10 highlights of my 2007

The Taipei institution I recently visited
that gets my vote for best museum this year

A photogenic part of that which gets my vote
as the best place to live that's just a few minutes' walk away
from the pub that has become a firm favorite of mine :)

Around this time last year, I wrote up a list of my 10 highlights of 2006. Reading it again recently, I found that it served to remind me of some particularly good times and experiences. Consequently, it seems worthwhile to go ahead repeat the exercise, only for 2007 this time around.

As previously, the list is on the eclectic side, as reflects this blog's and its writer's personalities. Also, as reflects the eclecticism, while certain categories (e.g., 'best book' and 'best museum') are the same as last year's, others are different -- as befits my different experiences this year from 2006. At the same time though, hope that it will make for worthwhile (and enjoyable) reading for more than myself. And now, without further ado:-

1) Best Book: Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates, and the Story of the New China (New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2007) by John Pomfret, an American journalist who had been a university exchange student at China's Nanjing University in the early 1980s and later served for a time as the Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post. Full of interesting, detail-rich stories that ring true (and sometimes are all the more chilling for this being the case), the tome makes for a thoroughly engrossing read as it gives an insightful look into the contemporary Chinese psyche by way of an exploration cum examination of the lives of people who really have, as the ancient Chinese curse goes, lived in "interesting times" -- as well as lived to tell the tale.

2) Best Concert: If I had named a 'best concert' for 2006, it would have been the Tsai Chin concert at Genting Highlands. The truth of the matter though is that however enjoyable it was, it also happened to be the only live music event I attended that year! In contrast, since moving to Hong Kong in May, I've managed to attend my share of concerts, many of which -- for all of Hong Kong being the fabled land of Cantopop -- have had classical music on the programme. Over the course of doing so, I've become quite the fan of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and it's their Birthday Rhapsody concert that tops my list of wonderful concerts that I attended; though another, this time one given by Taiwan's U Theatre drumming troupe in Hong Kong earlier this year, also merits a special mention.

3) Best Hike: As regular readers know, I've been able to do quite a bit of hiking since moving to Hong Kong. And while each and everyone of those that I've gone on have had their merits, I must say that the highlight of my 2007 hiking year really has to be the exhilarating expedition that two of my friends and I embarked on and that took us from Wong Nai Chung Gap up to Violet Hill before ending up at the Tai Tam reservoirs; a hike which allowed me to take in views and take photos like these, these and these, and was all the more enjoyable for the refreshing wind that blew and bright sun that shone that day.

4) Best Live Performing Arts Production: The Hong Kong Dance Company's Angel Falls actually provided with two really cool experiences rather than just the one. Firstly, I'm going to come out and state that meeting and interviewing its director and scriptwriter, Raymond To, was a dream come true and it really was the icing on the cake when the scriptwriter of Peking Opera Blues -- my favorite movie in the whole wide world -- and so much more turned out to be utterly charming, gracious and interesting a person to interview. So, it was with great anticipation that I went to check out a performance of this beautiful musical, and with much joy that I found it to be every bit as entertaining and enjoyable as I had hoped as well as trusted that it would be.

5) Best Museum: The National Palace Museum, located in Taipei, Taiwan, and containing untold treasures and riches that span some eight centuries of Chinese history, much of which was transported over from Mainland China along with the fleeing Chinese Nationalists in 1949. Tracing its origins to the National Palace Museum which opened inside Beijing's Forbidden City on October 10, 1925, this institution first opened to the public in Taiwan in 1965 but was closed for extensive renovations for some four years in this century and only reopened again to the public on December 25, 2006.

(Also, at the risk of upsetting folks from Mainland China, I have to admit that when my mother and I visited the Forbidden City back in 2005, we were impressed by the architecture but couldn't help but something -- or, rather, quite a few things -- were missing from its interiors. Thus the kernels of our idea to visit the National Palace Museum were sowed on our visit to Beijing. And after visiting that museological establishment, I can confirm that it most certainly is where a lot more impressive portable objects are to be found than in any of the former royal residences we visited over on the Mainland!)

