今天下午到白田賽馬會創意藝術中心黑盒劇場捧好朋友賴恩慈的場<女人。型>，這是她到英國（應該沒記錯吧！）進修暫別香港前的最後一個演出。

整個劇的主旨是尊重和聆聽，劇場的設計美麗地配合。每一張櫈都戴上胸圍，尼龍線從天而降縱橫交錯，連繫眾生。最後完場一幕，更是震撼人心，美得不可以，原來每一個觀眾都是故事的主角或者是配角。

然而，縱有美麗的舞台，沒有深度的內容，一個劇沒有甚麼可觀。<女人。型>由八個女人的故事串連，每一個都發人深省，Sandra跟我都被打動；看到老婆婆那一段，我更流下眼淚。但當中老夫老妻的恩恩怨怨愛恨交纏、嫰模出賣身體的悲哀、同性戀、師生戀、只懂批評的自我防衛、渴望戀愛和性等等，都不是女性才獨有。既然是<女人。型>，一定有些是女性獨有的。以下是對於劇內對女性描述的反思：

月經！劇的第一個故事就是關於月經，相信沒有一個男人會說自己懂得女人月經的痛苦。月經雖然是一種痛苦，月經也有神聖的一面。我敢說，聖母瑪利亞生耶穌的前一個月還受月經煎熬。當然啦！要不然，怎樣做童貞女瑪利亞？如果從這方面看，月經難道不神聖嗎？沒有月經，就有我們；但沒有月經，就沒有耶穌。

懷孕和生BB，又是男人沒得經驗分享的事情。劇中最後一個故事就是一個女強人在工作與生孩子之間抉擇的故事。但這個故事可以再放大一點。其實，對於女性，她們抉擇的不是工作與生孩子，而是事業與家庭生活、事業與感情之間的取捨。這方面的痛苦，不在於有跟無，二者不可兼得。兩者之間不一定是取捨，兩者之間可以是平衡。平衡是困難的，但現實生活裡面很多女性都成功了；就像我們的媽媽，她們很多都是平衡高手、都是真英雄。再者，平衡當中，男性不一定有角色。現實生活中，有一些女性她們未必渴望男性的相陪，但她們卻渴望懷孕生孩子。我腦裡就想到以下的一段話：「現在老凹（打劫）！不是劫財，不是劫色，只要你一顆精蟲！對，只要一顆。你可以豪給我一萬幾千，但我只要一顆！」

最後，每個人都應該想一想，甚麼才是女性？應該有一個故事講一個變了性做女性的人，沒有月經，沒有生育能力，但是想跟男朋友結婚。究竟我們掛著反歧視的旗號，是不是同樣犯了企圖利用大多數來邊緣化少數的罪呢？究竟法律有沒有權去為一個人定性呢？她的痛苦又有誰明白呢？

女人這個話題真的很廣很深，要說的還有很多。無論怎樣，好像都只是女說女的，到現在還沒見過一個男的可以勇敢地站出來正正經經以尊重的角度談一談女性。這又是不是另外一種歧視呢？

說到這裡，我誠意推薦大家趁還來得及，看一看賴恩慈的<女人。型>。因為沒有聆聽，所有的意見都只是瞎吹。更何況香港不是人人都可以用一百分鐘做一台獨腳戲又能夠牽動人心，賴恩慈就可以。

PS：祝阿毛早日學成歸來，再給我們演好戲。好戲量，好！

Freedom in Mainland China sometimes is a joke!

TMGSS on YouTube

Since TMGSS opened her YouTube channel and became an internet content provider at the end of last October, the number of views of the video clips uploaded has recently exceeded 27000. We think that the figure is quite encouraging. Many students, parents, alumni and even directly related people are interested in the video clips uploaded. As we cannot stop anyone from uploading anything related to TMGSS onto the Internet, why don’t we upload our stuffs onto it? The figure proves that our objective is on the right track.

At the commencement of this school year, we opened another two mirror channels on Tudou (土豆网) and Youku (优酷).

