Hwei informed me that father is in hospital. Immediately the decision is to fly home and see father. It is really heart breaking when time to leave him and fly back to Taiwan.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Singapore trip - November 2017
Singapore trip - November 2017
Day 1 :- November 17, Friday
Flight TR899 -1555 to 2050hrs, TPE to SIN
((迁墓时间表))
Day 2:- 18/11/17, 0700am, 咖啡山， 动土仪式。再到蔡厝港动土. (祭品x3+土地公, 法师)
> Botanical garden, orchid garden
> Temasek for lunch.
> Birthday dinner with Dick, LayHoon, Hwei, GeeMin
Day3:- 19/11/17, Sunday, 星期天 (十月初二)。8pm, 晚上。
在咖啡山挖掘，拾骨头。隨后再到蔡厝港墓地。
(祭品x3，土地公)
> Morning excerise at Bukit Batok
> Jurong for breafast, carrot cake
> Lunch with BK and Harry Koh
Day4:- 20/11/17, 10am, 早上。 焚化在蔡厝港。 再到万里安位。
光輝：-拜祭品我会准备。
> Morning breakfast appointment with father and Hwei
> POSB banking
Day5:- November 21, Tuesday
Flight TR992-1350 to 1840hrs, SIN to TPE
+++++++++++++++
Day 1 :- November 17, Friday
Flight TR899 -1555 to 2050hrs, TPE to SIN
((迁墓时间表))
Day 2:- 18/11/17, 0700am, 咖啡山， 动土仪式。再到蔡厝港动土. (祭品x3+土地公, 法师)
> Botanical garden, orchid garden
> Temasek for lunch.
> Birthday dinner with Dick, LayHoon, Hwei, GeeMin
Day3:- 19/11/17, Sunday, 星期天 (十月初二)。8pm, 晚上。
在咖啡山挖掘，拾骨头。隨后再到蔡厝港墓地。
(祭品x3，土地公)
> Morning excerise at Bukit Batok
> Jurong for breafast, carrot cake
> Lunch with BK and Harry Koh
Day4:- 20/11/17, 10am, 早上。 焚化在蔡厝港。 再到万里安位。
光輝：-拜祭品我会准备。
> Morning breakfast appointment with father and Hwei
> POSB banking
Day5:- November 21, Tuesday
Flight TR992-1350 to 1840hrs, SIN to TPE
+++++++++++++++
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| In my memory, prephaps the first time visiting Botanical Garden with family members. My children memory stays at Mother bringing out to Botanical Garden outside hawker centre for a meal, nice memory. |
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| Father having a good time with his usual FISH & CHIPS |
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| Dinner with family at the CCK garden-style Restaurant. |
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| The prayer session conducted in Year 2017, well before the actual moving date in Year 2018 |
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| Managed to catch up with old friends, Harry Koh and Choo Beng Kee from NTU. |
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Year 2017 December Visitors from Singapore
5th uncle and family including their 2 old years boy. A big party indid and rare for the whole family to visit me. So happy. |
| Fifth Uncle and PeiYee family visit |
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| ZhiChao and Family visit with three energentic children |
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| Old Classmate from Singapore Polytechnic |
Sunday, November 05, 2017
First Primary School classmate catching up.
This is our first time meeting after PSLE, Farrer Primary School in year 1975, Which is more than 30years already. WAH ! Are we old already.
I went to Dunearn and Alex Goh You Ming went to Whitley Secondary. Alex is happily married with one Son in Army and a younger daughter in Secondary 2.
We have a catch-up chat at Camma coffee shop, toghether with Jenny.
Sunday, October 01, 2017
Singapore Trip , October 2017
October 2017 Singapore trip (celebrate Father's Birthday)
10/4, Wednesday -SIA flight. SQ877, 1420-1845, Terminal 2
Hwei say he will be fetching us.
10/5, Thursday
... Lunch appointment with 健茂 , 伴手禮：奶蘇
... Meet Chiam at Bugis Junction fountain, 6.30pm - dinner is fish soup.
... 伴手禮：薑母茶一包
10/6, Friday -
... Poly classmate dinner AMK @ Ellenben Sri-Lanka Crab, 伴手禮：奶蘇
10/7, Saturday - ))) Free day
10/8, Sunday -
... Father birthday party - proposed lunch
... Sunday - Poly@Dover Road. 5pm - 10pm
10/9, Monday - departure , SQ878, 1155-1640, Terminal 3
... Take MRT to airport. Father sent us to the airport.
