I'm a traitor.

I've switched to a Wordpress.com account, and the link and name of this blog is exactly the same. I've done so simply because Wordpress has an app that lets me blog from my Blackberry. I used to use Wordpress over Blogger anyway, but I tried Blogger for a while because of my interconnected Google accounts. But you will see exactly the same things on the new blog as what I have here. :)

Thank you for visiting and I look forward to catching you on my new platform. ^.^

First Eurasia character designs!

This one for the protagonist, Jivaka, is only preliminary, but they are on the verge of being finalized. :) Thanks go to Keiichi Iwakura for his amazing game designs.

An article about The History Boys

I have a whole slew of favourite fictional characters. One is that has stuck with me for quite some time is Donald Scripps from The History Boys, a British play (and later movie) by Alan Bennett. I think he's a wry, savagely sharp, yet coolly compassionate and observant member of the cast who prefers to counsel rather than judge, and to poke fun at the serious sides of life.

If you're interested (or want to learn more about the quirky world of The History Boys), have a look here for my analysis of the character. The movie itself is excellent, I highly recommend it if you aren't squirmish about homosexual undertones and themes (although IMO there's no reason why anyone should feel that way in the 21st century). :p

Blatant self-advertising

Here are two of my showcased articles on our New Lotus bulletin over at Buddhistdoor International:

Buddha Tang: Pure Land, Ch'an, and the Heritage of Chinese Buddhism

China's Buddhist Pride: Consolidation and Custodianship of the Blessed One's Heritage (a piece about the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation)

New character in my visual novel

Yar Lha Sham Po

With celestial eyes of freezing cold rime and nostrils that howl stormy blizzards through the three worlds, the mountain deity Yar Lha Sham Po is the supreme god of Tibet's primal, pre-Buddhist pantheon. Conceivable to human sight as a massive, eerie white yak, the god's presence on Tibet's peaks is responsible for the bitter weather that enshrouds the highest mountaintops on the Roof of the World. He is also the patron divinity of the fertile Yarlung Valley, from where the empire's monarchs emerge onto the stage of history. As the reigning emperor, Trisong Detsen has now turned his back on the old gods and accepted Buddhism as the state religion. Poised to invade Tang China, he plans to tap into the fury of Yar Lha Sham Po and direct its elemental power against his very enemies.

Character design by Keiichi.

Genres of writing in high Tang culture (2)

The Tang Dynasty is seen as the birthgiver of some of China's best poets and statesmen (very often the two cannot be separated in Chinese culture, whereas it's strange these days to see a politician who professes to be a poet). What strikes me as even more important than the proliferation of so many important writers is the expansion of genres that was consciously crafted by collective circles of poets, ministers, historians, and novelists, even though the production of the literature within those genres was, like all historical developments in the world, organic.

Poetry is certainly the most famous of all bodies of Tang writing, and who could blame historians for their nostalgic recollection of poetry during this time? The poets Wang Wei, Li Bo, and Du Fu are universally recognized as China's best writers, but credit must also be given to people like Han Yu, Yuan Zhen, and more, who pioneered what Lu Xun argued were the first forms of self-conscious storytelling and prose in China: chuanqi or "transmissions of the remarkable", in other words, romantic fictions or short stories. The aftermath of the Anshi Rebellion marked not only this important development in Chinese literature, but it also led to the culmination of Tang writing: critical essays. In an ironic sense, the full maturation of high Tang intellectual culture could only come to fruition with the terminal, slow death of the dynasty's political glory. In this post I'll skim over almost criminally over the genre of fiction, and in two more following posts I'll discuss poetry and the classical prose essay respectively.

The mode of fiction was not, to be sure, as highly regarded or revered as poetry. Nor were authors setting out to write "fiction" in our modern sense of "there is fiction, and there is non-fiction." Also, although many tales offered certain morals and lessons as per most forms of Confucian-influenced literature, these romantic fictions were disarmingly sympathetic to its characters' experiences and emotions, allowing the fictional world to revolve around their personalities, actions, and happy or unhappy endings. In this sense Tang fiction was far less moralistic than many European pieces in the Elizabethan and Victorian periods.

• A range of lyrical techniques was developed to make otherwise simple plotlines engaging and suspenseful.
• Many of these short stories were once accounts of strange phenomena, and a reworking of the plot or the structure made it into what was a "consciously crafted work" - a story told for its own sake.
• Stories often involved the authors themselves or their associates, who were often officials or imperial examinees. Hence much romantic fiction centered on love affairs with courtesans at brothels. Mark, this also rendered the male protagonists of those stories, amusingly, insipid, weak, and helpless compared to the much more capable personalities of the prostitutes. 