6) Best Place to Live: This one actually is for more than just 2007 since eight months on after moving to Hong Kong, I really do feel that it's the best place in the world that I have lived thus far. And when you consider that thus far in my life, I've lived in -- not just visited -- quite a few places (namely, Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Wellingborough, London and Beckenham, England; Beloit (Wisconsin), Yellowjacket (Colorado) and Philadelphia, USA; and Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, Tanzania)... and, also, that I love Hong Kong far more now than it was 'just' a movie mecca which I made annual pilgrimages to for some years... Touch wood, but I truly do hope that I'll be able to happily call it home for some time to come.

7) Best Pub: There are times after work when I like to head over to a pub for a pint or two (but seldom more than that -- honest!). And although I had determined to try out a selection of drinking holes after moving to Hong Kong before settling too quickly on just one to be a regular at, the truth of the matter is that early on, I realized that I had found one that I really like in The Globe. For while there are quite a few other pubs and/or bars that are closer to my residence or workplace, none of them match Toby Cooper's place in terms of draft beer selection and ambience, and -- this is something that really seals the deal for me... -- its being a non-smoking establishment! Additionally, its food -- especially its homemade pies of the week -- isn't half bad either. Ditto re its friendly staff!

8) Best Restaurant: Confession: I've only ever been to the Tin Hau branch of Yakitoritei. So it's possible that its older Happy Valley branch may be even better than this newer branch. And I probably should give it a try some time. The 'problem', though, is that so strong a grip does the Tin Hau branch of this eatery that serves up over 40 different varieties of yakitori already have on me that whenever the mood strikes for me to go have some grilled Japanese food, it's to this place -- whose grilled quails eggs are simply divine, and whose chefs know how to make strips of chicken skin simultaneously crispy, chewy and delicious! -- that I find my feet automatically carrying the rest of me to these days! ;S

9) Best Sporting Experience: It's been a while since I wrote about the association football team I've supported since 1978. This has not been because my Arsenal passion has dampened some but, rather, because superstitious person that I am when it comes to football, I sometimes worry that I will jinx The Gunners by writing about their' virtues and better moments! For all this, I can't help but give voice in this entry to the joy that The Arsenal have often given to me. And -- this current campaign having gone swimmingly well thus far -- none more so in 2007 than the day in January when a second string team of Young Guns put six goals past the legendary Liverpool at 'Fortress Anfield'! :b

10) Best Totally Unexpected Occurrence: Funny but true: The more I think about events that fall into the category, the more I realize how many there were (and how surreal -- and fantastical -- my life has been since I moved to Hong Kong). And in any other year, certain celebrity encounters -- e.g., spotting Bobby Yip, hands full of shopping, in one MTR station, Hui Siu Hung in another, and seeing Eric Tsang, Sandra Ng and Crystal Tin casually chatting away in the lobby area of a cineplex, never mind passing by Leon Lai as I walked down the stairs after having said my goodbyes to Miriam Yeung...! :o -- would definitely have topped this category. But the Hello Kitty fan that I am really does feel that this year, what really takes the cake is my getting gifted a set of MTR Hello Kitty Heroes by the Sanrio Wave folks as a token of gratitude for my having written a feature article about Hello Kitty and gotten her on the cover of bc magazine! :)))))))

Enjoy? If so, please do feel free to post some comments on my choices and categories! Oh, and should anyone wonder about why there's no Best Film category here, it's because I'm preparing a whole blog entry that will be devoted to movies I viewed in 2007, and it's my intention to write and put it up on this blog in the very near future... :b

Messy (This week's Photo Hunt)

"Where's the mess?" I can hear all but the keenest-eyed folks asking when they take at the two pictures that I've put up for this week's Messy-themed Photo Hunt. To which I will reply with the following:

Firstly, see the cow standing on the hill in the bottom photo? Well, it and the other cows that are allowed to roam freely around Hong Kong's Tap Mun Chau (AKA Grass Island) are responsible for making it so that beautiful though much of this remote as well as rural 2 square kilometer section of the HKSAR is, there are some people who will want to steer clear of it. Alternatively put (and to quote no less a source than Wikipedia), "hygiene-conscious [individuals] tend to stay away from Tap Mun as the island is home to cattle, resulting in hilltops dotted with many piles of faeces"!!!

