Tuesday, October 30, 2018

「承受清風」— 宗教遇上科學


小弟有幸在演讀劇場「承受清風」中飾演兩個小配角1,在享受演讀的樂趣之餘,也乘機從所飾演的角色中細味人生和反思劇本帶出的意義。「承受清風」的劇情2是建構於上世紀初傳統宗教與科學之間的矛盾,一位教師由於講授達爾文的進化論,間接否定了聖經創世紀對世界和人類起源的描述,遭田納西州州政府起訴,引發一場轟動美國的法律訴訟,全劇的主線透過控辯兩方律師的精彩辯論,道出人雖然擁有與生俱來的思考自由,但往往受制於社會傳統觀念,加上自我規範和約束(例如法例、習俗),無法衝破禁錮思想的樊籠。

其實,宗教與科學並無矛盾之處,問題在於解讀的方式。聖經是二千多年前寫下的,而舊約聖經的文學體裁是寓言體3,並非對事實的陳述,重點是它的信仰和道理。以寓言體寫成的宗教著作當然不能與科學相提並論,而且,舊約聖經是根據當時(二千多年前)的社會環境和民眾的知識水平及接受程度而寫成,絕對不能用現代的科學邏輯來解讀。伊索寓言中的動物真的會說話嗎?創世紀旨於建立「神」作為萬物的主宰的基本信仰,要理解創世紀就不能是純粹從字面去解讀。劇中也多次強調不能用聖經的「每一個字」來與科學對比,字面的「一日」也可以寓意為千萬年!

每個年代都有既定的一套價值觀和道德觀,「承受清風」就正正說明了這一點。在上世紀初,宣揚達爾文的學說乃係離經叛道的行為,劇中的法庭代表了那個年代的道德觀念和法治標準,法官拒絕科學家作供,被告最終也毫無懸念的被判罪名成立。在法律面前,代表當時的既有習俗、觀念和制度的一方是順理成章的獲勝。把「承受清風」投射到今天的香港社會,我們的思想同樣被現行的觀念和政治尺度所箝制,新的觀念或政治主張,縱然在目前被否定,甚至被打壓,但誰能估計,數十年後這些觀念和主張會否變成理所當然,為大部份人所接受?大家可拭目以待!


2018年10月31日


________________________1 演讀劇場「承受清風」2 Inherit the Wind (Play) — Wikipedia3 寓言 — Wikipedia

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

How network science assesses Hong Kong's high speed railway?


On September 23, 2018, Hong Kong celebrated the opening of its high speed railway that has been described by government officials as the most beneficial infrastructure project for Hong Kong.1 The $11 billion dollar project indeed provides an alternative mode of travel to major cities in the Chinese Mainland, and according to the government's prediction is expected to hit a daily passenger volume of 80,000 (which was recently downward adjusted). The question, however, is whether it really justifies the huge construction cost and the subsequent expensive maintenance cost.

Network science, a rapidly growing discipline in physics and mathematics, may shed light on the pros and cons of Hong Kong's high speed railway as a means for connecting with the rest of China. A railway system is a network, which is characterized by a set of so-called nodes connected by links. For a railway network, a station is a node, and its importance may be measured by a few parameters, among which the "degree" of a node is often used to assess its connectivity. In non-technical terms, the "degree" of a station is just the number of other stations it connects immediately with. A high-degree station is what we normally refer to as a hub, like Shinjuku in Tokyo, King's Cross St Pancras in London, or Wuhan in China. Obviously, a hub will always attract a large volume of traffic as it radiates and connects to multiple nodes. In a railway network, the majority of nodes has a degree of two, connecting only two neighboring nodes. A few, however, has a high degree.

According to the latest railway map2,

  • Degree of Guangzhou = 7 (double links counted as 2)

  • Degree of Shenzhen = 5

  • Degree of Hong Kong = ?


How about Hong Kong? It has the least degree, i.e.,
one, as it is situated at the end of a line. Unless such a node has other fundamental attributes that make it more important than others, it cannot be an important node from the network's point of view. In network science, the so-called weight of a node may make it more important, like the points-of-interest, population size, social activities, financial activities, etc. Hong Kong, being a Special Administrative Region, may have a heavier weight, but the Hong Kong high-speed railway station is topologically a terminal node and can never serve to connect others. This remains a fundamental constraint, unlike Hong Kong's airport which has been developed to be a hub. The key point is that the railway system, restricted by topology, cannot allow any station to develop into a hub if it was not designed for such a function.

Hong Kong is a one-degree node connecting permanently with an intermediate Futian station which then connects to Shenzhen North station, and that's it. Theoretically, the topological efficiency (node's) is also inherently low as it is located on one single route and right at its terminal. Other network attributes will also consistently rate Hong Kong's station as a less important node, e.g., the so-called betweenness centrality that reflects a node's ability of carrying passengers through it from various possible itineraries.

