hands off racism - Asia News Network

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SRI LANKA ARMY ENSNARES TAMIL TIGERS
M AY 1 - 7 , 2009
HANDS OFF
RACISM
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MAY 1- 7, 2009 • Vol 4 N o 16
AFP P H OTO
AFP P H OTO
13-15
SPECIAL
REPORT
What’s Next, Colombo?
The Tamil Tigers
announced a unilateral
ceasefire but the Sri
Lankan government has
spurned the offer
describing it as a joke
THE KOREA HERALD
PHOTO ESSAY 18
Lotus Love
One of South Korea’s biggest
festival features thousands of
handcrafted lanterns of
diverse colours and designs
COVER STORY 8
THE POLITICS OF RACE
Will racism ever end? UN’s anti-racism conference in
Geneva was ‘hijacked’ before it could even take off as the
world continues to grapple with black and white issues
THE STAR
LIFESTYLE 28-29
FOOD 24-25
Nothing But Noodles
Rice might be the staple food
for most Indonesians, but
noodles come a close second
Hello Generation F
Face-to-face chatting is no
longer enough as today’s
generation turn to social
networking online
PEOPLE 30-31
Beauty And Brawn
Singaporean bodybuilder Joan Liew
makes heads turn
outside the gym, while
Indian actress Ferena
Wazeir is enjoying her
share of spotlight in
Bollywood
COVER IMAGE | ILLUSTRATION BY NIPHON APPAKARN
THE STATESM AN
TECHNOLOGY 26-27
Say It With A Tee
T-shirts can be everyting: the
epitome of fashion, a medium
of expression and a symbol of
one’s identity
EXPLORE 32-33
Pride And Paradise
Exquisite gardens and
restored historical edifices
around West Lake recall
Hangzhou’s past as the finest
city in the world
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INVITED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
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Mr Nick Butler, Chairman, Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies,
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Dr Cho Khong, Chief Political Analyst, Shell, UK
Mr Richard McIndoe, TRUenergy, Australia
Mr Isara Vongkusolkit, Chairman, Mitr Phol Sugar Group,
Thailand
Dr Songkiert Tansamrit, Director, PTT Research and Technology
Institute, Thailand
Dr Arthur Ragauskas, Chair in Alternative Energy
Technology,Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Mr Ronald Gentch, Managing Director, BMW Manufacturing,
Thailand
Mr Patrick Anderson, Policy Adviser, Forest Peoples Programme,
Jakarta
Mr Tulsi Tanti, Founder and Chairman, Suzlon, India
Mr Daniel Yergin, Cambridge Energy Research Associates
Dr Porponth Sichanugrist, National Science and Technology
Development Agency, Thailand
Dr Piyasvati Amranand, Former Energy Minister, Thailand,
Mr Bernard Esteve, Adviser, Total, France
Mr Sombat Sarntijaree, Governor, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand,
Mr Nuttachat Charuchinda, EVP, PTT NGV, Thailand
Mr Chanin Vongkusolkit, Director and CEO, Banpu
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ACROSS ASIA
AFP P H OTO / P OOL / Vin c ent Y U
Asia battles
new deadly strain
Kwan Weng Kin
The Straits Times
Norman Bordadora and Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
RED ALERT: A Chinese mainland tourist (C) who failed initial temperature
screening has his temperature double-checked by health workers on his arrival on April 27 at the international airport in Hong Kong—a city at the forefront of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and already on alert for bird flu.
TOKYO/ MANILA: Asia, a continent which
said he expected the swine flu virus to
spread faster than the SARS, whichstruck China in early 2003, swept several dozen countries and left nearly 800
people dead.
Asked how lethal the virus is, Tayag
said, “There are those who recover
and there are some who unfortunately don’t.”
He said swine flu is transmitted
through droplet infection and physical
contact.
“You don’t get swine
flu from eating pork. We
still don’t have a case
here in the Philippines,
but once we have that,
we should refrain from
shaking hands, bussing
cheeks and hugging,”
Tayag said.
He also called on people to cover their mouths
and noses when sneezing
SAVE US: A woman wearing mask prays in front of our Lady of
and to wash their hands,
Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, at the Guadalupes Basilica in
especially after shaking
Mexico City.
hands with other people.
“The symptoms are
ties said were likely cases of swine flu— like those of the common flu. The difthe first suspected cases in the Asia- ference is, there is still no vaccine
Pacific region.
against (the new swine flu virus),” TayThe cases highlight the potential ag said.
role that air travel can play in spreadSwine flu symptoms, like common
ing the virus.
flu, include fever, sore throat, sore musGovernments across the Asia-Pacific cles and diarrhea.
region have stepped up checks at air
“The virus in the US results in a
and sea ports and urged the public to mild flu. There are no complications.
be on guard for symptoms of swine flu, The one in Mexico is much worse,”
warning of a potential pandemic.
Tayag said.
Dr Eric Tayag, head of the PhilipIn Japan, airports tightened checks
pines’ National Epidemiology Centre, on arrivals from Mexico, with quaranhas battled the deadly H5N1 bird flu
and SARS in recent years, began taking
steps over this week to ward off a new
flu threat that has killed over 80 people
in Mexico.
The new multi-strain swine flu appears to have also hit New Zealand,
where 10 students returning from Mexico were being treated for influenza
symptoms in what the health authori-
AFP PHOTO/Lu is Acosta
ASIANEWS • MAY 1-7, 2009
tine officials using thermography imaging cameras to screen passengers for
signs of fever.
In Indonesia—which has seen the
most human deaths from the H5N1
avian influenza virus of any country—
all air and sea ports have activated a
surveillance system.
China’s health ministry said it was
asking experts to analyse the virus.
China and Hong Kong, which bore
the brunt of the SARS outbreak in
2003, also pledged to strengthen communication with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United States
and Mexico.
Hong Kong has increased surveillance measures at boundary control
points and has advised residents
against unnecessary travel to Mexico
and areas of the US where swine flu
outbreaks are occurring.
WHO Director-General Margaret
Chan said the North American outbreak of a never-before-seen virus was a
very serious situation with pandemic
potential.
“It would be prudent for health officials within countries to be alert to outbreaks of influenza-like illness or pneumonia, especially if these occur in
months outside the usual peak influenza season,” Chan said at a telephone
news conference in Geneva.
“Another important signal is excess
cases of severe or fatal flu-like illness in
groups other than young children and
the elderly, who are usually at highest
risk during normal seasonal flu,” she
said, adding, “the situation is evolving
quickly.”
5
Vi e w p o i n t
Tough Times Ahead For Abhisit
Simmering political turmoil and unreliable coalition
partners won’t make life any easier for Thai PM
Bangkok
The Nation
I
6
protest. It is not certain whether regional leaders would give
him another chance, given the ongoing turmoil.
Over the weekend, the red shirts held rallies again at Sanam
Luang after Abhisit’s removal of the state of emergency. It was
soft music this time. Without a clear signal from their leaders,
the red shirts would only say that they won’t go away easily.
The red shirts suffered a big set back on Songkran Day
when they thought that they would be able to triumph with
a people’s revolution. In the people’s revolution, supporters
of Thaksin were to topple the Abhisit government including
the elite class. Thaksin was reported to be staying in one of
the neighbouring countries, ready to get into the country to
lead the charge. But when he realised that his red-shirt rallies
could not make the advance in the
capital because Abhisit had put up
TROUBLED:
Thai Prime
a big fight, he decided at the last
Minister
minute not to enter Thailand. It
Abhisit
was one of the most dramatic epiVejjajiva.
sodes in modern Thailand’s history.
Thaksin’s top lieutenant, Jakrapob Penkair, escaped the authorities’ net when he managed to
sneak out of the country during
the ensuing turmoil. But he told
BBC later that he would continue
to fight, an armed struggle if necessary, on the ground or underground to fulfil his goal. Jakrapob is facing an arrest warrant for his role in instigating
the turmoil during Songkran. Jakrapob is a key operative of
Thaksin. He had been telling the foreign community in
Bangkok for more than a year that he would one day lead a
people’s revolution to topple the elite in Thailand. Many foreign media did not take his words lightly. Several had written
editorials to suggest afterwards that Thailand would risk
plunging into a Nepal-like situation.
The people’s revolution did not take place as Jakrapob
predicted. For whatever reason, it took place without him
standing in the front. The people’s revolution was quelled by
a military group, who supported Abhisit. Without a counterattack, the history of Thailand would have been completely
changed by now.
The road ahead remains bumpy. The polarisation is still
alive. There is little room for a political compromise. The red
shirts will not stop until Thaksin can prevail or at least get his
76 billion baht (US$2.1 billion) in frozen money back. The
stability of the Abhisit government is shaky. His allies are
planning to backstab him. Abhisit has few allies around except that his approval rating has been soaring in the aftermath of the Songkran turmoil. Without a strong mandate
and coalition support, Abhisit might find it difficult to last
beyond this year.
AFP PHOTO/Chr istophe ARC HAMBAULT
n spite of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s
removal of the state of emergency, the political turmoil is far from over. We have witnessed only the
first round of the unrest. Jakrapob Penkair, one of
the leaders of the red-shirt protesters, vowed to continue the fight on the ground or underground until he could
bring down the bureaucratic polity (elite class) in Thailand.
Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has not stopped
fighting either.
Abhisit would like to send a signal that he has been able to
bring the crisis under control. First, he said he is willing to
consider constitutional reform and political amnesty for politicians barred from politics for five years and who were not directly involved in alleged election
frauds. But the road ahead for political compromise is not going to
be easy as it is likely to face opposition from the Thai public, who
stand opposed to the red shirts.
Second, Abhisit took part in the
parliamentary debate on the redshirt demonstrations and violent
protests. He took time to explain
the incident prior to and during the
Songkran (Thai New Year) turmoil,
while the opposition Pheu Thai attacked him over his government’s
handling of the protesters. It was a rather bizarre show because nobody was debating why the rallies took place or what
objectives they were trying to achieve. Instead, they were debating the military’s use of force to quell the protesters, who
should have been squashed any way because they were setting
fire to buses and destroying public properties.