======================================
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| Delicious Hokkien-style meal with family |
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| Family photograph together |
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| CLS Poly Gathering |
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| Chiam and Hui Huang for Dinner near Bugis |
Saturday, July 08, 2017
Kent Ding 2017/7/7-8
It's a hot summer day at KenDing area. The Ocean park is still the same, and the SAF Starlight camp still standing there.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
S'porean Chinese culture and language proficiency
What I think about when I think about S'porean Chinese culture
By Ho Ai Li , Published on 2017/6/15 in Straits Times
We were trying to practise texting in Chinese.
"Hao qi dai," she wrote, a phrase that has a kind of bright-eyed earnestness similar to "can't wait".
I told my friend, a Singaporean who has spent many years overseas, the phrase was a lot more likely to come out of the mouth of a Taiwanese than a Singaporean. It was just too effusive and thus unlike the Mandarin used here - what you hear in food courts, for example - which, I would argue, tends to have a gruff quality.
This got me thinking about what defines Singaporean Chineseness, a topic Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about recently at the opening of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre in Shenton Way.
Mr Lee said Singaporeans can speak of a Singaporean Chinese culture, just as there is a Singaporean Malay culture or a Singaporean Indian culture, 50 years after the country's independence. I agree. While the experiences of Chinese Singaporeans do differ based on age, class, religion and social backgrounds - such as whether one's family is Peranakan - there is a broad Chinese Singaporean culture which has been shaped by the media, the Speak Mandarin Campaign and the bilingual language policy.
As a child of the 1980s, and what turned out to be the springtime of homegrown Mandarin songs - xinyao - and Channel 8 dramas, these are what I immediately think about in terms of Singaporean Chinese culture.
In those pre-Internet days, TV broadcasts served as unifier and social glue. Many 1980s Channel 8 dramas focused on socio-historical themes that try and define the Singaporean Chinese identity.
The Awakening, the landmark series about Chinese immigrants to Singapore which made stars of Xiang Yun and the late Huang Wenyong, showed the progress of Singapore from an immigrant society to a newly industrialising nation. Likewise, Samsui Women, about the women from Sanshui, Guangdong, who worked as construction workers in Singapore, underlined the work ethic, thrift and selflessness of those pioneer migrants.
A simple way of life and an emphasis on social mobility through education was reflected in kampung-based dramas such as Son Of Pulau Tekong and Good Morning, Sir, while shows such as The Coffeeshop and Neighbours depict life and good community relations in the then-new HDB towns.
SONGS FROM SINGAPORE
As for xinyao, these made-in-Singapore songs, mainly in Mandarin, gave voice to what it felt like to come of age in Singapore in the 1980s and 1990s. There were songs of youth, romance and even exams. This folk-song movement paved the way for the success of Singapore singers such as Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin in the wider Chinese-speaking world, in a projection of Singapore's soft power.
On a more wistful note, the rise of Mandarin in tandem with the demise of dialects has led to a gradual loss of customs and traditions.
A 1957 census of Singapore's then population of about 1.4 million, found that the top mother tongues were Hokkien (30 per cent), Teochew (17 per cent) and Cantonese (15 per cent) respectively. Only 0.1 per cent spoke Mandarin and 1.8 per cent English. Now, these latter two are the most dominant mother tongues in homes here, especially English.
My birth year, 1979, marked the start of the Speak Mandarin Campaign and ushered in the gradual decline of Chinese dialects here, with dialect programmes largely banished from the air waves. I count myself lucky that I could speak simple Hokkien and Cantonese with my late grandparents, but many people cannot speak their grandparents' tongues these days.
While Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese cultures are quite similar, one difference has to do with dialects - younger Malaysian Chinese tend to be more fluent in these tongues.
In the one-woman play Actor, Forty by Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann earlier this year, for example, she switches between Chinese dialects and different varieties of Mandarin with great ease. I think few Singaporeans around the same age have the same fluency.
CHINESE LANGUAGE THE UNDERDOG?
This brings me to another aspect of Singaporean Chinese culture - the "anglicisation" of Chinese and its falling standards.
Most Chinese Singaporeans in their 30s or younger, like myself, stopped learning Chinese by the end of secondary school or junior college. And with many people hardly reading or writing the language after leaving school, Chinese has become more of a vernacular that one uses mainly to order food in coffee shops, for instance. The language is an underdog compared with English and often seen to be tied to a lower socio-economic status. There is a general impression that the Mandarin used here is simple and unrefined. It may be because many of us do not have the vocabulary to speak fluently about current affairs in Mandarin.
