I like!

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.

Translation:

Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing more;
wanderer, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.

(part of a poem by Spanish poet Antonio Machado, credited to a posting by biaxident)

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It’s the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights
that anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe that Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.

(Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert, credited to a posting by asia_nik)

=D

It’s still an unknown yet. Just check back!

Not very impressive I know, considering that bloggers usually write a couple of entries in a week. What can I say? I’ve just been too caught up with trying to get enough sleep to write. Disgusting, right? How can someone who really wants to become a writer say such things? Sleep over writing?

But yes it’s true! I’m kinda ashamed to admit this but basically my life, for the past year (i’ve been working full-time for about a year now), have been pretty much a routine. Do you really require me to go into the details of my daily routine? Yep, I guessed your answer.

So did I have an epiphany? Was my calling tugging my heart? Why did I disrupt my routine of sleeping before 12am tonight?

Well, I was showering, after a hard day’s work – I did some grocery shopping, some cooking and some cleaning! – when I realised that I hadn’t written an entry for a long time. No, actually, I realised that several days ago but I was too lazy to do anything about it. Just now, I decided that if I am to progress as a writer, I must continue writing. Write compulsively. Obsessively. About anything, anyone, and anywhere. That’s how you train yourself to become a better writer!

Here, two quotes come to mind.

1. I dunno if it was Confucious, or Lao Zi or Zhuangzi or another ancient Chinese philosopher who said it, but I remembered a quote from my daily travelling on the MRT, that goes like “It does not matter how slowly one goes, as long as one does not stop”. Very true, and very do-able for someone like me. (Off-topic, this quote reminds me of what my Kendo sensei had once said before, back when I was in university.)

2. This quote I can type it out verbatim, cos the motivational poster is hanging above my desk. Well it was, but now it’s on the ground cos the blu-tack holding it in place has turned hard. Superimposed on a pretty picture of a forest road, the message on the poster says, “Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is, had to begin where he was.” Quite a good encouraging message, don’t you think? But I had thought that it wasn’t all true, cos there were some people whose starting positions were alot elevated than some of us, simply by virtue of their background. So…don’t put your faith in the motivational books and posters that fill shelves after shelves in the book store. Put it in yourself!

Ah, I have already taken the first step to achieving my goal as a better writer, yes? I think I can go to bed now. Any more words in this entry and it will be out of place and unnecessary. Like the ancient Chinese saying goes, “painting legs on a snake”…okay I’m shutting up. =)

Well….Life, actually. I was busy trying to live my life. I’ve gotten into a routine over these last few months. When I finally realised that hey I should reflect on my situation and slow down, I found that I was unhappy.

You know the quote “slow down to smell the flowers”? Well, I’ve finally understood it. I need to reserve some time for myself, to be alone and to think, or simply just to sit at home and do nothing.

Like butter stretched too thinly over bread, I feel drained and unsatisfied.

So I shall cast away all worries and simply relax. Blog, listen to music, watch MTV, read, snack… I will do all these over the long weekend!

So for a start, I shall make a list of my favourite quotes.

1. Not all who wander are lost. – J.R.R.Tolkien

2. Seldom do people discern, eloquence under a threadbare cloak. – Juvenal

3. There are no facts, only interpretations. – Nietzche

4. A house doesn’t make a home. – U2

5. There’s no smile of an angel without the wrath of God. – H.I.M

6. La liberte n’a pas de prix. – ?

7.  Never trust the teller, trust the tale. – ?

8. When he took time to help the man up the mountain, lo, he scaled it himself. – Tibetan proverb

9. God does not play dice. – Albert Einstein

10. Religion is the opium of the masses. – Karl Marx

11. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. – Aristotle

12. I think, therefore I am. – Decartes

13. Eat Slugs! – Ron Weasley

14. Look at that map. All the green is Indonesia. And that red dot is Singapore. – B.J.Habibie

15. To perceive is to suffer. – Aristotle

16. If you should die before me, ask if you could bring a friend. – Stone Temple Pilot

17. All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. – William Shakespeare

18. I can resist anything but temptation. – Oscar Wilde.

19. . -The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy. – Alfred North Whitehead.