Third, before the parliamentary session ended, Abhisit
rushed to announce his decision to end the state of emergency. The PM had declared the emergency on April 12, one
day ahead of the clashes between red-shirt protesters and the
military forces. This allowed him to consolidate all power
into his hands. It created an atmosphere of high political
risks. Businesses and tourists had been hard hit by the state
of emergency. Thai companies doing business abroad faced a
premium on their transactions due to the risk associated
with the state of emergency.
Initially, many expected that Abhisit would move swiftly,
backed by the emergency decree, to reshuffle the top police
and military commanders who failed to secure peace during
the turmoil and who might have stood idle intentionally
while the rallies were going on. As it now happens, Abhisit
has not announced any reshuffle. The premier is more concerned with the country’s image in the international community. He would like to hold the Asean Summit in June in
Phuket after it was postponed in April due to the red-shirt
MAY 1-7, 2009 • ASIANEWS
Vi e w p o i n t
Is Kalla The Real Loser?
The Indonesian Vice President’s abruptly decided to run on
his own ticket in the July 8 presidential election
Imanuddin Razak In Jakarta
The Jakarta Post
P
olitical manoeuvres—are perhaps the proper
words to describe what have been going on in
Indonesia this whole week.
The April 9 legislative election is only a
month away and the presidential election will
not be held until July. However, the nation has been
observing numerous surprises as a result of the manoeuvres made by political party leaders although the results
of the legislative election—a prerequisite for the presidential election—are not yet final.
Last week saw “behind-the-scenes” meetings between
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President
Jusuf Kalla as well as intensive encounters between officials
of Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party (PD) and Kalla’s Golkar
Party following the PD’s magnificent achievement and
Golkar’s tremendous loss in the legislative election.
There has not been much told about the results of those
meetings, but Kalla’s abrupt decision to run on his own ticket in the July 8 presidential election and quit the current coalition with the PD following Golkar’s Special Leadership
Meeting on April 23, spoke clearly of both parties’ failure to
reach a consensus on the presidential-vice presidential nomination. As Golkar has demanded a single vice presidential
ticket for Kalla, the PD camp has insisted that Golkar provide alternative vice presidential candidates—beside Kalla—
for Yudhoyono to choose.
Kalla’s presidential bid indeed only strengthened his
previous stance in February of challenging Yudhoyono
in this upcoming presidential election. What was really
surprising was Golkar’s and/or Kalla’s willingness to
secure the vice presidential seat on Yudhoyono’s ticket
immediately after learning the quick count (temporary)
results of the April 9 election.
Kalla’s initial stance to run for presidency came in the wake
of a statement by a senior PD executive, Ahmad Mubarok,
which underestimated Golkar’s legislative election achievement. Mubarok predicted in February that Golkar would perform badly – only securing 2.5 per cent of popular votes – in
the legislative election. Golkar obviously performed bad in the
legislative election, but it was not really that bad as (temporarily) it came second after the PD in the April 9 election.
While Yudhoyono’s camp has been relatively passive
regarding coalition issues due to its leading position in
the legislative election, another camp of political parties—championed by the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P), the Great Indonesia Movement
(Gerindra) Party and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura)—has been intensively holding meetings in anticipation of the July presidential election. After inviting leaders of a number of political parties to the residence
of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri, it was
the turn of retired Indonesian military generals, who
were invited to her Menteng residence on April 22.
Not all of the actual subjects of those meetings at Megawati’s residence have been revealed to the media, as only one,
on Megawati’s camp’s plan to file a lawsuit against the alleged mismanagement and irregularities in the April 9 legislative election, has been made crystal clear. The rest have
only led the media and the general public to speculate.
However, most of these meetings apparently could not be
separated from Megawati’s camp’s efforts to ensure support
from other political parties in order to meet the minimum 25
per cent of the popular vote threshold or the minimum 20
per cent parliamentary seat threshold prior to being able to
nominate a presidential candidate.
As some experts say, “Politics is the art of the unpredictable,” the same principle is applicable to these party leaders, as could be seen from the manoeuvre made
by Kalla. Besides strengthening his own camp in anticipating the presidential election, the Golkar chairman
has been aggressively making contacts and holding
extra-camp meetings with Megawati’s camp.
It remains to be seen, however, whether Kalla and/or
Golkar will completely close their door to talks and negotiations with Yudhoyono’s camp. But again, as the universally
accepted principle in politics says: “There is no permanent
enemy or friend in politics, but interest”, it is very unlikely
that Kalla and Golkar will completely do so. Moreover, if all
the surveys on state leadership duets that put the Yudhoyono-Kalla duet as the strongest pair of state leaders really ring
true, should the two reunite at the last minute, they may
shake and defeat any other combination of state leadership
duets from other parties.
However, no matter how interesting to observe the party
leaders’ manoeuvres, their movements have likely disrupted
the continuity of service of the current government, which
will officially end in October. It could be seen from the fact
that Kalla skipped the limited Cabinet meeting on April 23
because at the same time he was chairing a Golkar party
meeting. That excludes the performance of the House of
Representatives, especially for its members who will not sit
in the next parliament—practically, they have no interest in
House proceedings anymore.
To sum up, all the party leaders’ manoeuvres have increased the level of unpredictability of the presidential election. There is still one month for all the camps to finalize
their coalition agreements prior to contesting the presidential election. In the meantime, it is interesting to monitor
their manoeuvres and observe “Indonesian-style” democracy
developing and growing.
What we, nation members, can expect is that all those manoeuvres will remain within the corridors of the Constitution
and the existing laws and eventually pave the way to a peaceful and democratic presidential election.
7
COVER STORY
AFP P H OTO/FABRIC E COFFR IN I
DISAPPOINTED: UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon (C) and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay (R) watch a show with South
African dancers at the opening the UN review conference on racism on April 20. Ban said he was “profoundly disappointed” at the boycotts by
some countries while all forms of racism persist.
The Politics
Of Race
R
acism continues to be a big concern
all over the world following the failure of the latest UN anti-racism
conference in Geneva, which saw
disagreements and boycott of leading countries.
The conference was ‘hijacked’ by Israel and
Jewish lobbyists before it could even take off. So,
the countries, which boycotted the conference,
8
in fact have done a great disservice to the victims
of racism and to the cause of equality.
In Asia, racism remains a hot issue. It recently
took another turn when Hong Kong columnist
Chip Tsao described the Philipppines as a “nation of servants” in his satirical article. That resulted in Filipino migrant workers’ rallying
against racism and discrimination targeting
ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.
How Colonialism
Bred Racism
NEW DELHI
Salman Haidar
The Statesman
T
he long and acrimonious history of racism has had an important impact on present
day international relations.
The historical reality, what
actually happened, how colonialism
bred racism, the stigmatisation of colonised peoples—the “lesser breeds without the law”, the vast racist baggage
that can still burden and oppress, these
are complex and emotive matters.
The countries that experienced foreign rule and smarted under racial discrimination have not forgotten what
they had to go through. Some form of
international action has long been
sought to identify and dissipate the lingering incidence of racism, which remains widespread, and the UN has
been at the forefront of it. But when in
the mid-1970s, under mainly Arab
pressure, the UN General Assembly
passed a resolution describing Zionism
as a form of racism, the issue became
explosive. The developing countries,
being in the majority at the General Assembly and with the backing of the
then Soviet bloc, were able to push
through a resolution containing this
formulation, but it was indignantly repudiated by the USA and other Western states, and of course by Israel.
UN resolution
The UN resolution was passed at a
time when OPEC and the Arab states
had acquired unprecedented say in glo-
bal affairs through control of the oil
weapon they had fashioned. They were
determined to right what they believed
were the historic wrongs inflicted on
them, and seemed to command the
necessary international clout. Since
then, this contentious matter has surfaced periodically, to renewed controversy and discord.
The latest outbreak has been witnessed at the UN anti-racism conference that has just been held in Geneva.
Even before the conference could get
going, major countries led by the USA
decided they would not take part. The
reason was that the draft document for
the meeting reaffirmed the declaration
adopted at the world conference against
racism held in Durban in 2001—where
the USA and Israel walked out—in
which concern was expressed at the
plight of the Palestinian people under
foreign occupation. The draft text for
the Geneva meeting made no such
statement and it represents a considerable watering down of the Durban
agreement, but it did reaffirm what had
been agreed at the earlier conference.
This was enough to make the text
unacceptable to some major delegations led by the US. They tried to have
the reference removed, and when this
did not prove possible, decided not to
participate in the conference. Some
half-a-dozen countries from the Western group took this step and many others decided to downgrade their level of
representation. This served greatly to
reduce the significance of the conference even before it was able to convene.
To take matters further, there was a
concerted walkout by delegates of the
European Union in protest against the
speech of Iran’s President Ahmedinejad. He was the sole Head of State to
take part and, as anticipated, he made a
strong denunciation of Israel in his address. This became the occasion for the
EU walkout. Though the Europeans
left, others remained to applaud Ahmedinejad. Thus, far from bridging the
gap on this sensitive subject, the conference served only to emphasise the
divide and reinforce conflicting perceptions.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon
expressed his profound disappointment at the boycotts the conference
had elicited. In his words, this was a
time to “reaffirm our faith in fundamental human rights and dignity and
worth of us all”. But already the Geneva
meeting is being described as a failure
of the UN—unfairly so, perhaps, for it
was not permitted to get down to business by a determined group of powerful
countries.
One of the major issues that had
been taken up in the preparatory stages
of the conference and had proved divisive is related to Islam. Migration from
Islamic countries into Europe has created a substantial Muslim population
in Western Europe and friction often
develops between these relatively recent arrivals and older communities.
Several highly publicised incidents
have taken place in recent years and
relations between races remain full of
problems. Muslim sensitivities were
seen in an effort to include a reference
to “defamation of religion” in the text.