Genres of writing in high Tang culture (1)

Over these few days we in London are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, Elizabeth II. But after watching the excellent movie Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (I really wish Tsui Hark pushed more bravely the lesbian subtext between Empress Wu and Jing'er... sigh) I've decided to blog about my favourite activity - writing - during the Tang Dynasty. My post is split into two parts and today I'm asking why anyone should care about the consequences of some group of impoverished, hungry writers from a long-dead dynasty. In other words, who cares about Tang-era literature, seriously?

As China is still recovering from the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution (among them a distinct cultural amnesia or wilful ignorance), I've always argued that you can't recover cultural memory unless you understand writing and its history. Writing crafts narrative, and it's impossible to recover any kind of cultural memory without narrative. In turn, memory is so important and powerful that it forms the very heritage of a people. Narrative and memory are most certainly the lifeblood of any tradition's heritage. Everyone has narrative - from people as diverse as Quakers to British monarchists, from American conservatives to Sikhs or Hindus. No one escapes the magnetic power of narrative because it tells your story, your life, and your place in the world... and it is always being retold as history unfolds.

In other words, the historical understanding of writing, which facilitates the recovery of narrative and memory (and by implication, heritage) is one of the most urgent questions faced by not only Chinese people today, but by anyone interested in culture.

The inheritance of Modernism has not only resulted in republics, the rolling of aristocratic heads, and imperialism without use of the word "empire" (just look at today's USA and China). It also resulted, most dramatically in Central Eurasia and China during the Cultural Revolution, a vicious disowning of the past and time-honoured institutions, and along with these institutions went their ideas about Beauty and Art. As Beckwith pointed out, Modernism demands perpetual revolution, which means that nothing can be considered ideal, or the best, or worthy of emulation, except the narrative of "deposing the aristocrat, the emperor, or the priest". How could I, for example, look up to my Buddhist temple or its monks as the ones to serve if "religion is the opiate of the masses" and Religion, with all its Art, standards of Beauty, Good, and Writing, need to be destroyed?

Which is why art and music during Mao Zedong's rule was so pathetically homogenous in theme as well as morals. And where was the proliferation of genuinely influential authors, who, if they weren't being murdered or sent to a re-education camp, could match the standards of previous periods. Sure, Modernism most definitely has created good art. I'm a lover of cartoons, manga, and anime. I love digital animation (this whole blog is meant for creative media) and I'm unapologetic about some of the writing and music of our contemporary age. But until we understand what it meant to write well in historical periods of cultural productivity, we can never recover that sense of the Ideal.

Of course, no aristocrat or priest was ever perfect. I know my employer isn't (he's a monk). But it didn't matter - in the name of aristocrats and kings creative people, needing money and food and therefore higher society's patronage, wrote or made art or made music. And from understanding kingship/religion/nobility as the Ideal sprang true masterpieces, from the Homeric Epics to the Poetic Edda, from the various scriptures of world religions to Mozart and Handel. That's why we need to look back to the literature of the Tang and other imperial dynasties - if not to emulate their Ideal, then to craft a different Ideal for ourselves with the hindsight of their wisdom.

A poem by Yu Xuanji (鱼玄机)

赠邻女 

羞日遮罗袖，愁春懒起妆。 

易求无价宝，难得有心郎。

枕上潜垂泪，花间暗断肠。

自能窥宋玉，何必恨王昌？ 

Sent to a neighbour girl 

I block the shame of daylight with a silken sleeve, too listless to get dressed this melancholy spring. 

It’s easy to come by a pearl without price; what’s hard is to find a lover with a heart. 

Hidden teardrops fall on my pillow, my heart breaks secretly among the flowers — 

but still I can peep at Song Yu; why then regret Wang Chang? 

Translated by Leonard Ng

Current Projects

This week shouldn't have been a busy one - all I did in terms of actual work was write up a report, and send a few emails so that article publications and other housekeeping matters would go smoothly. So why am I absolutely knackered, and have been so since Wednesday?

Visual novel. I makes it.

Visual novels belong to a genre of video game that is not very popular outside of East Asia, although this is very slowly changing. Ripped straight from the Wikipedia page (which is, to be fair, reasonably informative):

Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their extremely minimal gameplay. Typically the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving (most recent games offer 'play' or 'fast-forward' toggles that make even this unnecessary).

