A Portrait of (the Artist as) a Young Man(’s grief)

My mother was slowly killed, I think, … by years of trouble, and by my cynical frankness of conduct. When I looked on her face as she lay in her coffin — a face grey and wasted with cancer — I understood that I was looking on the face of a victim and I cursed the system which had made her a victim.

-James Joyce, 1904 aged 22, Letters II

—————————————————————-

浮生千山路 The thousand mountain roads of this fleeting life:

浮生千山路

小溪春深處，萬千碧柳蔭，
不記來時路，心托明月，
誰家今夜扁舟子。

長溝流月去，煙樹滿晴川，
獨立人無語，驀然回首，
紅塵猶有未歸人。

[chorus]
春遲遲，燕子天涯，
草萋萋，少年人老，
水悠悠，繁華已過了，
人間咫尺千山路。

小溪春深處，萬千碧柳蔭，
不記來時路，心托明月，
誰家今夜扁舟子。

行到水窮處，坐看雲起時，
涼淨風恬，人間依舊，
細數浮生千萬緒。

[chorus]
春遲遲，燕子天涯，
草萋萋，少年人老，
水悠悠，繁華已過了，
人間咫尺千山路。 x2

The thousand mountain roads of this fleeting life

The small stream at the deepest places during springtime, ten thousand jade willows give shade,
Forgetting the road whence I arrived on, placing my heart upon the full moon,
Whose house tonight a wanderer (prodigal son) still roams on his lonesome boat.

The moon above flowing away upon this long creek below, the trees filling the misty slopes and (reflected in the) clear glassy river,
The lonesome man is wordless, abruptly turning his head back to look,
Fearing there is someone yet to return from the red dust of the world (worldly things/events/relationships).

[chorus]
Spring late so late, the sky-realm of the swallows,
Grass lush so lush, the young man grows old,
The waters leisurely so leisurely (or sadly), the time of flourishing has passed,
The thousand mountain roads of man and world may just be of (may be measured in) feet and inches.

The small stream at the deepest places during springtime, ten thousand jade willows give shade,
Fogetting the road whence I arrived on, placing my heart upon the full moon,
Whose house tonight a wanderer (prodigal son) still roams on his lonesome boat.

Walking to where the waters are shallow (end), sitting down to watch the clouds rise,
A peaceful breeze cools and quietens, the world continues on,
Carefully counting the ten thousand threads of this fleeting life.

[chorus]
Spring late so late, the sky-realm of the swallows,
Grass lush so lush, the young man grows old,
The waters leisurely so leisurely (or sadly), the time of flourishing has passed,
The thousand mountain roads of man and world may just be of (may be measured in) feet and inches. x2

A Taiwanese song from the 1970’s.

The character in the video above (from a recent Taiwanese drama set in the 70s), as a son and father, poignantly portraying the torn emotions of piety and yearning for a homeland and parents he can never return to (the pain for many chinese diaspora, but especially for the Taiwanese, so near yet so far, severed by nation-war-politics). And said the following words to his child: “树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不待”.

树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不待

Trees would like to be still and quiet,
Alas the winds never stop rushing at and assailing them.
Children would like to care for and wait upon their parents,
Alas they are no more.

[Origins of song lyrics below, soon.]
—————————————————————-

Thus Spake Zarathustra

—————————————————————-

[PiPP]

Of Clashes and Renaissances, again and again…and a little sugar

That number one cheerleader for the ‘Asian Renaissance’ is at it again, waving and twirling his poms-poms like an over-enthusiastic high-schooler.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/opinion/12iht-edmahbubani.html

Let me begin with an extreme and provocative point to get the argument going: Francis Fukuyama’s famous essay “The End of History” may have done some serious brain damage to Western minds in the 1990s and beyond.

Mr. Fukuyama should not be blamed for this brain damage. He wrote a subtle, sophisticated and nuanced essay. However, few Western intellectuals read the essay in its entirety. Instead, the only message they took away were two phrases: namely “the end of history” equals “the triumph of the West.”

Western hubris was thick in the air then. I experienced it. For example, in 1991 I heard a senior Belgian official, speaking on behalf of Europe, tell a group of Asians, “The Cold War has ended. There are only two superpowers left: the United States and Europe.”

This hubris also explains how Western minds failed to foresee that instead of the triumph of the West, the 1990s would see the end of Western domination of world history (but not the end of the West) and the return of Asia.

-Kishore Mahbubani

Sigh…not that same old tune again, Kishore.
How many times can one flog that tired and actually dead horse — Fukuyama’s “The End of History” and Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations.

A quicker and definitely more satisfying way to end this tired debate may be for Fukuyama, Huntington (though now deceased) and Mahbubani to climb into an octagon ring and simply duke it out. And of course, with Amartya Sen running in halfway to jump in the melee, all the while proclaiming: “There is NO Asian Values!”

