What makes a word “real”?

Fascinating talk about language. Have a watch of this TEDx UofM talk, What makes a word “real”? Worth a watch. In this talk, you will learn: Adorkable = Adorable + Dork

Disclosure: I secretly LOVE languages use by people. My primary and high school English & Chinese Languages teachers may strong disagree! :)

TED Ref: http://www.ted.com/talks/anne_curzan_what_makes_a_word_real

Wedding gift: “An Old Sweetheart of Mine” stanza translation by Andrew W.F. Wong 黃宏發

A stanza from An Old Sweetheart of Mine – by James Whitcomb Riley
translation by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa) 譯者: 黃宏發

My wife and I want to say a special thank you to Mr. Andrew W.F. Wong 黃宏發 (Andrew was the last President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong during British rule) for taking time to translate the special stanza from “An Old Sweetheart of Mine” I used in my marriage proposal and wedding announcement (of which I only shared the first line).

Here is Andrew’s translation (which he humbly calls “hastily attempted … translation”, borrowing 同心, 情依依, 異路, 相…時 from Lin Yu-tang 林語堂‘s attempt) of the same stanza in four 7-character lines (七言絕句):-

同心永結情依依
青絲成雪愛不移
陰陽異路難言笑
仍待天國相擁時

credit: translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa) 譯者: 黃宏發

Notes:

“An Old Sweetheart of Mine” stanza by James Whitcomb Riley (1902)

“When I should be her lover
forever and a day,
And she my faithful sweetheart
till the golden hair was gray;
And we should be so happy
that when either’s lips were dumb
They would not smile in Heaven
till the other’s kiss had come.”

林語堂 翻譯的同一節詩 Lin Yu-tang‘s translation of the stanza:

同心相牽掛，一縷情依依。
歲月如梭逝，銀絲鬢已稀。
幽冥倘異路，仙府應淒淒。
若欲開口笑，除非相見時。

An Old Sweetheart of Mine – by James Whitcomb Riley
with Lin Yu-tang 林語堂 translation

P.S. I wish I had the opportunity to meet Andrew in person but I haven’t had the pleasure yet. Andrew’s fair minded and excellent work during his time as President of the Legislative Council of HK remind HKers the fond memories we miss these days in HK. My wife and I were really happily surprised to see Andrew taking time to translate the beautiful stanza for our wedding which we take as a special gift.

In recent years, it has been my pleasure to read Andrew’s poetry translation work at his fascinating blog “Classical Chinese Poems in English” once in a while to revisit some classic Chinese poems along with Andrew’s graceful English translations to relax my mind. Which is why I reached out to Andrew to ask him a translation question about“An Old Sweetheart of Mine”. Thanks again Andrew for your beautiful translation to help celebrate our wedding!

And yes Andrew, it is indeed been my (now “our”) ambitious plan to work hard on our marriage, love each other dearly, stay healthy for each other, etc etc so that I can present this stanza to my wife on our 50th Wedding Anniversary in 50 years time.

The true measurement of a person’s worth

Adding this to my long list of Quotes I Love,

“The true measurement of a person’s worth isn’t what they say they believe in, but what they do in defense of those beliefs. If you’re not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren’t real.” – Edward Snowden as quoted in No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald

Opening Windows and Doors

Database search of Long Hair Revolution at Library and Archives Canada=

It will always be one of my great honours to have my first documentary in 2005 “Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命)” be placed and collected by the National Archive of Canada (Government of Canada Item Number (ISN) 416953 at Library and Archives Canada). At the same time, as an independent filmmaker with limited resource, I’ve tried, shamelessly, to leverage this honour help me open many windows and doors in my documentary making journey.

I often mention”Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命)” and sometimes the National Archive connection (like today) when  arranging face-to-face or Skype video interviews, requesting copyright owners’ permissions to use their works (photos, artworks, video clips, etc) to help give myself instant “credibility” and hopefully smooth things out. Opening these windows and doors are crucial to my ability to try to make (HKtv+Umbrella)Revolution (香港電視+雨傘)革命 a reasonably “good” documentary since part 2 my documentaries (namely the “Umbrella Revolution” part) is heavily (or almost totally) “crowd sourced”.

P.S. To my friends and supporters: Yes, I am trying to fix the giant 10 years gap between my first documentary and my second film! I guess which is why I am making my 2nd and 3rd film together! Will see what happen.

I’d been waiting decades for a speech like that

Adding this to my long list of Quotes I Love,

“I’d been waiting decades for a speech like that.” – Jeff Daniel (Source THR: Jeff Daniels’ Two Faces: “How Many Guys Can Go From ‘Newsroom’ to ‘Dumb and Dumber’?”)

