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VIIV

Friday, Jun 5, 2009 6:26AM / Members only

The great Czech author Milan Kundera once wrote:

"The struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting..."

It's good to know that after 20 yrs, some people still remember, and will never forget...

proud of every single one of the 100,000+ who made it to Victoria park tonight...

we should always cherish the freedom we still enjoy here in HK...

D....

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Smokers' Delight...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:31PM / Members only

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQaiAfcZaD

***update: sorry, the above clip have been removed in youtube. Press here to view it on another site.

37 percent of the world's tobacco leaves are burned in China, establishing us as the leading nation in the league of tobacco consumption. You can say I'm damn proud of that, but I'm not too sure about the way the kid in the video is being brought up...

Really, whenever i'm in China, where u can smoke pretty much anywhere, I sometimes feel free (no irony intended). After two years of conditioning (smoking ban came into effect in HK in 2007), I've found myself feeling guilty whenever i light a cigarette in a restaurant. What's worse, I've come to accept the fact that my smoking behavior is an act of selfishness and unpleasantness for others in proximity. It is true and i respect that.

It is always interesting to look back at the history of tobacco. Cigarette smoking was once the coolest thing considered. It was one of the many expression of modernity in itself. One needs no further evidence than the amount of chain-smoking captured on screen in French and American films throughout the 20th century, one of the most sucessful marketing campaign based on ignorance and everyone's need for character.

I won't deny it, I was one of those who started smoking because they thought it was a cool thing to do, like those in the movies. I was seven and I had the right to be stupid. But seeing how the status of smokers have degraded throughout my mere 20+ yrs, it is a lesson in the instability of social perceptions.

All this being said though, i'm still dreading about the smoking ban in bars and clubs that is coming into effect in July. It is one thing to ban smoking in restaurant, but to take away one's right to enjoy a good icy pint and a ciggie inside a bar is just plain old blasphemy, because now you're fucking with tradition man. All smokers understand that their habit is bad for their health, and that's a risk they are willing to take at their own discretion. Of course, one then argues that it is those who doesn't smoke that are to be considered. That's only fair. Yet what I don't understand is that why can't we issue licenses for premises that cater to smokers or non-smokers exclusively. I mean, for those who don't smoke and are totally annoy by the presence of tobacco smoke, they can surely choose to go to smoke-free bars or clubs to enjoy their night out. To prohibit smoking in all bars and clubs is not a progressive move towards a better and 'healthier' society, because it strips the rights from those who want to smoke while having drinks with their friends on a night out. Personally for me, any move by a governmental body to prohibit others from committing a certain act is a regressive gesture, no matter what the act is, be it tobacco smoking or drug taking. Instead of "JUST SAY NO", a well-educated and well-informed public should have the right to say "JUST SAY KNOW" and have the freedom to choose to do whatever the fuck they want given that the act is not harmful to others unknowingly or unwillingly. And to be honest, if our government is really keen on providing us with a cleaner and healthier environment, i think the air-pollution problem is much more urgent. But of course, that's another story...

In less than two months, smoking will be ban in all public premises in Hong Kong, no longer will we be able to enjoy a pint with a ciggie in our hand in bars or clubs. What's the world coming to, it's depressing...

D....

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New novel from Eileen Chang!!! 張愛玲新作!!!

Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 4:23AM / Members only

"人性是最有趣的書，一生一世看不完。" -------- 張愛玲

"Human nature is the most interesting book that can never be finish in a lifetime."
                                                                                                                 -------- Eileen Chang

Indeed, and the same goes for Eileen Chang's writings, precisely because human nature is the canvas and paintbrush of her art. Never can one find flat characters in Chang's novels, they are all propelled by the same contradictions and self-deceptiveness that are common in all of us when we strive to live our lives.

Some find her work melodramatic and pessimistic, but none can deny the fact that she is one of the most important and beloved writer to have emerged from China's long literary history.

I have no desire, and certainly is not articulate enough, to write about Eileen Chang and her work. As a huge fan of her work, however, hearing about the arrival of her new novel on Feb 22nd is already making me itch all over. So consider this a scratch on where it itches.

