I have been fascinated by History for a long time, and being a Chinese, I am also intrigue of the Chinese History and Culture.  I was browsing through the Wikipedia on Chinese History and came across this page, Timeline of Chinese History, it has a chronology on the History of China since the Peking Man, a 200k-750k years old remains found near today Beijing.  In the Chinese History Chronology, it started with Peking Man, dated some 400k years back.  Then at 7600BC, Archaeological evidence suggested domestication of pig for the first time.  At 7500BC, Analysis of Chinese rice residues show that rice had been domesticated by this time.  It seams to me that the Chinese has been eating pork 100 years before eating rice.  Isn’t it interesting, the rice, a staple food of the Chinese culture were preceded by the pork.  I guess we have been eating pork for so long that some of us has pig brains. 

Our surprise/disappointment turn excitement when we saw the map to the new Foh San restaurant plastered on the side.  After a couple of wrong turns, we came to this grand restaurant that we did not expect of.  Foh San has turn from a corner kopi tiam to a double storey 5 shops wide restaurant.  It was massive and great, you can witness it in the pictures below. It was already the third day of opening, and the restaurant was still buzzing with patrons as if opening day.  We had to wait for a good 10-15 minutes before we get a seat, and after that another 5-10 minutes before the table were served and our tea was ordered.

After successfully settling down, we just accept the offer of the first cart that came by, some kind of cheong fun with pork and prawn.  It was much better than the regular prawn cheong fun that they served.  We ordered a few more fried and steam stuff before picking up our tab and left.  The food was cold and the service was horrible.  But we understand as there are just too many people.  I don’t think any restaurant can give proper service and food quality in such capacity…

[Show as slideshow]

Tiananmen Square, 20 years ago, students revolt against the China Communist Government.   I was too small to remember anything, but one picture that has always stuck in my head or associated with Tiananmen Square 1989 protest were the ‘Tank Man’.  One guy standing in front of the tank fearlessly.  I’ve learnt today that this guy’s identity is unknown and till today, no one know what happen to him nor what he is doing now.  I have thought the photo of the Man vs Machine to be somewhat inspirational.  At one part, the machine holds enough firepower to blow the guy into pieces of melon squash on a concrete floor.  At the other, the bravery the man display, the David vs Goliath, the hobbit vs Sauron, and this is the inspirational part.

Often in the mundane working like, one less encounter such bravery.  One less encounter where one need to put one’s life at risk for one’s believe.  And hence, one gets lost in living life itself.  Actions like the Tank Man, brings inspiration into the mundane life.  Reminds one self that life, is what we make of it, and we must dare to grab life by the throat and choke every ounce of breath out.  Take more risk, be brave to face to storm, be fearless to stand your ground.

Photo by Balakov

Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 (Wiki)

Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen

Tiananmen Square and Two Chinas

China: From Tiananmen through today

Update:

Time 100: The Unknown Rebel

Got this from Chee Aun Twitter today, an abstract posted on Microsoft Research site that has the title “Cibai: An abstract interpretation-based static analyzer for modular analysis and verification of Java classes.”  I wonder what inspired the name of the analyzer.  This is a good example where before you name something, do try to google for it first and it will bring you to sites like WikiAnswers…

My brother inlaw wedding was around the corner, next week to be exact and the thing about the door gift for his wedding was still uncertain. May Lin offered to make door gifts through mum and the closest we got to a yes was the brother said he will called back to confirm. Our initial thought was to make potpourri, something nice for the guest to take away. That was last week, and almost the end of the wedding gift idea or offer since we did not receive any call back. Saturday morning, as usual, we set out to our usual B’fast, and after that, we didn’t want to just go back, so we went over to OneStop, one of the ailing shopping mall in Penang where we rarely visits. On the concourse, there was a China Vase exibit/sale, a nice Chinese Vase as a wedding gift perhaps, well, we found ceramic chopsticks, and beautifully painted chopsticks I must add. This was the beginning of the weekend quest. The price was reasonable, and it was somewhere close to what we paid for when we made our own wedding dinner door gifts. Before this, May Lin’s colleague already tip her about a Chinese wedding ’stuff’ shop near Komtar. So, after One Stop, we went over to this place and found chopsticks as well, nicely decorated and packed, And the price was also reasonable, cheaper than what we paid for when we DIY. It was between wooden chopsticks and ceramics, and price in fact almost the same, we went for ceramics.

Before we went back, a quick phone call to the brother to ensure he has not made or ordered his door gifts yet. Back to OneStop, we manage to bargain the price down to almost the targeted level. We bought 250 pairs, for 25 tables. The chopsticks were plain and did not have any gloves or anything to keep them together. It was bought bulk anyway, and not fit to be just given like this. So we first added some ribbon decorations, and later a sticker as a thank you note. The ribbons we got it from Popular Bookstore and the red string (elastic) was from Kamdar. The sticker was printed on the spot over at Gurney Plaza, a small stall that offer sticker printing. Saturday was a shopping day. When we got back, it was already rather late, so we did not get much done. By Monday, all was done, then we felt something that was missing. During my wedding, I had a small card made stating the significance of chopsticks, and we tie a card to every pair. It was too late to do the same, so we printed 25 A4 size cards to be folded and place on each tables, the cards again was bought from Popular Bookshop. The result, as shown in the pictures. It took our entire weekend to finish all 250 pairs, but it was fun and fulfilling. Anyone else interested in Chopsticks as a wedding gifts, we don’t mind taking orders.