While the esteemed gentlemen engage themselves thus, here is another perspective:

http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/9/1405

[...] the importance of Etzioni’s contributions in identifying the schism as occurring within rather than between civilizations, as Samuel Huntington’s (1996) thesis would have us believe. Although significant for drawing attention to the return of nonmaterial factors to the political sphere, Huntington’s thesis is deeply flawed. It etched a line in the sand that subsequently hardened, and one can validly question the extent to which predictions have become self-fulfilling prophecies. There is now an unhealthy propensity to see all quarrels, big or small, as part of a larger clash of civilizations. Etzioni’s redrawing of the fault line allows for a more accurate assessment of friend and foe and for appropriate strategies to be adopted for each.

-L. Kuok

If I am not mistaken, Ms. Kuok may be a fellow schoolmate from a long time ago. A fair review of the regional dynamics, of unapologetic ‘illiberal moderates’ and some possible touchpoints for policy engagement, but nothing really groundbreaking in the paper actually. Still, an interesting work, especially the portion on Malaysia; considering how the author may be a third generation member of the Asia Sugar King’s clan and its fortunes.

Conjoint Measurement Part II: Iconic Rhetoric

[PiP]

Conjoint Measurement Part I: Risk Arbitrage

[PiP]

Morpheme Morphology, Syntactically Speaking

[PiP]

大地的箫声 The flute-sounds of the great earth

[PiP]-[Post in Progress]

知音 — one who grasps your rhythm

After the previous posting of the classical chinese music of the 《十面埋伏》 / Ambush from All Sides from the 中国十大古曲, think I would be remiss not to mention one of the more celebrated pieces of music from that top ten list — the enduring symbol of classical chinese culture and art, the 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water.

《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water

This version of the 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water (performed on the guzheng/古筝, one of the many variations), dates from a popular score from the Ming-era.
And the music of the 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water alludes to the master qin(琴) musician Bo-Ya(伯牙), a legendary figure of the Spring and Autumn Period mentioned in various historical records.

And it was the following sublime description in the Taoist classic, 列子(LieZi), which left Bo-Ya, his mountains and water (AND the idea of the perfect audience) deeply engrained within the psyche of chinese culture, art and thought:

伯牙善鼓琴，钟子期善听。伯牙鼓琴，志在高山。钟子期曰：“善哉？峨峨兮若泰山！”志在流水，钟子期曰：“善哉，洋洋兮若江河！”伯牙所念，钟子期必得之。伯牙游于泰山之阴，卒逢暴雨，止于岩下；心悲，乃援琴而鼓之。初为霖雨之操，更造崩山之音。曲每奏，钟子期辄穷其趣。伯牙乃舍琴而叹曰：“善哉，善哉，子之听夫！志想象犹吾心也。吾于何逃声哉？”

Bo-Ya is talented at playing the qin (classical zither), Zhong-Ziqi is gifted at perceptive listening. When Bo-Ya plays with his heart set upon the high mountains, Zhong-Ziqi responds:”Wonderful! Such great heights, like Tai-shan!”. When Bo-Ya plays with his heart set upon flowing waters, Zhong-Ziqi exclaims:”Marvellous! The rolling of the waves, like a mighty river!”. Whatever Bo-Ya sets his will upon, Zhong-Ziqi is sure to perceive completely.
Once, when Bo-Ya was roaming the north face of Tai-shan, he met with a sudden monsoon, and took shelter beneath a rocky outcrop; his heart filling with melancholy, he began playing on his qin. Starting with the music of heavy sheets of torrential rain and bursting streams, next with the sounds of the breaking and tumbling rocks of an avalanche. With every tune played, Zhong-Ziqi was able to trace to the root its true essence. Bo-Ya put his qin down and sighed:”How very well you listen to music! Whatever you apprehend and imagine is exactly what I intended! What sound from my qin can escape your ear?”.

-from the LieZi/列子

The stories of Bo-Ya has him as a child prodigy who learnt his art with a famous qin master. But the young Bo-Ya was dissatisfied with his skills and felt that he was unable to truly enter into his music and portray every nuance and emotion there was to be expressed. His old master, knowing his intentions, brought him by boat to the immortal island of Penglai/蓬莱 (sort of the Chinese Atlantis); where Bo-Ya imbibed into his music the natural and harmonious landscapes of the fierce battling sea waves, the rolling and calling of the sea-birds, the rustling and sighing of the trees and leaves of the forests…and raised his art to the highest sublime level.

But the twist in Bo-Ya’s story is that, his one perfect audience who truly understood and appreciated his music, Zhong-Ziqi, was not a musician or artist or indeed, a sophisticate. Zhong-Ziqi was a simple and rustic lumberjack who chanced upon Bo-Ya playing his qin after a violent storm and who grasped within Bo-Ya’s music his expressions of nature experienced.

