箕子怖

Another story from ancient China:

昔者紂為象箸而箕子怖。以為象箸必不加於土鉶，必將犀玉之杯。象箸玉杯必不羹菽藿，則必旄象豹胎。旄象豹胎必不衣短褐而食於茅屋之下，則錦衣九重，廣室高臺。吾畏其卒，故怖其始。居五年，紂為肉圃，設炮烙，登糟邱，臨酒池，紂遂以亡。故箕子見象箸以知天下之禍，故曰：“見小曰明。”
(韓非子·喻老)

Oh, maybe I should provide some translation:

****************************

Soon after Zhou (紂) became the emperor, he ordered his courtiers to make a pair of ivory chopsticks for him. Jizi (箕子), his uncle and political advisor, was horrified. His theory was ordinary bowl and plates would not match the pair of expensive chopsticks; jade or rhino horn would be necessary. It went without sayings that all these precious utensils should only be used to serve exotic dishes, followed by corresponding improvement in clothing and palace ...

And the rest is history.

PS. The theory does not only apply to individual; it works well for governments.

Price

You think my story point to a certain direction ? Hold on; you do not notice - something is missing.

The husband of the sister died just a few years before the couple could retire.

Yes, the sister became a well-to-do widow - but a widow all the same.

She will no longer watch a movie or dine with her loved one, although she could afford all these now. Alas, she never had, and will never have, a chance to travel with her husband and see the world. Believe it or not, she has never visited Lane Crawford; all her knowledge about Harrods came from some fragmented stories told by her husband. (In fact, she has joint pain here and there, so that nowadays she won't even agree paying a visit to the local theme park.)

True, she should have done all these when she was young ...

... but the price to pay is she may have to count every penny and worry about her living at the age of 70.

Sister

(continue)

The sister married an industrious workman. The couple had a chance to apply for government housing, but they decided to buy their own flat.

It was in the early 1970s. Although things were very cheap (by today's standard), they could only afford an apartment of around 400 square feet in an, at that time, suburban area. It cost $30000. (Just for reference, the salary of an ordinary policeman was $1000 at that time.)

They made $10000, which was all their savings, as the down-payment, and used much of their salary to pay the mortgage. (In fact, the husband had to paint the house and make many of the furniture himself - they had no savings left.)

The difficult time lasted a few years. The mother had to do some outsource work at home for local factories. When their son was nine, the mother got a part-time job - the son became responsible for preparing lunch. The couple finished with the mortgage in a few years, and continued to make more savings.

The years passed and they continued to live in their little place, until the flat was eventually sold in early 2000s - at $650000.

Together with her savings and all the others, the sister actually retired very comfortably off.

Brother

When I read the story quoted by my friend TW (see http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/cal-culator/article?mid=81), a similar one came through my mind.

***************************

It was about a pair of brother and sister, some fifty years ago.

Both of them attended the primary school only briefly, and started working in local factories at their teens. They were both hardworking and soon saved some money.

The brother married a colleague of his and moved into public housing. He used the savings to start his own business, and was rather successful in the following 20 years. To his credit, he foresaw the decline of local industry, sold his factory in 1980s, and decided to have an early retirement.

The problem was, throughout the years, he stayed in his original public housing - the price of property has gone up so much that he would never has his own flat. Before he eventually goes to meet Chairman Mao, his biggest wish is, in fact, to leave a place for his son to live.

But we know it just too well it could never come true.

(to be continued ...)

Flat

A hot topic during our lunch time discussion recently was the story of that young lady doctor and her fiance lawyer.

(For those who are not familiar with this topic, I am talking about the couple who expressed their difficulty in buying their own flat.)

The opinion amongst my friends is divided. Some are very sympathetic and could not agree more (a succinct summary of the argument could be found at http://doctorfat.wordpress.com/請特首回答我/); others are more skeptical and put it down to the unrealistic expectation of the couple (as mentioned in an article quoted by my friend TW; see http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/cal-culator/article?mid=81).

You may ask: What's my opinion ?

My immediate response would be: I don't think I need to have an opinion on this matter.

PS. Seriously, I agree with both sides. The former does point out an important social problem that we face, while, ironically, the later should be the attitude we treat ourselves in response to the problem.

Congratulations

Our man from Pluto was back on time. He was obviously in a good mood.

We saw to the venue and went through the arrangement together. (It was too late to wake up each patient and check for specific signs.) Time passed quickly and we all hurried back home.