P.S. Here is “the speech” in The Newsroom pilot,

P.P.S. On a semi-related note. Here is Jeff’s Emmy post-award winning press conference raw Q&A video. Worth a watch. Jeff won his first Emmy and then he said he would party till dawn and then flew to start shooting Dumb and Dumber to!

Help make it happen for documentary HKtv Umbrella Revolution

HKtv Umbrella Revolution – Indiegogo page

You can click this Indiegogo project link right now to contribute or click on the above picture to bring you to our Indiegogo project page. Here are some information about the documentary with an extensive Q&A for your information.

“(香港電視+雨傘) 革命 (HKtv+Umbrella) Revolution” is a documentary consisting of two volumes/parts. Volume 1 is “香港電視革命 HKtv Revolution” and Volume 2 is “雨傘革命 Umbrella Revolution”.

Volume 1 “香港電視革命 HKtv Revolution”

Volume 1 is about the HKTV protests and TV license issuance disputes seen through the eyes of eleven people: the HKTV10, ten HKTV employees who camped and protested at the Civic Square “公民廣場” in front of HKSAR government HQ (香港電視政總留守十子，簡稱「留守十子」) for days, and Kashy Keegan, singer/songwriter of “This is my dream”, a song selected by HKTV for a TV show which later became a de facto HKTV protest song. Filming and interviews for “HKtv Revolution” started in October 2013 during days of massive protests resulted from Chief Executive Mr. Leung Chun-ying HKSAR government’s rejection of HKTV’s license application. The director has made good progress to finish up volume 1 in August/early September 2014 but then 雨傘革命 Umbrella Revolution happened in late September 2014! Since the director sees HKTV protests as the beginning of something bigger, the  film was naturally expanded to include “雨傘革命 Umbrella Revolution”.

Volume 2 “雨傘革命 Umbrella Revolution”

Volume 2 is about the ongoing (over one month long) massive protests in multiple areas of Hong Kong including Admiralty 金鐘, Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣 and Mong Kok 旺角. The director has organized many video clips, photos, artworks from 40+ trusted sources who have experienced Umbrella Revolution on the ground in Hong Kong or have something special to say. If possible, depending on the funds raised in the campaign, the director may consider taking a trip to HK to conduct some in-person interviews and shoot some footage. Paradoxically, the director sees not being in HK has freed his mind to look at the bigger picture. 雨傘革命 Umbrella Revolution is a powerful movement because of the large number of people involved and not by one or a few people alone. Materials from 40+ trusted sources have certainly given the director a different (and likely better) look on things on the ground of Umbrella Revolution.

Please contribute to make this project a reality!

Your contributions small or big can help make “(HKtv + Umbrella) Revolution ( 香港電視 + 雨傘 ) 革命” a reality! Contribution levels start from just one Canadian dollar (which is about HK$7) and you get my BIG Thank You! Really, every contribution counts! Everyone supporting by even a small amount will add up collectively! Witness what HKers have achieved collectively in the last few weeks.

At Canadian $11 (about HK$77) “Level 2 – Revolution Watcher”, you will receive a link to watch the film online when it is available. Plus thanks in the film!! YES, the end credits will include the line “Crowd funded by” with YOUR NAME (using your Indiegogo contribution name)!

At Canadian $22 (about HK$154) “Level 3 – Revolution HD”, you will, in addition to Level 2 rewards, receive an HD digital download of “(HKtv + Umbrella) Revolution ( 香港電視 + 雨傘 ) 革命“ when it is available (after film festival screenings to make the festivals happy).

At Canadian $33 (about HK$231) “Level 4 – Revolution Trilogy“, you will, in addition to Level 2 & 3 rewards,  receive an SD digital download of director’s debut documentary “Long Hair Revolution 長毛革命” (2005) featuring Hon Leung Kwok Hung 梁國雄議員. In 2009, Long Hair Revolution received the honour to be included in the Canadian federal government’s “Library and Archives Canada” permanent collection.

There are seven contribution levels with many rewards listed on the right side of this page, so feel free to select any amount of contributions that fits you!

Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命) in “Library and Archives Canada”

As an independent filmmaker, I try to make films that I think will be interesting and hopefully insightful to watch. If I had waited for someone’s approval or proper funding in 2004, I would not

We pave the sunlit path toward justice together

Adding this to my long list of Quotes I Love,

“We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.” – Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), in “I’m proud to be gay” (2014, Oct 30th)