I say excited, but that comes with a sense of shame. This book, according to Chang's last will, is not intended to be publish but to be destroyed when she passed away in 1995. According to the sales pitch from the publisher, this is Chang's semi-autobiographical story of her relationship with the writer and WWII Japanese collaborator Hu Lancheng (胡蘭成), a love affair which one can also find resemblances in Lust, Caution. So this is, as they say, her side of the story. Again, voyeurism always sales...

Soong Yee Lon (宋以朗) inhereted the legal right to administrator Chang's work from his parents, the great scholar Soong Kei (宋淇) and Kwong Mun Mei (鄺文美), who were close friends and supporter of Eileen Chang. His decision to release this book will surely be both admire and criticize by many, but ask this question before you make a judgement: what would the world be if Max Brod did not publish Kafka's work against his will?

I'm not taking side, i'm just damn happy to be able to read Chang's new novel in less than a week. Even if this is against her wish. And there are news that two of her novels written in English will also be available later on this year. This must be an ailing period for Eileen Chang in her grave, but 2009 turns out to be a great year for us Chang Fans...

Read. Learn. and Play.

D....

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Loser's Lament...

Tuesday, Jan 20, 2009 3:55PM / Members only

Dear all,

Hi, my community update informs me that my last entry have been some 180+ days ago, that really shocked me....have I been neglecting my page for that long??

For the few who actually visit my page from now and then and are asking me what I've been doing for the past couple of months, I would like to say thanks to you all for caring and sorry for disappointing u with my absence here...as I've mentioned several times before in my entries, I'm really kinda lazy with blogs, sometimes I just don't know what is worth writing about, and everywhere I look, there seems to be people much more talented than myself who are writing or already wrote about the issues i care about...I lose faith in my own writing and view points too easily...but please bear with me, this entry tries no wit, only a sigh...

The truth is, the past several months have been a sort of roller coaster ride for me. In July I was approached by a film production company in regards to one of the scripts I've been trying to get into production. They were very keen in helping me out and by the end of the month, we found an investor willing to fork out the money for the movie. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about the prospect of making my debut feature and immediately began revising my script and getting prepare for the frenzy that are sure to follow when pre-production for the film begins.

Then came a phone call from my relatives which knocked me out of my excitement. I was informed about the deteriorating health of my grandpa, who has just been hospitalized. That being said, I dropped all my work and went to visit my grandpa in Taiwan. Although I've never really been very close with my grandpa (but don't get me wrong, we've always been on really good terms), seeing him on the hospital bed struggling to talk to us was painful to endure. My memories of him are vague because with him living in Taiwan and me living in HK and abroad when I was younger, I only got to see him once or twice a year. Of course, the fault is all mine, I don't think I've made any attempts to get to know my grandpa better, or to spend more time with him. I'm, as a famous writer once wrote, in that "stupid lyrical age, when a man is too great a riddle to himself to be interested in the riddles outside himself and when other people are mere walking mirrors in which he is amazed to find his own worth, his own emotion". My grandpa lived an exciting life in a very interesting period of Hong Kong in which I made little attempt to find out about, only to regret it now and understand how unfair it is that the young never get to witness the prime of their elders...

Next thing I know, September arrived...
I was back in HK, knowing that my grandpa have recovered a bit and was able to move back home, I thrust myself right back to work. September was an interesting month, because throughout the summer I've been told by several different sources that some imminent disaster is going to hit HK. Some said that a Brazilian prophet who has correctly predicted several major world events in the past (such as 9/11 and the 2004 Tsunami, they claimed) have said that on September 13th, an earthquake of 9 on the richter scale is going to erupt near Hainan Island in the South China sea, causing a tsunami that is gonna hit and destroy the coastal area in Hong Kong and all the way to Japan. While some, on the other hand, informed me of their Feng Shui Master's warning about the destructibility of the water element in this month. Although I did not take both of the rumors seriously, I merely took it as a joke or some random superstitious nonsense at best, but the date and the nature of the predictions were always in the back of my mind, and I remember thinking to myself on the 13th, to hell with the prophet...

