Thanks to Clive James for a life of fine words and fine wit
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Posted:Nov 28, 2019 10:11 pm
Last Updated:Nov 29, 2019 3:21 pm 43532 Views
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In Memoriam
A long illness as it turned 0ut almost 9 years an unexpected gift t0 us; 9 years during which he continued t0 write and perhaps outlasted the Japanese maple of which he wrote and which he expected t0 see ablaze with autumn colour but 0ne more time. ABC radio have published an illustrated reading by Clive himself, where we hear his thoughtful crafted and moving dying poem in his dying breaths
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What is bigotry? Oldghost's version.
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Posted:Oct 30, 2019 8:15 pm
Last Updated:Oct 7, 2022 4:23 pm 51789 Views
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What is the definition?
Is it a bad thing?
Is it illegal or unconstitutional?
Does it have anything to do with liberty and democracy?
What if someone calls me a bigot, should I punch their lights 0ut?
Should I care?
Wh0 are bigots?
What is bigotry?
the fact of having and expressing strong, unreasonable beliefs and disliking other people wh0 have different beliefs or a different way of life,
a person wh0 is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices;
Is it a bad thing??
With these milder definitions it is not particularly egregious. Most people however will vehemently deny any hint of bigotry in themselves!
Is it illegal or unconstitutional?
In itself, no. But it usually goes hand in hand with other idealisms or fanaticisms which may well be illegal, anti-racial, anti-gender, anti-belief.
Is it a bad thing??
Mostly it is harmless enough, in fact, but it implies lack of reason, lack of thought, lack of understanding, lack of compromise, inflexibility.
Does it have anything to do with liberty and democracy??
Not at all, but of course capitalists democrats communists marxists will heap claim and counter-claim on each other, to achieve the moral ground.
Wh0 are bigots?
Ah, well; the list is lately lengthening. Wherever fanaticism is so too is bigotry, usually in equal measure on both sides, for and against, pros and contras. In issues of abortion, gay marriage, nationalism, globalism, environmentalism, Brexit, immigration...
Are Hong Kong protesters bigots? Many certainly are, without doubt, the more moderate thinking people are afraid to speak up. Shouting the other side down is the order of the day.
Are Pro-China people bigots? Are pro-Trumpers bigots? Are anti-Trumpers bigots? No need for answers I think.
Is Hilary Clinton as claimed, a bigot? No reason to think so, unless you are a pro-DT bigot! Is Donald Trump a bigot? Very probably unless you believe he is the second coming.
Is blog censorship bigotry? Probably. It is the prerogative of the blog thread 'owner' but it is not a right, and it is silencing the expression of other views. So I suggest it fits.
SundayJoke deletes and blocks anyone of contrary view, claiming she is entitled to do so. Perhaps so, but I assert this fits the definition of bigotry. Another recent blogger does likewise removing anything which dissents from their fastidious view. Let them do so, as the expression runs, it's no skin off my nose
It seems that bigotry these days is the order of the world, reasoning discussion is overpowered shouted chanting, if you can prevent the other from speaking, then you have won the argument. No need to think when you can shout. Bigotry wins the day!
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Could someone Chinese answer a question I have about Chinese poetry Part2
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Posted:Oct 23, 2019 9:01 pm
Last Updated:Oct 10, 2022 8:00 am 48630 Views
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Your post has been denied due to the following reason: Ban*ned Topics (ha*te/wea*pons/*age). Please update your post to get it re-reviewed. Haha idiotic! Then fixing deleted words - more idiocy
The poem is said to stem from an affair with Lin Huiyin, and the following youtube is just for interest, providing something of the background to the affair which led to a historic and scandalous Western divorce...
Another YouTube withheld。。。
Ouran - By Chance. An extract
I am a cloud in the ,
A chance shadow on the wave of your heart.
Don't be surprised,
Stll less too elated;
In an instant I shall vanish without trace.
We meet on the sea of dark night,
You on your way, I on mine.
Remember if you will,
Or, better still, forget
The light exchanged in this encounter.
Several musical versions may be heard :
ling ling chinese - a chinese poem by chance
link removed because of silly ban*ning
My Country
Reading and hearing My Country again after 60 years I feel it is also rather sentimental, and the insistence on the rhythmic pattern a little obvious, but the imagery is evocative.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue ,
When, sick heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
is a choral adaptation, and the full poem:
(link removed)
poemhunter - poem - my country （url withheld)
Cambridge Image attribution：By Cmglee - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
It is perhaps banned for including a photo of -?
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Could someone Chinese answer a question I have about Chinese poetry (part 1)
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Posted:Oct 23, 2019 2:57 pm
Last Updated:Oct 27, 2019 12:29 am 48350 Views
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Your post has TWICE been denied due to the following reason: Ban*ned Topics (ha*te/wea*pons/under*age). Please update your post to get it re-reviewed. Haha idiotic!
Could someone who has been through Chinese education explain to me how Xu Zhimo's poetry is taught and analysed and explained in the Chinese Education system? As part of my never-ending Chinese study I recently followed up on the brief poem By Chance 偶然 which I had liked so much (of which I wrote here in the past), and read others of Xu Zhimo, including the mandatory Second Farewell to Cambridge. Xu Zhimo seems to be rated as a great modern Chinese poet, and is studied in jun*ior or middle schools in China. My reading of him reveals no strong reason for such a high rating, pleasant reading but not much more. So why is he rated highly and spoon or force fed to Chinese students?
