hair's looking at you kid....

I lost my bangs.

'Lost' is a good word - it conveys an appropriate sense of accident, misfortune and despair. (Think I lost my camera... no, think I lost my only child). I lost my bangs at the salon. (Which is like saying I lost my only child outside the kindergarten... Dude! That's where children go to be groomed and educated, you lost your's there?!) Like I said, it was an accident.

I needed to have trimmed my long-preserved long hair. Well long is obviously relative, but shoulder length is plenty long by my conservative standards. Catholic school hadn't offered me the opportunity to try anything fancy, college hadn't given me the time, and grad school ... well, that just went by in a blur. So it was with much effort that I had cultivated the new 'look'. Some said I needed 'County Jail Inmate' t-shirt to complete the look, but I rather fancied the twisting cavorting wisps of luxurious dark hair framing my face. And it turned into a very respectable afro when dry and wind-blown.

A trim is all I needed. But in that salon overlooking (from the second floor) a busy section of Nathan Road, caught up in the excitement of the motley crowd and the arresting good looks of the girl washing my hair, something snapped and I decided ('decided' being a somewhat strong word for what really happened) to become adventurous. It obviously didn't help that her English was slightly dodgy and my Cantonese nonexistent. They say (those who are in the business of saying such things) that its a fine line that separates the brave from the foolish. I must not have noticed it for I was deep inside foolish-territory. Some might even say I was running for the mayor of foolishville.

Snip after resounding snip, and with flick upon flick of those delicate wrists, my fate lost many more inches than it should have. On hindsight I should have know that the poor girl probably hadn't cut curly hair before, and was hoping to wing it with her experience and skills with smooth straight hair. Here's the thing - when you take off an inch of my hair (wet and shampooed), you actually take off more than 2 inches of real length (dried and curled up). The mathematics of curly hair is not everyone's cup of tea.

Soon enough it became apparent that this was not working. No fault of the barberette of course, I just didn't know what I needed, and am guilty of misleading her more than once. So here we were with most everything gone from the back and still quite a lot left up front. That look, I imagined, could only be pulled off with red or green hair, and that would be too radical a change for one night. So the front had to be shortened too, to match everything else. At that point I had to close my eyes.

So now I'm back to square one (ah, so this is what 'square one' looks like). The nakedness of my ears is compensated only by the resumption of a wide-angle view of the world. My head feels lighter now (wow, that was metaphorical). Strangely, I feel almost as if I've let my country down or something. Oh, the shame of it. And the burning envy of all medium-length-haired men I see on the metro. No, this cannot be square one - it never felt like this before. I'm at a new square. I'm not giving up though. It's hereditary that I should lose my hair entirely in a few years' time. But there'll be time for one more attempt.

Meanwhile, I got the barberette's number :) Here's looking at you, kid.

The Island

This is about a girl I met this weekend - a friend of a friend. During a very brief conversation she offered an interesting character study. It was almost ironic that I should have met her in Hong Kong.

She's African-American, but from the minority that is wealthy. Her parents have a summer house and a winter house, neither of which they can use as much as they'd like because they're usually out traveling somewhere or the other. I should have asked about siblings, but like I said, this was a short conversation. Her work brought her to Hong Kong. (She's not in the HK financial services machine, but I will not reveal her profession in the interest of privacy.)

I asked her why she chose Hong Kong, and her (obviously well-rehearsed) response was, "Hong Kong chose me". 'How very romantic... and convenient', I thought to myself. (Now don't misread my sarcasm. It's just the way I talk. This was a very agreeable person.) Her plans for an international career came to pivot on a choice between Mexico City and Hong Kong. "Well I was certainly not going to Mexico City!" That's how she was chosen by Hong Kong's wealth, order and civilized cosmopolitanism (read nightlife). An earlier stint at Shanghai had left her scarred with memories of nothing-to-do, so this was definitely a step up. In Shanghai, she reported, they were even surprised to hear her speak English, and could not believe their eyes when they saw her US passport. Okay, I wasn't buying any of this god-help-the-third-world stuff. So we changed the topic to where she grew up - a big city in the US (again, for anonymity concerns the name of the city need not be revealed.) But she had traveled around the world, and the next trip is taking her to Scandinavia, which she just loves to visit.

She had also spent some time in New York, in Manhattan. She said she couldn't think of reason why people would ever live anywhere but Manhattan. "Why?" she asked. And now she felt the same way about Hong Kong Island, Manhattan's Chinese cousin - a major financial center, with rents amongst the highest in the world, a premier location that scoffs at all those who work to support it, but can never afford to live there. "I don't like leaving the islands I live on", she remarked, "I just don't like to cross the water".