But this could not pass because some
Western delegates regarded it as
9
COVER STORY
AFP P H OTO/FABRICE COFFRI NI
SHAME ON YOU! Jewish sympathisers and demonstrators hold papers at the entrance of the press room after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered his speech during the opening the UN review conference on racism in Geneva.
amounting to a restriction on freedom
of speech. On this issue, too, the conference seems to have had the unfortunate
effect of widening the gap between
people of differing views.
In 1991, the UN General Assembly
rescinded the notorious resolution of
1975 but the genie has proved difficult
to put back into the bottle. In a variety
of human rights contexts the ArabIsrael question keeps coming up. The
Durban Conference of 2001 was
thrown off the rails by it and now,
eight years later, the Geneva meeting
has been similarly disrupted. Nor is it
unlikely that next time similar dislocation could occur, for the matter still
hangs fire and no solution is on the
cards. The US under its new President
has initiated diplomatic activity in the
Middle East to try to work for a comprehensive solution to the problems of
the region. A senior special envoy has
been appointed and a new reaching
out to all parties has been attempted.
10
This has been welcomed on all sides.
The Geneva meeting shows, however,
how difficult it is for the US to free itself from set positions in the Middle
East, whether or not they advance the
current diplomatic initiative. Worth
noting, too, is how the faultlines on
this issue extend deep into the US itself. Pro-Israel groups lobbied vigorously for a boycott and, as it appears,
carried the day. But other organisations, especially black groups including the black caucus in the US Congress, were keen on US participation
and have been critical of the decision
to stay away.
Rebuke
The Iranian President’s harsh remarks have drawn a rebuke from the
UN secretary-general, which is in itself
unusual: clearly Mr Ban was distressed
to see the conference becoming a platform for such strident denunciation of
a UN member-state. It remains to be
seen how the strife and anger in Geneva will affect the recent mildly encouraging signs that something of a
thaw could develop in US-Iran relations. On the evidence of what happened in Geneva, all the protagonists
seem locked into familiar postures
which are very difficult to alter.
The disagreements at the conference raise larger questions about the
prospects for the Obama administration in some of its key foreign policy
goals. It has begun to address some
major problems in a distinctly more
accommodating spirit than did its
predecessor.
Significant changes towards Iraq,
Cuba, Latin America, human rights,
the Middle East—to name only a
few—are already to be seen, and have
been widely welcomed. But the resurgence of familiar themes and demands
at Geneva comes as a reminder that
much remains before these intentions
can be translated into reality.
AFP P H OTO/P H ILI P P E LOP EZ
STANDING UP: Filipino migrant workers stage a rally against racism and discrimination targeting ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. The rally was
staged following Hong Kong columnist Chip Tsao’s satirical article in which he described the Philipppines a “nation of servants”.
Chip On The Shoulder
MANILA
Conrado de Quiros
I
remember again a column a friend
of mine wrote ages ago. It was a
satire. He commended the appointment of a moralistic bastard
to a government post that would
enable him to render judgment on creative works. The commendation was
grossly exaggerated and full of praise
for the wrong things. He ended by saying that he could think of no one who
better deserved the job.
How did the moralistic bastard react? He wrote a letter thanking my
friend profusely!
His letter was not satirical. But that
just goes to show how satire can be
a dangerous thing in this country.
Not because it invites reprisal from
its target but because it invites misunderstanding from its target audience. I have another friend who got
sued for writing a satirical piece by
someone who wasn’t her target. Hell,
I got sued—or this newspaper was—
for a satirical piece by two people I
was trying to help!
This was way back in the early 1990s
when I was still writing editorials for
the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A man
and woman got fired from their jobs,
clerical ones in a provincial court. They
had both worked for decades there, but
now lost not just their jobs but their
retirement benefits. Their crime? They
were having an affair. I said they truly
deserved to be fired, having clerical jobs
was a crime in itself. Of course the
judge was a well-known drunk, but being a judge his judgment could never
be impaired. And of course the court
was known to look the other way in
cases involving the rich, but that was
courtly prerogative. Or words to this
effect. You get the drift.
We got sued—by the man and woman! Of course the provincial court dismissed the suit almost immediately.
What can I say? The judge himself
must have been tremendously pleased.
I remembered all this when I read
Chip Tsao’s article The War at Home.
Many Filipinos took umbrage at being
11
COVER STORY
depicted as “a nation of servants”. The
department of foreign affairs demanded an apology from the offending Hong
Kong publication, and got it. The bureau of immigration got into the act
and declared Tsao persona non grata,
never to set foot in these shores without
issuing an apology for the contumely.
Curious at a thing that could drive us
to heights of outrage, when we are being openly injured and insulted every
day by our government and we just
shrug it off as part of being Filipino, I
read the article. My reaction? LOL, as
the kids say. Or for those who do not
understand text language any more
than satire, laugh out loud.
The article is funny and witty. What
is it saying? Let’s see if we can’t exaggerate it more to drive home the satire:
The Russians are meddling in
Spratlys? Fine, the Russians taught
the Chinese Marx and Lenin anyway.
The Japanese are meddling in Spratlys? Fine, the Chinese can’t do without karaoke anyway. But the Filipinos threatening to go to war over
Spratlys? That is an outrage! Being
a patriotic Chinese citizen, he (Tsao)
means to do his part. He has already
told his Filipino maid that if war
breaks out between China and the
Philippines, he will hold her hostage.
“The government of the Philippines
would certainly be wrong if they think
we Chinese are prepared to swallow
their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. Some
of my friends told me they have already
declared a state of emergency at home.
Their maids have been made to shout
“China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever
they hear the word ‘Spratly’. They say
the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout,
“Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight
of a portrait of our Great Leader during
the Cultural Revolution.”
Isn’t that funny? And isn’t the target
clearly the Chinese government? The
Falkland Islands is a dead giveaway.
The Falkland War, which Britain
fought with Argentina in 1982, is a reminder of lingering British colonialism. By the same token, the Spratlys is
a reminder of ongoing Chinese expan12
sionism. The references to indoctrination and “Long live Chairman Mao”are
an even deader giveaway.
Arguably, Tsao could have used another way to satirise the Chinese government, but the use of the Filipino
maid is just too tempting. This is not of
the order of that joke in Desperate
Housewives where, upon being told
she is menopausal, Teri Hatcher says:
“OK, before we go any further, can I
check these diplomas? Just to make
sure they aren’t, like, from some med
school in the Philippines?” That is truly
cruel, casting as it does Filipino doctors
in a bad light, with not very savory consequences for their practice in the US.
It deserved being protested.
Tsao’s ‘joke’ is nothing like that.
It even casts Filipinos in a good light,
by inference. Surely the Chinese have
no love lost for Russia and Japan?
The latter particularly—you know,
the Rape of Nanking? By objecting
to the one country that has not done
Hong Kong, or China generally, any
harm, it extols its virtues.
Some Filipinos of course have defended Tsao’s article by saying that,
true enough, we are a nation of servants. No amount of denying that will
make it go away, it’s time we took our
licks if we can’t do anything about it.
There’s that too. But it misses the point.
The point is that the barb isn’t aimed at
us, it’s aimed elsewhere.
Frankly, I don’t know how we can
fail to understand or appreciate satire.
We have a robust tradition of it. National hero Jose Rizal was past master
at it, writing slyly, funnily and bitingly
about the Spanish rulers, especially the
friars. But maybe it’s not just that tradition we’re losing, or have lost, it’s the
capacity to read itself. Ultimately that
may be the true satirical, ironical and
cruel footnote on us:
We haven’t just become a nation of
servants, we’ve become a nation of illiterates.
‘RACIST’ HK WRITER WANTS
TO VISIT PHILIPPINES
HONG KONG
Kristine L Alave and Blanche Rivera
N
ow contrite, a Hong Kong writer who angered the Philippines with his article
poking fun at the country, says he actually
admires Philippine democracy and music and
would like to someday visit the country he had
derisively called a “nation of servants”.
He says among the places he would like to
visit is Fort McKinley, a name that now seems
to exist only in the dimming memories of oldtimers, having been renamed Fort Bonifacio
more than four decades ago.
Kit Tsao, who uses the name Chip Tsao in
his Politically Incorrect column in HK Magazine, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he
would like to be removed from the Philippine
bureau of immigration’s list of undesirable aliens barred from entering the country.
Immigration commissioner Marcelino Liba-
nan said he would personally give Tsao a tour
of the Philippines if he visited the country, but
Tsao must first issue a formal apology and
request for a lifting of the ban.
“I have never been to the Philippines and
it’s a shame that I’ve never been to the place
that (inspired) a long poem written by the
founding father (Jose Rizal) in Spanish. I wish
one day I will be able to go there,” Tsao said.
On April 1, Tsao went to the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong to face the Filipino community and offer his “deepest and
most sincere apology”.
Before that, Tsao had apologised several
times on Hong Kong TV, radio and newspapers for his column.
“I chose to come here. I think it would be
fairer for me to meet some of the union leaders and representatives of the community to
clarify what has been happening in the past
few days,” Tsao said in an interview after addressing the Filipino group.
The 50-year-old Tsao bowed after his talk.
AFP PHOTO/PEDRO UGARTE
S P E C I A L R E P O RT
What’s Next,
Colombo?
There is a large and vocal Tamil
diaspora that is incensed at what
is happening in Sri Lanka
13
S P E C I A L R E P O RT
Ravi Velloor
The Straits Times
S
o, it looks like Sri Lanka’s
quarter century of convulsions may finally be drawing
to a close.
Velupillai Prabhakaran,
the charismatic fighter who organised a
motley band of Tamil youth into the
world’s most dreaded guerilla army, is
vanquished.
It is a matter of time before his body
is discovered by the advancing Sri
Lankan army.
If the troops of 58 Division do discover his body, it will perhaps be with a
cyanide capsule in his mouth or a bullet
wound to the temple. Or maybe loyal
cadres of his Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) will burn his body before the soldiers reach him.