I asked one of my students whether she had studied this particular poem and what had been said of it, t0 which she replied she had, but had never understood why it was important.
Of my own early schooling I recall a poem which was also force-fed to us and which those of my vintage probably recall - the 1908 poem of Dorothea McKellar: My Country. It is apt for two reasons: firstly it commences set in England, but then turns to the Australian drought-stricken countryside, which provides the second reason, the dire and unbroken drought our farmers are suffering right now. Unlike in the poem My Country, there is no sign of a break in the drought.
Xu Zhimo's poem (1921) is also set in England, Cambridge to be precise, but there is no sign of China in this poem, which yet is acclaimed by Chinese commentators who assert that the deep Chinese sentiment and feelings cannot be revealed in English. I cannot see any deep significance in the Chinese either, but it goes without saying that a laowai cannot understand the inherent hidden richness of the Chinese even if he can read it.
So my question is: Why is a light, pleasant, sentimental Chinese poem set in an English university held in such high regard? Can anyone help me in my understanding?
Zai bie kam qiao 再別康橋 - Farewell to Cambridge again
The youtube below is a vocal and piano version, followed by the last verse:
youtube withheld
蔡琴---再別康橋
悄悄的我走了，
正如我悄悄的來；
我揮一揮衣袖，
不帶走一片雲彩。
To be continued trying to find out what the denial is for...
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Interesting - United States has Hong Kong law!
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Posted:Oct 15, 2019 5:36 pm
Last Updated:Oct 31, 2019 4:26 am 40457 Views
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United States–Hong Kong Policy Act - US senate/house has been debating and will presumably pass a renewal of a bill dictating how HK (i.e. China) must behave in order t0 retain special trading status.
The US will wave a big stick and punish Hong Kong with sanctions and the like, if they do not perform up t0 scratch.
Interesting concept, but they assert this is definitely not interfering in another country's affairs. mmm. I think one of the bill proposers stated it would be an act of cowardice t0 suggest this bill might be considered as interference.
It does however lend strength t0 the claims of several parties that America is indeed behind and secretly promoting the HK protesters, and explains why China openly says so.
老鬼
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Hong Kong 'student' protesters - our rights our freedom of speech!
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Posted:Oct 10, 2019 2:17 am
Last Updated:Oct 7, 2022 4:25 pm 45117 Views
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We are free to assemble and march en masse when we have permission
We are free to assemble and march en masse when we don't have permission
We are free to protect criminals taking refuge in Hong Kong
We are free to block traffic and transport and business because we are young protesters
We are free to make unattainable demands because we know they will be refused
We are free to deface and vandalise because the government refuses our demands
We are free to discuss nothing because we speak the truth, the only truth
We are free to destroy the economy of Hong Kong
We are free to destroy the livelihoods of Hong Kongers
We are free to block trains and planes and travellers so they know we are wronged
We are free to carry weapons throw bricks and Molotov cocktails because police impede us
We are free to hate and ab_use the brutal police and their families
We are free to attack and beat and bully anyone wh0 disagrees with us
We are free to entrap and attack police wh0 attend emergency calls
We are free to lie freely because it suits us to do so
We are free to fly the Stars'n'stripes and call on dashu Donald for support!
We are free to hide behind masks when committing crimes and don't you dare take them away!
Did I leave anything 0ut?
Feel free to tell me if I did!
老鬼
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Mooncake time again
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Posted:Sep 11, 2019 7:59 pm
Last Updated:Oct 10, 2019 9:32 pm 40469 Views
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The moon will be full on the morrow
And sweet sugary mooncake fills the mouth
Here in Sydney spring is in the air
At night tomorrow the sky will be clear
And the Southern cross as always high in the south
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Yuebing 月饼 mooncake not my favourite, just 1/4 of one is more than enough, but I am a fan of hei zhi ma laopo bing 黑芝麻老婆饼 black sesame paste 'wife/sweetheart' cake.
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Chill winds and rumblings of a cold war in the air
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Posted:Aug 28, 2019 4:56 am
Last Updated:Sep 3, 2019 11:20 pm 40387 Views
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Now D.T. openly uses the word 'enemy' when speaking of China and grotesquely speaks of China begging for trade deals. What a mongrel America has chosen to lead them.
I have grown up through the McCarthy era, the cold war of Truman Eisenhower Kennedy Johnston down to Reagan. Kruschev through Gorbachev, Mao through Deng. The era of Australian anti-communism at the behest of the USA, and of the Petrov affair.
So there has been a lull for more than 25 years, yet now borne on the wind is the waft of paranoia hysteria, xenophobia and irrationality.
Suspicion of Chinese influence and Chinese money, hints of espionage and manipulation. Idiot politicians yelling Hitler metaphors, and the conservatives and right-wing parties cracking down on anything that vaguely smacks of China.
The Confucius Institute which was providing Chinese language classes in High schools is now banned in NSW and I suspect pressure will soon be applied to extend that to our universities, because of claims that the insidious communists will limit our freedom of thought and expression and destroy our democracy.
The official Chinese newspaper response actually took the words right out of my mouth, and for the first time I think I can agree with every word. I won't quote it, but it was balanced and used precisely the adjectives I used - hysterical and paranoid.
Here is an extract relating to the decision (taken from a local newspaper):
The review into the program did not find evidence of actual political influence but noted facets of it could create a perception "the Confucius Institute is or could be facilitating inappropriate foreign influence in the department".
Global diplomacy is based on suspicion, perceptions, prejudice and rumour
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