Peixin Jumps.

The Singaporean Says: Climate.

2011-08-14T23:27:20Z

http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/cmsresource/20090721544571208250.pdf

yes there are seasons, according to the National Environment Agency:

Dec - early March: NE Monsoon Season (widespread continuous rain)

Late March - May: Inter-monsoon Period (thunderstorms, at times severe in afternoon and early evenings)

June - September: SW Monsoon Season (windy, short duration showers/thunderstorms)

October - November: Inter-monsoon Period (thunderstorms, at times severe in afternoon and early evenings, wetter than previous inter-monsoon)

Informative report.

It's not a Farce.

Everything can be categorized and classified. Patterns can always be observed however hard-pressed.

The Singaporean Says: daily-life practicalities of Cultural Diversity.

2011-07-31T15:47:54Z

Two days ago, I went in search of apples.

The choice of apples left was appalling.

And then, overhearing some conversations, it struck me. The hungry ghost festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Festival) is here and people are snapping up the apples and the oranges and... whatever for worship.

This is what it means to be Singaporean--it means that I accept and understand that for a while my apples will be uglier when I shop later at night. It means that the non-believers/non-practitioners and non-Chinese tolerate the piles of ashes and food items left along the road. And the more polluted air of course.

Also, seen today: bubble tea (with pearls and the thick straw) left for worship along with the more traditional 发糕!

=)

Happily at Home,
Peixin.

The Singaporean Says: Patriotism.

2011-07-19T16:25:57Z

Just found out that I led in number of 'likes' on the facebook wall of this particular project (it's a small and specific audience [11 likes] still!). I felt compelled to post because friends were involved.

The task: "I wish Singaporeans would..."

I wish Singaporeans to be less rational about patriotism. I love my country, I don't know why and recently I realise that I don't have to know why. That 'irrationality' does not have to be disturbing. Instead, let that love be easy and comforting.

August 11 2010.

(I like what I wrote and what I thought. And still instinctively agree with it. But rediscovering an old assertion is great time to reevaluate oneself and underlying assumptions and emotions.)

The Singaporean Says: School Values.

2011-07-17T14:54:18Z

In the 12 years I spent in public education in Singapore, I attended two schools. These are their values. (each school had vision, mission and values)

ages 7-14 (in SNGS, we had periodic tests during assembly. 1,500 kids writing the following out, in Chinese)

School values: Truth 真诚 Justice 正直 Freedom 自由 Love 博爱

School motto: Simple in Virtue, Steadfast in Duty

Way we live: Roots-

Gratitude and humility 饮水思源
Sisterly Love 姐妹同心
Dignity for all 互相敬重

Wings-

Lead and serve 发挥潜能 (I feel this translates better into fulfill one's potential)
Create and celebrate 富有创意
Learn from life 活学巧用 (and this should be more of using what you have learnt from life skillfully)

Ages 15-18 - National Junior College

Values: Loyalty with Integrity
Scholarship with Creativity
Leadership with Sensitivity
Service with Honour (and this is the life I aspire towards)

I believe majority of the students go through school not as aware as I was of these values. Perhaps they were not so consciously trying to embody these as well. I believe that I am a product of these values even if they were not exactly inculcated in us* beyond them being recited to us and appearing on school circulars and in the latter case on the school walls and posters. This is me.

*do not take this negatively. That would be unfair to the schools. This is an understatement. There were efforts.

Advisement: Flattery.

2011-07-13T22:30:01Z

Picture: 火焰山。新疆，中国。

It is not flattery telling me to stop improving myself because I am already good enough or 'perfect'. This is epiphany. [11th July 2011]

Daily Reads: I imagine some may be interested in the following...

2011-07-10T14:46:49Z

In Defence of Antidepressants (3-page! i scanned.) (measured account.)

A list of 10 books ("I did lard my list with great novels relating to social justice: at a time when inequality in America has soared to historic levels, it seems useful to exercise the conscience as well as the imagination. So here’s my quirky list: Best Beach Reading Ever.") (i did less than scan since i have my book plan set)

Measuring hunger. (i like reading alternative methods.) ("The standard approach reveals that in China, the fraction of people consuming fewer than 2,100 calories increased to 67 percent from 53 percent between 1991 and 2001." --> the writer is right to point out this is a bad measurement of increasing hunger in China. WHO NEEDS 2100 CALORIES A DAY!??!? i tentatively propose that the richer one gets the more one is into and is able to afford [if only because you are not a hardworking farmer who needs the calories] weight loss and starving oneself. and seriously, 2100 calories a day is more than sufficient to maintain weight and nutrition in a large segment of the population. we are talking Chinese bodies here...)

