A Visit to the Royal Ontario Museum

The ROM has a crystal-like structure jutting out of it

The Royal Ontario Museum has something for everyone: there are informative exhibitions that invite visitors to touch and smell items, and staff on hand to give more interesting facts and answer questions, and a large room for children to freely play and do activities without disturbing others.

Currently the museum has an exhibition called Bees: A Story of Survival. It informs people about the plight of bees, how they form from egg to insect, and how crucial they are to human survival through their act of pollination.

There were so many interesting facts about bees sprinkled throughout the show:

A most intricate porcelain vase

Bees have been around for over 120 million years

More than 75 percent of the world's food crops depend on pollinators like bees

One hectare of a well-managed meadow can contain about 7.5 million flowers, enough to support over 200,000 bees.

Bees have 170 smell receptors, as scent is essential for bees to survive, reproduce, communicate, find food sources, and keep their nests safe.

Bees produce a resin-like material called propolis, which has anti-microbial properties that we use in medicine, including cough syrups and cosmetics.

There are more than 300 native bee species living in and around Toronto

Most bees are wild and don't live in hives. Other kinds of bees include: 

Mason bees that live in existing south-facing holes, like trees to window frames; 

Leafcutter bees that cut discs in leaves and glue them together with leaf pulp to build cells; 

Mining bees make nests in the ground and dig vertical tunnels into the the soil;

Indian stingless bees create nests in tree trunks, logs and wall cavities.

There were also some interesting exhibits where visitors touch the screen to illuminate some facts, a room where points of light represented a bee and showed what a swarm looked like, mostly to protect their queen. 

Most fascinating was a video from a bee's point of view of what the outside world looked to them, how they are near-sighted so they depend on the bright colours of flowers to guide them to find pollen.

Another interesting fact is that a wild honey bee queen can lay 1,500 to 2,000 eggs each day, and produces a scent called pheromone that encourages the colony to work together.

Over 100 birds in movement

The exhibition was created by the National Museums Liverpool together with artist and sculptor Wolfgang Buttress, making it an inviting, artistic, multi-sensory experience for visitors with interesting facts about bees that are not lecturing, but informative, and encourages people to appreciate these insects. 

We also wandered around other parts of the museum, looking at the rooms showcasing China and Korea, metal armour dating back to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, many dinosaur bones, and a replica of a Ming dynasty tomb with a tomb guard.

Another room showed Japanese textiles and the most intricate porcelain vase we'd ever seen. Up close there were tens of thousands of tiny delicate swirls that looked like flower petals. It's called Cocoon by contemporary artist Makkiko Hattori, and is actually part of the collection at the Gardiner Museum across the street from the ROM!

Kids are sure to have a fun time at the ROM with interactive exhibits, and several volunteers and staff explaining things and answering questions. After looking at the bee display, we went to see the live bees the museum keeps and a woman was there to show us the queen bee (marked with a blue dot), and that there was a drone bee in the hive too. The bees can go in and out of the hive through a plastic pipe that leads to the outside of the museum.

We also enjoyed the section on birds, where over 100 avian species are on display, mostly in flight, so visitors can see how they move and in particular, flying above people as they walk through the exhibit. 

There was also a room full of precious stones, many of which we did not know there were so many names for! Lots of giant sparkling rocks that were made over 4.5 billion years ago.

Mind boggling!

Royal Ontario Museum

100 Queen's Park

Toronto

Tasty Asian Eats in Vancouver's Kerrisdale

Bubbling hot (and mildly spicy) tofu soup with kimbap, banchan

Yesterday we tried a good value-for-money lunch in Vancouver's Kerrisdale. It's known for being an area where either seniors live or teenagers hang out because there are two secondary schools in the area. There's also a lot of Asian people residing in the area too, so there are Cantonese, Japanese, Thai and Korean eateries.

One of them in Sandeul, a Korean restaurant on West Boulevard. It's a spacious place that's bright an airy. I went there over a year ago when I was starving so it wasn't helpful that the place was packed to the gills and took a while to get my lunch.

Colourful and substantial portion of kimbap

This time a relative wanted to check out Sandeul so we went yesterday before noon and it wasn't too busy. We sat near the kitchen and checked out the menu. We immediately zeroed in on the lunch special available from 11am to 3pm: kimbap (seaweed rice rolls), japchae (sweet potato noodles stir-fried with vegetables), and tofu soup (choice of beef, seafood or mushroom) for C$22.99. 