Most visual novels have multiple storylines and many endings; the gameplay mechanic in these cases typically consists of intermittent multiple-choice decision points, where the player selects a direction in which to take the game. This style of gameplay has been compared to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Most, however, strive for a higher level of plot and character depth than the aforementioned series of interactive children's books. These can be more closely compared to story-driven interactive fiction. While the plots and storytelling of mainstream video games is often criticized, many fans of visual novels hold them up as exceptions and identify this as a strong point of the genre.

In Hong Kong and Japan (and I suspect in China, Taiwan and Korea to some extent too), visual novels for both guys and girls are reasonably popular. Japan most certainly leads the way, with diverse sub-genres of visual novels that can cater to many different demographics.

In keeping with the "creative media" concept of this blog, I decided to expand my silk road storytelling into this field and make A Thousand Hands more or less my own creative platform. Currently my visual novel is powered by Novelty, a very beginner-friendly platform and engine for visual novels. When I'm finally done with it, I'll export, zip, and upload it here at A Thousand Hands, where it will be available to be downloaded and played for free.

Lives of Spice Series

This is a preliminary story listing for my flash fiction series about the Silk Road, Lives of Spice. There isn't a fixed schedule for when I'm uploading each entry, but I'm confident that the current list will be able to showcase just how diverse the cultures of the Silk Road. More will come!

1. What the Caravanserai Does Best (Sogdiana)
2. Snow Meets Rime (Imperial Tibet)
3. Peony (Tang-era Chang'an)
4. Lost and Found (Abbasid Caliphate)
5. Drum, Lute, and Harp (Oasis kingdom of Kucha)
6. Starborn (Oasis kingdom of Khotan)

Lives of Spice

I'm not a professional novelist, although I love stories. I've enjoyed reading about myths and legends since my teens and writing has always been my hobby since I was a kid. After completing my MA at SOAS, one lasting thing I've taken away aside from my degree is a fascination about silk road history. 

The Silk Road is a generalised catchphrase given to the many, many landlocked routes that spanned Eurasia for thousands of years, reaching a decline with the rise of the littoral, naval powers in the 18th century and falling into its current impoverishment and cultural decimation at the hands of modernity. These silk routes were diverse - at the height of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE), Rome served as the western terminus of trade - a truly extraordinary distance, even if neither empire was really aware of each other's existence. By the Tang era (618 - 907), the eastern terminus shifted from Luoyang to Chang'an (Xi'an), and traded freely with Byzantium, Damascus, and Baghdad, centres of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Umayyad, and Abbasid Caliphates respectively. All the while, an extraordinary conglomeration of other powers, such as the Persian dynasties, the Indian kingdoms of South Asia, and the Tibetans contributed their arts, crafts, and cultures to the silk routes flowing between China and the rest of Eurasia.


Central to the survival of these routes were the Central Eurasians - a lamentably underrated and stereotyped people who have found expression in many different cultures, from the Jurchen peoples to the Huns, Sogdians, Mongols, Uighurs, Turks, and others who were "peripheral" to the great sedentary empires. They were the main facilitators of Eurasian history, having imparted not only the horse but also the wheel, writing, and many other inventions to the sedentary powers. They also survived by trade, and their activities in Eurasia ensured the survival of the silk routes for over two millennia.   


I'm starting a series of flash fiction (stories of less than one thousand words - it sounds short but it's actually very appropriate for online platforms) called Lives of Spice on this blog. This series is about people that lived along the timeless silk routes. From a Kuchean courtesan to a Chinese official, from a Tibetan soldier to an Arab writer astride his camels to a sculptor from the oasis kingdom of Khotan and a Turkic princess, Lives of Spice is my light exploration into the relationships, dramas, and affections of medieval Eurasia. If you happen to read some of this flash fiction, thank you for checking it out and I hope you enjoy it.

My workplace was taken over by the Japanese Army

Care about your workplace? Don't fret. If it can survive an occupation by the Imperial Japanese Army, you can probably be optimistic about its chances in most other situations.

The construction of Wang Fat Ching She was completed in 1938, and inaugurated as a Buddhist institute a year later - the same year World War II kicked off, according to Western writers. So it wasn't exactly the most stable time to start up a non-profit institution... 1937 anyone? Eurocentric historians still say the Second World War began in 1939, but 1937 was the year a colonial Asian power invaded a continental giant, with huge repercussions for both sides.