The man who perfected the cult of
woman suicide bombers and who gave
every Tamil enlistee in his army a cyanide pill to wear around his neck has
only one escape route—if New Delhi
deploys helicopters and an elite force
for a rescue snatch.
But that will not be forthcoming.
Prabhakaran shut the door to New
Delhi during the Indian election campaign in 1991 when a woman Tamil
Tiger bent down to touch Rajiv Gandhi’s feet, triggering the bomb in her
belt that blew off the head of India’s
once and future prime minister.
The murder was ordered in apparent
revenge against Gandhi who, as prime
minister in 1987, sent in Indian troops
to enforce a peace accord he had brokered between Tamils and Colombo.
Having learnt its lesson with Prabhakaran, India now looks the other way
as Colombo pounds the Tigers with
overwhelming force and little regard
for civilian casualties.
The government in New Delhi is run
14
by Congress, a party headed
by Gandhi’s widow, Sonia.
Two years ago, the Japanese diplomat Yasushi
Akashi, appointed by Tokyo to mediate a peaceful
resolution of the Sri
Lankan conflict, dropped
in on India’s national
security adviser, M. K.
Narayanan.
Akashi pleaded for a
more sympathetic Indian
attitude but Narayanan,
an ex-intelligence chief to
Gandhi who had held
back channel talks with
Prabhakaran, brushed
him aside.
“Have you ever seen his
eyes?” Narayanan asked
Akashi. “I have.”
Game over.
And so, sometime this
week, the Colombo sky
will probably light up with
crackers as the government celebrates victory.
Television journalists of
Sri Lanka’s state-backed
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE: A Sri Lankan
media are already displaysoldier is seen through a blast hole as he
ing a certain triumphalism
hands out food rations to displaced Tamil
in their reports.
civilians at Puthumathalan.
The end of civil war on
the teardrop-shaped island, a conflict that killed 70,000 the island, where the Tamils live. He
and held back the immense potential has also vowed to work for a sincere
of this strategically perched Indian devolution of powers to the north.
Ocean island, is a matter of celebraThat is easier said than done.
tion for all Asia.
In Colombo, the man to fear is not so
Yet, as Sri Lanka rejoices in the elim- much the President as his brother,
ination of the dreaded Tigers and the Gotabhaya, the defence secretary.
killer their leader turned out to be,
Known for having a short fuse, Gotathere is a sobering thought: What hap- bhaya Rajapakse is intolerant of critipens to Tamils and their legitimate de- cism and has an unbending attitude on
mands? Who will speak for them now? the Tamil question.
Those who have talked to President
It is under his direction that the
Mahinda Rajapakse lately say he is LTTE was driven to its knees. Earlier
firmly committed to putting the past this month, Colombo formally released
aside and reconstructing the north of Norway from its role as a mediator in
AFP PHOTO/PEDRO UG ARTE
NEW DELHI
the ethnic conflict.
Although the trigger was the attack
by expatriate Tamils on the Sri Lankan
Embassy in Oslo, the Rajapakse government has never had much time for
the Norwegians, believing them to be
partial to the Tigers.
Still, Colombo hopefully will see the
broader picture. The Tigers may have
been military punished, but they still
hold some cards. Large numbers of civilians are still in their control and it is
a safe bet that the army has not been
able to seize more than half of the Tigers’ weaponry and munitions.
Besides, there is a large and vocal
Tamil diaspora that is incensed at
what is happening in the mother
country. The Tamils within the island
will remain sullen.
Perhaps it is not too late for a negotiated settlement, not the unconditional
surrender or elimination that Colombo
wants, says Jehan Perera of Colombo’s
National Peace Council.
“It does not make sense to ask an organisation that has such bargaining
power to surrender unconditionally,”
he says. “The government should also
outline in public its plans for a political
settlement of the Tamil grievances.”
Such things, of course, call for a
statesmanship that has rarely been on
show in Colombo.
Nor have the Tigers ever displayed a
world vision that would make a peaceful settlement possible.
(Editor’s Note: As of press time, the
LTTE has announced a unilateral
ceasefire, responding to what they
called an ‘unprecedented humanitarian crisis’ but Colombo immediately
spurned the offer, describing it as a
“joke”.)
15
BUSINESS
Gourmet
Coffee
Stays
Strong
Coffee drinkers
in Korea still
have a taste for
the expensive,
gourmet kind
16
SEOUL
Yoo Soh-jung
The Korea Herald
T
he economic downturn may
have dampened the appetite
for luxury apparel and even
beef, but gourmet coffee is one
commodity many consumers
in South Korea are not willing to give up.
The country’s major specialty coffee
retailers, such as Starbucks, Coffee
Bean & Tea Leaf, Hollys Coffee and
Angel-in-Us Coffee, say sales have been
steady, and they only expect the momentum to grow.
“The specialty coffee market is now in
the growth stage, and the drink is growing more a part of the daily consumption
pattern of consumers here,” said Kwak
Hanna, a spokesperson for Angel-in-Us
Coffee, operated by Lotte Shopping Co.
“As a result, although it can be a costly
daily drink, people think they deserve a
good cup of coffee even if they hold off on
a luxury item.”
The widening popularity of
take-out espresso coffees is also
stoking growth of the ready-todrink segment.
Angel-in-Us is one of the fastest
growing coffee retail chains in Korea.
The homegrown brand said it logged
65 billion won (US$45 million) in sales
in 2008, a 97 per cent surge from the
previous year. In 2008, it had a total of
144 stores, while it currently has 157
stores. It also saw the launch last month
of its ready-to-drink coffees, which are
available at 7-Eleven convenience
stores. Just in April alone, the company
said it sold about 3,000 each day.
It said its bottle-type is set to be
launched sometime this month.
Hollys Coffee officially jumped into
this segment, with the launch of its
ready-to-drink coffee in bottled and
canned forms last week.
According to data by Nielsen, the
ready-to-go coffee beverage market
value in 2007 hit 285.9 billion won.
Last year, the figure expanded 28.2 per
cent to 366.5 billion won.
Of the total, Starbucks’ ready-todrink segment saw a 150 per cent
jump in growth compared to 2007,
according to Dongsuh Co, the comASIANEWS • MAY 1-7, 2009
pany in charge of manufacturing
Starbucks drinks. The company declined to disclose figures.
“We’re offering consumers a new
coffee experience through the steady
launch of new products that carry
the taste and tradition of Starbucks
coffee,” said Kim So-young, a spokesperson for Dongsuh.
In 2007, Starbucks’ specialty takeout retail segment posted 134.5 billion
won in sales with a total of 233 stores.
In 2008, it recorded 171 billion won in
sales with a total of 282 stores. The
company could not cite its sales trends
up to March this year, but it said the
current number of stores was 291.
Hollys Coffee last year enjoyed a 48.1
per cent jump in store sales, with the
total reaching 67.1 billion won. This
year, it predicts the figure to expand
exception; even if the economy is bad
people think it’s worth indulging in a
cup of coffee.”
Last year, Coffee Bean recorded
55 billion won in sales with 150
stores. This year it hopes to drive
up the sales to 140 billion won with
a total of 200 stores.
The share of Korea’s take-out espresso market stood at 15 per cent of the
whole coffee market four years ago. It
currently accounts for over 20 percent,
industry experts say.
They predict espressos to dominate
Korea’s coffee market, as opposed to
instant coffee mix. Hollys Coffee predicts the country’s espresso market to
expand to 40 per cent by 2012.
The growth of espresso specialty retailers is accelerating as new competitors jump in with the ambition to
30.1 per cent to 87.3 billion won.
Coffee Bean Korea says it is also
recording a steady sales rise, however, noting that the pace of its sales
growth has slowed since its entry into
Korea in 2001.
“The pace of our growth has slowed
because of all these other new market
players, but we still have a promising
outlook as this segment only has room
for greater growth,” said Chang Yoonjung, a Coffee Bean Korea spokesperson. “The current economic crisis is no
snatch a share of the instant coffee
market, which is now estimated to account for about 80 per cent of domestic
coffee consumption.
“Consumers have become more sophisticated in the way they enjoy consuming coffee, meaning the prices have
grown friendlier, and so a cup of gourmet coffee has become easier to consume,” said Kim Joo-han, a spokesman
for Woongjin Foods, the company responsible for manufacturing the readyto-drink line for Hollys Coffee.
17
PHOTO ESSAY
18
Lotus
Lanterns
Text by Asia News Network
Photos by The Korea Herald
O
ne of South Korea’s biggest
events, the Lotus Lantern
Festival kicked off with around
300,000 people filling the streets
while more than 100,000
handcrafted lanterns of diverse colours and
design were used on display. The event
marked the celebration of the birth of
Buddha but it has always transcended
religious and cultural borders as shown by
the huge participation of foreigners in
activities like lantern-making.
19
LIFESTYLE
All in the mind: Travellers practice meditation at Vam Sat-Can Gio nature park in HCM City.
Zenrelax
this form of relaxation and
meditation includes bathing in
the river and taking mangrove
paddle tour
20
HCM CITY
Ha Nguyen
Viet Nam News
E
“You don’t need free time to practise
breathing. You can do it at work, at
home or before going to bed.”
Superior monk Luong The Vy says
there are different kinds of Zenrelax
(thien buong thu), including relaxing
while you are breathing, sitting and lying, which aim to help practitioners enjoy being leisurely and peaceful.
“ After 10 to 15 minutes, your body
and your mind will be treated because
during that period new vitality from
nature will pass into your body
through the right breathing and relaxing,” Vy says.
nvironmental project researcher Trinh Ngoc Hien
looks healthier and has a lively gait after returning home
from a weekend of relaxation
and meditation (known as Zenrelax).
He is among a growing throng to
join Buddhist monks at zen retreats
throughout the country to learn how to
breathe and release the stresses of daily
life, often in natural surroundings.
scenic ride: A boat
“When I joined Zenrelax
tour of the Vam Sat
I found it unique,” says
mangrove forests relaxes
Hien, 45, “and the fact it
visitors enjoying a
was located in HCM City’s
weekend of meditation.
