Spread

I must say I found the subject too serious for a casual discussion and decided to change the topic a little, “There is a fine line of difference between freedom of holding an idea and permission to promulgate that idea.”

“Alas, there may be certain truth in it, but I’m not sure,” L shook his head, “You can argue idea is meant to be spread.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you allow a minority of people, however small a group they are, to hold an idea but not be spread it around, you are essentially giving permission to an endangered species to subsist but not reproduce. You are just killing off the species – or the idea – in a slow and painless manner.”

L had a point, but I remained uneasy, “Does it mean that we should allow minority group to promulgate their belief – however weird or evil that belief is?”

Paradox

"It is strange that you mention the word equal," L said seriously, "This is funny concept to apply when we talk about democracy - or pursuing democracy."

"What do you mean? I suppose they are the two sides of the same coin?"

"Yes and no. Let's go back to the very basic idea: Democracy means a government that allows all eligible citizens to participate equally. It encompasses the concept that minority has the right to voice out their opinion."

"Yes...?"

"Now, what if the minority group supports dictatorship?"

"What!?"

"You see? As a supporter of democracy, you have to give them a freedom of speech, and, as Voltaire said, you may even have to defend to the death their right to say. However, those few who support tyranny will not do the same to you. If they give you such a freedom, they are not supporters of their own belief!"

After a minute or two, seeing that I said nothing, L went on, "The problem is, there are circumstances when supporters of autocracy are in the majority..."

Parent

“Let me go one step further and ask: What if she does give a sound answer to both of your questions, but they are not logically linked? In other words, if your daughter knows what she is doing and why she is doing this, but her what does not help her why – what she is doing would not achieve her goal or purpose?”

“Alas, I see what you mean. However, I have not been asking for a logical sequence of action. I shall keep my words and be supportive.”

To my surprise, L nodded approvingly, “My friend, I shall take my hat off for you. What a keen supporter of liberalism! However, as a parent, you are a rare species. Many of the traditional Chinese fathers would insist their children to behave in a way that they parents think appropriate. Others may allow their children to pursue their own dream – but only if the teenager has a water-tight logical argument.”

“I could see the conflict now. When talking to the reporter, the King of the Round Table was playing the role of a parent – most likely from a traditional Chinese family. On the other hand, the students were taking him as an ordinary person, and, their motto is: Everyone should be equal!"

Support

I remained silent for a moment, and then I said slowly, “My friend, you really sound like our King of the Round Table.”

“Do I? That’s a compliment to me. Well, as to what he recently said to the media, I may not entirely agree. Nonetheless, our fellow students may be a trace too harsh to the old surgeon. As I am getting gold, I think I could understand his feeling.”

“Yes…?”

“Let me explain in a convoluted manner by asking you a hypothetical question: If Euterpe is now 17 rather than 7-year-old, and she asks you to write for her a letter to her school principal so that she could join the class boycott, what are you going to do?”

That’s a difficult nut to crack. I considered for a short while before giving a response, “I shall ask her to explain clearly to me what she is doing and why she is doing this. If she could give a solid answer to both, I shall be all supportive – even though I may not agree with her idea.”

Boycott

Met my friend L on my way home. As always, I tried to induce the old nerd to talk a bit more.

“My friend, what do you think about the class boycott this week?” I asked.

“Alas, go away, serpent! And take away the apple!” He burst out in a smiling face, “Why, as you always say, I do not need to have an opinion in this matter.”

“No, you do not need to, but nevertheless you have one – just like you don’t need to wear a tie to go to work but you always put on one.” I smiled back, “Friend, let’s be frank. What do you think?”

“Em… I think they have very good tactics but their strategy is slightly more controversial – although I’m not sure what better strategy they could adopt.”

“Do you mean the arrangement of the boycott is smooth but you do not think they could achieve what they want?” I asked, trying to translate what L said into layman language, "That view is not entirely exciting."

"Oh, why should it be? I am not bound to please thee with my answers."