We did have to wait a while, but it was worth it. The tofu soup arrived first, literally bubbling hot! Mine was mushroom with tofu, and mild spice level. The tofu was silky smooth and substantial, mixed with slices of mushroom. It was really comforting to eat on a chilly day.

For a lunch set we were expecting four to six pieces of kimbap, but we received a dozen each, a generous portion. They were delicious, filled with egg, cucumber, pickled radish, carrots and spinach. There was so much food we had to pack these in takeaway boxes.

The set lunch includes banchan, small dishes

However, we got a small plate of japchae that was actually just right, as well as three banchan: kim chi, pickled beansprouts, and gluten. We had a few refills...

Sandeul has another lunch special that's $25.99 featuring more dishes like salad, grilled mackerel, bulgogi, kim chi pancake and tofu soup. 

We were full -- but wait! We were a block away from a highly recommended Taiwanese drinks place called Macu. 

My cousin has raved about the place last summer and now I was just steps away from trying it myself.

Except when I saw the menu I was completely overwhelmed by how much choice there was! Did I want mango? Strawberry? Milk tea with boba? Or taro with milk?

Avocado, mango and milk tea drinks

Eventually I settled on strawberry avocado smoothie, with bobo or agar agar chewy cubes, diced strawberries and avocado mixed with milk and slushy ice. It wasn't too sweet and highly addictive that I finished the drink pretty quickly! Once the ice melts the drink doesn't taste as good...

Is it any wonder this place has a steady stream of business all day?

Sandeul

6019 West Boulevard

Vancouver, BC

604 428 3388

Macu

5971 West Boulevard

Vancouver, BC

A Very Chinese Time in People's Lives

Jellycat's red plush horse with a golden mane 

Everyone's getting into the Year of the Horse -- Snoopy, Mr. Men, Sesame Street's Elmo, Miffy, Paddington Bear, even Jellycat issuing a red plush horse with a golden mane.

Are they all in a "very Chinese time in their lives", or Chinamaxxing? 

Or is it all a marketing ploy to appeal to Chinese fans that they are wishing them all the best in the Lunar New Year?

In some ways it's amusing to see non-Chinese recently discovering the benefits of drinking hot water, or demonstrating that they know to take off their shoes once they enter a home, and these days posting on social media, "Kung Hei Faat Choy"!

Snoopy celebrating the new year

It's great people are more accustomed or accepting of Chinese habits, but it doesn't make them experts on Chinese culture overnight.

It was brought to my attention that a guy from San Francisco on Facebook was explaining or maybe "mansplaining" that people should say "Lunar New Year" instead of "Chinese New Year" to make it more inclusive, as people from Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia also celebrate. 

He even talks about how this year is the "Fire Horse", elucidating about the five elements of water, wood, metal, fire and earth, and that a "Fire Horse" only comes around every 60 years...

Hence Chinamaxxing or being in a "very Chinese time in my life" is so bizarre. The latter assumes that one is Chinese for a period of time, unlike say ethnic Chinese who are Chinese their whole lives.

The former are those who look at all the cool things about China -- electric cars, high-speed rail, online payments, AI and Shein, without taking into account or even knowing about, say, the lopsided ratio of men to women, the high unemployment rate for fresh grads, and the restrictions of living in an authoritarian environment.

Elmo with his Korean and Chinese friends

All this just only a few years after China finally lifted its draconian lockdown measures to control the Covid-19 virus from spreading. People were literally sealed in their own apartment units, while everyone else got bags of food delivered to them, and people queuing up and opening their mouths to have their saliva swabbed.

And now China is super cool?

Quite the transformation, but now that Canadian and UK passport holders can travel to China visa-free until the end of the year, it would be great for people to see the country for themselves and then figure out of they really are Chinamaxxing.

If anything, they would be able to legitimately say their visit was a "very Chinese time in their life."

Bangkok: Showing Love for Lisa

Lisa is a hot commodity, singing and acting

This morning we checked out a newly opened shopping mall called One Bangkok and were surprised to see a Lennon Wall covered in Post-It notes.

They immediately brought me back to 2014 when a stairway at Tamar was covered in coloured Post-It note papers with hopes people had for Hong Kong.

Post-It notes from Lisa's fans at the shopping mall

However, a closer look at this particularly temporary wall in the shopping mall revealed they were messages of support for Korean rapper Lisa, whose real name is Pranpriya Manobal. The Thai-born performer also sings and dances, and is a member of the Korean girl group Blackpink.

Lisa has also recently become super hot after her acting debut this year in the HBO television series White Lotus. There's a lot of talk about how the show, filmed in Koh Samui, has revived international interest in Thailand, and may result in more tourists coming to the Land of Smiles.  