Vam Sat-Can Gio nature
park made me feel healthy.
All the worries of daily life
and work were taken away.
“When you take the
weekend course, it is important to strictly follow
the teacher’s guidelines,”
Hien says. “They are designed to help participants
find their ego and bring
their mind to a state of
peace, to remove troubles from their
Businessman Hoang The Lien says
thoughts and any stress they have.”
before he did a Zenrelax programme,
Before practising Zenrelax, partici- his business used to stress him out.
pants are offered a boat tour of the
“Now I try to arrange my time to
Vam Sat mangrove forests and a look practise Zenrelax to release the stress
at the Tang Bong Tower, a famous and improve my health.”
temple structure with wonderful views
Lien says he takes any opportunity,
of the forest.
such as short breaks during work and
The boat will then take its perspir- 10 minutes before going bed.
ing passengers to bathe in a clean
“Since joining the programme my
river where they can bob about, re- health has much improved and, most
fresh and relax.
importantly, I have a fresh mind,
Nguyen Hung Dung, of HCM City, without any headaches, to deal with
says he now practises deep breathing my business.”
every day after retreating with Zenrelax.
With Buddhism’s 2,000 years of
“As a result, I have reduced my development and hundreds of beauweight and I’m now quite healthy,” he tiful pagodas and temples across
says. “I always have a fresh mind com- the country, Viet Nam has great
pared with before.”
potential to take advantage of a
“Learning Zenrelax is not so difficult. swing to Zentourism.
Most important is to learn the right
Zen Buddhism, arrived in Viet Nam
way to breathe.
about 580AD but it was popularised
and developed under the Ly-TranTrinh-Nguyen dynasties which had a
big influence on the Vietnamese lifestyle and culture.
Viet Nam has about 120 zen monasteries and most rural and urban areas
boast an old temple or a pagoda. Their
hidden charms and wildness, along
with the unique spirit and religious lifestyle of the Vietnamese, are a major lure
for travellers.
Agents organising tours to discover
Buddhist architecture and history enable tourists to research and participate
in daily activities of monks and nuns
and carry out zen arts
such as flower arrangement, making tea, bonsai and culinary pursuits.
Tourists have visited
pagodas and temples for
years, as well as joining
pilgrimages and festivals. Now they have the
services of zen café and
zen tea as well as zen
parks and zen spas at
hotels.
Taking a giant step
further, the southern
province of Ba Ria-Vung
Tau has plans to build a
30-billion-dong (US$1.6
million) culture-zentourism destination
called the Chon Khong monastery.
Plans include a stone garden, a zenyoga centre and areas for calligraphy,
diet cooking lessons, local herb garden,
a Buddha statue, a Buddha museum,
and a place for tea making.
A manager of the Asia Sun Travel
says zentourism is an important development strategy for her company.
“When living standards improve and
modern life puts more pressure on people, they will try to find a peaceful place
at a temple or pagoda to relax their
body and their mind and discover special items of Buddha culture.”
A Thai travel operator says he is investigating zen places in Viet Nam to
expand his business.
“With similarities like Thailand, Viet
Nam’s zentourism will be rapidly developed,” he says.
21
AFP photos
LIFESTYLE
WINE SPA: Guests try the grasses of Beaujolais
Nouveau wine to celebrate the opening of
Beaujolais Nouveau spa at the Hakone Yunessun
spa resort facilities in Hakone town, some 100km
west of Tokyo.
A Taste T
MANILA
For Fine
Wine
More and more rich
Asians are investming
on fine covetable wine
22
he most interesting private dinner of
late 2008 in Metro Manila was perhaps one people didn’t know about, for
it was held in utmost secrecy.
Held in the home of a business titan,
it gathered 30 of the country’s Who’s Who, with
diverse interests and clouts but sharing a consuming passion: fine covetable wine.
They sat down to a gourmet dinner to relish
and discourse on glasses of Château Margaux,
the French wine with a heritage derived from
over 400 years.
Château Margaux officials led by director
general Paul Pontallier and business development director Aurélien Valance flew in from
France, with executives of leading wine merchant Ficofi—founding chairman and CEO
Philippe Capdouze, and director/head of Asia
Pacific Christophe Bourrié.
For the exclusive dinner, they brought from the
Château Margaux estate bottles of vintage years
many a wine connoisseur dream to have: 1989,
1995 and 1998 Château Margaux, 2000 Pavillon
Rouge du Château Margaux, 2005 Pavillon Blanc
du Château Margaux.
The dinner was a privilege extended by a
private host to the select gathering.
It wasn’t even a selling jaunt for the
wine officials. However, in an exclusive sit-down with the Philippine
Daily Inquirer, the Château Margaux
executives shared interesting observations about the growing wine investment—yes, investment—in the
world, especially Asia.
Stocks, derivatives, mutual funds,
every financial mutant imaginable—
these traditional investments suddenly don’t seem like safe havens
today. However, even long before the
world economy began to unravel, a
highly select market has already been
investing in wine.
In the Philippines
alone, claimed a regional
banker, wine investment
could run to an estimated
tens of millions of pesos a
year; that in Japan or another rich country in Asia
could be triple that.
Pontallier said in the
past two years, the Asian
wine market has been fast
approaching the level of
Europe and the US. His
group regularly meets
with Ficofi clients to be in
touch with the markets of,
say, Korea and Singapore.
fortune, seeing by experience how
ephemeral both are...as wars and crises
often weakened the efforts of the owners and their teams. But terroir always
remains the recourse that makes possible every rebirth.
“Terroir is to wine what heredity is to
man, i.e. both everything and nothing,”
it continues. “Everything, because
without it, nothing is possible; nothing,
because it is only revealed through the
experience of man’s work.”
The primary factors that make up the
“terroir of a grand cru” are soil and climate. The climate allows the “grapes to
reach perfect, harmonious maturity.”
There are good years, and not so
good years. The 14th century, for instance, Pontallier cited, was somehow
warm, and the 16th century a very cold era.
The soil could give that
unique, infinitesimal difference, so that “very
small variations, even between neighbouring vineyard rows, can translate
into enormous differences in a wine’s quality”.
Grape varieties are
grown, chosen and
aged—that’s where the
human factor comes in,
WINE-TASTING: A man smells a glass of wine during a seminar in Hong Kong. Asians the technical decisions
are drinking and collecting more and better quality wine, a new study has found, Pontallier spoke of—“lots
Passion, obsession
Why are investors lured highlighting the regions growing importance to the booming global wine trade.
of care and hard work
to investing in wine?
that could make a good
Passion. Obsession. There are people cisely because of this strict selec- wine a better wine.”
to whom fine wine is a passion that sur- tion—a limited yield born out of the
It is claimed that through the decpasses all else (passion for wife includ- unique combination of terrain and ades, the Château Margaux 1953,
ed?), so much so that their lifestyle re- natural conditions, and Pontallier 1961, 1982 and others not only appeal
volves around it. And what fans the added, “weather and soil and techni- to the palate but also, as its literature
flames of passion in this case is the fact cal decisions”.
says, “stir our emotions...a feeling not
that mastery of wine is a lifetime work.
It is what Pontallier and many others linked to any particular tastes and
It’s an elusive craft, where the pursuit of of like mind call ‘the gifted soil’—an as- emotions...but from the subtle harexcellence is like running toward a fin- set or factor in wine-making which mony of the whole”.
ish line you never do reach.
some countries have managed to turn
Then time does its part.
Pontallier notes a recent direction: into an issue or point of debate now,
Pontallier offered an interesting
“What has changed in 10 years is that but that is another story.
way of describing the creation of fine
our market isn’t limited to the tradiwine: “Wine is like people, your chiltional anymore. In more and more Defining difference
dren. You raise them in the same
But for a heritage like Château Mar- environment, but some are gifted,
places, people are into fine cuisine
(likewise, fine wine)—in the Philip- gaux, terroir is the defining difference. others not so. Sometimes you adapt
“At the end of the 17th century,” its bro- to the genetic potential.”
pines, Thailand, Eastern Europe.”
Love of fine wine is like a John chure stated, “it became part of the nasBut, he adds, “great wines are a meUpdike novel—it’s an acquired cent elite ‘First Growths’...Since then, dium of happiness”. Exactly what titans
taste. It needs your full concentra- Château Margaux has known fame and need in the face of today’s stock market.
tion, if not commitment, unlike,
say, a John Grisham.
Château Margaux is a wine that
has won such commitment, across
time and wine-connoisseur demographics. To its devotees, it is a
heritage, as its literature says, “that
shows both the greatness and uncertainty of human destinies...heritage left by a succession of families
as well as the power of nature.”
Its land in Bordeaux, the south of
France, dating back to the 10th century, covers more than 200 hectares, but
only 80 is wine acreage—a strict selection based on excellent soil.
Château Margaux is coveted pre-
23
FOOD
Nothing But
Noodles
Rice might be the staple food
for most Indonesians, but
noodles come a close second
JAKARTA
Maggie Tiojakin
The Jakarta Post
A
ll around the world,
noodles go by various names: lo mein,
chow mein, nudel,
nodus, soba, udon,
mee pok, ramen, not including
the 350 variants of pasta. Some
say the Chinese invented noodles, while others point west to a
region known for its marinara
sauce and pizza dough. In 2005,
what is believed to be the oldest
noodle was discovered along the
Yellow River in China. No less
than 4,000 years old, it is speculated to have been made out of
foxtail and broomcorn millet.
Supposedly, at some point in
those 4,000 years, the dish
made a historic culture-cross to
other parts of the world; Sumatra was one of them.
Kelapa Gading, known
among locals as ‘the largest
food district’, hosts some of the
most popular noodle stalls in
and around greater Jakarta.
Sumatran noodle dishes are
always a favourite.
Enjoy!
24
Bakmi Aloy (Palembang)
P
alembang noodles come in notoriously large portions with various
toppings that include mushrooms,
char siu (fried pork), minced meat,
chicken and vegetables. Native Palembangans call their noodle dish a “generous treat” and it is the second most
popular dish after pempek (fish cakes).