**************************

I shall not elaborate on the happenings of the examination. The marking scheme as well as the set up of one station were new to us, but they were not at all interesting.

After a busy day, all examiners gathered at the department library and went through the score of the candidates. Towards the end of the meeting, one local examiner said to our man from Pluto, "So, this would be the last time you being the host examiner ?"

The chief external examiner raised his eyebrows, "Joseph, you're moving higher up ?"

"Oh, not confirmed," our chairman tried to confine himself to the facts. His face turned slightly red, and he went on, "I am nominated to be the Vice Chancellor of our university. Stupid am I ?"

"I see ..." The chief external from Scotland made a meaningful twist of his lips. We could all hear the comment in his throat: That's a trying task.

There was a moment of silence.

"Well, maybe we should still say congratulations !" Another external examiner suggested.

We all laughed.

Nomination

Soon after I pondered about the disappearance of our house officers, we actually held the membership examination at our own hospital.

As usual, the evening before the examination was the most critical period. BK, as the first time organizer, was immensely effective, and most of the patients and paper work were ready before sunset.

But, at around 6 PM, AL, our chairman's secretary, gave me an unwelcome news, "Em ... JS could only be back by 10 PM to check the things. Would you stay and join him ?"

"Well ... I shall be back slightly before ten." I didn't ask why, but was obviously unhappy.

*********************************

I went home, dined with Euterpe, and was back on time. The man was, supposedly, still in Pluto. AL seemed to be in a chaos. I knocked on her door and asked, "Are the things alright ?"

"Just too many phone calls to handle," she had no time to talk more.

I went to my office and turned on the computer. There were a collection of congratulating messages on the Facebook.

And it was all on the news.

Our chairman was nominated to become the next VC.

Pass

Seasoned medical practitioners would recognize the college examinations are changing.

"We need a fair, objective, and reproducible assessment." So was it said.

But, you cannot draw a rose by a ruler. For the same reason, a rigid test is only good for new comers of the field.

And, therefore, we call it an entrance examination nowadays.

In the (not all that) old days, the college examination was meant to signify completion of training, and there were only two ways to pass:

1. The candidate is smart; or
2. The candidate is one of us.

However blur they appear, these time-honored criteria did make sure most of the successful candidates had sufficient experience and their practice conformed to the conventional standard, while at the same time provided allowance for a few high-flying personality-outliers.

Leave

It was a busy morning - a few of us are leaving for the States for a meeting next week, and the morning clinic was badly over-booked. We were forced to start the round a bit late, and, ahead of us was another crowd of in-patients.

After seeing the first patient with FP and BK, I suggested some management. FP replied, "We'll take care of that."

I was about to say, "This kind of thing could be done by the houseman."

But, before I could actually ask the question, BK gave me the reply, "Most of our house officers are on leave today - it is the part I MRCS examination."

I looked around and realized a familiar face was absent.

"Are there so many young doctors interested in being a surgeon ?" I murmured.

They replied, "Of course not. But, without the part I, you can't actually apply for any surgical post. It's not only surgeon. The same thing apply for gynecology and a few others."

"In that case, why do we need to have final MB at all ? We could outsource the work to individual college." I said to myself.

MI

During a casual conversation, my friend KM said that he cultivated a habit of keeping all emails that he wrote overnight before sending out.

"Just to make sure I am cool and do not send out something that I cannot withdraw." said our great teacher.

I cannot agree more, "Too bad there is no function that (the sender could pre-determine so that) the mail is removed spontaneously a few days after it is received."

"True ..." KM thought for a while, and added, "In fact, the function should be self-destruction after the receiver opens the email; copy and forward would not be allowed. That would really save a lot of hassles."

"Like the self-burning letter that Tom Cruise received in Mission Impossible ?" I could not stop smiling.

Negotiator

My recent bedtime reading is How to be a Better Negotiator by John Mattock and Jöns Ehrenborg.

I bought it during a trip to Taiwan some years ago, but I kept having some other books to attract my attention.

And I was entirely correct - the book was so-so. Well, after How to Win Friends and Influence People, you can't really expect anything better.

********************************

I read the classic of Dale Carnegie when I was in secondary school. At that time, there was a rumor that the book was the third best-selling one in history - only after The Bible and Quotations from Chairman Mao (毛語錄).

That's a myth, of course. The third is Qur’ān.

By the way, the three best selling novel in history are A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

All English authors.

Proposer

To me, the most impressive bit of that appealing candidate was his proposer.

That is our noble council member.