Science

Like many working fathers, the most enjoyable hour for me every day is dinning with my princesses.

As you would expect, I have the most entertaining conversation with Euterpe and Alder at the dining table. To add to the flavor, my girls start playing a little mental game called “Is there any science” in the recent weeks to kick off the discussion every evening.

I must say I can’t recall how it all began. The rule is simple: When dinner is served, Euterpe and Adler each chooses a random subject (or object) and asks a question “Is there any science in…” and I shall have to give a two-minute talk on that topic.

For example, the questions I get today are “Is there any science in shrimps and crabs?” from Euterpe and “Is there any science in computer?” from Adler. Well, I do not need to be very sophisticated or informative. For the former, I talk about the edible life-forms between the two – lobster, crayfish, and squilla. For the latter, I touch on Windows and Apple, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and how Pixar comes along.

As Confucius said, education starts by studying objects (格物而後致知).

Reference

(A reference letter that I am recently tempted to write for a house officer.)

To whom it may concern,

Dr. X worked for my team from July to September 2014.

I could see him in the ward during this period, and he often says “yes” when we ask him to do something.

As a result, I write this reference letter in response to his email request.

Sincerely, et cetera.

End

"That's tough work," K finds himself not easily being put off, "I shall finish the report on time. Is that all?"

"That's not the end. That is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The young lecturer is apparently not amused with Winston Churchill. He pushes further, "What next?"

L stands up and walks to the other side of the office. In no time K realizes there stands two gigantic bookshelves, which are not filled with books, but files and folders. But, this time, L does not take out any of them. He merely points at the targets, one after another.

"You have all these to work on: Faculty strategic plan... Department strategic plan... Division development plan... Application of church approval... monastery approval... government approval... assistant performance report... amah performance report... justification of public lecture... justification of stationery usage... tendering of toilet paper... Well, that's probably all for this month."

"Alas, in that case, what's the time left for me to do some serious work - so that I could renew my contract and get promoted?"

"No - unless you are Jesus himself."

Colour

For a moment, K suspects the document is not written in English. But, in no time he knows he is wrong. He recognizes each and every word, but, all the same, he does not know what it means.

"You've got to submit the report next Monday." L says, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"My god, how could I? Em... who could be sure what to work on or what would happen 5 years down the road? The world of research is changing so quickly!" K replies.

"Well, maybe this one could help you." The chairman smiles a little. He peeps into his drawer again and takes out another folder. "Submit it by next Monday also." He adds.

K looks at the cover. On it are the words Review of Research Performance.

He sighs and turns to the first page. It begins like this: List of publications for the last 10 years, in chronological order, with citation number and impact factor. Please highlight in red the names of staff members from your own division, in orange for members from the same department, and in yellow for those from the same faculty. If the first or corresponding author of the paper from your division is a contract staff, please highlight that paper in red. If the publication is supported by a public grant, please highlight in green. For projects supported by personal grants and donations, highlight in blue and purple respectively.

The young lecturer believes the final report would be a lovely rainbow.

Folder

The room remains silent for a minute or two. At last, K decides to speak again.

"Sir, what do you mean?"

"I mean what I say, in the most literal sense. To begin with, you have to plan and prepare for what you are going to do."

"What does it involve?" K is puzzled.

Professor L does not speak. He opens a drawer of his desk, takes out an arm-breaking folder, and passes it to the young lecturer, with the eyes seem to be saying: See this.

On the cover of the folder K finds the words Five-Year Research Strategic Development imprinted in the Times New Roman 72.

He opens the folder and starts turning the pages - rather carelessly to begin with, but becomes more and more anxious as he goes on. There are endless chapters with titles Survey of competitive landscape, Current flagship research programs, Planned strategic research development, and so forth and so forth.

Duty

(The conversation between the young lecturer and his department head continues.)

"Oh, yes, of course, I've got to teach students. It is also very important." K says, thinking that he knows what the chairman means.