Hong Kong as a terminal station in the high-speed rail system is an inherently unimportant node. The high-speed railway is expected to play a very limited role as a means of transportation. Simply put, it connects only to Shenzhen, through which to other nodes serially (along one-dimensional lines). Under the current topological constraints (i.e., HKSAR being a boundary point, without through traffic), Hong Kong's high-speed rail has no room for further development. A literal dead-end so to speak!

September 26, 2018

Monday, August 13, 2018

Three Treasures from the Treasure Island 寶島三寶

If I have to pick the best three things from Taiwan, I would say in less than a blink of an eye:

  • Sunny Hill's pineapple cakes (微熱山丘鳳梨酥) 1 ;

  • Ali Shan's Zhuowu coffee (阿里山卓武咖啡) 2 ;

  • Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask Whisky (噶瑪蘭單一麥芽雪莉桶威士忌).


Sunny Hill's Pineapple Cakes


The pineapple cakes from Sunny Hill are unconventional and full of surprise. First, they are not compliant with traditional geometry, being rectangular rather than square in shape. The golden crust shell is like an elegant jewellery box that makes you feel curious of its content. The real surprise comes when you take a hard bite into the filling. Unlike all other pineapple cakes which are basically sweet winter melon fillings, this Sunny Hill specialty is absolutely pineapple! A sourish and fresh taste of pineapple emerges from the firm but not stiff pastry shell and gets punched up by the subtle buttery crust. Absolutely the best pineapple cake!


Zhuowo Coffee


The popular Taiwanese folk song "young ladies from Ali Shan are as tender as water, and young men from Ali Shan are as strong as mountain" is the best description for Zhuowu coffee from the Ali Shan region. This single-origin coffee demonstrates both tenderness and strength. Drinking Zhuowu coffee is a totally different kind of coffee experience. You don't even expect an aggressive aroma filling the pantry while the brewing is done. The first sip of a carefully dripped Zhuowu coffee is mild and tender like Chinese tea, but the strength gradually comes toward the end of the cup, and its amazing earthy scented aftertaste punches through your palate and gets registered in your mind! Absolutely unforgettable!


Kavalan Whisky


Kavalan, or "Gemalan" (噶瑪蘭) as pronounced by the local people, is the aboriginal name for Yilan (宜蘭). Accessibility to the superb quality spring water from the Central Mountain (中央山脈) and the Snowy Mountain Range (雪山山脈) is one of the key factors for Kavalan's success in whisky making. The seriously made single malt whisky matured in Sherry Cask has a distinctive dark color and fantastic smell of lychee, mango, cinnamon and berries! I usually prefer smelling whisky than drinking it because the strong alcohol kick always overpowers and somewhat counteracts the smelling pleasure. But this Kavalan whisky is a rather different breed. It gives the nose and mouth the right balance of fruitiness, spice and alcohol. An utterly delicious whisky!


August 14, 2018

______________ 

References:1 Sunny Hill's pineapple cakes in Hong Kong(CitySuper, Shop 3001, Level 3, Harbour City)2 Review of Zhuowu coffee3 Special thanks to Mr Lance Chan of Cafe Solé at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區), Taipei, for introducing Zhuowu coffee to me.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Can nouveau riche sustain iPhone's success in China?

The Apple iPhone has always been the most expensive smartphone in the market. Last year, its price shot up to USD 999. Before the launch of iPhone X in September last year, market analysts were highly skeptical about the sales of this expensive product, especially in the China market. That's common sense! Who would buy a smartphone which is literally 5 times more expensive than a reasonably performing competing product? The reality, however, proved all analysts wrong!

Apple iPhones still topped all smartphones in China in terms of sales revenue, though it ranked fifth in terms of quantity sold, behind Huawei, OPPO, VIVO and Xiaomi. Obviously, Apple earned more money than any of its competitors because its products were a lot more expensive. From the viewpoint of strategy, Apple has obviously been super successful in positioning itself above its competitors, and as long as it remains superior in the hearts of its fans, it will continue to succeed. The point is that, unlike its Chinese counterparts, Apple never aims to sell more at cheap price. Instead, Apple sells less but at a much much higher price!

The China market is clearly highly uneven and plagued by upstart mentality. As long as there are enough nouveau riche who love Apple because it's not cheap, Apple can continue to shoot up prices to offset the shrinking market share1. Apple has already verified this strategy in 2017. Should Tim Cook see the intensifying upstart mentality of Chinese fans, iPhone prices will continue to escalate. Of course, the more rational global market would disrupt this strategy to some extent. The question is where and when an equilibrium be reached under the influence of the highly skewed China market.