In fact, I still remember quite well the two argued with each other when they were both running for the council seat a year ago.

But, as the old British sayings, there is no eternal enemy in politics.

And the reason is obvious ! Making friend with this representative of private doctors would help to establish another source of vote in the next election. You think their platforms are different ? (For example, I still remember our alumni is fighting for shorter working hour and more manpower in the public hospital.) It doesn't matter. After all, who would remember the platform of a candidate after the election ?

"Come on, that's politics !"

Quite true.

But that's also the rare occasion that I could distinguish an ingenious crook from a complete idiot.

Proposal

Appreciating the candidates' information of our recent council election.

The proposal of one of them was particularly impressive:

• The number of medical student intake should be reduced to ensure job security and training opportunity for all young graduates.
• To delete the legislation governing annual declaration of no conviction to obtain the annual practising certificate.

(There are several other points that are less controversial. I'm sure you're not interested.)

I would refrain from giving my opinion to these suggestions. For sure they are appealing to practising private doctors - less competition, and they could do whatever they want !

The eternal dilemma of being a member in council of this kind, however, is there is often a conflict of interest between the general public and the profession per se. Should they represent those who voted for him, or the society as a whole ?

Nomenclature

Following my discussion in the past two days, you may come to the conclusion that studying new diagnostic test or prognostic score is the most inferior type of medical research.

But no.

Many of the university academics do serious medical research to advance our knowledge and patient care. Just that the activity - alas, I mean publication - generated from serious research alone would not be sufficient to fulfill the appetite of whatever software that their faculty uses. To secure their own job (and the opportunity to continue with their own serious work), they need a steady source of publication.

The sobering truth is, even if we take aside this consideration, my answer remains no - there are things of even lower a class.

Imagine: If you are working on a disease that no new treatment exists, and there even lacks a new diagnostic test or prognostic scoring, what could you do ?

Let's give a new name to the disease.

Well, I'd better not to give specific examples to hurt your feeling.

PS. The usual circumstance that a new name is put up for an existing disease is during international summit or those so-called expert panel meetings. A conference report is published to announce the new name, and all experts get their names on a paper.

The homework is done.

Scoring

You may not agree with my discussion yesterday and argue, "There is at least one thing novel in this kind of research - the test per se. Be it imaging, blood marker, or genetic test, it'd got to be new."

Quite right.

And, therefore, running out of the supply of a novel test for their study, many ingenious researchers come up with the brilliant idea: Let's lump up a few conventional markers and call that a new scoring system - and we can do everything as if we have a new test !

The result is, like what my friend VW described, some investigators come up with a scoring system which is no different from a check list of points to pay attention to during history taking and physical examination.

Alas, there's nothing new under the sun. Go read Hampton JR, et al. BMJ 1975; 2: 486-489.

Marker

You may wonder why doesn't your romantic idea work outside Utopia.

The answer is simple: Have you consider the number of medical school and academic staff around the world ? Even if we consider only the top 100 universities and each has 30 professors in the field of internal medicine (a severe under-estimation), there are 3000 of them. Are there sufficient number of novel treatment for them to put into their annual publication record ?

But there are ways to get around with the difficulty. And the most simple way is: We do not study new treatment - we look for new diagnostic or prognostic tools.

Oh, I'm not saying these kinds of research are not important. They are. But the overwhelming proportion of research in this area serves a different pragmatic purpose. Look, there's a new method of imaging, blood assay, or genetic test - all good and well. There are a number of ways to play around with each: we can compare it between patients with different diseases and controls, see if it helps to make a diagnosis, see if it predicts outcome, see whether it predicts some unexpected secondary outcome (the description is self-contradicting, I know), see if it changes with conventional treatment ... there are many possibilities. You don't really need something novel, and a series of related paper is often guaranteed.

And the administrators satisfied.

Research

My friend VW was amazed with the advance in medical research and the number of prediction score appearing in the literature (see http://vwswong.blogspot.com/2009/10/prophesy.html). On the contrary, I think the phenomenon is quite natural.

Alas, it is the direct consequence of the software that every medical school uses to monitor the activity of their academic staff (a vivid example is the discussion between Obotchaman and myself a few days ago).

I shall give you a slightly tortuous explanation.

First, let's ask a plain simple question to any layman, "What is your idea of medical research ?"

The usual answer would be, "The professor has designed a new treatment; he gives it to some patients and see if it works - presumably by comparing to another group treated by the conventional method."

Alas, that's a romantic idea, works well in Utopia.

