Thursday, January 18, 2007

故宫与星巴克

近来中国媒体闹得沸沸扬扬,因为北京故宫里面,竟然开了一间星巴克(Star Bucks)咖啡屋。大家都说这破坏了故宫的历史面貌。

其实,西方文化的毒侵,何止于此。一年前我游故宫的时候,就发现一个奇怪的现象: 讲解牌匾往往都印有一个西方赞助商的名字。比如,悬挂在坤宁宫大门前的牌匾,就印了American Express的名字。我还特地照了相。

当年八国联军入侵故宫,烧的烧,抢的抢,美国就是其中一个共犯。唐伯虎的的画,王曦之的字,很可能就在美国大兵点烟的当儿,化为灰烬。可以原谅,但不能忘记。现在反倒要American Express来赞助赞助,还让他们堂儿皇之地写下大名,实在愧对凡是有骨气的中国人。
抛开民族气节,历史问题不谈,纯粹从文物的艺术角度考虑,这也是一大破坏。大概没有哪个埃及人笨到允许美国佬在金字塔门前开一个麦当劳吧。

中国人现在并不穷了。两千亿美元的外交储备金闲在那儿干什么呢? 故宫并不稀罕外国公司的一分一毫。国家应该全面拨款,何必要看外国公司的脸色?

中国北京要迎奥运,迅速现代化,是无可厚非得的。胡同可以拆,四合院也可以铲平,但是故宫是中国灿烂文明的顶峰杰作,也是全世界华人的集体记忆,总可以饶了它吧?

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The death of a prodigy

After I have finished the last year of my primary school, there was a long holiday. Dad suggested I should do something useful to upgrade myself. I ended up in a small little institution named Inti college, somewhere in downtown KL. I joined a program named “English and Computer camp”, and it lasted for about 2 or three months.

Overall, the memory of that experience is somewhat vague now, but a few things are surprisingly imprinted in my mind. I remember a bunch of kids, two years to my senior, were constantly discussing about pornography. I also remember a kid of my age being very famous in the institution. His essays were posted on the notice board for everyone to read. I actually took the effort to copy down his essays into my notebook for a serious study later on. I was shocked at his mastering of English language, because his essays were full of deep vocabs, and sophisticated sentences. During a few rare occasions when I actually saw him, he was in discussion with his professor in the canteen or corridors somewhere. He just looked like a regular fellow.

I knew he was a prodigy at that time. And I knew he was Zhang Shi Ming. He died a few days ago.

He appeared in the press quite frequently at that time. His and his dad were meeting VIPs, politicians, Anwar Imbrahim, etc. I suppose one of the major reasons for them to do that was to get every publicity possible, in order to raise fund for him to go to MIT. I remember, at one point, his dad complained subtly that the Chinese community did not do enough to help pay for his son’s tertiary education.

My dad analyzed to me “Do they ever make a promise to come back to Malaysia? If no, is there an obligation for the Chinese community to assist one prodigy who might be an American?”

Until this day, I absolutely believe that my dad’s analysis is justified. Even if he had promised to come back to Malaysia, it’s really debatable whether we should fund one prodigy, or put our dollars in our homeyard – there are countless primary Chinese schools here that are seriously under funded and understaffed. Let’s get our priorities correct here.

Reportedly, he got sick and he came back to Malaysia in 2002. Since then, there was no more news of him. The rumor was that he was in a depression and he had to receive mental treatment. From then on, his family posed a very defensive attitude towards the public, and was silent about his situation. His ex-professors were also not kept informed of his status.

Few days ago, his family was reportedly throwing punches at the news reporter at the graveyard. Sure they were heart-broken, but the fact that they even declined to confirm his death, and the entire evasive and defensive attitude, was an insult to many people who had helped him at some point. I have never given him a dollar, but many did. And many people were truly concerned about his well-being. Don’t these people at lease deserve a confirmation of his death?

This is Malaysia. We are not united states, where CNN and Fox and ABC would have trucks hosting satellites and cameras, waiting infront of their houses 24x7. Their hatred towards the media or public, was baseless. They might think that the media’s coverage in the past has given his son too much pressure, which leads to his depression, and finally death, and they are mad about that. If such an assumption is true, they are being unfair to the media - they have exploited the media to their advantage in the first place.

Michael J.Fox is outspoken about his own illness –parkinsons. His frank, open treatment of his own condition, is not only good for himself, and it’s absolutely important for the greater good of the society. A prodigy’s death is tragic, but we must talk about him, analyze him, and find a way for all prodigies to have a life.