August 9, 2018

_______________ References:

1 Apple grew 32% YoY in China's shrinking phone market due to "strong performance of iPhone X"Daniel Eran Dilger (April 2018)

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Misconceptions of Putonghua and Cantonese

The continual use of Cantonese in Hong Kong, especially as a medium of instruction in schools, has recently been a subject of much concern among scholars, educationists, and advocates of the local dialect. A few non-Cantonese speaking scholars have made frequent comments on the historical role and status of Cantonese as well as published quasi-academic articles on the subject of Chinese language and its evolution1. While the obvious intention of these comments and publications was just to promote the use of Putonghua in Hong Kong, the approach taken was unnecessarily curvy, and to some extent naive! In fact, the use of Putonghua for convenience of communication is hardly disputable and actually has been very well received in Hong Kong. The negative reaction from local communities has nothing to do with the use of Putonghua. Instead the objection focuses on the poorly fabricated theory that Putonghua is the legitimate Han language (漢語) while Cantonese is an insignificant dialect2. So, a good intention ended up with unexpected backlash. The truth is that Putonghua (or Mandarin as its predecessor) was never the legitimate Han language, and like Cantonese, it was a dialect!

Brief History

For a long long time, people in different parts of China spoke their own dialects, and most actually had their own written forms as well, like Cantonese. In Hong Kong today, we still speak and "write" Cantonese. In China, before 1880s, the official written form was the Classical Chinese (文言文), which was mainly used in scholastic works, literary works, government papers, and transactions in the imperial court. Classical Chinese was learned by scholars and upper classes. The general literate public, however, did not normally have a high proficiency of using Classical Chinese, but they used the colloquial languages in most commercial and social communications. In fact, the Bible had a complete Chinese translation which was written in Cantonese, published in around 1860 by European missionaries. Change in the status of Classical Chinese began around 1880 when the Qing government faced military challenges from foreign countries. From around 1880 to 1910, blaming the conservative language and Confucius thinking as a hindrance to China's advancement, some academics and government officials began advocating the use of "people's language" to boost literacy and make China more advanced in technology. Mandarin, which was the dialect or colloquial language used in the northeast and pretty much also in the capital (Beijing), was being advocated to replace Classical Chinese as an official written form (書面語). Unofficial source reveals that even Emperor Guangxu (光緒皇帝) would appreciate his ministers addressing him "Dear Emperor" (親愛的皇上) in official court communications. Interestingly, scholars at that time used the term vernacular language (白話文) to describe this new written form.



China's painful defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (甲午戰爭) in 1894 was the turning point of the shift of the language paradigm in China. The end of this war heralded a new era for the popular use of Vernacular Mandarin as the official written and spoken language in China. Then, the May Fourth Movement in 1919 further accelerated it, and with the effort of scholars led by Hu Shi (胡適), Vernacular Mandarin 白話文 as the official Chinese 書面語 had become firmly established. It is worth noting that Mandarin was a dialect and made official. So, it is obviously incorrect to say that Mandarin is the legitimate Han language. While "拉肚子" (diarrhoea) is a proper expression in Mandarin, "肚疴" is also very proper in Cantonese. They are all dialects!

After the fall of Qing Dynasty, while much of China's northern regions had made Mandarin the popular written language, most areas in southern China remained unaffected, and continued to use Cantonese, Hokkien, Chiu Chow, etc., in both verbal and written communications. Then, 1956 was the turning point when the communist party began wiping out dialects and enforced the compulsory use of Mandarin, which is now called Putonghua (普通話, literally the general language). Thus, since 1956, the southern part of China, including Canton, also adopted Putonghua under the nation-wide enforcement of a unified language policy. Hong Kong, which was under British rule, was not affected by China's enforcement of the use of Putonghua, and in fact Hong Kong continued to use Cantonese and even developed its own language culture based on Cantonese. (It is worth noting that Putonghua is not exactly Mandarin and was created by the communist party based on Mandarin.)

Putonghua ≠ Chinese

The above brief account of history has clearly gainsaid any theory that puts an equal sign between Mandarin and Chinese. Promoting the use of Putonghua is nothing controversial, but fabricating a reason based on equating Putonghua to Chinese and denying Cantonese as a Chinese language is counterproductive. If it is a policy to be enforced, it will surely go down much more smoothly by presenting the advantages of the use of a unified medium rather than by twisting logic and distorting history. In fact I do support the use of Putonghua for convenience of communication with the rest of China, but I do not see any conflict in preserving a language or dialect which has such rich cultural and historical values. In terms of linguistic values, Cantonese retains many ancient usages and pronunciations and has a much wider range of acoustic properties, and hence is a fantastic medium through which to study our own history.

August 1, 2018


________________  References:

1 淺論香港普通話教育的性質與發展 — 宋欣橋 (發於香港教育局小學普通話課程配套資料網站)2 《視點31》母語爭議 (RTHK31:08/05/2018) (From this TV interview program, we clearly see how shallow a HKU education scholar can be in his understanding of the mother tongue of Hong Kong people. His misunderstanding presumably is not uncommon among mainland scholars.)

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