Alas, the best stories have bittersweet endings.
After celebrating his meeting with his one true appreciative listener, Bo-Ya arranged to meet with Zhong-Ziqi at the same place the folowing year. When the appointed time came, Bo-Ya arrived at the venue but waited in vain; discovering later that Zhong-Ziqi had died of an illness in the past year. Coming before Zhong-Ziqi’s grave, the devastated Bo-Ya knelt before his qin and started playing his 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water…for the last time. At the end of the tune, the weeping Bo-Ya uttered:
“从此知音绝矣! (Henceforth, the one who understands my rhythm is no more!)”,
shattered his qin against the tombstone, and never played again.

In the end, the master practitioner/artist, rather than performing for multitudes, needs only that one true 知音 — the soulmate who grasps his intention-rhythm.

Slowhands

This ancient Chinese music is considered as one of the ten foremost pieces of classical music (中国十大古曲) whose exact origins are lost but have been major influences in Chinese culture through the centuries.

The 《十面埋伏》 or “Ambush from All Sides”, depicts the final titanic battle between 项羽/XiangYu of Chu and 刘邦/LiuPang of Han. The erstwhile victorious but now desperate 项羽/XiangYu fails to break the iron grip of the tightening manoeuvre employed by 刘邦/LiuPang (whose forces had been constantly on the backfoot in earlier engagements); and thus finally, the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.) was born.

Generations later, a Ming dynasty music historian was to describe the music of 《十面埋伏》 / Ambush from All Sides, as possessing such vivid battlefield images:

当其两军决战时，声动天地，屋瓦若飞坠。徐而察之，有金鼓声、剑弩声、人马声……使闻者始而奋，继而恐，涕泣无从也。其感人如此。

As the two armies engaged in combat, the clash resounds from heaven to earth, and the tiles on roofs crumbles into flying dust. Probing(listening) deeper still, there is the sound of golden drums, of swords and crossbows, of men and horses… … It causes the hearer to begin with excitement, to continue with fear, and to weep without end. It is truly moving.

Chinese pipa solo: 《十面埋伏》 Ambush from All Sides
[劉德海/Liu DeHai 1970]

(This 7min clip is worth going through. The tune gathers pace and gets faster and faster almost without letting up until the amazing breathless end. His hands simply becomes a blur.)

Another amazing slowhand:

Jimi Hendrix – Fire

Technical and Quantitative Equivalence…& Myopia

… consider the following statement that might be found in a typical technician’s newsletter:

The presence of clearly identified support and resistance levels, coupled with a one-third retracement parameter when prices lie between them, suggests the presence of strong buying and selling opportunities in the near-term.

… Contrast the above with the following statement which might be found in an academic finance journal publication:

The magnitudes and decay pattern of the first twelve autocorrelations and the statistical significance of the Box-Pierce Q-statistic suggest the presence of a high-frequency predictable component in stock returns.

Both statements are, in fact, saying the same thing: using historical prices, one can predict future prices to some extent in the short run. But because the two statements are so laden with jargon, the type of response they elicit depends very much on the individual reading them. [...] because the semantic differences are so great, the authors of the two statements will probably never see how they might both have benefited from each other’s insights.

-Andrew Lo, “The Heretics of Finance”

Andrew Lo is such a hoot.

[Lo have used these hypothetical statements before in earlier papers to illustrate linguistic gaps and cognitive capture.
]

Perturbed Identities & a Love Letter

Nina Power recently wrote of receiving intriguing “dispatches from another world” in her post — yet another identity crisis. Bemusingly, my emailed comment was added to the original post.

My comment reads:

Your last post, wondering about the unsolicited yet fascinating “dispatches from another world”, reminds me of Shunji Iwai’s 1995 film “Love Letter”. A tale of perturbed identities, a little pseudo-Gettier, time-conjoined doppelgangers, hope and grief, and of course, love.

This would be a good chance to sneak in one of my favourite films from the 90’s (part of the indelible impressions from the growing years), which features doubles within doubles (a pair of look-alikes plus a pair of same-names).

In Love Letter, Miho Nakayama plays two roles in the film, where as the petite and kooky Itsuki Fujii with her short-cropped hair and laidback/bookish/artistic je ne sais quoi, she was so endearing…

Miho_Nakayama_as_Itsuki_Fujii_petiteshortcroppedhair

Difficult not to like this film, with its doubly star-crossed twists of fate in names and likenesses, muted yearnings translated into enduring puzzles hidden within books and libraries, silent photographs joining with unknowing memories to finally reveal the most precious and tender of emotions…

A very well-done music video of the film:
Love Letter MV

The synopsis:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/love_letter.htm

Film Trailer:
Love Letter Trailer