"Sex itself may not be dead, but it seems sexual passion is on life support."

okay i shall stop here and go on scanning.

Daily Reads: 6th July 2011.

2011-07-06T13:08:44Z

Because I spend a significant amount of time scanning articles daily.

Working with Class: Social Workers and the Politics of Middle-Class Identity --> A book I thought (this morning) I should read. I don't remember why.

'War' is a three-letter word, it deserves a short and to-the-point definition.

I don't remember being read to sleep. cultural?

Evolution led to whining being the most annoying sound.

Peter Singer writes about Derek Parfit's book. --> I should read this. I am veering too much towards relativism. I need to be exposed to good defense of objectivity.

Ouch! Light. ("For example, a report published last year in the journal PNAS found that mice exposed to light at night gained more weight than those housed in normal light, even though both groups consumed the same number of calories." --> there is an excuse for anything. And it's all nominally scientific.)

And evolution accounts for fairness as well? ("our exceptional pitching skills — which researchers speculate originally arose to help us ward off predators — probably helped. “We can throw much better than any other primate,” Dr. Wilson said, “and once we could throw things at a distance, all of a sudden the alpha male is vulnerable to being dispatched with stones. Stoning might have been one of our first adaptations.”")

The Singaporean Says: Smile.

2011-07-04T15:00:05Z

i smile when i am on the train at 8am to gain a comparative advantage over the rest of the dour- and sour- faced crowd.

Daily Musings: Writing Purposefully.

2011-07-02T11:43:10Z

I do not necessary have views on the following pieces. This post is about words used purposefully.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/wolf37/English (some scientific facts/information if we are more skeptical (likely legitimate though there is no evaluation of that) + some recent news + activist impetus = some kind of Message that OF COURSE is obviously linked to the original fact (in this case that "permits people to make better-informed choices") not that i disagree or agree.)

China's Communist Party at 90 (last line: "China’s Communist Party at 90 is a bit like many 90-year-olds: increasingly infirm, fearful, experimenting with ways to prolong life, but overwhelmed by the complexities of managing it.")

Great Party, but Where's the Communism? (last line: "So when Chinese leaders toast their party’s 90th birthday, they should harbor no illusions that the party can beat history’s odds forever.")

(opinions have so converged that the only factor attracting me to read on is the quality of writing and artful expression.)

Whimsies: Devilishly hellish.

2011-06-30T14:14:49Z

... hellishly devilish? I am casually contemplating the distinctions between the two.

Iron chains in fire.

Picture taken yesterday at Civil Defense Academy, Singapore.

Currently reading: The Master and Margarita.

i_am_peixin @ 2011-06-28T22:29:00

2011-06-28T14:29:44Z

Been shopping for Science textbooks (in Singapore) for a relative living in the States planning to home-school her children. It seems that the textbooks now have larger fonts and are more colourful. It could be that market competition for approved textbooks (there used to be only one publisher I believe) have led to Science textbooks having illustrated characters on covers instead of scarily realistic insects. All textbooks strictly follow syllabuses (as found on http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/sciences/). I read the one for Science. It includes 'teaching methodology' and even a 'white space' ('freed up curriculum time is to enable teachers to use more engaging teaching and learning approaches... customised school-based programmes...'). I believe in some schools, by the time students are 12, they know their acids and bases and perhaps even redox.

Page one of textbook themed 'Cycles' for Primary 3/4 (9-10yearolds)

AWW... so cute! and I personally view the 'Now I know how my mother felt.' as inserting some Confucian values into the teaching of Science (in Singapore there are laws [I am not sure of the specifics beyond wikipedia's version] obliging children to take care of parents).

and the requisite NE (it actually is, up to pre-university education [ages17-18], in all subjects I suspect even including physical education)

and on the last page,

I doubt the historical accuracy. but the section is well-meaning.