And should you really wish to see the messy evidence for yourself, look carefully at the foreground portions of the posted photos and it ought not be too difficult for you to spot at least one cow 'pie' about the place. Still, if it is, chalk it down to my having been too successful in ensuring that the photos I took during my recent visit to Tap Mun would not have cow pies in them rather than that the island being bereft of them... ;b

Tai Tam Reservoirs redux (photo-essay)

Season's greetings to you all and hope you get to enjoy some time off during this end of the year period. As for myself: Just returned from one vacation trip away from Hong Kong yesterday and will shortly head out of the territory for another!

But before doing that, here's going ahead and sharing some more scenic shots from the gentle -- but long -- Hong Kong Island hike with my mother that I went on last month; in particular, the Tai Tam Reservoirs portion of this particular outing. And, again, if parts of it strike some of you as familiar (as well as, I trust, beautiful), that's because I had been through here before... only, faster and with less pause for photography and -- pun very much intended! -- reflection than this time around... ;b

Before we get to the water, here's a look
at part of the hiking path we were on

More of the trail
but now water also beckons...

A calm and pretty spot
within Tai Tam Country Park

Pulling back for a larger view
of one of the Tai Tam Reservoirs

The kind of picture that gets me thinking --
I may not be able to paint but, hey,
at least I can take a photograph like this one! :)

Yes, those really are reflections of clouds
(as well as surrounding greenery) on the water :)

More great scenery made even more beautiful
when reflections get thrown into the equation

One last photo -- and you just know
that it had to include reflections, right? ;)

Light (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

I'm not sure whether tnchick meant it to be so but as it so happened, I found this week's Photo Hunt theme to lend itself well to being festive- as well as light-themed. In any event, from my ever-growing digital photo archive, here's one photo taken during a very local -- we're talking neighborhood, not even single territory or regional culture! -- festive celebration and another that got me thinking of Christmas (a day which is fast approaching as I write this!).

More specifically, the abstract -- and artsy? -- looking top photo actually is a blurred shot of the head of the 67 meter long -- and really quite spectacular! -- Tai Hang fire dragon that's made up of thousands of burning as well as lighted incense sticks plus stalks of dry straw and pearl grass as it quickly passed by me this past September.

As for the bottom photo: I took that early one evening in Macau, before it got really dark but after the lights went on, and it's of St Dominic's Church, a religious establishment with a violent past but also a beautiful building whose main entrance is on the former Portuguese enclave's very picturesque Senado Square.

On a more mundane note: I will shortly be going off for a bit somewhere where I won't have regular internet access. So I hope that my fellow Photo Hunters will understand if this week, I don't visit as promptly, etc. as usual. Also, yes, I do hope to be back to my more usual ways next time around! And in the meantime, here's wishing everyone (else) who'll be having it "Happy holidays"! :)

Small (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Some weeks, I spend part of my Saturday afternoon after work -- yes, alas, mine is a 5 1/2 day work week :S -- going around town with a camera, trying to find a worthy and appropriate subject for the week's Photo Hunt. Some other weeks, on the other hand, are ones with themes that get me happily thinking "Yay, I have just the photo(s) in my collection to showcase!" And as it so happens, yes, indeedy, re this happening to be one of the latter weeks. :)

For, back in July of this year, I had gone on the Ping Shan Heritage Trail and towards the end of my explorations, I had come across the small shrine, complete with orange offerings (which, for the purposes of this Photo Hunt, are great for emphasising how small the pair of religious figurines in the photo in question really are!)

But precisely because the figurines are rather small, they may not make for quite an impressive photographic subjects. Consequently, I'm also including a second photo in this entry that also have small religious figurines as their main subject matter; only this time around, they are ones that are part of a much larger and, accordingly, far more visually impressive assemblage!