Puzzles

My recent bedtime reading was The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations by Boris Kordemsky.

The book is actually a collection of mathematical questions, from simple algebra and geometry to advanced Fibonacci number and topology. No, Russians are always pragmatic, and the questions are not the kind of "IQ test" that plays tricks on words. (For example: What is the longest word in English ? It is smiles - there is a mile between the two Ss.) Although I have not been doing serious mathematical calculations for ages, the book remains a warm and refreshing experience.

Well, there are actually a few questions that really play trick rather than asking for serious calculation. They are clearly labelled as Joke. To those serious mathematicians, our so-called IQ is merely a joke.

PS. Even for playing tricks on IQ test, we are far away from the international standard. Go read Akira Tago (多湖輝).

Agreement

On the day after our ethics committee meeting, my friend KM arranged a grand round on medical ethics - it was largely about patient consent for physical examination.

I will not join the discussion on what we should or should not do. (In general, I hold the belief that there exists very few - if any - things that man definitely should or should not do.) However, standing at the back of the lecture theatre, I was thinking of something else ...

I had a deja vu feeling of listening to the discussion, between our noble council members, on the right of taxi drivers and their customers in making private agreement on the fee.

PS. The two philosophical theories presented in the round was, I suspect deliberately, put in the reverse order. Immanuel Kant dominated the philosophical thinking in continental Europe during mid to late 1700s. Utilitarianism, although first proposed by Jeremy Bentham in late 1700s, only became popular after a book of the same name by John Stuart Mill in 1861.

Consent

The granulomatous inflammation propagates. Two days later, I attended the ethics committee meeting.

I was the member of this committee for slightly more than a year. (Alas, not everyone in the committee has a high ethical standard - they need someone like me to set the minimum.) Although our chairman, a statistician by training, is highly pragmatic and immensely efficient, the meeting almost always overruns; nearly every time there's something that receives, as Bernard Woolley said, a vigorous exchange in opinion.

This time, the focus was on a particular project that requested waiving of written consent, because it was (at least theoretically) possible that the targeted subjects are highly vulnerable and sensitive, and may be driven away if they are being asked to sign a consent black-and-white.

To my surprise, one of our layman member (non-medical one outside the hospital system) was very supportive for the suggestion. He argued, "Provided that the investigator explains satisfactorily to the participant, it doesn't really matter if they do not put down the thing black-and-white - particularly if signing a paper would turn away the patients."

Many of us did not agree, "If there's nothing written, the participants could come back and sue the investigator for not explaining the study fully."

"You mean," our lay member appeared incredulous, "The consent is for the protection of the investigator, not the patients ?"

I smiled - he began to comprehend.

30th

The next day after the mid-autumn festival, our Society celebrated the 30th anniversary.

There was a scientific meeting in the daytime, but the major event was the celebration dinner.

The event was held in the ball room of a local hotel. Many of us had experience of dinning there because it was a favourite place of wedding banquet.

And our impression with the celebration dinner was exactly it appeared very much like a wedding banquet: we were welcome by a door decorated with colour balloons at the entrance, the serving of dinner was delayed because of endless photo taking on the stage, there was a slide show about the history of our society (with the background music of Right here waiting for you), the council went around each table to make a toast when shark-fin was served, some council members made a performance when fish and chicken appeared on the table, and the council members actually lined at the door to shake hand with everyone leaving.

Thank god. I left early.

PS. We had a few guests from mainland China with us during the dinner. In the middle of the evening, one of them, whom I did not know previously, came and greeted me, "Hullo, you are Szeto !? I enjoy your blog. Very interesting !"

I'd better be cautious.

Mid-Autumn

Two days later, it was the mid-Autumn festival. Seraphe, Jenny and Louis came to my home for dinner.

Later that evening, we all went to the garden downstairs to appreciate the full moon. Of course we were met with a large crowd of people.

The moon was perfectly round and bright. Nonetheless, the two pair of parents were too busy to keep an eye on their children and take photos; there really wasn't much time to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere.

Although the context was not right, I kept reciting this poem of Nalan Xingde (納蘭性德) in my mind:

辛苦最憐天上月，一昔如環，昔昔都成玦。若似月輪終皎潔，不辭冰雪為卿熱。
無那塵緣容易絕，燕子依然，軟踏鉤簾說。唱罷秋墳愁未歇，春叢認取雙棲蝶。
《蝶戀花》

PS. The poem collection of Nalan Xingde was The Drinking Water (飲水詞). What a title.