By 1940 the shadow of the Pacific War loomed high across the Buddhist world, with many clergy and laypeople alike fleeing their seminaries, temples, and monasteries. Wang Fat Ching She was one of the only Buddhist learning centres that was tenaciously occupied. During the Autumn, one of its lecturers, Ven. Bo Jing, fled to another temple, and then to Shanghai. By 1941, Imperial Japan’s military had crossed the border into Hong Kong, and Wang Fat Ching She was seized and converted into a logistics centre. All religious activities, of course, ceased for quite some time... until 1945, Wang Fat Ching She had remained unable to do what it was supposed to do as an institution.

After the departure of the Japanese army, laypeople with ties to Wang Fat Ching She turned to the philanthropic group Tung Lin Kok Yuen to form a committee to administrate and supervise the recovering temple. Eventually the temple itself would be donated to TLKY, in 1960 after the temple's owner, Mrs. Wong, immigrated to the States.

So that was a snapshot of modern Asian history, captured in a single temple on a small hill in quiet Tsuen Wan. It's difficult not to be more or less optimistic about its future. We didn't get blown to bits and we didn't suffer the tragedies that accompany wartime - massacres, rape, enslavement, mass bombing. The new century presents different challenges like red tape and funding, but compared to what Hong Kong and China were staring in the face over seventy years ago, it's probably not so bad.

We're also on top of a hill with a steep driveway, so we might survive global warming for a bit longer too.

My new piece about Buddhism and culture

“What used to be done by Religion has to be done alone by Art."

– Saburo Hasegawa, in a letter to Isamu Noguchi. January 12, 1951.

I never thought there could be such a deep bond between Zen Buddhism and the avant-garde art world and its cultural critique. But Ellen Pearlman has demonstrated otherwise in her book "Nothing and Everything". I was assigned to write a review about her study of Zen's influence on the New York avant-garde scene. I find it difficult to write as a journalist and as a postmodern artist at the same time, because I’m not an artist. By contrast, Nothing and Everything is a book more about art than religion and presupposes a decent knowledge or interest in American avant-garde. Despite this, one “credential” I do have is that I’m a Buddhist and someone who publicly writes about Buddhism. So I probably do have a small stake in understanding the New York collaboration between Saburo Hasegawa, the first Japanese abstract painter, the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and Franz Kline the European-American painter. There are many more such ties, and if you're interested, the article is right here.

Social Entrepreneurship

I've been long fascinated by the idea of becoming a social entrepreneur. This came about through my genuine belief in the good intentions behind David Cameron's Big Society concept (riddled with problems though it may currently be). This is obviously my own bias since I have spent the last two years working for a non-profit and I have seen firsthand the power volunteers and selfless activists can wield. I believe strongly in what the Ho Family have done since the 1880's - their radical philanthropy is not technically social entrepreneurship, but the point is that great people do great things, and doing great things can make people great. I've done nowhere near as much volunteering as some of my friends have, but it only takes an earnest conversation to be radically inspired by people who are driven to make a difference in the local (or global) community.

So to anyone who might be reading this, I posit this question to you: What do you think is a truly urgent issue in Hong Kong or London that needs to be addressed? I wish to start a social entrepreneurship. I see myself as a cultural critic, a commentator on issues of faith and religion in society, and having a catholic interest in almost all social issues in almost every major country. What kind of entrepreneurship would suit "A Thousand Hands" that support social and cultural creativity and innovation?

Some of my prouder pieces

I've been writing to earn my bread and milk for a few years now (since 2010). Below is a small selection of randomly selected bits and pieces about culture, art, and Buddhist spirituality (and even politics, although that was a one-off). Most of my stuff is published on Buddhistdoor International, though I've written elsewhere (indicated below). As a proud Londoner, I also have a fortnightly column on MouthLondon.

• Memories of a Mad Sage: A Review of Crazy Wisdom (a movie about a Tibetan master)
• London: Europe's Epicenter of Buddhism (MouthLondon magazine)
• Dead Compassion: Wang Yue and the Failure of Religion (an angry rant about the social problems laid bare in China following the totally needless death of a little girl)
• Buddhist Geopolitics in Eurasia: The Place of Buddhism in the new Chinese, Indian, Russian, and American Great Game (Asia Sentinel)
• Living (and Dying) without Regrets

Buddha Walking on Thames

Last week, London was taken over by Buddhists. Three things events sealed London's reputation as one of the epicentres of Buddhism in the West:

1. The Buddhist Art Forum, the first of its kind, held at the Courtauld Institute of Art and sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Stretching over four days and three evening receptions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, and the Courtauld, the conference invited academics, conservators, and artists from many different institutions across the world to the British capital, which has now also become the Buddhist capital of the West. London is a lucky city in so many ways: Europe's financial capital, a contender to be Europe's technology capital, and now, a capital for Buddhist art.