"Em... You don't really need to worry too much about teaching. To tell you the truth, you don't need to teach very much. We've outsourced most of our students to other churches." L shook his head.

"How about postgraduate students?"

"I don't think you would have any. You know, the university is cutting down the quota of research student to many departments, including ours. Well... they say that the total number of quota stays the same but they are allocated to dedicated fields of research excellence. A positive feedback - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You know what I mean."

"I know, but, in that case, what is my major duty? As a theologian, I also work as a part-time clergy, but, from the department point of view, I don't think you want me to spend all the time listening to people's confessions?"

"No, of course not. The major things that you are going to do are to plan what you are going to do and review what you have done."

"What!?" For a moment, K imagines the man sitting in front of him is Humphrey Appleby.

Lecturer

K is nervous.

Standing outside the office of his new boss, he finds his hands sweating. This is his first day of joining the university as an academic staff, and, as you would expect, the first thing that he does is to see his department head.

He knocks on the door, and a husky voice comes out, "Come in!"

K opens the door and finds a frail old man sitting by a large desk. This is Professor L - K has searched from the Internet how his boss looks like and he recognizes the face immediately. He wants to say good morning, but L is faster to act, "Dr. K? Good morning! Pray sit down. Welcome to join our department. You are the new Lecturer of Alternative Theology. Am I right?"

"Yes, professor," L nods and sits down, "I am sure I have a lot to learn and this post is very competitive. I shall focus to do good research."

"Research?" L looks confused, "Oh, yes, you need to. Well, you may have some spare time after all."

(To be continued.)

Cuisine

In one evening, Vivian and I dined at El Restaurante Botin –supposedly the oldest existing restaurant in the world (opened in 1725) as well as a Michelin star winner. The place is famous for roast piglet and, from what we had, the dish does match its fame. We also had some amazingly impressive blood sausage as our appetizer. The only disappointment came from the saute assorted vegetables. In fact, no where in Madrid could we find vegetable dish with a good quality, and everyone seems to eat nothing but meat and potato.

Of all Spanish cuisine, my personal favorite is paella, and we had a good traditional one in another evening – at a place just a short walk from Botin. Served in a huge pan, juicy rice with a charred bottom, four different types of shrimp, two kinds of shellfish, a good many other kinds of ingredient, and a good pinch of saffron.

It was so good that before we left for home, I bought a small dose of saffron from a local supermarket– so that I can try to make my own version of paella in Hong Kong.

Food

Another remarkable aspect of Madrid is the city is full of interesting restaurants and good food.

Except an early morning business meeting (from 7 AM!), I had breakfast in the hotel, and my favorite combination is a piece of tortilla plus some Spanish ham. In essence, the former is a kind of scrambled egg mixed with meshed potato. There is also a trace of minced bacon inside which adds to the flavor. Spanish ham? Oh, it’s never enough.

The Speakers’ Dinner was nothing but an endless supply of drinks, snacks, and tapas. To be honest, the food was excellent. My only disappointment is it was a standing dinner – a torture to ladies on high-heels as well as old people like me. My sister Jenny told me later that it is a custom of European hosts to serve standing dinner. Em… they should have told us in advance so that we could be better prepared – in terms of footwear as well as psychologically.

Madrid

Had a short business trip to Madrid. To begin with, I went there for some academic (or business if you prefer the term) reason. But, since Vivian was going with me, we ended up spending a bit of time for sight-seeing.

The two of us have not been to Europe since 2008 (it was Istanbul last time), and Madrid is a terrific city. It’s amazingly easy to get around by the underground, and we meet friendly and helpful people almost everywhere.

Soon after settling in the hotel, we visited Museo Nacional del Prado. In the following days, we had the opporunity of visiting the Museo Thysesen, Palacio Real, as well as a small guided tour in the Real Monasterio de la Encarnacion.