The noodles can be a bit chewy, depending on the type you want: thin,
wide or bulky. Served in a bowl or plate,
the dish incorporates a significant
amount of soy sauce and oil, which is
the trademark of any Palembang dish.
Although the large portion makes it
unlikely you’ll ask for seconds in a single seating, it’s guaranteed that noodle
lovers will come back for more in their
second, third and hundredth visit. Notable side dishes include fried fish balls,
wontons, fish cakes and broiled vegetables (on request). Another thing you
will appreciate is the flexibility with
which you can create your own noodle
dish according to your individual taste
and needs.
Jl. Kelapa Kopyor Raya Blok M 1 #7
Kelapa Gading Mal 5, Third Floor at
Eat & Eat
Phone: (62)21-450-8646 (delivery)
Bakmi Apin (Bangka)
T
he small island on the southern
board of the South China Sea, set
apart from the Sumatra mainland by
the Bangka Strait, has been referred to
as a ‘tiny heaven’ for food lovers. The
beaches are also great, of course. But
nothing quite beats the view of the
abundant mom-and-pop restaurants
serving regional delicacies such as pempek (fish cakes), lempah (turmeric
soup), honey-roasted pork and noodles. Flat-stripped and dry, Bangka
noodles are customarily simple in prepMAY 1-7, 2009 • ASIANEWS
aration, combining ingredients such as
green onion, minced meat and fried
wonton skins. A ‘special’ noodle dish is
a regular dish with additional red pork
cuts and extra wonton skins, but the
taste is no less enjoyable than other
dishes that boast a more extravagant
outlook. Because of the mixed wonton
skins, Bangka’s noodle dish as a whole
has a rather crunchy texture, although
it is less salty because it uses soy sauce
moderately. Notable side dishes include shiaw may (pork meat), wonton
soup and otak-otak (fish paste).
Jl. Bulevar Raya BI, Blok TT2 #4
Phone: (62)21-453-1943 (delivery)
Kong’s Curly Noodles
siantar)
(Pematang-
T
he Kong family of North Sumatra’s
Pematangsiantar claims to be the
pioneers who made the first curly noodles in Indonesia, first setting up shop
in 1954. In 1976, the family opened
their first Jakarta outlet in Pluit. Then,
in 2003, they opened their second restaurant outlet in Kelapa Gading, which
has built a reputation for offering the
‘true curly noodles’. Unlike Bangka and
Palembang noodles,
Pematangsiantar noodle dishes do not use
any soy sauce, which is
why they are paler than
the other two. But make
no mistake: when it
comes to taste they are
just as mouthwatering
as Palembang’s rich
toppings and Bangka’s
crunchy texture. As the
name suggests, Kong’s
noodles are indeed curly, yet they are not as
chewy as you might expect. Served with slices of chicken or
pork, a regular portion comes with a
bowl of wonton soup. Other types of
noodles are also available, such as beehoon and kway tiaw. Notable side
dishes include fishball sticks, seafood
sticks, homemade prawn rolls and
steamed veggies.
Jl. Bulevar Barat Raya I, Blok VG 2 #12
No delivery service yet.
Pho-nomenon
Minh Thu
HA NOI
Viet Nam News
P
ho (noodle soup) is one of Ha
Noi’s most iconic dishes. Few
people in the capital haven’t sat
down to a bowl of the steaming soup,
with beef, chicken or tripe chunks floating in it—perfect to ward away the winter chills.
According to writer Giang Quan, pho
sellers first appeared on the streets of Ha
Noi in the early 20th century. It was
originally made with beef and has since
evolved to tens of different varieties.
But much to Hanoians surprise, a
new version of the noodle soup has
emerged. It isn’t made in Ha Noi, but
in northern Nam Dinh Province with a
different array of spices.
The idea came from Vu Ngoc Vuong
a native of Nam Dinh Province, an area
that makes the rice noodles to sell to
people in Ha Noi. “Pho Nam Dinh only
uses beef and beef
stock,” Vuong says.
“It’s difficult to describe the taste of pho
because each restaurant has its own particular style.”
“Actually, many
people across Viet
Nam eat pho but it
is particularly popular in Ha Noi. For
that reason, it has
adopted some of the
city’s special characteristics—the aroma
of pho is the smell of the capital,”
says writer Quan.
A bowl of pho is often a remedy
against homesickness among Vietnamese living in the US, the UK, France,
Japan and China. Many have opened
pho restaurants.
Tourists coming to Viet Nam are
usually familiar with the dish, says Le
Mai Khanh, representative of Viet
Nam Tourism Department. “We offer
a special tour called the Pho Road,
where we talk about the origins of the
soup and how it became a Vietnamese
speciality,” says Khanh. “You haven’t
experienced Viet Nam if you haven’t
tried pho.”
Instead of braving a food stall, many
choose to eat pho in the more sterile
surroundings of restaurants like Pho
24, a famous restaurant chain known
both at home and abroad.
Founded in HCM City, there are
now restaurants in Ha Noi, Khanh
Hoa, Binh Duong, Da Nang provinces
and Hue City. There are also Pho 24
eateries in 10 countries including Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, South
Korea and Australia. Next year the
chain plans to open more in Hong
Kong, Macau and Japan, according to
Ly Quy Trung, co-founder of Pho 24.
But while the soup is popular with
foreigners, more could be done to
boost its image further, says pho trader Ly Quy Trung. “I think we need the
help of the authorities to make pho
even more popular. One way would be
to have pho restaurants at busy airports like Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat.
At the moment most passengers just
eat instant noodles.”
25
TECHNOLOGY
Say Hello to
Generation F
Face-to-face chatting with their
friends all day at school is no
LONGER enough AS Children TURN
TO social networking ONLINE
JAKARTA
Anissa S Febrina
The Jakarta Post
W
e’ve already passed the
eras of Generations X
and Y, but there’s no Z
on the horizon. Rather,
the next generation will
probably be affiliated with F, for—yup,
you guessed it—Facebook.
“I finally have a Facebook account!”
Naufal Alifian shouted gleefully, on
coming home from an Internet café
with his father.
So what? Almost everyone with Internet access has one.
The difference is that third-grader
Naufal is only going to turn nine this
year. If he complied with the Facebook
age limit, he would have to wait four
more years to be part of the global hype
of social networking. If it is still hype by
then, that is.
“Father has one, Uncle Andre, Auntie Arum, my classmates,” Naufal said,
listing the people he knew were on Facebook. “I wanted to have one, too. So I
can see photos and chat.”
Less than a day after opening his ac26
count—for which he had added seven emerged. It remains to be seen whether
years to his real age—Naufal’s profile the phenomenon will prove part of the
already listed nine friends, shouted social-networking gold rush.
“Just learned Facebooking” and feaAmong them are BBC’s www.mycbtured singer Maia, soap opera actor bc.com, Toby Clarck’s www.kidswirl.
Raffi Ahmad and comedian Jack Black com, the UK’s www.schooltogetherJr as his idols. His relatives and friends now.com and www.facebookforkids.
have started writing on his wall and com. None of these is affiliated with
tagging his phoFacebook.
tos. He’s in!
Despite using
And he is not
the same name,
the only child
facebookforkids
his age to be doclearly states it is
ing this.
not affiliated
Perhaps Nauwith the original
fal’s father would
social network,
not have had to
although no
manipulate his
doubt the name
son’s age if he
has contributed
knew that there
to making it the
NETWORKING: Facebook, which is founded by
were already
most popular
former Havard student Mark Zuckerberg, is
similar websites
among Indonenow a popular social networking site among
especially desian children, as
the 30-somethings while MySpace is for the
teenagers, and Webkinz for children.
signed for chilit already lists
dren younger
about 50 memthan 13.
bers from here.
Since the ‘F-virus’ started to spread Kidswirl is catching up with around
among elementary school children three dozen.
mainly in the United States and the
Surely, Indonesia’s hundreds of
United Kingdom about two years ago, other Facebook-literate children are
several child versions of the sites have having far too much fun on the regMAY 1-7, 2009 • ASIANEWS
AFP P H OTO/Nic holas KAMM
WEB BABY: Seven-year-old Ashling
Cannon poses next to a computer screen
displaying the Webkinz website and her
webkinz cuddly toys in Washington. This
is social networking for elementary
school kids and even pre-schoolers as
young as four.
ular website to bother migrating to
the newcomers, which claim to have
greater protection for children against
potential online predators.
The two sites offer many of the kinds
of features available on the original Facebook, with Kidswirl even adopting a
similar layout. What really sets them
apart from the adult Facebook is the
claim that their websites are safely
monitored and moderated to ensure
they suit children’s needs for online
communication.
Although we are living in a highly
digitalised era and everyone is connected through the Internet, adults might
find themselves wondering just what
these children are doing with online social networking. Haven’t they already
had enough face-to-face chatting with
their friends all day at school?
“I just want to share pictures with
my friends. Pictures of Naruto,”
10-year-old Radhiyya Indra told his
mother when asked why he wanted
a Facebook account.
“He’s a bit late in joining in. He already had several invitations from his
classmates before finally getting one,”
Radhi’s mother, 36-year-old Tria Padmadisastra, said. “Most of the invitaASIANEWS • MAY 1-7, 2009
tions were from the girls in his class.”
Tria, who had also manipulated her
son’s age in Facebook but closely monitored his use, explained that, fortunately, Radhi had not become addicted. “He
simply opened it to share pictures of
comic characters like he first said.”
However, Tria was astounded to
learn, while monitoring Radhi’s Facebooking activity, how many of her son’s
friends were regularly online, busily
buzzing on the chat board involving
Radhi in gossip about other classmates.
“Fortunately, he is a quiet type and
chooses to ignore things that he is not
interested in, like gossip,” Tria said.
One of Tria’s observations could indicate how, even at this young age,
there are already marked differences in
the ways boys and girls communicate.