We parted company soon and for the rest of the afternoon I thought of how much she had seen and how little she had noticed. Had she not become the islands she so loved to live on? (And I don't mean that in the Simon and Garf. sense, although it would make for an interesting hypothesis.)

Book review: 'Waiting' by Ha Jin

Ha Jin has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist and for the book reviewed here (Waiting, 1999) he received the National Book Award (USA) and the PEN/Faulkner Award (wikipedia). These impressive credentials led me to pick up Waiting and I can say I was not disappointed.

Waiting is a love story spanning two decades. Each of three main characters waits for what they need most, and each is only partially satiated. Insomuch Waiting, despite its "exotic" flavour, is not about uncommon sentiments. The book has its fair share of weaknesses.

There is a melodramatic feel built into the temporal span of the story, which seems to percolate into the lives and actions of the protagonists as well. The characters do clearly evolve over the course of the story, but at any given time are somewhat one-dimensional. I also felt that some of the key events occurred a bit abruptly, depriving the story of their true emotional weight. The narrative is also somewhat devoid of the style one expects from literary fiction. At certain points one gets the feeling that the passage was either translated, or first thought in Chinese before being written in English, or that the author was trying too hard to manufacture depth. It is not the kind of book that will make you want to pause and think about the passage you just read, about why the author chose to say something in a certain way. This story is about the story, not so much its narration.

Having said that, the book does still strike a chord with the reader, and by the end of it, you feel for everyone involved. Perhaps because despite the melodrama we know that what we're reading is not as distant from us as the time-space setting of the story would make it appear. We are dealing with the nature of desire, and its rawest form is universal, regardless of the object or context.

It is the end that shines most and elevates the reader's experience a notch. The end is grim and joyous, hopeful and despairing at once. And it is so, because by the end, the story has managed to make layers of incisions (albeit not very subtle) into the characters, so that whereas at one level a battle is won, at another, hopelessness is complete.

It should be mentioned that the critique of communist control over society (always a fashionable subject) is an essential part of the story - almost a character unto itself. For the most part it does not appear gratuitous or exaggerated. It might have led to the book's popularity with the US audience, or at least with award judges, but the book is more than just that. It is ultimately a narrative of our strengths and frailties, and the battles we fight with each in our minds and hearts.

Yes, recommended. It will be a quick and satisfying read.

Fruitilicious

Graduate students at the residence hall have the privilege of inhabiting the top two floors of the building. This was a get-together organized in the graduate students' common room, to introduce incoming students to those already here, and for the warden to add his welcome. But this event was a bit different from the ones I've seen before - this was a "fruit party". That's what you see laid out on the tables - papayas, oranges, water melon, bananas... the works. And it was all gone in a matter of minutes.

Great way to break the ice and get to know your co-residents. Colourful too.

Anything but down to earth

A faux street up in the heady heights of a heaven of consumption. The Langham Place spiral is a unique architectural feature that lends a street like quality to a shopping mall, hundreds of feet in the air.

We're all used to staircases running through buildings, turning back and forth at every half floor height. What if they turned at every quarter of a floor height, and instead of turning back and forth they turned sideways in a loop. Now, in addition, what if the entire floor was built only in quarters ... one quarter for each level of the staircase. So you walk along, say, the 10th floor (of which only a quarter exists) and you descend a quarter of a level and again walk a quarter floor, until you reach the stairs again, and can again descend partially. Thereby one descends each floor in four stages by simply walking along four quarters of the floor from which one is descending. That's the spiral. Let me know if this sounds complicated - I'll go back and get pictures.

The shops are mostly speciality stores - boutiques, toys, bakery, jewellery, a few restaurants, an ice cream place and such. Easiest way to do the spiral is to take the escalator to the very top and walk down as you shop. A street inside a building - climate-controlled, crowd-controlled, private public space. Okay, I detect the cynic raising his head. Better sign out. It really really is a nice place though. Very pleasant to walk around, innovative - a new take on take on the mall.

Review of Bu Neng Shuo De Mi Mi (Secret)

This might not be germane to the blog, but I'll put it in anyway. So I saw this film on dvd yesterday. It's in Mandarin (Taiwanese) but IMDB says it's a Hong Kong movie. Not sure where the credit goes, but it was a treat. I had expected this to be regular romantic comedy which started nowhere and didn't get far. My expectations were exceeded.

I'll try to stay away from spoilers. The film is set in a music school (or is it a talent school with a music department?). How many films have a script based on an innocent love, a misunderstanding, and then redemption. But 'Secret' stays fresh and engaging throughout. Mostly due to some good acting and an outstanding score. Oh and I should mention, lead actor Jay Chou also wrote and directed the film, in addition to composing the music. Some talent!

