Not alone at home anymore.... my parents and sisters are back.

Anyway, I'm blogging again now coz there are a few things that I've forgotten to write about:

Penang is in a deplorable state and is losing is lustre as a prominent tourist attraction. The English and Chinese Newspapers are writing about Penang everyday now, and they are mainly highlighting the ugly side of it. Rubbish, pollution etc. And the pitiful state of its tourist attractions. Someone wrote in to say that the snake temple is not worth a trip because there are hardly any snakes there now! That's why there's this campaign now (forgot what it's called; stand up for Penang?) to attempt to reverse the trend. The situation Penang's in is quite sad... and Ching Mien (and Chen Hoay) blame it on the Chief Minister of the State Datuk Koh Tsu Koon... Oh well... and least I believe my trip there will be enjoyable...

Mr. Abdullah Badawi was giving a speech in Dubai (I think) some days ago and he said that all Malaysians must try to improve themselves and make themselves value-added. It was rather interesting for me to hear that coz Singapore ministers always seem to mention about it. Schools too..."best value-added school...blah, blah, blah....". Haha... Mr. Abdullah Badawi is certainly different from Dr. Mahathir... I read in Newsweek that there is an art exhibition in KL and there were some suprising artpieces that I thought would certainly be censored but weren't! Examples: police batons and judges headgear made from cow dung and artworks depicting anti-ISA (Internal Security Act) slogans and stuff. Is Malaysia becoming more liberal? It's too early to tell...

One good thing about being back home is that I get to watch the TV channels I like the most on Astro (Satellite TV Channel provider), such as Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Anyway, there was an interesting show one day about the Naxi people in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China. The Naxi people are a minority in China, but what makes them outstanding is that they have constantly been adapting to 'foreign' cultures; they practice falconry (rearing Eagles etc.) which they learned from the Mongols; they can write in Chinese which they learned from Han Chinese (and in fact, the ruler of the region at the time had strongly encouraged people to learn it, to the extent he banned their own written language); and finally, they have retained ancient traditional music from past dynasties (people thought the music was extinct).
They also invented a unique water system; the marketplace could be slightly flooded after all the buying and selling hype had ended to wash away dirt and debris! Water will sprout out from the cracks in the stone surface when the water movement in a stream was altered.

They had their own language, the Dongba, which is more or less hieroglyphic. In fact, it is the ONLY remaining 'living' hieroglyph in the world today. However, it's usage is limited to religious purposes to record rituals etc. and for each village there is only one 'priest' family. So, only this 'priest' family is able to read and decipher the Dongba language. Many from these families have chosen not to learn it. The reason, quoted from a Dongba-literate priest is that these people think it is "useless". Preservation of the Naxi culture and language is under way, but tourism is a major threat to them.

To learn more Lijiang and Naxi culture, visit http://www.lijiang.com.cn/english/culture/db_culture/db_culture.htm
http://www.toptrip.cc/destination/yunnan/lijiangdongba.htm

To learn more about the Dongba language, visit
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/naxi.htm