Episode 137 - Seals of the Emperors

These are the impressions of certain imitation seals of some of the late Qing Emperors.

I obtained these impressions during a recent visit to the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

It is a Chinese art tradition that an owner, or an appraiser, of a painting used to affix his seal to the artwork. If it is a famous artwork, you will usually find a large number of seal impressions on it. If the artwork had once entered the royal palace, you can even find the Emperor's seal impressions as well.

I am not particular attracted by such practice of affixing one's seal to a great painting, as the seal impressions unnecessarily occupy a portion of the painting surface.

Having said that, I do agree that these seal impressions have their own artistic qualities.

Episode 136 - Dayang Yihao

Dayang Yihao (Great Ocean No. 1), China's deep-sea research ship, is visiting Hong Kong and mooring at the Ocean Terminal.

Judith read the news about the visit a few weeks ago and noted that the ship would open to visitors during her stay in Hong Kong.

Each of Judith and I sent a letter to the University of Science and Technology, one of the sponors of the event, to apply for the visiting tickets. Each letter applied for 2 tickets. According to today's newspaper, there were 5,000 tickets for the public, but the University received over 50,000 applications. So the University drew lots. We were lucky and got 4 tickets!

As we got one extra ticket, we invited one of Chiu Yin's classmates to join us today.

I know very little about deep-sea research, but I believed that it would be an enjoyment to board a ship and have a look at something unfamiliar to me. The doctrine of "Defamiliarisation", which I learned from my literary theory studies, has always been a golden guideline that brings live water to my heart.

The beautiful white ship, the long boarding ladder, the crew's rooms, the research centre and the various strange equipment knitted together in an orderly manner. Together with the friendly crew members, they presented before me a new horizon of life, a different view of looking at our beautiful planet, and gave me the chance to see, talk and listen to people from different walk of life. Judging from the environment of the ship, the life of a deep-sea researcher must be interesting, rewarding and relaxed without work pressure.

The pressure, if any, can easily be washed away by the great ocean.

Episode 135 - Balance, Unbalance

Remember the discussion on TADB?

At the beginning of the taiji martial art training, a practitioner learns how to maintain his balance. At the later stage of the training, it is the reverse. A senior practitioner should learn how to make use of the force generated by the lose of balance. This is not a situation of really losing one's balance. The unbalanced position is somewhat "intentional". It is "created" as a result of "following, sticking, adhering and connecting" to an opponent to such an extreme that one's balance can no longer be maintained.

A skillful practitioner can, however, make use of the power produced by such an "unbalanced" position to uproot his opponent and, through uprooting the opponent, maintain his balance again. It's just like holding the hand rail in a moving train to maintain one's balance. The power as generated by an unbalanced body is not enough to move a train, but it is more than sufficient to uproot an opponent.

This is the conversion of balance and unbalance, the conversion of Yin and Yang.