Happy 2008!

One year ago, I posted a short New Year message on my blog. "Here's wishing all of you a really beautiful 2007, made of magical moments & wonderful times, warmth & love. =p"

I'll add one more line to that this year, " May 2008 be a year in which everyone can drive themselves forward in a meaningful direction! "

Happy New Year.

Cexiang, 645am, 1/1/2008

Sunset in Venice

And I promised you pictures. Well, there were just too many of them that the normal montage just wouldnt do. So, I created a slideshow instead. There are just over 200 pictures in the Venice collection and about 150 in the Paris one. Take your time to enjoy them, some are really good! Especially those with my handsome face =)

This should be my final post before Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all! And may all of you who have been good girls and boys, ladies and gentlemen this year, see all your dreams coming through!

Lovely Paris

Romance in Venice & Paris (Chapter 3 - Paris)

Paris is beautiful and romantic, far more than its English counterpart London. Maybe it is the Haussmann Effect of planned wide boulevards and avenues, large open public spaces, mid-rise similar classical-styled apartments in terms of materials lining the well paved streets. Maybe it is the Arts streets in the old Latin Quarter where many artists and sculptors are at work in their individual shops. Maybe it is the grand Hotels & Cathedrals. Maybe it is because I see many tourists, but I hear still more French. Maybe because I learnt about the French Revolution for my A Levels, and I see many buildings with historical significance, the Place de la Concorde where Louis XVI & Marie Antionette, and then Robespierre were executed, and then the Hotel des les Invalides where Napoleon's body lies. All the maybes aside, I just couldnt stop humming to myself in Paris.

But nothing is hardly perfect. And at the Eiffel Tower, there were many locals trying to sell us mini Eiffel figuirines. Perhaps it is no simple coindence that all of them had African heritage. I wondered to myself how economically foolish it was for all of them to be selling the same thing at the same place within a few metres of each other. There is an obvious lack of demand, and any small demand there might be is competed out among themselves. Do they then share the profits together? They make no attempt to product differentiate in an obvious spatial monopoly scenario. How can they make a profit? or a Living? Despite France's extensive welfare state, there were still many people begging for donations on the streets. Are these illegal immigrants? Or does the welfare state create other worse negatives that lead to even more poverty?

The Lourve was my final destination in France. Mona Lisa. It is actually a rather small painting. But it is placed in a glass wall. In the room it is placed, there is also a huge painting by the Italian Venetian painter Veronese of the Wedding Banquet at Cana. But all eyes were on Mona Lisa. The Lourve allows photo-takiing now. And all the visitors were taking pictures of it. And I wondered why. Did they personally find it special? Or was it simply because it is a famous painting? Because someone else found it special? What was the use of a photograph? To prove that I have been to the Lourve and seen Mona Lisa? Does that photograph capture any emotions and feelings that one can recollect and reminisice in the future? I doubt so, not in all that crowd. To be honest, I did not enjoy my visit to the Lourve too much, and the only reason is, I have not enough knowledge of the invidividual artworks, or history of Europe and the World to fully appreciate them. That was made worse by the fact that the Lourve does not have English explanations for most of the exhibits. Quite shocking to me, considering it is THE museum of the world. But what I did, was buy a book published by the Lourve, that covers the history of Europe and the Middle East, and its individual exhibits. I will read them and return to the Lourve and Paris again soon.

I actually think that Paris carries many lessons for Singapore. From the French Revolution, to a vibrant arts culture, to the possible benefits of planning in creation of space, to retaining local identity. As for romance, yes, it's romantic. And I wish that one day soon, I will not be saying that alone.

Romance in Venice & Paris (Chapter 2 - Venice)

I will post the pictures soon once my friends have uploaded them from their cameras. You will find the pictures beautiful because Venice is architecturally a beautiful place. The Rialto Bridge, the Basilicas, the Gondolas in the setting sun, the San Marco Plaza, with gondolas lying its banks, facing the blue sea. Images of Romance. But, I did not find Venice romantic at all. Romance, is not about a place, but about the people that make a place.