Boy meets girl in music school. The girl has a secret. When his mistake breaks her heart, she leaves and goes very far away. She comes back on his graduation day to hear him play, and when she leaves once more, he follows her. It won't make it to the classics' list, but it is a tastefully rendered little film, with sparkling performances and a music score which is already lodged firmly in my mp3 player.

Jay Chou's first directorial venture shows a talent for creating emotional depth in characters, framing captivating scenes, being understated and tasteful, and matching the score to the visuals exceptionally well. There were several logical problems with the script but in the context of the effort, I'd rather just overlook them. The film had shades of the video of 'Take on Me' (A-ha) and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', and probably other films made on similar themes. It's still pretty original and sincere and definitely worth a look.

A link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8lkluGi97s

SoHo ho and a bottle of rum!

'Central' is a diverse part of town. From corner noodle stalls to pricey antiques, it's all within a stone's throw. Old neighborhoods have survived in close proximity to the super-glitzy malls such as IFC. When I say survived, I mean the old neighborhoods are still standing and still housing old people in an old style. Why the area hasn't yet been run over by gentrification I do not know. In the shadows of the massive skyscrapers, these old neighborhoods are still visible thanks (perhaps) only to a lingering flickering flame of public welfare.

Lan Kwai Fong, a popular tourist and expat destination for its bustling nighlife, is around the corner. SoHo (kitschy name referring to South Hollywood road) and Lyndhurst Terrace, home to upscale restaurants, boutiques and antique stores are also very close by. Major retail outlets of Ck, LV (and xyz) are a few minutes' walk away. These developments have brought changes to the old neighborhoods as well. The ground floors (first floor to US readers) have been entirely converted to commercial use - an Argentinian steak house here, and a glittery jewellery store there. But also, noodle stalls on the street with rickety tables under drooping umbrellas, piles of fruit precariously arranged on the top of stone-paved slopes, Halloween masks, and mass-produced renderings of Buddha (a queer contradiction, which in a way encapsulates the spirit of Hong Kong).

HK is the city of escalators (wait, let me clearly claim copyright for that... I might be on to something there). But there is only one that carries 'the' before it. At almost 1km in length, I think it claims to be the world's longest. It also brought development to the areas between Central, uphill Lan Kwai Fong and the residential areas even higher up (called Mid-levels). The escalator goes down in the morning (for commuters to get to work) and then up for the rest of the day. Brilliant!

I would dive into a discussion of the malls, lights and glitz of Central, but so much has already been written about it. Pick up any guidebook or navigate to any website about Hong Kong and you can get a pretty detailed description of the bars, the malls, the banks, the old Government House - seat of the colonial British government, and across the road from it, the US consulate. I might return to describe Central some time, but for now its just the nooks and crannies.

Foray into the New Territories

Hong Kong comprises of three sections - Hong Kong Island, Kowloon peninsula and New Territories (from south to north). A large part of the New Territories (NT) area is protected natural preserve. New townships have also been planned all around NT in an effort to prevent Hong Kong Island and Kowloon from bursting at the seams.

Some like to call these towns 'suburbs', but if you're thinking cookie-cutter sprawl, think again. The towns in NT grow vertically rather than in girth. Add mass transit (made affordable by the high density), and protected greens all around, and you have something quite remarkable. One thing these towns do have common with sprawl, relatively lower rents than what one would find in downtown.

The one I visited is called Yuen Long. Needless to say, it felt very different from Central (part of city on HK Island, deriving its name from its location, no extra points for creativity there) . Yuen Long is a less controlled environment - vendors on sidewalks, shops spilling on to the street, people calling prices, bicycles, less razzmatazz, more organic, more real.

On a friend's recommendation I tried Turtle Jelly (Guilinggao). I think it's made with the shell of the turtle, which is first turned into powder form and mixed with medicinal herbs and such. The jelly tasted flat with a somewhat bitter aftertaste. But they have syrup and sugar to make it more tolerable. I finished half and took the rest to go.

Also visited 'Kadoorie Farms' - botanical garden and mini zoo. Beautiful views, no concrete for miles, greenery and waterfalls. The antithesis of Hong Kong. I think I might like to go back. The animals weren't particularly impressive, but then this place doesn't claim to be a full-fledged zoo. Some nice birds to be seen though - particularly the owls and parakeets. Oh, and if someone reading this decides to make the trip - take plenty of water along, or buy at the entry point, its hard to come by further along.