But what happened two days later, few could have predicted. And the results shocked the whole world...

Yes, I'm talking about the Lehman Brothers' filling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which marked the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, and it is itself the alarming signal to the economical turmoil that is still happening all over our global economy. But don't worry, I will not get into discussion of the economy and the poor regulations and policies that took us to where we are today because when it comes to investment, banking, economics, or whatever that are related, I'm a complete idiot. And because I'm completely clueless to these things, I've never been interested in investment or building portfolios. Therefore, when the Lehman Brothers and others financial institutions were falling, I was foolish enough to think that the whole thing would have little impact on me. It didn't take long for me to realize how wrong I was.

What happened was that, on the week when the Lehman Brother announced its intention to file for bankruptcy, we were suppose to sign a contract with the investment firm that is going to invest in our film. It just so happened that the firm had a lot of investment in Lehman, so with their money now in jeopardy, they immediately put their investment in our film on hold. Several weeks later, they officially informed us that they are no longer going to invest in our project.

I was devastated, because this is not the first time I failed to secure the money for my film. Such has been the fate of my project in which I have been so eager to get into production for the past year or so. I've been rejected by several film companies who claimed that my project isn't commercial enough. I began to question myself and lost all self-confidence; have I been dreaming all along? Countless questions and doubts engulfed me, night after night, thoughts after thoughts...this went on for weeks. I lost all interest in all things worthy of interest. I did not watch a film, did not pick up a single book...I withdrew myself from my friends, and especially those related to work...I found sleeping to be the best means of escape, because while awake and conscious, I think, I feel, I suffer...and in view of all the things around me, I had a deep conviction that all human efforts are foredoomed to failure...

Finally one day, for no particular reason, I snapped out of it.

Suddenly my so-called problems seemed so petty and insignificant compared to what others are going through everyday in the very same earth we share. I understand that this will only be one of the many disappointments life have in store for me, and the important thing is to keep one's head up in spite of everything and try to learn from it, grow from it...Always a pessimist, I was quite surprise and happy to be able to find an optimist in myself.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live, so this is my story for the past couple of months, which i have found the need to spill it out for some sort of therapeutic reason, or maybe I simply wanted to share because I understand there are a lot of depressed people out there right now...And my sincere apology to those who have endure this boring tale up to this point and found this nothing more than a lame lament...

To make up for this, pls watch the video below titled "How to peel a banana" for a good stupid laugh, because every once in a while, everyone needs a good stupid laugh....

Video: http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=RenXaiNAaFc

So don't worry about me, I've found myself a couple of exciting projects to worked on since then...particular thanks to Pang Ho Cheung, Josie, and Conroy...hope the bloody project will be a blast!!!!

Take good care all and happy new year!!

Oh, did i mentioned i was in Antarctica in December?

Stay tuned....

D....

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Carbon Guilt...

Wednesday, Jul 30, 2008 2:16AM / Members only

Let's face it, we all like to boost about our efforts in being environmentally friendly whenever we are asked about the issue...i mean, that's the fad right now isn't?

Few will admit outright that their lifestyles have little consideration for preservation...but we all know that the truth is usually quite the contrary...

Don't be offended; I'm no saint neither. Actually, I'm quite lazy in terms of being 'green' as well, the most i'm doing is to avoid using plastic bag whenever possible; In fact, i usually gets pretty annoyed by people who use the green card all the time to make everyone feel guilty...

"oh you are not recycling that?!?" A friend asked.

"No, because there's no comprehensive recycling system implemented by our government and there're no recycle collection bin by a mile within where I live, I can't be ass-bothered to carry this coke bottle to a station in god-knows where..." I answered.

The conversation usually turns sour after that...

But yesterday, while i was driving along the Victorian harbor in Hong Kong (yes, i'm a driver of a gasoline-combustion engine vehicle, that makes me doubly guilty) and saw the smog that was incubating all around us...it really made me feel sick and claustrophobic...

