Talk #391

Prof. S. S. Lau and his lovely wife, Kwailing are making their annual pilgrimage to Hong Kong. We decided to take them to visit the Po Ling Monastery to see the large Buddha statue that was completed in 1993, and then a 4 km hike down the hill to reminisce the graduation trip 40 years ago and to make sure they will be hungry for the lunch at Tai O. If you wish to know more about the Buddha statue or Tai O, come to the reunion next year, or wait until May Chen visits, and writes a report; she is good at that.

After a short tour of the Statue, we started the hike. Whiling hiking, we reminisced our 3 day 2 nights graduation trip 40+ years hiking UP the hill, slept in those hard wooden bunk beds two to a bed (four to a double dunker), something with the possible exception of San Francisco, the parents in the West will haul the teachers to the courts today for corrupting the minors. Then we all shared limited public bath facilities; all those things probably will have difficulties doing today.

The conversations naturally led to the classmates and Pui Ching girls. First we are all very happy for A Chai and Bonnie, and all of us here will give our congratulations and best wishes. Regarding Pui Ching girls, my infatuation with them now is well documented, Prof. Lau started referring me as a secret admirer of the "Party Girls." Good thing Winnie did not mind, otherwise I would have to sleep on the sofa for rest of my life (few have dog house here in HK).

While proclaiming total agreement with my theory of "Winnie is always right," Prof. Lau kept on differing from opinions of Kwailing. We finally decided he should copy 100 times "Kwailing is always right" and 200 times should he do it again; as he just talks the talk, does not walk the walk. Now what did we talked about 40 years ago while we hiked up the hill? The FUTURE probably; that we will do later at the dinner.

That night, we had the honor of having Dr. Lam Ying-Ho, ex-Principle of Pui Ching joining us for dinner. During the dinner we talked exclusively about the FUTURE, the "nanometer technology" brought up by C.C. Luk. and the coming reunion in Hong Kong at 2002. I will leave the "nanometer technology" to Prof. Lau, but the reunion should be a simple subject especially with the presence of both coordinators C.C. Luk and Woo-Tong Pang. However, with a professor at the table, all conversations became very abstract and theoretical. After a lot of discussion of "moon loon" and "tsing si," Tse Shun Kai finally explained the differences of doing things in U.S. and Hong Kong to Prof. Lau. While in U.S. they practice "tsing si tsun kan yau moon loon," (Among clarity, there is vagueness), in HK we practice "moon loon tsun kan yau tsing si" (Among vagueness, there is clarity). While Prof. Lau perceived or is in "moon loon," we see "tsing si." Since my command of Cantonese is limited, I thought they were discussing metaphysics or some abstract dialectical subjects. Finally Prof. Lau explained to me "moon loon" means "Fuzzy Logic," and "tsing si" means "Micromanagement." How does "moon loon" translate to "fuzzy logic" and "tsing si" to "micromanagement" you would need to ask him. I am lost. Then that led to Woo-Tong Pang's comment how he learned the subject of Logic in 8th grade from Dr. Lam as he taught, "if it is raining, the ground will be wet, but if the ground is wet, it does not necessary mean it is raining." Not having the privilege of taking the lesson from Dr. Lam, I became further confused as I often observed while it rained dogs and cats in Hong Kong, the ground is bone dry in Kowloon, or is that "fuzzy logic?" Anyway, Prof. Lau was trying to gather info for Gina Mok to make hotel arrangements. I do not have foggiest (or fuzziest) idea what is Prof. Lau going tell Gina, but I have faith in both Prof. Lau and Gina.

Finally, to clear all the fuzzy talk, I decide to propose a simple, clear toast to Dr. Lam for "yim sui si yeun," (when you drink the water, think of the source). With the "translation" from Leung Ho Chi, who has been translating for me all night, everybody heartily joined. Whether we became more "moon loon" or "tsing si," clearly we all had a wonderful time together, and look forward to the happy future of reunion: Next Year in Hong Kong!

Wishing you all A Happy and Prosperous New Year!