West Kowloon Arts Hub is Deep in the Red

Fung says the WKCDA is HK$1 billion in the hole -- again

Hong Kong's West Kowloon arts hub that includes M+ and the Palace Museum can't make money. In fact it's in the red by HK$1 billion, similar to last year.

CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Betty Fung also said the number of visitors to the district was lower than expected, and so revenue from ticket sales and museum merchandise fell 20 percent year-on-year.

The Sanxingdui show garnered lots of attention

How is this possible when M+ recently presented a well-received exhibition on late Chinese-American architect IM Pei and well-known Hong Kong-based designer Henry Steiner?

Likewise the Palace Museum had the Sanxingdui show and paintings from the National Gallery London.

While the MTR does go to West Kowloon (called Kowloon station), getting to M+ and the Palace Museum isn't really convenient.

But there's also restaurants in M+, in particular Mosu, the Michelin-starred restaurant helmed by Korean superstar chef Sung Anh who became famous as a judge in Culinary Class Wars. Because he had closed his restaurant in Seoul, he was pretty much focused on his Hong Kong branch, which drew a lot of fans to his restaurant.

However, Fung says the catering businesses at the West Kowloon district didn't bring in a lot of revenue either.

Chef Sung's profile drove fans to eat at Mosu

Is this a case of bureaucrats not having a clue how to run businesses? Or too many people involved and not making bold or innovative decisions?

The fact that the district is HK$1 billion in the hole like last year is very troubling. For years there were complaints that Hong Kong was a cultural desert, and now that this area has been developed and opened there's no interest in it!

Disappointing and frightening to see taxpayer dollars frittered away...

Picture of the Day: Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas look particularly pretty this year

In Vancouver, people's lawns may be yellow, but their flowers are blooming in their prime, in particular hydrangeas.

These giant colourful floral pom poms are flowering beautifully in particular this year and it's because of the hot weather we've been having these few weeks. 

These big floral pom poms are fun to see

Apparently across Canada all the hydrangeas are doing very well. They can come in white, cream, pink, blue, and violet.

Unlike roses, hydrangeas bloom for several weeks and are so pretty to look at!

Interesting to note hydrangeas are native to Asia, in particular China, Korea and Japan. 

The word hydrangea comes from the Greek word "water vessel", referring to the shape of the seed capsules. 

Review: The Holdovers

Sessa, Randolph and Giamatti in The Holdovers

This afternoon we went to a matinee show for US$6 per ticket. Some went to see Napoleon, but I opted for The Holdovers, Alexander Payne's latest film.

On the surface it seems like it will be a comedy that could be full of physical and verbal humour, but it's actually a contemplative deep dive into people's lives and how you may not know the full story of anyone you meet until you really get to know them.

Paul Giamatti plays erudite teacher Paul Hunham in ancient Greek and Roman history, but he is despised by students and colleagues alike at Barton Academy, a boarding school for boys in New England.

Hunham must look after students at Christmas

Even though Paul was a graduate of the school, he loathes the students he teaches, believing they are hardly smart and deserve to fail.

It's December 1970 and he is assigned the thankless task of looking after some boys whose parents aren't collecting them for the Christmas holidays. 

All but one manage to worm their way out of staying in the school much longer, leaving Paul with a student named Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), and Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), the African-American cafeteria administrator who makes their meals.

We soon discover Mary's son was a graduate of the school but had recently died fighting in Vietnam, and so this Christmas is a tough one for her.

The film also reveals bit by bit why Angus isn't spending the holidays with his family, and why is Paul so miserable.

Payne (left) and Hemingson

The characters in The Holdovers are very believable and makes the viewers think about people in their lives. Do they know what is really going on behind their facade? There is more than meets the eye.

Giamatti is so good as the curmudgeon Paul, a tight-ass teacher who is keen to show off his academic trivia that is of no interest to others. 

It's also interesting to note in the 1970s there was a lot of open drinking and smoking. But there was also a bit of diversity too, as one of the students is from Korea, another is a Mormon (aside from the other kids with trust funds).

As Mary, Randolph's character acts as a bridge between Paul and Angus, and brings compassion and empathy.

Sessa is fantastic with his screen debut as a lanky student whose life is more complicated than he lets on.

The Holdovers reminds us to be more empathetic towards others because you never know what they've been through before you met them.

The Holdovers

Directed by Alexander Payne

Written by David Hemingson

133 minutes

Picture of the Day: Pickled Chayote

Marinating sliced chayote with chilli flakes

Seaport City Seafood Restaurant has a delicious appetiser called pickled chayote, also known as Buddha's palm (合掌瓜). The vegetable is from the gourd family and was originally grown in Mexico and Honduras.