Everyone who have spend time here in Hong Kong understand the extend of the pollution problem, but yesterday was just uncanny, the road side stations recorded the highest ever air pollution index of 202 in the city's history (201-300 being purple, which means that the air is VERY unhealthy), and combined that with 37 degrees Celsius in some area, it could really kill someone. I simply could not make out the Kowloon pennisula while on the HK harbor side...

Now seeing the smog and the road side construction worker, who was standing by my car while I was stopped at a red light, nearly falling from heat stroke, I was hit with a pang of carbon guilt.

Carbon guilt is a new word I learned which means, quite literally, the feeling of guilt for producing too much carbon, from driving or taking the plane. When I first heard of the term, me and my friends kinda laughed at it, we felt that only those who are in the green party and other green crusading organization will actually feel it. I've heard of carbon footprint, but i've never met anyone who have really calculated their carbon footprint per week or per month, not even the few righteous green-minded friends who have condemed me.

Before getting my current car a year ago, I was quite fed up with the whole oil issue and did some research in alternative fuel vehicles. I found that the industry is nowhere being mature and convenient enough for the average person to switch over from traditional gasoline-runned cars. Hydrogen cell fuel uses more energy to produce than gasoline itself, therefore not exactly energy efficient, and electrical cars are just impractical for us in Hong Kong since most of us lack the luxury of having a garage which could charge up the car overnight. And on top of that, coal is used in most of the power plant to produce energy, switching all the cars from gasoline to electric engine will only shoot up the demand for electric energy, which doesn't help matter much neither. Of course, some will recommend the hybrid, but I really don't find the point, because if I switch, I want it to have nothing whatsoever to do with gasoline. I'm quite stubborn like that...

However, the most important issue in regards to alternative fuel automobiles ever being able to see mass-producition is, unlucky for us, the complex political, economical and social interests that loom behind the megalith oil businesses and all sorts of dfferent lobby groups that revolve around it. I simply don't believe that we lacked the technology and will to develop a new sustainable energy vehicle system, but the truth is, many people are making ridiculous amount of money in our current fossil fuel system that they just refuse to give up something so good.

I'm no expert on the issue, but one should be able to see the role oil played in the world events ever since the oil shortage that shocked the world in the 70's. I mean, let's not forget that several prominent members in the Bush adminstration have been former executives and board members of the oil and car companies. And of course, the Bush family itself are in the oil business...

Recently I watched a really good documentary film, Who killed the Electric Car?. The film chronicles several successful production of electric cars, particularly the GM EV1, and what roles the car manufacturers, politicians, oil industry, consumers and other lobby groups played in repressing the development and adoption of this technology. Do watch it if you're interested on the issue, and hopefully it will open your eyes on what these companies or government are capable of...

If you're an optimist, yes, time have changed and people in general are more aware of the problem. There are a lot of people out there doing the right thing, researching and developing new products that are not the best yet, but at least of a lesser evil. I heard that the people in San Francisco are doing a real good job in cleaning up the city by converting a lot of the cars into electrically-runned and even a lot of the taxis are switching over to electric engine. My first response when I heard that was: Why can't we do that?? Well, I guess it takes real bold leadership and a progressive mind to carry through with something like that, qualities I sometimes suspect lacking in our government...

At last, for those of you who can't live without a car but are also keen on impressing others with your greeniness, heard of the Tesla Roadster?? Apparently, this 100% electric car with 265hp are the hottest thing on the market right now, with owners ranging from George Clooney, Matt Damon, Will.i.am, and Larry Page of Google. It's not exactly your Mercedes new SL or SLK, but if you could afford a SL or SLK, why not buy the Tesla Roadster to try it out? Like i've said, it's the fad right now...

Let's hope the smog will clear out soon, I need a mask...

D....

