It’s nice to be getting settled back into my home in Shanghai, after a longer-than-usual absence.  I haven’t been keeping an overly busy schedule, but have managed to do several things to make life here move along smoothly for me.

Day 1 — getting the bed set up for the extremely cold weather, restocking the pantry, numerous phone calls, cai bao and dou jiang for lunch, beef pao mo for dinner, meeting up with friends for a late night pot of tea and a chat

Day 2 — lunch with friends (at our favorite dong bei spot), clean up the bicycle to just the right degree (not too dirty to touch, not so clean as to attract the attention of thieves), lots of reading, soup for dinner after such a heavy lunch, and late night meeting up with friends

Day 3 — popping by the office to check up the status of a few jobs that I’ve been working on while I was away (due out for publication soon), nian gao for lunch, pancakes for dinner, and another late night outing with friends

Still several things to get caught up on, of course.  I mean, I haven’t even had my favorite  spicy fish head yet…

I’ll be heading back up to Shanghai over the next few days, having spent the extremely cold winter away, sheltered in Singapore’s warmth.  I’ve been away for a longer time than usual, about four months.  It will be nice to be back.

I’m hoping to have some time, this round, to pick up the project I abandoned during my last stay, traveling to the end of the various metro lines in the city.  I should have time to do so, if all goes as expected on this stay.

Other plans for the next three months in Shanghai will include hosting friends in May, with whom I will travel to Beijing and Xi’an (can’t wait!), and perhaps doing a writing workshop.  I hope to be involved in a master’s course on English drama as well, and get back to some serious language study… which I have, once again, neglected during my stay in Singapore.

I was very impressed over the weekend.  Just before my family members left Singapore, my niece asked me to take her downtown so that she could buy a Bible that had Chinese characters, Chinese phonetics (hanyu pinyin), and English.  It’s an expensive book, but she used the money that had been given to her in red packets during the Chinese New Year to buy it.  She said she wanted to use it to learn Chinese.  I know that it is possible to learn to read a language this way (and with the environment around you, to speak as well), but have not seen anyone do it.  Watching my niece was amazing.

The night they were preparing to leave, she took the Bible out and started reading.  By verse 2 of Genesis 1, she’d figured out that 神 is God (though that one might cause her some confusion as she goes on).  With a quick look back over the verses she’d read so far, she figured out that 地 was earth, and so 天 must be heaven.  She continued on this way, and put together everything in the first two verses.  She read them aloud for me several times, and then I read them and she repeated (without looking at the printed words) 2 times.  She plans on continuing this method, 2 verses a day, from now until the time she comes back to stay with me again, which she tentatively plans to do in August/September.  By then she should be somewhere in Exodus, and I am going to be interested to see how her language skills are at that time.

I’ve read that it was once pretty common to give kids a text in a classical language and a lexicon, and before you know it, they would be able to read the language without any problem.  I don’t think it is something that is done so often anymore — we are much more hands-on these days, and that is a real pity.  My 13-year-old niece is just the age that a lot of people started this sort of education, back in the day, and I am very intrigued to see how the experiment works out for her.  Watching things click in her mind the other day, I realized that this old-fashioned way of learning certainly has some merit.

If things work out as she plans, she’ll be staying with me for a few weeks in Shanghai toward the end of the summer or early fall.  If she is still interested in the language like she is at this moment, I am thinking I will sign her up to attend language classes every day.  With the environment, and the ground work she is going to do between now and then (and I do believe she will do it — she is a very motivated kid!), she could end up learning Chinese very well in a relatively short time.

Making me completely jealous.  And extremely proud.

Of the four most prominent Tang Dynasty (618-907) poets — Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, and Wang Wei — Wang is the one who has been least introduced to the world outside of China.  I’ve recently been reading through a collection of 100 of his poems, trying to gain a little familiarity with his work.  I have to say, having read it, that I don’t think this particular collection, 100 of Wang Wei’s Poems in English Verse, is going to help Wang’s reputation outside of China very much.