This can be said of my parents' or grandparents' generation, who were not as fortunate and might not have had many years of schooling. It can also be said of my generation and the next, as most subjects in school are taught in English. For many of us who went through the bilingual school system, English is often our dominant language. We think mainly in English, and our use of Chinese is affected by English. It means the way we think and approach problems tends to be different from that of the Chinese in China. That, in a way, may explain why we sometimes have hiccups in our relationship with the Chinese, be it over the Suzhou Industrial Park or the South China Sea.
Despite Singapore's much- lauded bilingual policy, it takes effort for many of us to string together a sentence in Mandarin without mixing in English. Just watch Channel 8 news and see how the average Singaporean stumbles in Mandarin.
======================END
By Ho Ai Li , Published on 2017/6/15 in Straits Times
We were trying to practise texting in Chinese.
"Hao qi dai," she wrote, a phrase that has a kind of bright-eyed earnestness similar to "can't wait".
I told my friend, a Singaporean who has spent many years overseas, the phrase was a lot more likely to come out of the mouth of a Taiwanese than a Singaporean. It was just too effusive and thus unlike the Mandarin used here - what you hear in food courts, for example - which, I would argue, tends to have a gruff quality.
This got me thinking about what defines Singaporean Chineseness, a topic Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about recently at the opening of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre in Shenton Way.
Mr Lee said Singaporeans can speak of a Singaporean Chinese culture, just as there is a Singaporean Malay culture or a Singaporean Indian culture, 50 years after the country's independence. I agree. While the experiences of Chinese Singaporeans do differ based on age, class, religion and social backgrounds - such as whether one's family is Peranakan - there is a broad Chinese Singaporean culture which has been shaped by the media, the Speak Mandarin Campaign and the bilingual language policy.
As a child of the 1980s, and what turned out to be the springtime of homegrown Mandarin songs - xinyao - and Channel 8 dramas, these are what I immediately think about in terms of Singaporean Chinese culture.
In those pre-Internet days, TV broadcasts served as unifier and social glue. Many 1980s Channel 8 dramas focused on socio-historical themes that try and define the Singaporean Chinese identity.
The Awakening, the landmark series about Chinese immigrants to Singapore which made stars of Xiang Yun and the late Huang Wenyong, showed the progress of Singapore from an immigrant society to a newly industrialising nation. Likewise, Samsui Women, about the women from Sanshui, Guangdong, who worked as construction workers in Singapore, underlined the work ethic, thrift and selflessness of those pioneer migrants.
A simple way of life and an emphasis on social mobility through education was reflected in kampung-based dramas such as Son Of Pulau Tekong and Good Morning, Sir, while shows such as The Coffeeshop and Neighbours depict life and good community relations in the then-new HDB towns.
SONGS FROM SINGAPORE
As for xinyao, these made-in-Singapore songs, mainly in Mandarin, gave voice to what it felt like to come of age in Singapore in the 1980s and 1990s. There were songs of youth, romance and even exams. This folk-song movement paved the way for the success of Singapore singers such as Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin in the wider Chinese-speaking world, in a projection of Singapore's soft power.
On a more wistful note, the rise of Mandarin in tandem with the demise of dialects has led to a gradual loss of customs and traditions.
A 1957 census of Singapore's then population of about 1.4 million, found that the top mother tongues were Hokkien (30 per cent), Teochew (17 per cent) and Cantonese (15 per cent) respectively. Only 0.1 per cent spoke Mandarin and 1.8 per cent English. Now, these latter two are the most dominant mother tongues in homes here, especially English.
My birth year, 1979, marked the start of the Speak Mandarin Campaign and ushered in the gradual decline of Chinese dialects here, with dialect programmes largely banished from the air waves. I count myself lucky that I could speak simple Hokkien and Cantonese with my late grandparents, but many people cannot speak their grandparents' tongues these days.
While Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese cultures are quite similar, one difference has to do with dialects - younger Malaysian Chinese tend to be more fluent in these tongues.
In the one-woman play Actor, Forty by Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann earlier this year, for example, she switches between Chinese dialects and different varieties of Mandarin with great ease. I think few Singaporeans around the same age have the same fluency.
CHINESE LANGUAGE THE UNDERDOG?
This brings me to another aspect of Singaporean Chinese culture - the "anglicisation" of Chinese and its falling standards.
Most Chinese Singaporeans in their 30s or younger, like myself, stopped learning Chinese by the end of secondary school or junior college. And with many people hardly reading or writing the language after leaving school, Chinese has become more of a vernacular that one uses mainly to order food in coffee shops, for instance. The language is an underdog compared with English and often seen to be tied to a lower socio-economic status. There is a general impression that the Mandarin used here is simple and unrefined. It may be because many of us do not have the vocabulary to speak fluently about current affairs in Mandarin.
