random pieces of information

Soybeans represent the US’ single-biggest export to China: $9.19 billion in 2009, topping the combined value of semiconductors and plastic materials, U.S. data show. (Source: I’ve forgotten)

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In America, one might call one’s professor “Professor So-and-so” in the beginning, but as the relationship grows closer, one might start using the Professor’s first name. (Source: My Japanese textbook)

(I didn’t know that!)

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All blue-eyed people are mutants. The first blue-eyed human only appeared about 5,000 years ago. (Source: QIkipedia)

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China has 446 million pigs – more than the next 43 pork-producing countries combined – and consumes half of the world’s pork each year.

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Night shots with the Canon Powershot S95

Can I express how happy I am with my Canon Powershot S95?

Apart from the fact that it has some awesome effects (check out more photos here), it is absolutely great for taking night shots if you’re like me – lazy to bring a tripod, too clueless to operate manual settings and too weak to carry around a big bulky camera.

For example - Munich’s Glockenspiel in winter when it was already nearly dark:

This was when it was already pitch-black:

See how beautifully the camera catches the available light from the surroundings?

Or take the Berlin Bundestag at night, taken with only my hands held up in front of my face:

Berlin, by the way, is a very poorly lit city. To give an idea – below you see just one dim (trust me, it was) street lamp; there are no others nearby. Yet the camera is able to pull out what little available light there is to brighten the entire image. And with so little noise as well!

Yayoiken, Singapore

I was happy when I saw Yayoiken the other day at the basement of Liang Court outside Medi-ya, as there was one branch near where I lived in Osaka – I would go there occasionally when I didn’t feel like cooking, wanted some rice and didn’t want a combini or supermarket bento.

And when I saw the prices, I got really excited as their fish items were way cheaper than that of Otoya’s (which is actually cheap in Japan; cheaper than Yayoiken).

I returned on Thursday and was surprised to find myself needing to queue for a table at 7pm. Seems like word spreads fast – who the hell goes to Liang Court? – and that Singaporeans really love their Japanese food.

We ordered the Tonkatsu set and Saba Miso set, both of which I didn’t try:

I had the Miso Katsu set ($13.90) – I loved the runny egg yolk and the potatoes - which had the nice ‘skin’ you get on the surface of potatoes when they’re roasted right. The miso wasn’t too salty and was good with rice, although the spinach did look a bit pathetic.

We also ordered a Saba Shio Yaki (ala carte $6.90, set $9.90). To me, an indication of whether a Japanese place is good is if they can grill their saba to perfection – moist and juicy meat (not dry like so many Japanese restaurants here, e.g Shinkushiya), crisp skin and just the right amount of saltiness. Yayoiken had good saba in Japan, and it’s just as good in Singapore. 

At only $9.90 for the set, the saba at Yayoiken is half the price of that at Otoya – a very good deal. Granted, the saba at Otoya is of higher quality (oilier and more tender flesh) but there’s absolutely nothing to complain about Yayoiken’s saba – it’s good on the tastebuds and good on the wallet.

Japanese family restaurants like Otoya and Yayoiken are meant to provide hearty, wholesome meals at a low cost and with minimal fuss anyway, so Yayoiken gives exactly that feel. In fact, it kinda reminds me of how it used to be like eating there in Japan, so that’s a plus for me – Otoya didn’t exist in Kansai :)

‘ HK citizen’ identity strongest in 10 years

From today's South China Morning Post. I found this significant, as despite increasing economic integration I think HK is still quite different from China. That and the fact that I was once rebutted, with the other party saying that Hongkongers increasingly view themselves as being PRC-Chinese.

Despite increasing economic integration, locals are viewing themselves more strongly as Hongkongers rather than Chinese citizens than at any time in the past decade, a survey has found.

The poll asked 1,016 city residents to rank the strength of their feelings as “Hong Kong citizens” on a scale from zero to 10, and found an average rating of 8.23 points, a 10- year high.

Asked the same question about their identity as “Chinese citizens”, the average rating was 7.01 points, a 12- year low. The poll was conducted from December 12- 20.

The University of Hong Kong’s public opinion programme has conducted such surveys from time to time since the 1997 handover.

Dr Robert Chung Ting- yiu, the programme’s director, said: “This [ trend] is contrary to the [ direction of] China’s economic development in recent years, so it must be due to factors beyond economic development.” But he stopped short of speculating about the reasons behind the fluctuations in these figures.

The pollsters combined all the survey results into an identity index on a scale from zero to 100. City residents’ strongest feelings of identity are as “Hong Kong citizens”, at 79.1 points, followed by “members of the Chinese race” at 72.5 points.

Then came “Asians”, at 72.1 points; “Chinese citizens”, at 67.9 points; “global citizens”, at 67 points; and finally “citizens of the People’s Republic of China”, at 61.1 points.

“The feeling of being ‘ citizens of the PRC’ was the weakest among all identities tested,” Chung said.

Dr Leung Hon- chu, principal lecturer at Baptist University’s sociology department, said some recent issues might have discouraged Hongkongers from identifying themselves as Chinese citizens.

He cited the vote- rigging scandal following Hong Kong’s recent district council
elections, allegedly linked to the central government’s influence in local affairs; and Beijing’s crackdown on dissidents such as artist- activist Ai Weiwei. The controversial security arrangements during Vice- Premier Li Keqiang’s visit in August could also have affected Hongkongers’ impressions of the mainland, he said.

“The sense of identity is not determined by the economic growth [ of a place]. Rather, it is related to whether they feel engaged in or contributing to the development [ of society as a whole],” Leung said.

“The narrowing of the difference between Hong Kong and the mainland in the political and cultural arenas may prompt fear among locals that democracy and human rights, honoured in the city, could be weakened,” he added.

Political scientist Dr James Sung Lap- kung said the weakening local sense of a “Chinese citizen” identity could be tied to a wide range of factors to do with China’s diplomatic relations as well as social and economic developments.

The recent Wukan protest over confiscated farmland, and demonstrations over a proposed power plant in Haimen , Guangdong, could have affected Hongkongers, Sung said. The small- circle chief executive election might also weaken people’s sense of engagement, making them believe Beijing was exerting its influence over the city, he said.

Moving back…

My first post on my Tumblr was on 25th October – exactly 2 months later, I’m sort of moving back here.

The 2 months seemed like way longer actually – there’ve been lots of posts, and many things have happened between then and now. I didn’t expect it to be so short-lived either, although to be fair I’m not abandoning Tumblr totally. Tumblr is great for pictures, and there are people out there who post awesome stuff – I’m following them, and will continue to do so.

Unfortunately, while Tumblr has great design and some good features – I especially like the “post to Twitter” function - there are a few fundamental aspects about Tumblr which are lacking. First, I can’t even search among my posts. Searching based on the post content doesn’t work, while searching among the tags gives me ALL the posts by everyone with those tags. There’s no way to limit the search at all. Second, Tumblr is so exclusive and people have to join Tumblr before any form of interaction can take place – even then, it’s limited to ‘liking’ and ‘reblogging’. What happened to the very simple option of commenting on something? Third, there’s a throve of information on Tumblr, which isn’t really picked up by search engines – which is a pity cos there’s some great stuff out there.

For all those reasons, I think I’m moving back here. I’ll continue to post pictures etc on Tumblr, but I think I’ll do longer posts here. We shall see, at any rate!