I picked the book up in Shanghai, and really like the layout of it.  Each poem appears in both English and Chinese, on facing pages.  The Chinese has Hanyu Pinyin, so that those Chinese-speakers who don’t read characters well (like me) can at least put in a little work and gain some understanding of the poem in the original.  That’s a real plus.  Also, the notes offered in the English translations are interesting, for the most part.

What is lacking for me in this text is the translation.  It comes off as trite and cliché, which is not at all what I think Wang’s work should be.  The rhyme and meter used is rather poorly done, making the works sound all wrong in English.  I know that Wang’s work in Chinese is very formal, and I can see the beauty in the structure there.  Trying to recapture that in English is good, and it might even be true that  it needs a classical form to do so.  But the rhymes used and the awkwardness of the meter make it a poor attempt.

I wish I thought I could do a better job of it.  I know how hard it is to get translation right, and I know that I can’t offer anything better than what appears in the book I’ve got in my hands.  I have a long way to go before I can understand the poetry well enough to re-configure it into a form that fits the poetic tradition I grew up with.  But I am trying, and maybe I’ll get there someday.

For now, I can just say that Wang Wei is a poet I would like to know better.  After all, anyone who gets himself in trouble for presenting works reserved for royalty to his own circle of low-born friends is alright in my book.  I always like a guy who bucks a system that favors an elite crowd.

It was a really fun day today, with my family hosting a book launch for Cyborg Chimera, which will hit bookstores in Singapore soon.  The book is dedicated to 8 children — my 3 nephews, my niece, my 3 godsons, and my goddaughter.  Tonight, each of them read a poem from the book… including my nephew who is on the other side of the world!

a lamp from the dark 'til dawn series

Fortunately, we had a lamp from the dark ’til dawn series on hand to display.  My mom will be taking it back to the States with her when she returns next week.

my niece reading "Sphinx-Speak," from Cyborg Chimera

my goddaughter reading "Orion Out the Window"

my nephew reading "Earthrise," piped in from the US

On the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year, we were lucky enough to stumble across a dragon dance in the neighborhood.  Though lion dances are pretty common here in Singapore, a dragon dance isn’t something you see just all the time here.  We were happy to get to watch this one.

The God of Wealth

The first day of Chinese New Year for this Year of the Tiger, I took my family down to the river for the big River Ang Pow celebration.  Here’s a few pictures of what the place looked like all set up for the celebrations.

Dragon and Phoenix

Close up of the Dragon's Face

Year of the Tiger

Big Crowds at the River Ang Pow (over half a million in the first 2 days)

Here’s Chinatown in Singapore, all set up for Chinese New Year.

Decorations at Chinatown, Singapore, Chinese New Year 2010

Chinatown Shoppers

Lanterns at Chinatown

It’s been a great Chinese New Year so far for me in Singapore. My family from the US is here this year, celebrating the New  Year with my Singapore family.  In fact, some other friends from Scotland popped in over the weekend and joined us for our reunion dinner as well, making it one of the more international gatherings we’ve had on New Year’s Eve in a long time — maybe ever.  (I can’t remember if our Norwegian, Vietnamese, Japanese, and British friends were here on the eve one year or not, but it seems like that was on the first day of new year, rather than the eve.)

I’ll put some pictures up soon of Chinatown and the River Ang Pow celebrations.  For now, I’ll just say we’re all having a great time, and I’ll leave it at that.

Chinese New Year is upon us.  Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve, and we’ll all be celebrating here with reunion dinner — a time when the immediate family gathers for a feast, with family members coming home from wherever they have been scattered in the course of the past year.

On Sunday, the Year of the Tiger begins (chasing the Year of the Ox out).  This is the third year in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.  The tiger should help keep three main tragedies (fire, theft, and visiting ghosts) away from the household, so I am looking forward to a good year.

People born in the Year of the Tiger are supposed to take on the character of this animal, which is known for its protective instinct.  Tiger babies are usually charismatic and popular, and very conscientious in their work.  They are ambitious, clever, and a little bit of a loner.  A tiger is a born leader, and will usually be driven to succeed in everything s/he does.  Tigers are usually straightforward, outgoing, and tenacious.  On the down side, they can be suspicious of others, and often act impulsively.

You are a tiger if you were born in 1902, 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, and 1998.  Babies born in 2010 will also be tigers.