TMGSS on Tudou
TMGSS on Youku

Why not? We have already had a pool of video clips. We have already uploaded several clips onto Tudou and Youku. Internet service providers of Mainland China form a new world to us. As the very first sight, they have more verbal information than pictoral information on each webpage. Fine! As Chinese, we should learn how to interact with Mainland dChina.

A few days ago, we were going to open a group on Tudou called Hong Kong Secondary School Education. Our objective as stated was to provide a platform for different education pratitioners to exchange pedagogical ideas in order to polish our pedagogical skills. The description was self-explanatory as no one would challenge that the present education was only about how a King or a Queen commands his/her subjects within the classroom.

Two days later, Tudou formally informed TMGSS that they saw no needs for such group and asked TMGSS to give more information to support will to open such group on Tudou. I, on behalf of the school, wrote our reply to persuade Tudou the neccessity of such group. But I was quite unhappy with Tudou.

Why do we need to persuade them to grant us such freedom of speech? Which part of our ideas violates their conditions? Is our intention dangerous to national security? What is education? Shouldn’t education pratitioners have chance to exchange their ideas?

I can only say that there is much we should learn about the ignorance of the “authorities” of Mainland China. In front of them, I only know that freedom is a kind of joke (or even bullshit).

I had a lesson with 2B today. When I came across the measurement of weight, I found that it was in kilograms.

“Do you use kilograms or pounds to measure weight?” I asked students of 2B as I grew up in the age of English measurement instead of metric measurement.

“Kilograms!” several students replied at the same time.

“Really? When I was small, I used only pounds to measure weight. The World is changing fast,” I exclaimed.

“This is because we are much YOUNGER, Mr Chan,” an innocent boy butted in. I could not help but laugh out.

“I know. Thank you for reminding me of our difference in age,” I nearly could not finish my sentence because I really found it embarrassingly laughable. The whole class burst into laughters leaving the innocent boy let out an embarrassed smile.

Teaching junior form students is fun. They are more daring to speak. And this makes one adorable.

Teacher A and Head Prefect cleaned up the Prefect Counter yesterday. Teacher B passed by.

“Hey, Teacher B, hi there. Are you going to help us clean up the counter?” Teacher A asked Teacher B.

“I have just finished my after-school lesson, Teacher A,” Teacher B reproached. But not yet after Teacher B finished the sentence, Head Prefect took out a pack of chess on which there was a student’s name and the class name, S3A.

“What?” Teacher A exclaimed, “This student has already been graduated and he is now a university student.” Both Teacher B and Head Prefect opened their eyes widely. In a minute, Head Prefect took out a pack of tiny mahjong tiles.

“What? When have we confiscated such thing?” Teacher A exclaimed and asked Teacher B, “Do you know how to play mahjong?”

“No!” Teacher B pretended and watched Teacher A took four tiles out of the pack.

“Even if someone get the remaining pack, he/she cannot play mahjong,” Teacher A threw the four tiles into the dustbin.

“Clever, Teacher A,” Head Prefect said.

“Are those tiles you have thrown away the flower tiles? You can play without the flower tiles,” Teacher B said. (Eight tiles are called the flower tiles. They are Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum and Bamboo.)

“Really? You’ve just said you don’t know how to play mahjong!” Teacher A protested playfully with Head Prefect lowered her head and giggled.

“No, I don’t. But I’ve seen someone playing without the flower tiles,” Teacher B replied playfully. Teacher A grinned and looked at the four tiles having been thrown.

“What? They are flower tiles. How coincident!” Teacher A cried out and threw several more tiles away. The Head Prefect worked very hard to hold the laughters. But not long after, all three of them burst into laughters.

Now, here comes the question for you? Who are these two teachers?

First, in ancient time, chinese sentence was read from the right to the left. Therefore, sometimes people confuse with the direction of reading chinese nowadays as chinese sentence has been able to be read from the left to the right since 1941.

Second, chinese sentence can be written vertically. The whole passage was read from the right to the left in the old days. But it is seldom read from the left to the right except when there are only two lines.

Is this confusing? Even among Chinese, we have to stop, study the meaning awhile and then confirm the direction of reading.