I like the education system in Singapore. Many complain of how it does not encourage creative thinking, that there is too much pure memorization (I am very good at this but I am sure this was not what got me near-to-perfect scores; this skill is merely the minimum required!), that there is too much stress.

I know I was good within the system and that I cannot speak for 'all' still I do believe that the system is good and enforced throughout the country, whether in public (top-tiered or neighbourhood) or private schools (barring international schools), and meritocracy is not a farce.

As for stress, gosh, I don't know, the more I had to learn, the more competitive it got, the better I felt. Of course my parents never sent me to all those enrichment classes now deemed so essential for 'a good education'. (parents complain that it is so expensive to put children through school starting at age 5 or earlier. yet schooling is free up to pre-university (primary school education is compulsory for all citizens). and the monthly miscellaneous fee is S$5 or S$6 in pre-university [could go up to S$20+ in autonomous schools]).

Daily Dreams: Oxygen Masks.

2011-06-18T18:43:10Z

On the flight back to Singapore from Chengdu, I had the following dream:

Peimin is sitting beside me on the flight. Something went wrong and the plane loses height. Oxygen masks prance off the top of the inflight entertainment screens (the flight I was really on had no personal inflight entertainment) and mine does not prance out. I woke Peimin up and told her to hurry with the mask. As we help ourselves, I observe a flight attendant rushing a troop of 7-8yearolds sitting around the centre of the plane off to a side wing of a plane where there are rooms. I imagine one of the rooms to have sufficient oxygen such that each individual kid does not need a mask.

And then I heard the announcement (note that this is reality. Past tense.): landing in 20 minutes. The dream suddenly made sense since the plane WAS descending.

Whimsies: Voluminous Me.

2011-06-12T15:32:19Z

First day in Chengdu!! 文书坊。

Now in Urumqi, Xinjiang. No AC in the hotel till 15th June because, no, up to 40 degrees Celcius in the day is not summer enough for AC.

Whimsies: Censored China.

2011-06-09T08:49:54Z

Now that I am in China, and thus subjected to internet censorship, perhaps it is time to pick up some Chinese internet culture which may aid my expressiveness in Mandarin.

When the authorities banned the phrase cào nǐ mā, or "fuck your mother", from the Chinese internet, in the name of combating vulgarity, the Chinese were quick to coin an internet hero, the Grass Mud Horse, whose name is a near homophone: Cǎo Ní Mǎ. Maorilyn Maoroe can be seen with him above. He is an opponent of the River Crab, a pun on "harmonious", the official description of the society censorship is meant to promote.
The Grass Mud Horse is just one of ten mythical creatures all designed to talk about naughty stuff through puns. Mr Hung includes a painting of another of them, the great French-Croatian Squid, whose Chinese name requires a little English to get the pun. He is Fǎ Kè Yóu, and wears a Mao jacket while blowing an inflationary bubble with chewing gum. (The vowel in ke is a sort of "uh" sound, so this sounds roughly like "fah-kuh you".) Perhaps my favourite character, for the absurdity of his English name, is Intelligent Fragrant Chicken, which is one tone off from dǎ fēi jī, slang for masturbation.

Fǎ Kè Yóu, River Crab (The Economist), a review of an exhibition (in Manhattan till 2nd July): 腦殘遊記 The Travelogue of Dr. Brain Damages

ARTIST STATEMENT:

In response to increasingly pervasive and draconian online censorship in China, “The Travelogue of Dr. Brain Damages” examines the role of Kuso culture (惡搞文化/ détournement) and its impact on Chinese internet.

The Chinese title 腦殘遊記 is a homophonic wordplay to 老殘遊記 (The Travels of Lao Can), a late Qing dynasty novel that fiercely attacks the injustices, corruptions and exposed the hypocrisy of government officials at the time. In an era that internet as a tool for both freedom and suppression, the project questions whether internet in China is an effective tool for social changes by adapting and remixing Chinese netizens meme languages with Western icons.

Advisement: Interesting.

2011-06-05T15:29:12Z

I can't believe I have not said this yet on this blog!!! ARGHHH.

I make up for leading an interesting life by being an interesting person. I am deeply convinced that this is more desirable than making up for being an uninteresting person by leading an (apparently and self-perceived) interesting life.

Advisement: Child.

2011-05-25T20:49:58Z

Taken: Beijing. July 2010. At the Confucius Temple.

