 1670 -- was the very first place that I headed too after checking in and dropping my luggage at the Amsterdam hotel where I ended up spending the better part of a fortnight!  

The Dutch equivalent of a British pub or Japanese izakaya, "brown cafes" serve food as well as drink, and can be general mellow affairs outside of peak hours even while bustling and bursting at the seams at peak times.  The first time I visited Cafe Hoppe, I found only a Dutch language menu and, after recognizing the Dutch word for cheese (kaas), opted for a plate of that along with a glass of Belgian beer on tap.  On successive visits, however, I got bolder; with my ordering an ossenworst (a smoked raw beef sausage which I found delicoiusly addictive!) sandwich to eat on my second visit; and a plate of blakerverworst (AKA liverwurst, or blood sausage) on my third visit, for what would be my final meal in Amsterdam before I headed over to the aiport!
 
In addition to getting more daring in terms of what I ordered to eat, I also decided to "go for it" and try some jenever while I was in the Netherlands -- and found that I absolutely loved the drink, be it 15% or up to 40% alcohol, jonge (young, tasting like a lighter version of gin), oude (old, with whisky notes) or korenjwin (corn wine, and tasting somewhat brandy-ish) -- though I do draw the line with regards to those jenever which have blended -- diluted? -- with fruit (such as various types of berries or lemon)!

More than once, I also opted for kopstoot, as per the traditional order in Amsterdam.  Although this translates into English as "(a) blow to your head", it really wasn't that bad -- perhaps because I made sure that when I ordered this combination, my beer of choice was a pilsner that was lower in alcohol than the higher alcohol beers that are often available in Amsterdam bars (be they brewed in the Belgian, German and British styles)!  

Something that also undoubtedly helped is that I drank both those drinks slowly, rather than chugged them the way that, say, an American college fraternity "brother" would do so.  And while there are some who think that this makes it seem that I "drink like an old man", as one friend as put it, it does tend to (generally) ensure that I thankfully don't have a hangover and am not the worse for wear the next day! ;b

A by-the-numbers look at my 2015 movie viewing year

The main character in Home, one of a number

of animated Hollywood movies I viewed in 2015

Screening times for a cinema showing -- count 'em! -- four

Hong Kong movies over the Chinese New Year period last year :)

At various points in my life, I've had jobs which -- I'd tell people -- had me "watching lots of bad films so that you don't have to".  A few months into 2015, I decided that I had spent too many hours of my life watching movies I didn't really want to.  Since then, there have been weeks when I've not watched a single movie.  

But even while my film viewing total looks to have peaked in 2014 (with 204 feature films viewed for the first time that year, and few repeat viewings of favorite movies), I'm still going to the cinema pretty often -- more than most people, I reckon! -- and, actually, clocking up numbers comparable to previous years' (check out my by-the-numbers posts for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 to see what I mean)!

2 -- The total number of Malaysian films I viewed last year (i.e., Chiu Keng Guan's The Journey (2014) and Edmund Yeo's River of Exploding Durians (also 2014))

2 -- The total number of films I viewed in 2015 from countries that no longer exist (i.e., East Germany and the USSR)

3 -- The number of times I got to see my favorite actress of all time, Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, on a big screen in 2015 (For the record, she starred in The Bride with White Hair, which screened at the 2015 Hong Kong International Film Festival, and Swordsman II, one of the selections for the Hong Kong Film Archive's "100 Must See Hong Kong Movies" series, and features briefly in 2014 Taiwanese documentary The Moment!)

3 as well -- The total number of movies starring the great Setsuko Hara (whose death in September at the age of 95 years was announced only in November) that I viewed in 2015

3 also -- The total number of films I viewed in 3-D last year

8 -- The number of movies I viewed on board a plane last year

9 -- The number of animated films I viewed for the first time last year

14 -- The number of films from Britain that I viewed last year 

19 -- The number of movies I viewed at the 2015 Hong Kong International Film Festival

25 -- The total number of 2015 Hong Kong feature films (including Mainland Chinese co-productions) and short film anthologies that I viewed last year

30 -- The number of films I viewed for the first time in 2015 that I'd rate as a 8.5 or higher on the brns.com scale (with these being: 12 Golden Ducks (Hong Kong, 2015), An (Japan-France-Germany, 2015), Boat People (Hong Kong, 1982), Boyhood (USA, 2014), Conflagration (Japan, 1958), Daughters, Wives and a Mother (Japan, 1960), Dersu Uzala (USSR-Japan, 1975), Grave of the Fireflies (Japan, 1988), It Happened One Night (USA, 1934), Kingsman: The Secret Service (Britain, 2015), Leviathan (Russia, 2014), Little Big Master (Hong Kong, 2015), McFarland, USA (USA, 2015), Our Little Sister (Japan, 2015), Parasyte (Japan, 2014), Pride (Britain, 2014), Princess Jellyfish (Japan, 2014), Prophecy (Japan, 2015), Song of the Sea (Ireland-Denmark-Belgium, 2014), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (USA-UK, 2015), St. Vincent (USA, 2014), Still Alice (USA, 2014), The Imitation Game (Britain, 2014), The Moment (Taiwan, 2014), The New Rijksmuseum -- The Film (The Netherlands, 2014), The President (Georgia-France-Britain-Germany, 2014), The Taking of Tiger Mountain (Mainland China-Hong Kong, 2014), Timbuktu (Mauritania-France, 2014), Tokyo Olympiad (Japan, 1965), and Veteran (South Korea, 2015)) 

30 also -- The number of films from Japan that I viewed for the first time last year (the same as in 2014!) 

31 --  The number of different territories whose films I viewed last year (And for the record, they are, in alphabetical order: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, East Germany, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Mainland China, Malaysia, Mauritania, Japan, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Russia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, the USA, the USSR, and Ukraine)

32 -- The total number of movies from the USA that I viewed for the first time last year 

33 -- The total number of Hong Kong feature films (including co-productions with Mainland China and other countries, and one unfunished work) and short film anthologies that I viewed for the first time in 2015

59 -- The number of feature length films and short film anthologies that were first released in 2015 that I viewed in 2015

96 -- The total number of movies from other than Hong Kong that I viewed in 2015 

129 -- The total number of feature length films and short film anthologies I viewed for the first time last year 

1934 -- The original year of release of It Happened One Night, the Hollywod classic that was the oldest movie I viewed in 2015

1941 -- The original year of release of Follow Your Dream, the oldest Hong Kong film I viewed in 2015