In Korea it is usually pickled or in a salad, whereas in Chinese cooking it is added to soups, stir-fried, or pickled too.

We were inspired by Seaport City's pickled chayote to attempt to make our own marinade. We adapted a recipe for smashed cucumbers in a vinegar sauce. It includes soy sauce, dark vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic. I used agave syrup and balsamic vinegar.

On my first try, I made the mistake of adding too much sesame oil and tried to balance it out by adding more balsamic vinegar. After some adjustments to the marinade I added the sliced raw chayote and let it sit for a few hours. It tasted pretty good! The next day was even better, having had time to soak up the vinegar marinade and was still crunchy.

This evening I made another batch, this time using much less sesame oil and added a few chilli flakes. 

Chayotes are a good source of vitamin C, cooked or raw. 

While I like this vegetable stir-fried or in a soup, pickled are the best.

Four Vancouver Businesses Gutted by Fire

The three-alarm fire started at 10pm at the back of Nando's

This morning we woke up to the news that some businesses in a neighbourhood near where we live were destroyed after a fire last night. It's quite a shock as I was just in that area yesterday to do some errands. 

The fire reportedly broke out around 10pm last night behind Nando's restaurant, an Afro-Portuguese chain that served flame-grilled chicken with a spicy sauce. The fire spread to the next door businesses called Deer Island Bakery and Yummy Yogurt, as well as Pho Tan Vietnamese Restaurant and Sandy Farm Market. They are located at 41st Avenue between East Boulevard and Maple Street.

The four businesses were torn down today

Periodically we would go to Sandy Farm Market for fruits and vegetables. It was a Korean-owned store and they closed on Sundays to go to church.

Not only were the businesses gutted, but also people who lived in four units above one of the buildings were homeless.

Fifty-five firefighters fought the three-alarm fire to get it under control. 

"At this time we can't say we don't know exactly where the fire started. There's so much damage right now... We'll be trying to ascertain the cause," said assistant fire chief Keith Stewart.

From photographs taken from the scene, it looks like Nando's has collapsed into itself, though Stewart has said at least the four businesses will have to be demolished, and an excavator was brought in Monday to take them down.

It's so tragic to hear about the fire -- which results in losses for business owners and people being out of work.

HK Government to Ban Protest Anthem

The song was the unofficial anthem of the 2019 protests

Just to make sure no one will every play the wrong Hong Kong anthem again, the government is seeing a court order to permanently bar anyone from trying to using music related to the song that became the unofficial anthem for the 2019 protests.

On Monday the justice secretary filed an unprecedented application to the High Court for an injunction against Glory to Hong Kong. The writ asked the court to restrain those harbouring criminal intent from "broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way" the protest song.

March of the Volunteers is HK's official anthem

The injunction targets anyone who intends to incite others to separate Hong Kong from China, commit a seditious act, or insult the national anthem, March of the Volunteers.

The court order, if granted, would also prohibit anyone from playing the song in a manner that would cause it "to be mistaken as the national anthem insofar as the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] is concerned", or suggest that Hong Kong "is an independent state and has a national anthem of her own."

In addition the thorough court filing listed YouTube videos of 32 versions of the song, from instrumentals to it sung in Mandarin, English, German, Dutch, Japanese and Korean.

This move comes just before the fourth anniversary of the large-scale anti-extradition protests that saw 1 million and then 2 million people out on the streets on June 9 and 16, 2019 respectively.

The wrong song has been played many times

So just to make sure no one will ever mistake Glory to Hong Kong for the official Hong Kong anthem, it will make it seditious to play it in any form.

From now on, any country hosting a Hong Kong team for a sporting tournament will be terrified of playing the wrong song.

How does that inspire anyone to visit the city?

Music Festival Brings up Memories

These music competitions help children get used to performing

These last two days I have been volunteering for the Kiwanis Music Festival, where young students get to compete against their peers once a year.

Adjudicators are invited from outside Vancouver to come and judge the budding musicians. I met one adjudicator today from Victoria, BC, who had played professionally in Winnipeg, Manitoba for many years. 

We had a quick chat outside as he soaked in the sunshine (it was overcast yesterday) to kill a bit of time before the competition began.

Cello is a popular instrument

As an ambassador I had to greet the students and their families and direct them to the right place, as the venue had two rooms, one for violinists, the other for cellists.