This can be said of my parents' or grandparents' generation, who were not as fortunate and might not have had many years of schooling. It can also be said of my generation and the next, as most subjects in school are taught in English. For many of us who went through the bilingual school system, English is often our dominant language. We think mainly in English, and our use of Chinese is affected by English. It means the way we think and approach problems tends to be different from that of the Chinese in China. That, in a way, may explain why we sometimes have hiccups in our relationship with the Chinese, be it over the Suzhou Industrial Park or the South China Sea.
Despite Singapore's much- lauded bilingual policy, it takes effort for many of us to string together a sentence in Mandarin without mixing in English. Just watch Channel 8 news and see how the average Singaporean stumbles in Mandarin.
======================END
Thursday, June 08, 2017
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Singapore Polytechnic classmate drop by
It has been thirty years since we last graduate from Poly in Year 1983. A long time. Great to be able to meet each other.
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| Grabiel , Tan York Khoon , Samuel , Jenny , Kong Chieu |
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| Singaporean having a meal at Toastbox |
Saturday, December 10, 2016
SAROC event - Hsin Chu Day Trip
End of Year 2016 HsinChu outing organised by Doreen Leong for a group 30 persons. Have a happy time with fellow SGrean and lots of useful door gifts for memory. The gang is wonderful and programme goes smoothly and weather is just perfectly indented for!
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| Mee Hoon Factory Visit |
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| Glass Making Factory Visit |
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| Fishing Port - Grab all you can, pay by the kilogram |
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| The Killing/Clearing Zone. Jenny with Josephine. |
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| Micro-Beer Brewery. Drink all you can ... more beer. |
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Qing Ming Travel Plan for Year 2017
Jenny came along this trip to Singapore/
Second Auntie prepared lots of foods for mother.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
THULE Meeting at Philippines, Manila - October 2016
Always feel great to be part of the THULE APAC team. It draw the experience from different countries and sharing of experiences.
Saturday, October 08, 2016
Chinese New Year 2017
Travelling by Tiger Air
Plan ahead for the Year2017 Chinese New Year - May be we can celebrate it at Farrer Road old house.
1）1/26 - flight back to Singapore
2) 2/2 - Poly classmate dinner gathering
3) 2/3, Friday - Teahouse dinner gathering
4) 2/4, Saturday - Chua family lunch
5) 2/4, Saturday - Chiam NTU dinner. Gathering
6) 2/5, Sunday - lunch time reserve for CLS
Thursday, September 01, 2016
Beauty of Singapore Southern Islands
We should find a time to picnic at Singapore beautiful islands.
I think myself to been to a few of Singapore off shore islands, like St. Johns, Palau Sankeng, Coney Island, Palau Semakau.
Sunday, August 07, 2016
Singapore 51st National Day
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| Singapore Trade Representation (Ambassador) at Taiwan, Mr.Simon Wong |
It great backdrop to define what Singaporean likes, MAKAN !
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
London Trip - September 2016
LION KING ticketing
http://www.theatrepeople.com/book/calendar/1001/199
Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge)
The Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge is a covered bridge at St John's College, Cambridge University. It was built in 1831 and crosses the River Cam between the college's Third Court and New Court. The architect was Henry Hutchinson.[1][2]
It is named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice,[3] although they have little architecturally in common beyond the fact that they are both covered. The bridge, a Grade I listed building,[2] is one of Cambridge's main tourist attractions and Queen Victoria is said to have loved it more than any other spot in the city.[4]
A common myth states that it was the students who named this bridge "bridge of sighs," as the context of its existing within the college grounds means that the "sighs" are those of pre-exam students. This belief probably has much to do with the function of the bridge—linking two quadrangles of St John's College together in a covered path, as opposed to Kitchen Bridge, which is an open-air bridge. Students are rumoured for their sighs on proceeding from their quarters on the Backs to the tutors' offices in the main college quadrangle.
On two separate occasions, students have pulled the prank of dangling a car under the bridge. In the first incident (in June 1963), a 1928 Austin 7 was punted down the river using four punts that had been lashed together, then hoisted up under the bridge using ropes.[5] The second incident (in 1968) a Bond or Reliant Regal three-wheeler car was dangled under the bridge.[citation needed] In neither case was the bridge damaged.
The bridge was apparently a favourite spot of former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, having photos taken there when he was a student, in 1974 and 2000
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Shanghai Hagen Das Icecream time
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Father and Uncle Tan tour of Taiwan, May 1st to 8th 2016
It feel great for family and friends to be involved in all major activities. Happy picture.
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