These places have one thing in common – they all have a huge collection of paintings, especially those related to Christianity. Although most people nowadays prefer impressionism, cubism, or other forms of abstract art, I find religious painting a much more interesting subject to study. Yes, the topic is boring and subjects repetitive. However, it calls for solid fundamental techniques, and there are often a whole lot of stories behind each trivial subject on the picture. After all, these paintings are not only meant to be artistic – they are supposed to tell a story or convey a message to the audience.

Strawberry

While reading Dobelli’s book, I was particularly impressed by the story of strawberry experiment.

It goes like this:

A group of experienced tasters and a group of college students were asked to sample 45 different brands of strawberry jelly, and the results were almost identical. In short, both groups preferred the same type. However, when the tasting experiment was repeated by asking the students to fill in a structured questionnaire to score each individual component of the “taste”, the ranking became completely different. Some of the best samples ended up at the bottom of the list.

What lesson do we learn? Yes, if we think too much, we lose the wisdom of our feelings. This is particularly true if we are talking about the assessment of practiced activities by experts of the field.

For example, I dare say, clinical examination conducted by experienced physicians.

Thinking

Talking about the books that I keep, my recent leisure reading was The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli.

The author used to work in the financial sector, but this book is about practical psychology. It summaries 99 common errors in logics and decision making. The chapters are short and easy to follow. In fact, if you have no background knowledge in this area, this small paperback could well serve as a comprehensive guide to logical thinking.

You may ask: How do I compare this book to Thinking, Fast and Slow?

For visitors with some medical background, I would put it like this: Kahneman's book is a narrative review of (mostly) his own work with a wealth of the first-hand experience, while Dobelli is a meticulous student who does a systemic review of the literature. The topic was stunning when I first read it from Kahneman, and was impressed but much less shocked by the time I encountered Dobelli.

In the very words of Dobelli himself, this is the primacy effect.

Excluded

Further to the 10 books that I mentioned, there are another few that are influential to me personally, but they were not included yesterday because they do not fulfill one criteria or another.

Here you go:

1. The Book of Genesis from the Holy Bible
2. Border Town (邊城) by Shen Congwen (沈從文)
3. Galaxy Express 999 (銀河鉄道999) by Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士)
4. The Murder of Roger Ackyrod by Agatha Christie
5. The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖) by Jin Yong (金庸) 
6. Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono
7. The Complete Yes Minister by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn
8. Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
9. The Art of Strategy by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff
10. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

To keep the record straight, I do not keep a copy of items #1, #2, #6, and #8. I watched #3 as TV series but not really the book. Items #4, #5, and #7 are influential but mostly for fun; #9 is less stunning when placed next to the masterpiece of Kahneman, while the scope of #10 is not as wide as the others.

Books

On a recent occasion, a friend of mine asked me to list 10 books that have stayed with me and changed my thinking or way of life in profound ways.

Here is my list, in the order that I read them:

1. Records of the Grand Historian (史記) by Sima Qian (司馬遷)
2. The Freezing Point  (冰點) by Ayako Miura (三浦綾子)
3. The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer
4. The Castle by Franz Kafka
5. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and EB White
6. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
7. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
8. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
9. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
10. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

PS. Unlike most people, I have the habit of throwing away (not giving away) books that I finished reading. The first 6 titles in this list have the same story with me: I read it, throw it away, then buy it some time later and keep it forever.

Brainwash

You may say if compulsory education is the prerequisite of a successful democratic system, why doesn't it work in some strong country (which, on paper, offers 9 years of free compulsory education to all children).

Alas, that certainly depends on what you teach - or how you brainwash the youngsters. If Nazism were a compulsory subject and the only social system that we teach our children, we can easily turn them to followers of Adolf Hitler. If the textbook is changed to one on militarism, the children would turn to Hideki Tojo.

For obvious reasons, you could argue democracy - like communism - is merely a subject that westerners use to brainwash their own students. Well, yes, that's possible. However, I dare say when no particular political system is advocated in the school, democracy would be the natural tendency.

