HALF DONE

this summer feels like the longest one i've ever had! research on hk's new wave cinema hasn't been going too well b/c so many key films are missing from the archive's collection. i've gotten over my frustrations with the place though. the archive is in eastern hk, just two subway stops from my uncle's place. the area is sai wan ho, which reminds me of tribeca because of its many restaurants, park, and mix of community members. sometimes i come here to eat lunch!



last saturday, uncle and i went to a talk on contemporary hong kong art called handover/talkover. there have been a plethora of such events dealing with the issue b/c it's the tenth year anniversary of hk's return to china. you hear/see/breathe it everywhere, but it's not considered as unsettling a crisis as it used to be. anyway, it's not uncommon to hear that hk is a cultural desert, which i couldn't really understand because there are so many people in hk! hk isn't a cultural desert, but it's no cultural oasis. below is the cattle depot artist village where the talk was held. they also had a show up, but it had pieces we saw last week at the cuhk show!



then sunday i went to high tea with frankie at the mandarin oriental before a show he was going to see at the cultural center. on the top are "sandwiches" that were wrapped with thin slices of cucumber, salmon, etc. we had scones too, i miss eating scones.



i've started taking mandarin/putonghua classes this week. the night before my first class last monday, i had a dream that i was being forced to play piano again. there's a 10 year old in the class, as well as a woman in her late thirties. the class is interesting because the pronunciation is not only taught with pinyin, but with chinese characters that have the corresponding tones. got a haircut after the first class, went to a place called myth in causeway bay. my hair is now short in the back but longer in the front so it slants at the sides. it's nice b/c the view from the back is so different from the front.

last night i took the tram from eastern hk to the western district. when it got dark, i took it again from the western district to causeway bay. the trams have open windows and run on tracks through the heart of hk island. taking the tram at night is probably one of my most favorite things to do. it's fun to see the street lights and people in double-decker buses/restaurants/inside spaces, they often seem encapsulated