Do you still remember the daredevil, my little cousin? He is now in the 4th year of his primary school. He is clever and very talkative. He can speak throughout the whole day non-stop. But he is also very cute as his topics always convey certain level of sophistication which people have to ponder on.

My father took him somewhere one day. They popped in a minibus. My father tapped his Octopus card on the reader but the little daredevil did not tap his. As an old man, my father did not recognise this. They sat down and not long later the driver reminded them that the little boy had not paid the fare yet.

“Excuse me. The boy hasn’t paid yet,” the driver said and pointed at a signboard having two vertical lines of chinese character reading, “(first line) 保險公司規定 司機要負全責 (second line) 三歲以上小童 須付全費車資” There were no punctuation as it was a common practice for lazy bones. The meaning was similar to “According to insurance company, the driver has to take responsible. Children above 3 years old have to pay full fare.”

“三歲以上小童,須付全費車資,保險公司規定,司機要負全責! Isn’t that written there, uncle? What’s wrong?” our daredevil innocently read the two lines out aloud having swapped the two vertical lines. All the passengers in the minibus burst into laughters. The driver also giggled and explained the lines to my cousin in laughing tears.

Since my cousin has swapped the two lines, the whole arrangement means, “Children above 3 years old have to pay full fare. According to insurance company, it is the driver who takes responsible (for the fare).”

Can you imagine how boring life is without any internet connection?

When the technician came into our temporary apartment, he was 20 something, his appearance looked a little bit wild and hormone-rich. His mane was massive. He had five o’clock shadow on his face. His build was muscular and more than medium. Low-rise jeans with boots. However, he was only a tiger cub in front of Sandra. Not matter what he said, he was extraordinarily polite and timid. Without any delay, he fixed our internet service and NOW TV service within half an hour.

“Where are you right now? You said you would come up and fix the internet at 2pm. It is now 3:30. No matter how heavy your jobs are today, it is your time management which sucks. You’d better get your butt up here NOW. Or I don’t know whatever crazy thing I will do,” Sandra growled to my mobile phone. Fortunately, it was not me on the other end of the line. It was PCCW technician on the other end. That poor guy rang me before 2pm and said that he could only arrive at our apartment to install the internet service and NOW TV service after 2:00 but had not yet shown up. This was happened 10 minutes before the technician rang our doorbell. I’d better skipped the phone conversation before this one.

Since Sandra and I moved to the temporary apartment, we have had no access to internet until today. iMac without the “i” is equivalent to a value-added typewriter. No WiFi. No NOW TV. No Cable TV. No phone line. Life became simple, unimaginably simple, unbearably simple. Even my 3G mobile connection USB did not work. Kindle, magazines and newspapers became the only sources of entertainment or exchanges of intelligence.

I went to work and was able to use the internet at school. Sandra had no choice. She could only go downstair and sit in nearby Cafe de Coral to use the 3G connection there. Not only the food kills her but also that sitting in such fast food chain kills her. Without any choice, she had to consume the very meaty junk food there and sit unwillingly inside the fast food chain. She should be given some kinds of reward for these. Both of us were bored to death this morning. I can only used my cellphone to surf the internet. When Sandra knew that PCCW technician would fix the internet at 2:00pm, she forbid me to go somewhere farther just in case the technician would miss his visit.

Well, when the technician came into our temporary apartment, we expected a tiger. However, he was only a tiger cub in front of Sandra. I wondered whether it was Sandra who had been so frightening or it was the lack of the connection with the outside world pushed a lady to become a tigress.

Anyway, we have internet service now. Our choices of channels are also enlarged to a luxurious level. What I am sure is that life with internet and life without are completely two different things.

The hostage incident of Manila has already happened for a week. Some students expressed their despair on Facebook and asked when the whole incident would be over. I told them there would be no specific timeline for such incident to be over as the aftershock would be right inside each of us forever. Therefore I told him to focus on how we could learn from the incident and face the future.

Actually, several colleagues have already talked about what we can do to release our students’ potential depression and turn the direction of the incident to be a learning focus. First, the extent of this incident can be very large and even too large. We do not know whether our students are related to the troubled families. Second, if we let the negative energy in the air, it will not be good for the whole society. There are many questions we have to ask:

1. What’s next?

2. What have gone wrong?

3. What should Philippines Government do from now on?

4. What kind of attitudes should we possess?

5. Are these the problems of Filippinos, the Philippines the country, Philippines Government or the institution of any government?