如人飲水，冷暖自知。

Share

Vivian was on call on the National Day, and I brought Euterpe to a furniture chain-store to spend our morning.

I was joined by my sister, Jenny, her husband Louis, and my niece, Seraphe - who is three months younger than Euterpe. In fact, the place was recommended by my sister some weeks ago, "You must bring your daughter here - she would love it."

I was slightly incredulous to begin with: What's there for a kid of two ?

But my sister was entirely right. The two little angels were both overjoyed - everything was a new experience. They tried every bed, sat every sofa, and hugged every Teddy bear (as well as other toy animals). There were also some miniature kitchenwares, and the two girls - together with half a dozen of other children - shared and played.

"Why ? The two girls seem more happy than staying at home. In fact, they do not fight for the toys, which they usually do when Seraphe comes and visits us." I asked myself on my way back.

"That's simple," When I mentioned the story to Vivian the next day, she commented, "Euterpe understood that the toys were not hers; there's no ownership to defend, and therefore she was willing to share."

I suspect that's the rare occasion when genuine communism does work.

Later

"We need to protect this species of fish. Too bad for the farmers - but they would not die. If they loss their job, just apply for unemployment compensation." Fans of environment protection argue.

And that's all I'm against.

Yes, that's how we treat dogs and cats and other animals. We provide food and a place to rest. That's all. But, is that how we should treat human beings ?

Imagine, if your government says to you, "We would not allow you to do this job. In fact, we need to make you unemployed for the coming few years. Don't worry, all your needs would be well looked after. We shall give you enough money to buy food, have a home, and so forth...", what would you think ?

What's the purpose of life ? Oh, I shall not discuss this very question. (I begin to develop a habit of avoiding discussion on important questions. That's no good, I know.) But, fans of environment protection - with the ultimate aim to make a better living of Homo sapiens, I suppose - should really study basic psychology and learn the Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.

"I shall deprive your need and return something else to you later ..."

We've been fooled too many times in our history by this statement. Don't do it again.

Endangered

One small piece of news that caught my attention recently is the conflict between California farmers and some fish.

The story goes like this: There expects a substantial reduction in fruit and other agricultural products from California because, during a recent drought period, a major water supply was shut off from the farmers there - in order to protect a certain species of endangered fish.

Don't drop you jaw. This is a court decision according to the Endangered Species Act, which was restored recently by President Obama.

Well, you may say that's a small price to pay for preserving wildlife. After all, the farmers would not die.

But some others would. Remind you, famine is not a historical term, and a considerable proportion of the population in developing countries do not have enough food. Aren't their lives more precious than those of some little fish that we couldn't name ?

PS. Contrary to what you think, I would probably answer no to that last question. But I'm still against cutting off the water supply to the California farmers - for a reason that I shall explain tomorrow.

Obotchaman

While I was thinking of King Nikochan (宇宙大王), I met Obotchaman in the corridor.

The well-mannered boy raised in a good environment (alas, that's the meaning of obotcha in Japanese) is actually a colleague of mine. He waved at me and asked, "Hullo, Szeto. Have you submitted your curriculum vitae to the university site ?"

I was at a lost.

"I mean your activity data," he saw my difficulty, "You know, the university asked all of us to submit information - electronically - on what we did in the past twelve months."

"Oh, I see. What's the problem - or should we use plural for that last word ?" I smiled.

"So you have tried it yourself and know of the problems - quite a number in fact. There is one program to submit my publications, a second for my community service, third for supervision of postgraduate students, and there are also classroom teachings, conference abstracts and public talks ..." He sighed.

"Alas, these gadgets are so impressive; the data are submitted electronically, and I have started to wonder electron must be moving at an astonishingly different velocity outside the solar system." I added.

"Quite right. Take publications as an example, I have to choose each author separately from the university database - there could easily be ten or twenty authors for a collaborative work, and I have to do it for several dozens of publications. You know what, I spend a whole day with my computer on this business - and I'm not yet half way through !"

"I'd forget about conference abstracts and public talks. What's the point of submitted them ?" I remarked.

"The point is: I shall be expecting my contract renewed in the coming year," He reminded me, "And, therefore, don't mention my name in your blog."

I duly complied.

Stegosaurus

Another famous existence that utilized two administrative centers was dinosaur.

To be specific, based on the fossil record, two classes of dinosaurs, the stegosaurus and the sauropods, are believed to have two brains.