“A girl in Radhi’s class seems so eager
in chatting and posting statuses. Like ‘I
just woke up’, ‘I just had a shower and
started FB ‘Facebooking’. It seems to be
getting updated every minute during
the day,” Tria said.
Remember we are talking about
fourth graders, not yuppies with
Blackberries.
When they are at this age, do
children really need to be part of
online social networking?
“If this kind of modern day communication dominates the daily life of children, their psychosocial development
might be hampered,” child psychologist
Seto Mulyadi said.
“Like it or not, parents must strike
the balance between online communication and direct interpersonal communication.”
And regardless of whether children
are using the original Facebook or the
sites specially developed for minors,
there remains the danger of them becoming more vulnerable to consumerism, Seto added.
Social networking websites have
been known to function as a playground for companies promoting
their products.
Research released last year by Oxford
University in the United Kingdom also
found that the activity could change
children’s behaviours—and not for the
better. According to the study, such
sites could potentially “shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more selfcentered”.
Well, they do say that children learn
from the adults around them.
27
CULTURE
CHEAP FASHION: Most T-shirts are affordable and
there are always so many choices to fit your taste.
JAKARTA
Dian Kuswandini
The Jakarta Post
O
Say it
with
T-shirts
TEES can be
everyting - the
epitome of fashion, a
medium of expression
and a symbol of one’s
identity
28
nce upon a time, it was the epitome of cool, the
symbol of rebellious youth. Today, the T-shirt
makes even more of a statement, and that
statement is, well, whatever you want it to be,
really.
Anything can be printed on a T-shirt, and with new
technologies meaning anyone can be a designer, the Tshirt, is now, more than ever, both a collective and an individual mode of expression.
T-shirts say—or shout—something about their wearers
in a way no other fashion item can, boldly or subtly displaying feelings, attitudes, beliefs and loyalties. What T-shirts
do is create a connection between fashion, experience, social role and status.
“The T-shirt has evolved into more than just comfortable
daily wear,” says cultural observer Seno Gumira Ajidarma.
“It’s a medium of expression and to show one’s identity.”
Who could forget the great T-shirt battle between Hollywood hotties Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie over
Brad Pitt? Aniston may not have openly declared war with
Jolie during her divorce from Pitt, but when people started
showing up wearing T-shirts printed with either “Team
Aniston” or “Team Jolie”, everyone knew the heat was on.
That was 2005, and when the Jolie/Aniston T-shirts appeared in People magazine, people all over the world got
caught up, taking sides in the celebrity battle, including
young Indonesian fashionistas, who were easily able to get
hold of copies of the T-shirts in local distros (underground
clothing outlets).
Hollywood and Jakarta are thousands of miles from each
other, but the situation showed that through a simple item
of clothing, a single idea or cause could be shared and expressed by huge numbers of people.
The T-shirt has its own stories in Indonesia. As Seno
points out, political regime changes have marked the different faces of the T-shirt, which proved a means to idenMAY 1-7, 2009 • ASIANEWS
tify wearers’ characters and positions
during the New Order, reform and
post-reform eras.
“There was this kaos jaman orba
‘New Order T-shirt’, dating back to
1978,” Seno recalls. “It was part of the
struggle by that time; it was used as a
tool to show resistance.”
While the trend until then had been
to wear T-shirts as underwear, Seno explains, the item moved to become hip
outerwear in the late 1970s to send
messages such as “Kembalikan Indonesia Padaku” (Bring Indonesia back
to me) or “We Want A Clean Government!”, which was worn by students of
the University of Indonesia.
“At that time, the T-shirt was a result
of the strict political oppression. We also called it
kaos opini or kaos protes
‘opinion or protest Tshirt’,” Seno says.
The T-shirt remained a
popular medium to criticise the government until
the reform era in 1998, appearing side-by-side with
T-shirts for rock-n-roll
bands and designer brands
that had crept into the local fashion industry in the
1980s. “Retiring” from its
duty of criticising the government, the T-shirt took
on a new role during the
post-reform era: Entertainment.
“After the reform era in 1998, this
kind of protest T-shirt suddenly disappeared and was replaced with ‘humour
T-shirts’ like that produced by
‘Yogyakarta-based clothing company’
Dagadu and ‘Bali-based’ Joger.
“So there it was. No more serious Tshirts. All were done in funny lines and
graphics,” Seno says. “Even the hip
‘Tommy Hilfiger’ of the time was spun
into Tommy Keblinger ‘confused’.”
But the relationship between politics
and T-shirts was not laid to rest entirely
in the post-reform era. In 1999, colourful political campaign T-shirts started
appearing in big cities and small villages
alike. Unlike the three colours of Tshirts—yellow, green and red— symbolising the three opposing parties Golkar,
the United Development Party (PPP)
and the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI)—during the New Order era, this
period saw T-shirts multiply, with one
for each of the 48 competing parties.
An actor, who asked not to be named,
says he was into a “T-shirt craze” at that
time, collecting the T-shirts for almost
all of the 48 parties.
“I was in senior high school then. We
were in this democracy euphoria. I
went to parties’ events just to get free
T-shirts,” he says. “I thought it was cool
to own all of those T-shirts just to show
off to my friends. It was a great feeling
to look at the colourful T-shirts on the
clothesline in my backyard.”
Then the new millennium arrived.
The T-shirt has been following—and
sonalised T-shirts since last year. Most
of her customers are parents who want
to have pictures of their children emblazoned on their kids’ T-shirts.
“They sometimes want their kids’
names on the T-shirts, just to show off
the pretty names they gave to their children,” she laughs.
Other recent trends, Astrid adds, are
“advertisement T-shirts” displaying
brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks,
Walls, KFC and McDonald’s.
“It’s funny to think that there are
people who are willing to pay to advertise something. It’s like letting yourself
to become a walking billboard but
without getting paid,” Astrid says.
Looking fashionable? Check. Person-
setting—fashion trends ever since,
giving local people whatever the global market offered. And thanks to
the sprouting of distros in the past
10 years, the T-shirt has become more
fashionable than ever. No longer just
a piece of cloth with colours and images, the T-shirt has fused with piques,
knits and details.
“Now, whether you want to look
casual or dressy, the T-shirt can do
that for you,” says Astrid, who owns
a clothing outlet in Plaza Semanggi
mall in South Jakarta.
These days, she says, people are
clamoring for personalised T-shirts
more than ever. And thanks to
technological developments, “we
can even have our own face printed
onto a T-shirt”.
Astrid’s shop has been making per-
alised? Check. Anything else?
“Well, a T-shirt is not something that
is going to break your budget.” Astrid
says. “Unless it’s an imported or limited
piece, most T-shirts are affordable.
Plus, there are so many choices to fit
your taste,” she adds, pointing to the
shop next to her, which has on display
an array of the bright colourful tie-dye
T-shirts so popular in the 1960s.
“That’s the latest trend: the Generasi
Bunga (Flower Generation) or hippie
T-shirt. Trendy but not expensive—
only around 30,000 rupiah (US$3)
each,” she says.
Offering the trifecta of being hip, affordable and individual, the T-shirt is
firmly in many people’s hearts and
wardrobes, although still holding onto
a touch of rebellion, given all those “No
T-shirts allowed” signs out there.
29
PEOPLE
Beauty With
Brawn
Beefy Joan Liew turns heads (and elicits
comments) wherever she goes
KUALA LUMPUR
Revathi Murugappan
The Star
W
hen Singaporean
Joan Liew walks
past, people gape
and heads turn.
Yes, she’s attractive, has a presence and oozes sensuality. While she is feminine, she is unlike
your typical waif-like model—her body
ripples with muscle.
When we step into the gym at Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur
to take a few photographs, the male
trainers cannot take their eyes off her.
Others steal glances but Liew is oblivious to it all.
Bodybuilder Joan Liew confesses to
being vain about her appearance;
“People stare all the time,” shrugs the
33-year-old professional bodybuilder,
flexing her biceps.
“This sport is just an extension of my
interest in the arts — to create an aesthetically beautiful body out of nothing. You are in control of your body,
and, in time, you can create whatever
body shape you want,” she explains.
It sure isn’t easy for a woman to
build muscles because of the lack
of testosterone in the female body,
and for that, people salute Liew,
who clinched gold medals at
the 2000, 2002 and 2006
Asian Women’s Bodybuilding Championship. She
also emerged seventh in
the World Games in 2001
and competed in the World Amateur
Championships in 2007.
30
For now, Liew is taking a break from
competition to focus on expanding her
business.
Women tend to shy away from the
sport because of the gender stereotypes.
Hence, there is a dearth of female bodybuilders in Asia. Malaysia stopped promoting women’s bodybuilding in 1989
because the National Sports Council
doesn’t encourage participation, due to
the way participants are attired.
Female bodybuilders are often subject
to ridicule, and Liew has experienced
her fair share of harsh comments. If
you’re Asian, female and muscular,
you’re typecast as being buff or a lesbian.
“People have told me that I’m
ugly, that I will never find a boyfriend, and what a waste since ‘you
have such a pretty face’. One fellow
even asked me whether I was male
or female,” Liew sighs.
On the flip side of things, she also has
her admirers and a growing fan base.
“Oh, and I’m very vain,” she giggles.
“I believe in being well-groomed. I follow a good skincare routine, moisturise, visit a hair- stylist, wear heels, make
up and dress fashionably.”
Homeward
Bound
On returning to India, Kashmir-born
Ferena Wazeir has landed several big
projects in the Hindi film industry and
one with Oscar-winning director Danis
Tanovic
KOLKATA
Mathures Paul
The Statesman
A
THE STATESMAN
fter Deepka Padukone, a
number of young talented
actresses who are raised
abroad are all set to face
the spotlight in India.
Besides Shruti Seth and Shruti
Haasan, another contender
for a leading spot in the
industry is Ferena
Wazeir, whose family
has strong ties with
Kashmir but she was
brought up in Scotland. Once she returned
to India, it was only a
matter of time before
she landed important roles in films
directed by the
Hindi film
industry’s
leading
directors.