Venice is made up of many residential quarters of middle-rise classical apartments. But on the first day, as I walked around and sat in a Gondola across Rios (rivers) in the City, I hoped I would see the local people peering out of their windows, or hanging their clothes out to dry, or standing and chatting on the streets, I hoped I would hear the sounds of music and the hearty laughter sounds coming from the houses, I hoped I would see houses displaying original works on art that I could peer on through the glass panels. I hoped and hoped. But all I saw were large throngs of Chinese toursits, barely a hint of local activity, throngs of commercial stores selling either the fasion goods of the day, the LVs, the Armanis, the Disneys, or souveneir shops selling identical and photocopied works of art, or masquerade masks. And I thought back to consumerism, and then thought, isnt Tourism a result and form of consumerism too?

I imagined, how romantic it would be, if I and a lover, were sitting in a gondola under the setting sun, and around us were the locals in their boats returning from work, the sounds of children playing on the cobbled pavements, masquerades with people all in masks! The banter in Italian, the Grazies and the Ciaos! And everyone looking at us, an odd Chinese couple, foreigners who carried an air of mysticism! Yes, it must have been like that before. But now, in my Gondola, I saw more than 10 gondolas pass me, and in ALL of them, were Asian tourists. Rialto Bridge crowded with Asians taking the ultimate beautiful pictures, the type that one can find in postcards, and all around, I hear Chinese, Japanese, even Malay. And I find it really surreal, where am I? Romantic? My goodness.

I read the travel guides, and am informed that most locals have shifted out of Venice to mainland Italy in search of better job opportunities. Left in Venice are the locals who wish to make a living out of the booming tourism industry. And I imagined again, of a time in Venice, when finance did not rule the day, when trade was only a part of life, where there was time for masquerades, music and art. When the days were spent trading, but the nights spent amongst parties. Not the wild parties of booze and little else of today, but those of music and discussions on the arts. I imagined of a time, when the Arts itself were an industry, in which many indivual artists worked and shared views. I imagined a time, where locals went around in slow leisurely, Gondolas. But really, that's not possible in today's fast paced world, is it?

At Piazza San Marco, the biggest open public square, there stand beautiful strutures of the Basilica, the Dolges Palace all dating back more than 600 years. But I found Trafalgar Square in the middle of London far more atttractive. My simple reason: Trafalgar Square had far more people sitting around. And I thought, is it only the financial centres of the world today, the Londons, the New Yorks that can attract huge numbers of people. Did Piazze San Marco use to be full of people everyday in the past, when Venice was the Trading Capital of the world?

The day I left Venice however, on Monday, we woke up earlier and took a walk around the city at 8am. And finally, I saw some local life. People walking to work, not unlike how they do so in Singapore, London or Cardiff. As we walked the streets, I saw individual local artists at work on ther Murano Glasses, paintings. And in the hotel, I saw brochures of many musical performances in the Chiesas, and Basilicas. I regretted it being too late for me to catch at least one performance. But maybe then, some life still exists in Venice. No longer the thriving Arts Capital, but where some remnants of a proud and distinguished heritage lives on.

The social studies textbooks in Singapore expouse the Venice lesson to be one of the failures of corruption in politics leading to a fall in Empire, the lessons I gathered however were : What are the effects of tourism on local culture, and local identity and sense of place? What are the effects of consumerism on arts and culture? What kind of concentrations of people will consumerism encourage?

Romance in Venice & Paris? (Chapter 1 - Tate Modern)

I just returned from my first trip to Continental Europe in my life. Single and available, I visited the 2 famous romance Capitals of the World - Venice & Paris. Not alone I was though, but with my housemate Kaiyi, his girlfriend Adelyn, and their friend Hong Sheng. But this story doesnt start in either city, but London. To catch the Sunday morning flight to Venice Marco Polo, I travelled to London for the upteenth time this year on Saturday.

Together with Zhiquan, who is turning out a real good friend, I decided to visit Tate Modern on Saturday afternoon. That is where this story begins. My story of the Arts & Romance. Tate Modern contains mainly modern works of Art. Surrealism, Cubism, Pop Art the main streams exhibited, covering Spanish artists like Dali, Picasso but also many others. I have always found it difficult to appreciate the modern arts. They are not beautiful to the eye, or realistic. However, as I walked through the works of Art, I realised what Art is to these artists - a reflection of real life. The increasingly mechanized world of industralisation, the loss of touch of humanity, the increased detachment and enclosure, made them see beneath the surface of the world, onto a cold and bleak reality. Hence, the deformed human beings, seemingly ridiculous pictures of zebras in the city, strokes of red. This was not what they saw, but what they felt. To them, drawing pictures of beautiful people, or beautiful landscapes was more surreal than the cubes or deformed figures they drew. Society was simply not beautiful to them.