20. The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money. – Mark Twain.

Ok, that’s it so far.

I think it’s something to do with the universe. All the things that are disturbing but that you have forgotten are floating around in the universe, and once in a while, they permeate the air around you, into your heart and make you feel like this.

suddenly something has happened to me

as I was having my cup of tea

suddenly I was feeling depressed

I was utterly and totally stressed

- The Cranberries

SLOW DANCE
慢舞

Have you ever watched kids
你是否曾关注过孩子们
On a merry-go-round?
在旋转木马上玩耍？
Or listened to the rain
或聆听着雨点
Slapping on the ground?
敲落在大地上？

Ever followed a butterfly’s
你是否跟着一只蝴蝶
erratic flight?
漫无目标的飞旅过？
Or gazed at the sun into the
或凝视着太阳直到她
fading night?
消失在夜幕之中？
You better slow down.
你最好放慢一点。
Don’t dance so fast.
别跳得太快。
Time is short.
时光短暂。
The music won’t last.
这美妙的乐曲不会无休止的奏下去。

Do you run through each day
你是否如同奔命一般
On the fly?
过着每一天？
When you ask How are you?
当你在问：你好吗？
Do you hear the reply?
你是否听到了对方的回答？

When the day is done!
当一天结束！
Do you lie in your bed
你躺在你的床上
With the next hundred chores
是否被下一百个琐碎的杂事
Running through your head?
在你的脑海里给折腾得翻江倒海？
You’d better slow down
你最好放慢一点
Don’t dance so fast.
别跳得太快。
Time is short.
时光短暂。
The music won’t last.
这美妙的乐曲不会无休止的奏下去。

Ever told your child,
你是否曾告诉过你的孩子，
We’ll do it tomorrow?
有什么事我们明天再做？
And in your haste,
在你这匆忙的敷衍中，
Not see his （her）sorrow?
却忽视了她（他）的悲哀？
Ever lost touch,
你是否因失去了联系，
Let a good friendship die
而让一个真正的友谊而死去
Cause you never had time
因为你没有时间
To call and say,”Hi！”
打个电话或问声“你好！”
You’d better slow down.
你最好放慢一点。
Don’t dance so fast.
别跳得太快。
Time is short.
时光太短。
The music won’t last.
这美妙的乐曲不会无休止地奏下去。

When you run so fast to
当你匆忙地赶向
get somewhere
你的目距地
You miss half the fun
你失去的将是人生旅程中
of getting there.
一半真正的快乐。

When you worry and hurry
当你带着繁忙的懊恼
through your day,
结束你的每一天，
It is like an unopened gift…
这就像把一件还没有打开的珍贵礼物…
Thrown away.
丢弃。
Life is not a race.
生活不是竞赛。
Do take it slower
请放慢一点
Hear the music
聆听这美妙的音乐
Before the song is over……
在这歌声结束前不要中断……

Apparently, this poem was written by a cancer-stricken teenager in New York.

Things that Go Bump in the Night
How freaky flicks are expressing our Asianness

Asia has seen unprecedented change in its socio-cultural as lifestyles and traditions cultivated over centuries have given way to modern living. Each generation is seemingly drawn ever deeper into our brave new globalised world structured by rationality and technology. Yet the heritage of folk-tales and superstitions lingers, and every year millions of Asians are being terrified by ghosts and other ghoulish creatures – from the comfort of plush chairs in air-conditioned theatres.

Japanese and Korean horror movies, along with Hong Kong’s offerings, dominate the genre in the region. They are widely traded between countries, and in recent years, two multinational anthologies, Three and Three Extremes, have showcased Japanese, Korean, Thai and Hong Kong horror filmmaking. It is far from being a niche market: in Korea alone, eight horror films were released last summer.

Despite decades of modernisation and secular development, people are still equally spooked and fascinated by the supernatural – and they even don’t mind paying for it. Why do we seek such frightening entertainment – when the only reward is leaving the cinema with your heart pounding? We investigate the region’s long obsession with horror and pay tribute to some of Asia’s horror classics. There is much value in horror, if we dare to look closely enough.