2. A private £2.5 million donation by Mr. Y. C. Ho to kick off a new Masters in Buddhist Art Conservation, which will be jointly taught by academics and conservators at the V&A, the Courtauld, and my old university, SOAS. Things were looking good a few years ago with the Robert Ho Gallery of Buddhist sculpture at the V&A, but this seals the deal for London as a Buddhist art centre.

3. Not content to rest on its already massive laurels, the Foundation also sponsored and hosted the annual International Buddhist Film Festival, which featured several movies I watched and reviewed for work.

Needless to say, it was an exhausting few days but incredibly inspiring and also rather humbling. Looking at all the conservators and academics who've had so many adventures contributing to the preservation of Buddhist arts and culture, you realize it's a big world and there is so much more to be done. It's exciting, to say the least.

Check out this link for more details about what happened in that most eventful and productive week.

I'm glad I'm ill!

I came down with a sore throat and a throbbing headache last night and it has persisted till today. I spent the day recovering by watching Dead Poets' Society, sleeping, and anything else that didn't involve my writing. And I'm glad I did, because if you're not making progress in your work, you might as well stop trying.

For the past few days I've been stuck at that impasse that many authors would call "Writer's block". I personally don't believe in writer's block because I think the term is a bit meaningless. It's meaningless because if I told you I had writer's block, your natural question would be "why?". So I can give you a few answers: I'm tired, or I'm demotivated. I'm sick, or I'm unhappy. Or I might actually have a lot of energy, but my brain just isn't coming up with the right words or expressions. To me, those are the real reasons for not getting any work done. Writer's block isn't a real mental state where you suddenly freeze up, unable to put pen to paper. It's tempting to believe in it, but I'm sceptical when there are so many more obvious or plausible reasons why I can't get work done. For example, doing this blog post. But I'm treating today as my day off, so I've let myself of the hook.

Most of the time I find my writer's blocks to be mere procrastination. 

My sad, sad range of hobbies.

Welcome to the blog of a journalist. I've recently kicked off a career as a writer of the religious sort, because since 2010 I've been writing for a Buddhist website called Buddhistdoor International, which is based in Hong Kong. I've also had some academic articles published. I do arts and culture features and commentary like interviews or museum, book, and movie reviews. My workplace is the strikingly snazzy Wang Fat Ching She, a temple which aside from its usual library, meditation halls and shrine was renovated in 2011 with an air-conditioned conference room, new offices for creative media, and a bloody up-to-date broadcasting studio for our radio channel. I'm proud and sad at the same time, because my hobby, or what I do on weekends or after work, is almost the same as what I do on weekdays and during work.

One of my biggest regrets has been my lack of initiative in joining clubs and societies where people actually moved body parts beyond their fingers on a keyboard. I was a happy member of an Australian karate club and I still keep in touch with my sensei and fellow karateka, but because my academic interests and work took me to London and Hong Kong (my hometown), I left Brisbane after three years of being able to count myself as a genuine "club member."

Two young holy lads I snapshotted in Bodhgaya in 2008. Or was it 2007? I hope dearly they've become leaders of faith and community builders.

What else do I enjoy apart from writing and reading insatiably? Here're some examples:

• The History Boys (but you can only enjoy a movie so many times)
• Badminton (but I haven't had a game since 2010)
• Magic the Gathering (but I haven't played since 2006)
• Piano/learning an instrument (but I haven't done so since 1995/96)
• Buddhism (I was a founding member of the SOAS Mindfulness Society, but I've forgotten when was the last time we actually organized anything)
• Bball (Rahul, Mark and I made a killer team)
• Pop culture like manga and video games (although I've discovered that I can't play Skyrim for more than an hour before I get a throbbing headache that lasts for over a week... I think it's a hint for something)

... If I look at how I've invested my leisure time in list form, it looks kind of tragic. *sighs* Anyway, that's all I have to throw at this new blog for now. Feel free to leave a comment or some feedback if you like or hate this blog (I'll take anything).

~(^.^)~