Wazeir will soon be seen in Ketan
Mehta’s period epic Rang Rasiya—
produced by Deepa Sahi—which is
based on Raja Ravi Varma’s life. She
essays the role of a journalist and the
‘third love’ in the painter’s life. Wazeir
has also landed a three-movie deal with
a major studio in Bollywood. Adding to
her kitty is Sadiyaan, a Raj Kanwar
movie that features Indian actors Luv
Sinha, Rekha, Rishi Kapoor and Hema
Malini. Well, that’s not all. The beauty
from Scotland has signed on a Hollywood project with Danis Tanovic, the
Oscar-winning director for No Man’s
Land. Also in the pipeline is a movie
with Soni Razdan, the adaptation of
Little Daughters, and Deepa Sahi’s
Nana Karte Pyar.
Speaking to The Statesman, the
young actress said her role as a journalist and a socialite in the 19th century in Rang Rasiya was not the most
difficult of roles.
“Getting into the character wasn’t
very tough as I often meet a number
of socialites in Mumbai and I often
interact with journalists. Since the
character is slightly on the older side,
I had to make my body language a
little more mature.”
She added that Rang Rasiya is certainly a very relevant film for our times.
“What Raja Ravi Varma (one of India’s
greatest artists) went through during
his lifetime, people like MF Husain is
going through today. There is still suppression when it comes to freedom of
artists. The intolerant attitude of society is easily understood.”
31
The Star
EXPLORE
EARTHLY PARADISE: The Bai Causeway (Baidi), constructed 1,200 years ago by Tang Dynasty poet-governor Bai Juyi.
Paradise
Comes Alive
Exquisite gardens and restored historical
edifices around West Lake recall Hangzhou’s
past as the finest city in the world
HANGZHOU
Ziying
The Star
S
ome years ago, I picked up a
book titled Daily Life in
China on the Eve of the
Mongol Invasion at a library
sale. Written by French historian Jacques Gernet in the 1950s, it
takes a detailed look at the life and
times of 13th century China, particu32
larly in the southern Song capital of
Hangzhou whose location at the southern terminus of the ‘Jinghang’ Grand
Canal brought it untold riches.
With a population of over a million,
Hangzhou was then the largest and
wealthiest metropolis in existence.
Marco Polo reportedly called it “the finest and noblest city in the world”.
Many still consider Hangzhou the
most beautiful city in China, though
when I first visited in the late-1990s, it
seemed that every important cultural or
historical site had been ravaged by the
Cultural Revolution and the city was
still struggling to put itself together.
Ten years on and with an urban population of just under 4 million,
2,200-year-old Hangzhou is well on its
way to regaining its former status as a
‘heaven on earth’, especially since much
has been done to restore or reconstruct
the sites around the iconic West Lake
(Xihu). Among them is the thousandyear-old Leifeng Pagoda (Leifengta)
where Madam White Snake of the
Ming Dynasty novel Legend of the
White Snake was trapped by monk Fahai. The structure collapsed in 1924 because, according to our guide, people
removed the bricks thinking they contained hidden gold; others say the rural
folk believed the bricks could cure illness and prevent miscarriage.
A few years ago, Leifengta was rebuilt over the original foundations
which have been preserved in a gallery
under the new tower. I noted with
mixed emotions the contemporary interior and ‘improvements’ that have
made the pagoda, which sits on a small
hill, more accessible but which have
also deprived it of its ancient character.
Two long flights of external escalators lead up the hill to the ground
level from which glass-encased lifts
take visitors to the fourth floor. AlMAY 1-7, 2009 • ASIANEWS
though we enjoyed panoramic views
of the lovely West Lake and the city
from the fifth level, there was little
sense left of the colourful tales associated with Leifengta.
Another significant site is a shrine
dedicated to the larger-than-life national hero, General Yue Fei, whose
12th century exploits against the Jin
invaders of the north have been celebrated in innumerable stories, plays
and operas. Yue Fei was on the verge
of victory when he was recalled by
Hui and wife—half-naked and with
hands bound behind them—kneel facing the tombs in eternal humiliation
and penance. Such was the ire of the
people that they made dough sticks to
represent the reviled couple and fried
them for breakfast; thus was invented
the youtiao or, in Cantonese, yau-zhaguai (oil-fried devil).
It appears that nearly nine centuries
after Yue Fei’s death, anger against the
couple has not abated. A sign above the
kneeling statues tell people not to spit
LANDMARK PAGODA: Leifengta (in the
background) viewed from the grounds of
the 10th century Jingci Chan (Zen) Temple.
the southern Song Emperor, framed
and executed together with his son.
The official Qin Hui who advocated
negotiating with the enemy was instrumental to his death.
A commemorative plaque with the
words “Return our rivers and mountains” emblazoned in gold hangs above
a large statue of the much-loved general in the memorial temple. From
there a small side gate leads to the
modest mausoleum of Yue Fei (Yuefeimu) and his son, their high status evidenced only by stone figurines that
flank the way to the burial mounds.
Iron sculptures of the traitorous Qin
(on them); there was a
patch on Qin Hui’s head
where someone had
drilled a hole and I was
startled when a young
man strode up and
whacked the ‘traitor’ with
a rolled-up newspaper.
The entire Jiangnan
region south of the Yangtze River is home to numerous garden villas
where landscaping has
been raised to a fine art.
However, few have the
Guo Villa’s advantage of
location on the West Lake. Our guide
said this elegant mid-19th century
manor used to be the residence of the
Duke of Fenyang, hence its alternative
name Fenyang Bieshu.
With sweeping grey roofs, white
walls, unembellished windows and
wooden arched bridges, the estate is exceptionally beautiful. Graceful pavilions extend over tranquil ponds amidst
gardens so lush they partially obscure
the parchitecture and the indispensable
rock arrangements.
It was quiet that day at Fenyang
Bieshu, with few tourists. A white
duck napped on a rock in a brook;
every view through the picture windows in the garden walls was postcard
perfect, and there, beyond a gazebo
surrounded by camellia bushes, the
waters of the famous Lake.
Our guide said plans are under way
to expand the West Lake as historical
records show it used to be much larger.
Meanwhile, it was reported that to
preserve the natural beauty of the area,
lakeside buildings over 24m tall will be
lowered. The city’s ultimate objective is
to list the West Lake as a Unesco World
Heritage site.
The luxuriant parks around the lake
were certainly gorgeous in late autumn
last year. With hectares of immaculate
lawns and ponds, pavilions and bridges
half-concealed by willows, small red
maples and endless varieties of flowering and non-flowering shrubs, it was a
living coffee-table book.
I was there again recently when the
pink, white and red peach blossoms
were in flower. Hangzhou’s West Lake
in spring is certainly as close to heaven
as one can get.
SINNERS FOREVER:
Traitors Qin Hui and
wife do eternal
penance.
33
DATEBOOK
AS I AN CIV IL ISATI ONS MU S E M
H O N G KO N G
Asian Flower/Art Exhibition
2009
T
his exhibition provides a spectacular
display of excellent works by over 100
Japanese, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong
flower arrangement masters, making
it a premium platform for cultural exchanges and sharing of expertise on Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging).
When: May 8-17, 10am-8pm
Where: Atrium and Centre Bridge of
Cityplaza, Taikooshing
Admission: Free
Info: +852-2811-3036
Thrissur Pooram
A
silk parasols, they carry the town’s precious
deities high on their backs in a celebration of
life and living.
ailed as one of China’s greatest emperors, the Kangxi Emperor, XuanYe, succeeded his father, Emperor Shunzhi, at the
tender age of eight. During his reign (1662 to
1722), the Manchus consolidated rule over
China and the Chinese empire expanded. The
Kangxi Emperor’s many achievements can be
attributed to his passion and competence in
his various roles. He was an astute ruler,
skilled warrior, keen scholar and patron of the
arts. His intellect, political acumen, diverse
talents and civic virtues won him the admiration and support of his subjects.
This exhibition showcases treasures from
the Palace Museum, Beijing, and offers visitors a rare glimpse into the Forbidden City.
When: Ongoing until June 14
Where: Asian Civilisations Museum
Info: www.acm.org.sg
When: May 3
TO KYO
Kanda Matsuri
T
his is a vibrant religious festival in Tokyo’s downtown Shitamachi area, held in honour of
Kanda Myojin Shrine’s deities
(kami). Locals in traditional “happi coats” parade through the
streets while chanting, dancing
and carrying golden portable
shrines (mikoshi).
The full-on festival takes place
every two years (those ending in
odd numbers), but a smaller scale
celebration also happens in the
even-numbered years in between.
When: May 7-15
Where: Kanda Myojin Shrine
34
Treasures From The Forbidden City
H
THRISSUR, INDIA
pooram is defined as “a
meeting point of all the
arts”, and this one in the
town of Thrissur is considered to be the mother of all
poorams, a wonderfully diverse festival that is one of
Kerala’s cultural highlights.
An explosion of fireworks
greets the first rays of the
morning sun, signalling the start of festivities
as the percussive orchestra strikes up and elephants emerge from the many temples
around the town. Lavishly decorated with peacock feathers, jewels and brightly-coloured
S I N GA P O R E
BO RO B U D U R
Waisak Festival
I
ndonesians celebrate the Waisak Festival,
remembering the birth, enlightenment and
death of Buddha at Borobudur, the world’s
largest Buddhist monument. The festival is
celebrated on the full moon in May each year.
The five-mile pilgrimage from Mendut to
the serene sitting Buddha on the top of
Borobudur is walked by hundreds of monks in
saffron robes carrying offerings of flowers and
candles. As the moon rises over the horizon,
throwing white light onto the smooth stone
exterior of the ancient temple, candles are lit
and the monks begin praying, meditating and
chanting well into the evening, a vision guaranteed to remain with you forever.
When: May 9
HGRS_AsiaNewsAdvtv2_080807.qxp:Layout 1
8/31/07
9:29 AM
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hands off racism - Asia News Network

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