PS. To be fair to this strong country, her education system was once almost successful in introducing democracy - during the year with an exceptionally long May.

Available

Side track a bit. Although I argued that free education to all children is a pre-requisite of a successful democratic system, free education is also the cause of craving for democracy.

In fact, we can go back one step: With the advance in technology (oh, I mean paper and printing – nothing cyber or electronic), the cost of acquiring knowledge is reduced dramatically. Education becomes readily available to many people even if there is no government intervention.

And, as the Genesis described, with knowledge, people open their eyes and would no longer obey to the god or follow the smart minority – because (they think) they are now equally smart. They would fight for a equal right to choose their leader and run their country.

That is democracy.

PS. Yes, that’s how Europe woke up from the Dark Age. Ironically, the technology of making paper as well as printing originated from China. Both spreaded to the Europe via Arabs.

Education

Once you understand the difficulty of the transition from ruling by the smart minority to democracy, the implication is obvious: The malfunction of democracy is not the problem of Chinese or Africans or any other ethnic group. The argument this group of people does not deserve a democratic system does not hold. It is a problem of education – or the lack of it.

In other words, when most of the people in a country do not have the chance of receiving an appropriate education, a sudden transition to a democratic system with general election would not work. These people have little idea about what to choose, and easily fall to the trap of bribery. That’s what happened in most Asian and African countries after they stopped being a colony and claimed independence.

PS. Japan is a notable exception because free education was provided to all children from the early phase of Meiji Restoration – quite some years before the system of election was introduced.

Transition

I must say the system of Confucius makes good sense in the old days.

You see? When the country is huge, education is expensive (before the invention of paper and printing), and means of communication is limited, ruling by a small group of educated scholars is the most efficient way to keep everything in order. Moreover, education and the Imperial Examination (科舉) become the obvious way of moving up the social ladder. It puts the grease to any dissatisfaction to the structural inequality within the country.

I am not going to discuss whether this system remains advantageous nowadays. However, the very fact is, when a country has long been ruled by a smart minority, sudden transition to a democratic system with general election, the result is often disastrous – how could the clumsy majority choose their own leader?

PS. The calamity did not only happen in our country (after 1911 – for several times). France and Germany faced the same problem 200 and 100 years ago, respectively.

上下

While considering what kind of election we are heading, I come to realize the fundamental conflict between Confucianism and democracy.

No, don’t go that far. I am not saying Chinese should or should not have democracy. I am talking about the social structure that Confucius described.

The scenario is simple: In the ideal world of Kongzi (孔子), a country should be governed by a small group of elite (that is, educated scholars). Most of the citizens are, however, dumb and humble peasant. They have very little to say about their own country except paying tax and taking orders from the ruler. From the Han to the Qing Empire – and, in fact, in the late Republic of China (not the People’s) – our country remained a loyal follower, and the result has not always been catastrophic.

PS. The common misnomer of this system is the smart minority leading the clumsy majority (上智下愚), although this term actually has a very different meaning when it first appeared in The Analects (論語).

Choose

“You are pulling my legs.” My wife complained, “How about CY, Ann Chiang and Anna Chan (陳靜心)?”

“Ann Chiang, of course.” I almost laughed.

“That’s not fair. All you want to do is ticking out CY.”

“No, not really,” I shook my head, “There are situations that I would vote for our current CE.”

“Such as…?”

“For example, if the three candidates are CY, Raymond Wong (黃毓民) and Albert Ho (何俊仁), I will certainly choose CY.”

“Haha… I see your point.”

“And same for an election between CY, Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and Benny Tai (戴耀廷).”

For once, my wife has to agree with me.

Choice

“It is really timely to have Miss Hong Kong Pageant just now,” Vivian remarked during a casual conversation, “Look at how they choose the winner and whom they come up with at the end. What hope could you have on our election of the Chief Executive?”

“Quite right,” I nodded and put up a bitter smile.

“In fact, with this system of screened election (篩選), I believe CY with win the 2017 election and serve another term.” Vivian continued.