I went to another section where the artists used advertisements to form pictures, to illustrate the consumerism that had overwhelmed society. I recalled work I had done in my first year at University on the Frankfurt School and their criticism how consumerism was taking away the ability of people to appreciate and produce good quality Art.

I slowly began to appreciate the modern works of Art. Maybe all along since young, I too was engulfed in the consumeristic movement, and therefore, could never feel the disenchantment of the modern artisits, thus, I could not feel their works of art. But increasingly, I think I am slowly breaking away, realising that consumerism may not be a fixed certainty, but rather, just another phase in societal evolution.

The key themes I will leave you in this chapter are : 1) The Arts as a reflection of Society & the Times, not just portraits of beauty. 2) Consumerism is simply a phase in the evolution of Society, not an eternal reality.

The End of Term

Tomorrow is the last day of the Autumn Semester of the 2007/8 Academic Year. More significantly, it also represents the halfway mark of my undergraduate academic degree programme. Perhaps, it is apt to look back on this year and a half, and recap what I have learnt and experienced. A type of Mid-Term Report Card.

Academically, the second year has proven to be more hands-on, skills-based as well as requiring much deeper knowledge. Thus far, I have been exposed in greater detail to statistical and design softwares, have designed a preliminary housing scheme; but also, delved much deeper into Land Economy & Environmental Policy issues. I do feel technically more proficient on the computer with the relevant software, and importantly, I think my cognitive understanding of the academic texts is also improving. In other words, I am able to grasp and understand concepts faster than before. Perhaps the most important improvement for me, has been the re-discovery of presenting before an audience. I remember fearing that my inability to project a similar accent as the British might hinder my presentations, but 2 public presentations and a debate later, I think I am happy to say that I have overcome these and am now able to deliver quite confidently and coherently in front of a British audience. Managing a 12 person group also highlighted to myself my strengths in delegation, but also a possible weakness in terms of openess to ideas. Nevertheless, being appointed group leader amongst a group of 12 British students might be in itself an achievement for a foreigner.

Socially, this year has seen definitely an improvement in relations with my classmates. Credit for this must go to the group work sessions where we were given an excuse to work with and interact with each other under official reasons, from which, the non-official interaction also emerges and strengthens. I think that aids my orientation and involvement to a big extent. I have always had difficulty orientating to new environments due to a fundamental shyness and maybe a hesitation of self-esteem. Maybe after this overseas experience, that characteristic in me can be overcome in some ways.

Finally, in terms of living standards. I have blogged many times on this in previous posts. So, I'll keep in simple here. Life has been good. I really like my place, its views, its centrality, its cleanliness, its space. Watching serials, movies online still continues to be the main avenue of passing time.

On Sunday, I will be flying off to Venice & Paris with my housemate and some friends. We then return to Cardiff on the 20th, where we will spend Christmas together, during which Zhiquan (my RI classmate) will join us too. After Christmas, I will return to where I believe, is the only place to end a year, and start a new one - home.

心烦赏王维

学期即将结束，近日正赶作业，急性征心，无法入眠。故以拿出“诗经”，月下赏王维。中意晚年隐退山田水画诗，读之顿心阔。在此，共你同享。

自《渭川田家》，“斜阳照墟落，穷巷牛羊归。野老念木桶，倚杖候荆扉。”

《辋川闲居赠裴秀才迪》，即“寒山转苍翠，秋水日潺湲。倚杖材门外，临风听暮蝉。渡头余落日，墟里上孤烟。复值接舆醉，狂歌五柳前。”

《酬张少府》，即“晚年惟好静，万事不关心。自顾无长策，空知返旧林。松风吹解带，山月照弹琴。君问穷通理，渔歌入浦深。”

《过香积寺》，即“不知香积寺，数里入云峰。古木无人径，深山何处钟。泉声咽危石，日色冷青松。薄暮空潭曲，安禅制毒龙。”