As you might imagine, I was close to speechless when I first spotted this unusual assemblage of religious figurines; and this not least because I honestly had never read or been told about its existence! To this day, I don't know much about who is its creator -- or creators -- and such. Only that this collection of figurines is to be found in what looks to be part the apparently not very well known -- or visited -- Waterfall Bay Park, located near Wah Fu over on the western side of Hong Kong Island. And that another intrepid blogger also has been to the area and similarly thought that the shrine was worth photographing and mentioning on a blog... ;b

Along the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path (Photo-Essay)

A few weeks back, my mother came over to Hong Kong for another visit. Whereas previously, we had mainly explored the territory by bus, this time around, I figured that there would be a couple of hikes that she could go on and enjoy. And how right I was proven!

The following are some photos I took on the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path portion of our first hike which started at Wong Nai Chung Gap and got us to Tsin Shui Wan Au, from where we headed northeastwards through the Tai Tam Reservoirs area. (As an aside: The route from Tsin Shui Wan Au to the Tai Tam Reservoirs is one I've hiked before. So when I get to posting photos from that portion of this more recent hike, you might recognize some of the scenery from a previous photo-essays! If so, well spotted!!)

This path that's fairly flat essentially followed the catchwater along the west side of Violet Hill. Although some sections are paved, others are not. Additionally, some sections cling somewhat scarily close to the hill's edge. On a more positive note: This enabled me to take some scenic snaps, particularly of the Repulse Bay area of Hong Kong Island. So I was actually pretty happy with the state of things on that hike! :)

The small reservoir at Wong Nai Chung Gap

To put it mildly: This was a hike where one saw
quite a few luxury -- and I do mean luxury! -- homes

For all this, though, one really wasn't that far away
from nature throughout much of the hike...

Another piece of evidence: This spider's web
that I'm so happy that I managed to photograph! :)

And there are these dessicated -- but arguably
even more beautiful as a result? -- fern leaves

Repulse Bay and the green hills nearby

View of Repulse Bay from a different angle

My mother's the pink shirted figure in the distance,
and I am, of course, represented in the picture
by my shadow ;b

Movie celebrities galore and more! :)

Brutal, bloody and serious --
Not your usual festive season blockbuster!

Peter Chan Ho-Sun. Chapman To. Will Smith. Akiva Goldsman. Francis Lawrence. I don't mean to gloat or brag but, really, last week was quite the week as far as being in the same room as movie celebrities go! (And you don't want to know what the week before that was like!!)

Still, before you start gnashing and grinding your teeth too much, be rest assured, dear reader, that if you follow the links provided below, you'll get access to some of what was said at my interviews with the director and producer of The Warlords, the producer and one of the cast of Trivial Matters, and the out-and-out star, writer cum co-producer and director of I Am Legend... ;b

Alternatively put, another issue of bc magazine has come out -- both in hard copy forms over here in Hong Kong as well as on-line -- and the following are my contributions to it:-

i) Peter Chan and The Warlords -- the article that is the result of *two* interviews with, as I told him to his face, the director of one of my top five favorite movies of all time (and for the record, that would be He's A Woman, She's a Man (1994));

ii) A Poor Nose -- an arts feature about The Chung Ying Theatre Company's Cantonese language (with English and Chinese surtitles) production of Cyrano de Bergerac;

iii) Daksha's Daring Dance -- another arts feature, this time about the Daksha Sheth Dance Company's BhuKham: Circus of Earth & Sky;

iv) Not So Trivial Matters -- Chapman To talks about Pang Ho-Cheung's upcoming movie (which To co-produced and can be seen playing a producer named... Chapman To!);

v) Review of The Warlords;

vi) Review of Persepolis;

vii) Review of Mad Detective;

viii) Review of I Am Legend; and

ix) The Editor's Diary for the period from December 13 to January 2.

In addition, fans of Hong Kong pop culture might wish to check out an article on Grasshopper by Kathleen Allard (another name that should be familiar to long-time Mobius Asian Cinema discussion board readers... ;b)

Happy reading? And do please feel free to say (write) so on the comments section if you do! :)