Most of the kids were mainland Chinese or Korean. One very young Korean boy, about five years old -- very smartly dressed and wore Tod's loafers, was accompanied by his mom and his grandma, who carried the cello as if she was hugging it. It sounded like he did well, as he called his father right after with big cheers.

I learned piano from the age of seven to about 16. Competing in the Kiwanis Music Festival was an annual ritual that frazzled my nerves.

My heart pounded so loudly I wondered if everyone else could hear it and was so relieved when it was all over, but also annoyed if I did not do well.

One time my mom had to drive me to North Vancouver and she was unfamiliar with the area (pre-GPS) and we got lost. Sitting in the back seat I was getting more anxious, lost and late! We finally found the venue and I was allowed to go last to help settle my nerves before performing.

I remember the adjudicator saying I played the piece well, but it was supposed to be played lightly like a bird singing, but instead it sounded like an elephant playing. I was just relieved to get the whole thing over with.

Another time, when I was 16, I was so nervous that when I sat at the keyboard, I completely blanked out and forgot what I was going to play. 

I stared blankly at the keys, unable to play

I lost all my confidence and had to perform with the music, and I almost played it like I had just learned the piece (JS Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C major, or Ave Maria).

The next day I was supposed to play the same piece for my whole school and I freaked out, but my music teacher insisted that I play it. I did and it was an affirmation that I could do it.

Back at this year's festival, while waiting her turn, an accompanist on the piano for one or more of the cellists sat outside and told me these competitions are a frightening experience for children. I remarked that they would put them in good stead later in life when making presentations and speeches.

But she said for some people just playing for a competition was hard enough as it was and I told her about my blanking out experience. That happened to her too.

She said in her 20s and 30s she was so nervous performing in front of people, that it was only in her 40s that she got used to performing in public, it was not something she liked.

Then she talked about how difficult it must be for professional musicians, and how there was so much expectation heaped on them.

I suggested perhaps there were some performers who liked the attention.

However, she thought for a true musician, the end goal was not attention, but their love of music, and they would not enjoy performing in public...

More Reasons Not to Violate NSL

Tong is spending 9 years in jail, must pay HK$1.38M in fees

Last July, Tong Ying-kit was the first person to be convicted and sentenced under the national security law.

He was handed a six-and-a-half year sentence for the charge of inciting secession for carrying a large banner on the back of his motorcycle with the now outlawed slogan, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times".

Tong on July 1, 2020 with the subversive banner

Tong was also sentenced to eight years in jail for terrorism, for crashing his motorcycle into a group of police officers on July 1, 2020, injuring three. Of his two sentences, 2.5 years will run consecutively, which means the 25-year-old will serve nine years in total.

Now a year later, Tong has been slapped with a massive legal bill -- HK$1.38 million -- for two failed legal challenges.

It is impossible for him to pay this bill, and crowdfunding will probably be considered aiding and abetting.

We already saw this happen a few months ago when domestic helpers in Hong Kong were being fined HK$5,000 (US$637) for not social-distancing because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was no way they could pay the fine and an expatriate came up with a crowdfunding exercise called Helping Helpers to help pay for these fines.

Over HK$107,000 was raised in days.

Later the then Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong announced his department would consult the Department of Justice on the matter, claiming the fundraising effort was "maliciously obstructing our whole anti-epidemic effort".

Helpers fined HK$5K for not social-distancing

It is virtually impossible for helpers to pay these fines when they make a minimum salary of HK$4,630 a month.

The crowdfunding immediately stopped and all the money was returned to the donors.

So with Tong's case, it is obvious the government continues to weaponise the judicial system in a bid to further deter others into not challenging it in the courts.

In the meantime, in another sign that Hong Kong is suffering from a massive brain drain, job recruiters are having a hard time finding fresh graduates to fill entry-level positions across all sectors.

Anecdotally some recruiters said that previously their inbox would be filled with emails from young people looking for work, and now the tables are turned and it's the HR professionals trying to find anyone that fits the job description to go for the job.

They are not just looking for local residents, but also foreign students who have studied in Hong Kong, and know other Asian languages like Korean, Japanese, Hindi or Bahasa. 

Diverse pool of fresh graduates? Look again

Many have left because of Hong Kong's severe Covid-19 quarantine rules, making it very difficult for them to travel to see family or do business, while others are moving to places like the UK to start fresh.

In addition there are fewer international students interested in studying in Hong Kong. In 2019-20 there were 3,977, and 3,803 for the 2020-21 academic year.

Hong Kong is not a place young people want to be in anymore. And the government isn't making an effort to encourage them to stay.