“Alas, I’m not that sure.” I smiled – a more curious one this time.

“Why not?” My wife became more excited, “Who would they put up for us to choose? Imagine, if the three candidates are CY, Ann Chiang (蔣麗芸) and Lau Kong-Wah (劉江華), is there really a choice?”

“Oh! In that case I would choose Lau Kong-Wah.” I replied in no time, “He appears close to normal.” As the under-secretary of a bureau (alas, I cannot remember which – that scores one point), he has nothing to do – and therefore he behaves appropriately and does nothing.

Best

My recent bedtime reading is Confessions of the World’s Best Father by Dave Engledow.

Strictly speaking, it is not a book, but a handy hard-cover collection of funny photos that Engledow took for her daughter Alice Bee. It’s meant to be irony and most of the pictures show a careless father torturing or neglecting his lovely daughter. Here and there you could find Alice Bee playing with knives, fire, electric socket, or sipping liquor – while Engledow just sits there and enjoys his coffee.

However, on a second thought, he was a good daddy. Jen, Alice’s mother, is busy at work and hardly ever appears in the book. Engledow does spend a good deal of time with his daughter – and that’s all about parenthood.

PS. Believe it or not, the book is my Father’s Day present. On it, my princesses write From the world’s best daughters.

I would hardly doubt.

Wish

(Our luncheon discussion continued.)

I was about to say aspiration has very little to do with making money, and it seems a good idea to pursue on our own interest and turn it into a career. However, LS was quick to speak out, “My friend, from the pragmatic and monetary point of view, it is not at all a bad idea to become a Premier League football player.”

I was puzzled. Although a few famous football players (such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo) do have an astronomical income, most of the others live on the breadline.

TW probably saw through my question and explained, “Very true. As a matter of fact, in order to make big money, you don’t really need to be a top tier player and have a sky-high salary. Even if you serve in a mediocre Premier League football club for a just a few months, you can come back, declare yourself as a previous Premier League player, and teach school-children football. The tuition fee is unbelievable – and you have to be neither a good player nor a great teacher. That few months of experience in England become the halo on your head and too many parents are eager to give you their children!”

“Exactly! And it does not only apply to football. Piano, swimming, badminton… anything!” LS added.

“That’s true enough,” I said to myself, “The point is not what the child could learn, but what name the parents could put down in their child’s portfolio!”

Aspiration

A few days after Vivian and I bought some children’s books for Adler, I had the rare opportunity of lunching with my colleagues. We were celebrating the birthdays of LS, AK and BK, which were all, by coincidence, a few days apart.

As you would expect, our discussion came to our kids in no time.

“You know, a few months ago, when I asked my son what he would like to do when he grows up, he gave the answer of Premier League football player!” VM began. I believe he was referring to his younger son, who is a secondary school student.

“That’s not too bad,” LY smiled, “To say the least, he has an aspiration. Many university students still have no idea what they want to do!”

“Yes, but, as a father, how could a football player make a living?” The professor of neurology sighed.

Supplement

On a second thought, newspaper supplement (副刊) nowadays is very different from that 30 years ago.

In the old days, supplement was filled with monographs and serial novels. Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie began writing their stories that way, and so did Jin Yong (金庸), Ni Kuang (倪匡), and many others in Hong Kong. Now? You could hardly find any serial in a supplement. Most readers are less patient nowadays and would not stand any long stories full of words. New generation novelists tend to publish their stories on the Internet - Han Han (韓寒) and Yang Zhi (楊治) are good examples.

So, what's left for the newspaper supplement? Columnists shift their attention to their daily experience if not making swift comments to some local hot topics. Many reporters directly employed by the newspaper now also served as solicited authors and write articles on food, dresses, cosmetics, cars, houses, and any consumers goods and luxury that you can think of. Many a time you would have a difficulty to tell a proper advertisement from a solicited article with product placement.

Alas, the former is often better written.