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director on 8/12/2007 8:44AM
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rottendoubt on 7/19/2007 4:15PM

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MeijiYanYan
posted on Friday, Jun 26, 2009 5:54PM [Report]

很高興認識你! 我是Amodel Agency 的Kiara. 所有關於我們的合約模特兒的聯絡和工作安排事宜也可以直接找我。

AModel是本地一間具規模的模特兒公司，提供大量本地及外地模特兒，美術指導，專業攝影師，化妝師，更提供高質素的服務包括 —模特兒試鏡，專業人像，產品攝影，化妝服務以配合各行各業的宣傳及活動，以發揮最佳效果。
我們有超過 200名亞洲模特兒，包括具專業資格及擁有個性面孔，亦備有男女外籍，新面孔及不同年齡等多種模特兒供選擇以配合宣傳。而制作活動包括 — 時裝展，平面廣告，發佈會，電腦展，電影宣傳片，雜誌時裝示範及展銷活動等等。

如有機會可以合作，講給我聯絡方式，謝謝!!
isJUNO
posted on Friday, Jun 19, 2009 8:47PM [Report]

cant u understand chinese?.. but i cant....
Derrick Fong
posted on Friday, Jun 19, 2009 3:01AM [Report]

Yo dude, whats up!?
pigskin
posted on Friday, Jun 12, 2009 11:03PM [Report]

can i join ? =P
BlackIsBack
posted on Tuesday, Jun 9, 2009 1:09AM [Report]

Hey Derek, not sure if you remembered me from Volar the other nite....lets meet up for drinks again
pigskin
posted on Wednesday, Jun 3, 2009 1:08AM [Report]

i love u ^3333333333333^
Zoey Sham
posted on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 8:12PM [Report]

hey derek ,nice to seeing u here ...be fd ! haha

take care Zo
lalacui
posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 9:56PM [Report]

Hi Derek,

it's was a greatest blog i never heared before, like your movies. hope you everything is good. shooting more and more high quality and exciting movie in the near future.

Best Wishes for you!!!

Angela
SoulZe
posted on Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009 6:35PM [Report]

Hi Derek, Iove your works and appreciate!
cfl1116
posted on Thursday, Apr 2, 2009 6:29PM [Report]

passing by to say hi..
keep up the good work
Christopher Tram
posted on Tuesday, Mar 24, 2009 6:02PM [Report]

Just dropping by to say Hi !
Riz
posted on Saturday, Mar 21, 2009 12:31AM [Report]

Yo, derek. Love ya on screen n beyond. Cheerssss!!!
Perry Ho
posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 11:35PM [Report]

Hi Derek!

How are you? I can't believe I can meet you here,
how's everything's to you? right now I spent most of my times for the tv commercial shooting in Mainland China, been lived in Shanghai for almost a year, then now move back to live in Guangzhou, but still need a lot of traveling for shooting. take good care and looking to meet you shortly.

Cheers and Happy New Year
Say hi to you dad too

Perry Ho
hirojiang
posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 12:58AM [Report]

希望在2009年看到你更多的作品···
Qfx Workshop
posted on Sunday, Feb 1, 2009 8:00PM [Report]

hi Derek
how u doing? I think u have to come to my shop ,may be next two week,for test ,ur neck,take care man
brujita72
posted on Friday, Jan 30, 2009 4:50PM [Report]

jus wanting to say hi
Herman Yau
posted on Monday, Jan 26, 2009 1:48AM [Report]

Wish you a very new year of the ox.

Herman
tonyhung
posted on Wednesday, Jan 21, 2009 2:52PM [Report]

hey bro. happy new year man.. i should be seeing you soon right? did suet yee ask you to come over for V.O..
add me on msn. tonyhung23@hotmail.com
Helen To
posted on Wednesday, Jan 21, 2009 1:41AM [Report]

hey whats up whats up?!! haven't seen u for so long la!! how r u doing?! I'm doing good... having the longest vacation and getting ready to write my second book! glad that u like my new look!! hahaha... Happy Chinese New Year~~~~!!
rottendoubt
posted on Tuesday, Jan 20, 2009 5:15PM [Report]

ya, it was fun but a bit rough. i think i need to avoid drinking for a long while. =)
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