If I ever have children, the first thing they will learn (okay, first useful social act [as opposed to survival skills]) is to ask for what they want. Not because they would then get it. And not because they would then learn to experience failure. Because they have to learn the math.

Probability. It's all in the probability. Thinking up possibilities (limited in this case to what one could want) is knowing one's desires which is good (it is always good to know what one wants) but manipulating the odds of getting what one wants... that is a skill and could be even artfully so if done well and with pride.

tata.

Advisement: Shoe Shopping.

2011-05-21T19:34:59Z

Wear your most uncomfortable pair of shoes shoe-shopping and you will remain reminded that you do not need another pair of a similar agonizing quality.

i_am_peixin @ 2011-05-10T00:28:00

2011-05-09T22:28:43Z

http://to-what-extent.tumblr.com/

Advisement: Gifts.

2011-05-02T05:58:10Z

This is advise for my friends and those who want to be in my life.

I love giving gifts but I dislike receiving them.

Because I hate to be disappointed if (usually 'when' is applicable) the gift is just not as perfect as it could be. I don't want it to be an exercise into which another has put thought into yet still comes out short of pleasing me. I would like to believe that you know me better than you may actually do; don't spoil that by giving me something I am underwhelmed by.

I am an easy person to please otherwise. Just not with gifts.

Advisement: Breaking.

2011-04-30T20:29:33Z

No one should be anyone's to break.

I say this even though I love being a doll.

Whimsies: Favourites.

2011-04-23T11:57:41Z

Taken: 21st April 2011. Bowing to the Sun in a Park to 'At Last' by Etta James. It was 4 eternal minutes and I smiled and breathed and sighed and settled.

My favourite sound is the sound of raindrops on my umbrella.

My favourite physical sensation is a smile slowly spreading.

My favourite sensation in context is to have just gotten off the train, still right at the edge of the tracks, the train moves on, wind in my hair, my dress brushing my skin, leaving me, stationary and resisting the movements of the world.

My favourite mood is that of happiness at the moment, with no end in sight yet with an end in mind.

My favourite sound out of context (for there cannot always be rain) is the sounds of the city (and this is not contextual because I always [for a given value of 'always'] AM in a city) mixed with the music in my head.

My favourite mode of emoting is to talk to myself most of the time berating. Well it's not my favourite but it is my most common... so I guess this is for a next post then... 'My Most Commons.'

Daily Musings: 'I love You.'

2011-04-10T22:35:10Z

I am not afraid to say 'I love you' (1) because I am not permitting you to have such a hold on me that you have made me afraid to love.

(1) Given that I do love you.

Daily Musings: the Burden.

2011-04-10T22:33:43Z

Dear friend,

Will you burden me with your true self? I don't think I would want that potential to hurt you.

Please grant me not the burden of my opinions of you.

If you haven't gotten it,
To be known by another: only then could another's words possbily hurt since those would be constructed of/inspired by one's true self.

Daily Musings: Most Emotionally Affective.

2011-04-05T14:15:40Z

Attended a lecture today on the morality of art, actually I thought it was really jsut about what makes good art.

The speaker is a playwright/professor and so..

A point that was made was that Happiness is Boring and that protagonists who seem so close to happiness/success (I have forgotten the exact words since cleaning my room took over my mental capacity) yet do not reach it make for the most moving/touching/best stories.

Perhaps for the protagonist.

But for the audience, I believe that the most emotionally affective story is one in which the protagonist thinks that he has reached happiness yet the audience knows that he has not. He does not know what he has missed. It works like dramatic irony.

And then you leave the audience wondering 'perhaps that's me, I think I am happy now and that I have reached my peak yet... perhaps that's me... perhaps I just am not knowing what I am missing.'

That to me is the most emotionally affective. (at least this is how i think today)

tata.

(and to add, statements like 'happiness is boring' make my heart cringe even as I agree.)

Daily Musings: The Obligation that is Facebook.

2011-04-05T06:19:29Z

Just a perspective, not a conviction.

Facebook is an obligation that shapes conversations.

Expressing surprise or ignorance at something that has already been published on Facebook indicates a lack of (genuine hahahaha, if not just a stalkerish or a fb-addict only) interest.

Flatter me with what you already know about and of me just by reading off my Wall or even just off your News Feed.