The hypothesis roots from a distinctive finding: There is a large canal in the hip region of their spinal cord, which could actually accommodate over 10 times more neurons than their brain.

The reason of having a second brain near the back passage is simple - these creatures were just too big. You know what, stegosaurus could be as much as 12-meter long, and some species of sauropods were up to 40 meters. On the other hand, neuronal transmission does not become faster in a bigger animal.

The implication is: Bolt of Jamaica could chop off the foot of a sauropod and make an escape of 80 meters before the gigantic animal could feel the pain and start to think what's going on.

PS. Therefore, many so-called masterminds of some huge organizations are merely clusters of neurons near the asshole - you could learn that much by looking at (or smelling) their output.

PPS. When I first watched Dr. Slump (IQ博士) of Akira Toriyama (鳥山明), I used to laugh at King Nikochan (宇宙大王) for having his brain as the asshole. With time, I understand it was Toriyama's wisdom and profound knowledge on the anatomy of dinosaur and extra-terrestrials.

Two

As soon as I heard of the news that the lion bank was back and it would practically keep two headquarters, I couldn't stop thinking of the Roman Empire.

Alas, I mean its splitting into the Western Roman and the Byzantine Empire.

There were many reasons triggering the division (internal power struggle, defense against barbarians, civil wars, taxation and administration convenience), but all could be boiled down to a single root: The empire was too big.

To put it simply, that's because a single administrative center could not receive critical information soon enough to allow timely decisions. (In fact, that's not only the problem of Romans. The Han [漢] Empire at around that same time had its capital at Chang'an [長安] and a "second capital" at Luoyang [洛陽]. The Mongol Empire several hundred years later actually had to split itself into no fewer than five independent kingdoms.)

The problem is, when an empire has grown big enough to need more than one capital, it would usually see its decline very soon.

After all, despite the advances in traffic and communication technology, human beings still influence the others with flesh-and-blood.

Back

A hot topic amongst amateurish investors (likely myself) recently is the coming back of the lion bank.

In terms of tactics, the move was perfect: They chose the week before our country celebrated its 60th birthday, and when the stock market is hot and frothy (alas, not bubble as yet, I hope).

But, what's the point in strategy ?

"To gain entrance to the Chinese market." You may say.

No, I believe it's not the market, but more for the stock to be listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. (That's why the lion has to show a friendly hand to our country and give a vote of confidence just prior to the birthday !)

The question therefore boils down to: Why does the lion want to be listed in our country ?

Like all business decision, there could only be one answer: Money.

In other words, it plans to issue new stock.

"Why does it need financing ?"

The possible answers are obvious: Either it does not have sufficient money (despite the share placement earlier this year) to cover the loss in the subprime lending, or it is planning for further merge-and-acquisition.

I shall leave it to your judgement whether that's a good news.

Fry

Vivian and I dined at a Singaporean restaurant on my birthday.

I lunched here for several times in the past, and was thoroughly impressed with the tasty laksa. This time, we ordered a gigantic pepper crab, sate, fried turnip cake, and black glutinous rice as dessert.

"Were they good ?" You may ask.

Well, there're certainly still room for improvement. (Who doesn't ?)

But, to say the least, the crab was probably better than the one that I had in Singapore. Unlike most other restaurants, which always partly deep-fried the crab in oil (泡油) before stir-frying and serving, the crab here was stir-fried from raw with pepper until it was done - that's a lot more labour-intensive, but it would keep all the flavor in the tender meat.

We ended up with a bill of HK$250 - probably not even enough for the starter if we dined at the 6-star hotel next to us.

PS. We left the restaurant before 8:30 PM; there were no fewer than a dozen people still lining up at the door, waiting for a seat. Alas, that's a positive feedback. The more people waiting, the more people would be eager to join and try.

Maybe I shouldn't laugh at our medical students.

耳順

Confucius said: at sixty my ear was obedient (六十而耳順).

That is, of course, not an entirely satisfactory translation. In fact, our great teacher never meant to advise listening to opinions that comfort your ears. Most of the authorities considered the description by Kong Qiu (孔丘) about his ear means having an open mind and listening to the voice and opinion from every angle.

After all, how often could a dynasty celebrate the 60th birthday ?

Not many.

Therefore, come, put up courage and have confidence to yourself. Let them say whatever they want.

You could at least follow some of our senior officials: We accept the complaint, but we shall continue with what we are doing (投訴接受,做法照舊).

PS. You may ask: What could one make out of the date ?

十一六十, 土有一點未平也.