6. Is our Government better?

7. Will our Government make similar mistakes?

8. How can we respect other different cultures?

9. Is our crisis management ready for similar incidents?

There are still many questions we can ask. Retribution is necessary but restoration is more important. Those families are the victims of the incidents. But to certain extent each Hongkonger is also a victim. Help them, help ourselves. We have to do the “devictimization” of the aftershock. What worries me most is how that student asked me on Facebook. We cannot just sit there and commence this school year as usual, can we?

Sandra and I were busy in packing all the junks as we are moving on Sunday. Choco has therefore been sent to my parents-in-law’s place because we are moving on Sunday.

When I woke up this morning, I thought of something funny. Sandra’s parents do not speak English. Therefore they always call Choco as Coco (Both syllables sound like the fourth accent in Mandarin!) In my dream last night, I dreamed of giving Choco a Chinese name so that Sandra’s parents could pronounce the Chinese name. When I woke up, I started thinking of some Chinese characters which sounded like Choco.

陳楚酷!

I told Sandra what I had figured out. She found my idea interesting. To be honest, the task was not easy. “Choco” is the abbreviation of “Chocolate”. Should I call Choco 陳巧克? It sounds pretty much like Choco in Mandarin. But it is not the case in Cantonese. How about 陳巢寇? Well, this is even worse! It means “robber”! Without any better choice, I was fine with 陳楚酷.

“陳楚酷， 你不要再走來走去， 你給我坐好， SIT! (陳楚酷, do not run to and fro. Sit!)”

Upon hearing my command, Choco sat with his eyes focusing on me. Sandra and I both laughed our guts out. From now on, Choco is nicknamed 陳楚酷!

In mourning of all hostage victims in the Philippines. Your death is unjust. Would all of you rest in peace and your relatives recover from the shadow of the incident soon. Would all Hongkongers treasure every day of our life.

Time-tabling does kill loads of brain cells.

For S1 to S3, the major problem is the remedial classes. There are remedial classes for English, Chinese and Mathematics. Three classes have to have lessons of the same subject together in each form.

For S4 and S5, the major problem is the school cluster. The students of four schools in the same district can go to one another school to attend courses. Therefore, we have to fix these lessons in four afternoon. Now, here comes the problem. The laboratories are full or even not enough in these afternoons. All the teachers teaching these elective subjects will be crowded in these afternoons, too. This is a very tight constraint. Not yet! Liberal studies of three classes in the same form will be combined and then split into 4 groups; that of the other two classes, 3 groups. For S5 Mathematics, similar arrangement occurs because students studying M2, the additional Mathematics elective, come from all 5 classes.

For S6 and S7, our school allows students to attend courses across the streams. Therefore, an original Pure Mathematics student can withdraw Pure Mathematics and study Mathematics & Statistics, an original Biology student likewise can choose Mathematics & Statistics. These two guys can even study Economics in Arts stream. Anyway, 6A Economics, 6B Physics and 6C Chemistry should be concurrent; 6A Principal of Accounts, 6B Chemistry and 6C Physics should be concurrent; 6A PE, 6A Chinese Literature, S6 Mathematics & Statistics, 6B Biology and 6C Pure Mathematics should be concurrent. Now, here comes the new challenge. Use of English and Chinese Language & Culture lessons of all the three S6 classes will be combined and split into 4 groups the coming school year. Therefore, S6 alone will be a complete knot which cannot be detangled.

I have written down all these because I would like to record how crazy our school’s design of timetable is in coming school year, 2010/2011. However, finishing time-tabling really give me an unspeakable sense of satisfaction. No matther how difficult the challenge is, there will be some kind of solution. It may not be perfect as every one has some special preference which you will be gobsmacked if you hear the request. But there is at least a solution. Like one of my colleagues says, “if you do not like your timetable, we can swap our duties next school year and I will see how satisfying all the timetables will be.”