A long, torturous history

Convictions concerning the supernatural in countries like Japan, Korea and Hong Kong are rooted in their native religions, or more accurately, belief systems, with Shinto in Japan, Taoism in Hong Kong, and in Korea, traditional shamanism. Such beliefs are preserved in both written and oral literature through Japanese kaidan (often understood as “scary story”), which dates back to the Edo period; Korean traditional folktales; and the extensive Liaozhai Zhiyi (which translates as “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”), containing nearly 500 supernatural tales written during the early Qing dynasty.

If you’re familiar with the disturbingly pale, longhaired apparition clad in white robes, that’s because there’s a cultural reason for the female ghost being a common image. Japan shares with its Chinese and Korean neighbours a deeply entrenched patriarchal social structure where men are privileged more than women. According to Miike Takashi, director of Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call, 2003), the suppressed woman has long been a symbol of Japanese society. In such horror films, these women, abused by men, return as onryō (a Japanese ghost who return to the physical world to seek vengeance) to exact revenge on their tormentors, an exquisite play on the fears of male-dominated Japanese society.

But the feminism aspects are only half the story. An overarching emphasis is on the need to preserve a harmonious cause and effect cycle, a philosophy derived from Buddhism, which reached China in around 100 BC and later spread to Korea and Japan. If the balance is tipped, the horror will emerge – quite literally – so that order may be restored. Beyond the vengeful spirits, the chills and the scary music, Asian horror hides a weighty message.

Horror Icons

The success of Ringu (1998 ) set a new standard in East Asian supernatural films in terms of thematic matter and stylistic conventions; some even credit Ringu as the pioneer film in the “J-Horror” (Japanese Horror) wave.

When it comes to cinematography, the masterful manipulation of mood and atmosphere in Ringu has been widely applauded – the chills in Ringu will haunt you long after the movie credits have rolled. The aesthetics of Ringu and subsequent films work hand-in-hand with sound to slowly build up dread, resulting in what Antony Timpone, editor of the American horror magazine Fangoria, has called “a total experience of the senses”. This subtle yet sublime cinematic technique has found its way into The Eye (2002), a Hong Kong film, the Thai horror flick Shutter (2004) and The Maid (2005) from Singapore.

In another groundbreaking film, Korea’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), director Kim Ji-woon borrows from the Korean folk-tale ‘Janghwa and Hongryeon‘ from the Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910). The film narrates the terrifying experience of two teenage girls confronting their cruel stepmother and a ghostly presence in their house. While the influence of J-Horror is clear, this beautifully shot movie takes horror film up a notch or two, into the realms of what some might call “arthouse horror”. The parallel plot of the sisters’ struggle with their stepmother is skilfully woven together with the supernatural occurrences to showcase a dysfunctional family, perhaps an allusion to the ongoing breakdown of the traditional nuclear family unit.

Like the above films, Re-cycle (2006), a Hong Kong/Thai co-production that closed the “Un Certain Regard” programme at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, exhibits the standard elements of Asian horror: long black hair appearing out of nowhere, water, and sudden shadowy appearances make your heart skip a beat. But these are soon traded for fantastical special effects reminiscent of surivior horror video game Silent Hill (and the movie of the same name), giving the film a seldom-seen surreal quality. Moving away from the slow paceing of J- and K-horror, the film instead takes us on a macabre adventure through hellish worlds that combines thriller with horror.

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but horror has certainly found its way into Asian popular culture. What better example than the packed Harajuku district of Tokyo, where youths can be found “cosplaying” (costume dress up) in elaborate costumes that are obviously horror-inspired, like the ever popular “Sadako” (from Ringu) or “Kayoko” (from Ju-on) ensemble of white robes, long black hair and ghastly white face.

While Ringu, A Tale of Two Sisters and Re-cycle are undoubtedly horror masterpieces, these films are equally valuable as time capsules: they reflect society’s fears and aspirations at certain points in time. Their enduring popularity illustrates that despite modernisation and globalisation, there are ancient beliefs deeply etched upon society’s collective consciousness. They speak to primal fears that will remain with us for as long as we fear the unknown.

By morbidhobbit, edited by Asian Geographic.