06-000 Space

06-000
Space

The sixth chapter is about space. In Chinese tradition, the number six has a meaning of infinite, endless and forever. So I designated this chapter for discussion on our universe.

Space

In this chapter, I will talk about the different space programs across the globe and the milestones that human race has achieved, especially the Chinese Space Program. Also, I will talk about different space adventure stories and movies produced under this aspect.

Lobby Directory 

• 001  China Space Program, a very brief history– Part 1
• 002  China Space Program, a very brief history –Part 2
• 003  Our taikonauts, our heroes
• 004  Tiangong Space Lectures
• 005  The first lecture from space
• 006  The controversial biography of our taikonaut
• 007  Payload Specialist, the true meaning behind the title
• 008  The fourth Tiangong lecture
• 009  Вызов
• 010  China Manned Space Exhibition

 

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01-024 Industrie und Glück

01-024
Industrie und Glück

Let us continue our journey on tarot deck. As mentioned in my earlier post, tarot was not invented for cartomancy. Tarot is a card game deck, printed for playing games with friends. Only until the late 18^th century, people started using tarot for divination purpose.

I have already introduced the Tarot Nouveau, a tarot deck in French suit that looks more or less like an ordinary deck of playing cards, but with a set of trumps. The trumps dropped the common Tarot of Marseilles pattern to represent urban and rural life in the mid-19^th century of France. Today, I will show you another tarot deck called Industrie und Glück.

Industrie und Glück

The name is in Early Modern German. It literally means “Diligence and Fortune". In another words, “work hard and you will earn money”. So, Industrie und Glück is nothing about industry or luck.

Like Tarot Nouveau, Industrie und Glück is a French suit tarot deck used for gaming, mainly for playing the Central European tarock games, such as Königrufen or Zwanzigerrufen. The deck is originated from Vienna and is still popular in Central Europe.

Industrie und Glück consists of 4 suits and 22 trump cards. Same as other tarot decks, there are four face cards in each suit; the Jack, Cavalier, Queen, and King. However, the 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed, making the whole deck consists of only 54 cards. The removal of cards is simply because those cards are not necessary for playing those Central European tarock games. Also, the pip cards and face cards lack corner indices.

The face cards of Industrie und Glück,
all lacking corner indices

For the trump set, unlike Tarot Nouveau which added modern themes, all Industrie und Glück trumps illustrate genre scenes of rural life with no themes. All trumps except the unnumbered "Excuse" use Roman numerals unlike the Tarot Nouveau decks.

The trump set of Industrie und Glück and also the ace of heart.
Since there is no ace of spade in Central European tarot,
heart is the first suit of the deck.

The pip cards, lacking corner indices

Many versions of the deck were once made, but only two have survived as standard packs. The first is called “Type B”, which is popular in Hungary, Croatia, and Vojvodina and Trieste in northern Italy. The other surviving pattern is called “Type C” which can be found in Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania. The deck I got from Etsy was printed by Modiano for Trieste of northern Italy. So, it is in pattern “Type B”.

How to tell the upright direction of the trumps?

As the trumps illustrate genre scenes, it is rather difficult to tell which side is up and which side is down. But thanks to internet, I found a page which tells me how to distinguish.

Is Industrie und Glück worth buying?

Technically, you can play all tarot games with a deck of Tarot Nouveau. Industrie und Glück deck has less cards. Games that require all 78 cards cannot be played with this deck.

But if you want to play tarock in a more “traditional” way, you would like to play with an Industrie und Glück deck. The cards are beautifully printed and not expensive at all. The patterns are very traditional. Owning a pack of Industrie und Glück is like having a piece of Central European history at home. I recommend that.

General Information

Player	2 to 5
Playing Time	30 mins
Age	?
Year Released	1425
Designer	(Public Domain)
Publisher	Modiano
Family	Hand Management, Trick-taking
Score	7.3 (Board Game Geek)

Specifications

Card size	63mm x 109mm
Deck size	54 cards
# of suits	5 – Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades & Trumps
Details	The deck is in traditional French suit. Pip cards are valued from 1 to 10, but the 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed. The 4 face cards are V, C, D & R. Trump consists of 21 cards, depicting illustrate genre scenes of rural Central European life in the mid-19th century with no themes. And 1 Fool card. There are no Jokers.

Game Play

 

Where to buy?

Etsy.

I got my copy from Etsy. The seller is Shop4Top from Lithuania. The shop provides free shipment through standard airmail, slow but free.

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05-006 Mysterious Narnia DVD found in China

05-006
Mysterious Narnia DVD found in China

I worked in Guangzhou for many years. The city was almost my second home. Located 100 miles away from Hongkong, this distance is just too near to fly but too far away for day trips. I was normally leaving home on Monday morning and returning on Friday evening. During the week, I spent my nights there.

After office hours, I was always alone. There was not much to do inside the hostel. So, I normally went out till late. I like walking around. To learn the culture of a place, the best way is to walk around and to talk to the locals. I always did and even managed to make some friends.

In one evening, I went into a bookshop. It was the Tianhe Book Center (天河图书中心) in the city center, a huge 7 story complex filled with books. The time was 2010. It was the largest bookshop in the city at that time. In the basement, there is a section selling musical CDs and DVDs. And it was that one DVD which caught my eyes.

A Mysterious Narnia DVD

Inside the cover is a DVD wrapped in a plastic bag,
a typical Chinese way to pack a DVD.

If you have read my previous posts, you will learn that I am a big fan of epic fantasy. I like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Narnia, or anything in a medieval theme. At that time, I was waiting for the premiere of the third Narnia movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, hoping that it would be another success. It did not, but that is another story.

The cover art of the mysterious Narnia DVD

The DVD title said Narnia. But I have not seen that movie poster before. I knew that it would not be Dawn Treader, as it was not yet premiered by that time. And clearly it is not The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Prince Caspian. Would it be a hidden Narnia adaptation, like the Russian The Hobbit TV show, which not too many people in the rest of the world have learnt about?

Image of the white witch is also printed on the DVD.
And here is the only place you can find her.

I picked the DVD up. After reading the cover, I immediately knew that the movie is a fake. The Chinese name said 猪骑士, which means “Pig Knight”, or “a knight riding a pig”. Clearly, it is a joke. But the price is just CNY 15, around USD 2. My curiosity drove me to bring it to the cashier. Since then, this distinguishing DVD sat alongside with my other epic fantasy collection on my bookshelf. But I did not really watch it, not until recently.

In one recent evening while cleaning up my bookshelf, I found this almost forgotten DVD. Being trapped in this small city for 3 years because of pandemic, I became a movie fanatic, especially on epic fantasy movies. I know it is a fake but I decided give it a try. At least I should find out what exactly it is before chucking it, I think. So, I put the DVD into the player and the movie title showed up almost instantly.

Siegfried (2005)

Siegfried! it is a 2005 German comedy movie. The word “Narnia” does not appear anywhere in the movie, except on the DVD cover. The movie also has no relationship with Narnia. It is not even a Narnia mockbuster. The only similarity between Siegfried and Narnia is perhaps all of them were set in a medieval theme. Clearly, the Chinese DVD publisher wanted to make some quick money during the Narnia hit so they put the word “Narnia” and the white witch on the cover.

Opening scene shows a medieval village

The movie is presented in its original German language with a selectable Mandarin dub. There is also a Chinese subtitle. So, I can’t say the DVD is a complete rip-off. The publisher did localized the movie a bit for the Chinese market.

The blacksmith store is also the home of Siegfried and his foster father Mime

Story of Siegfried is well known if you grow up in a Germanic background. The story itself has also been adapted many times before. The most famous one is the opera adaptation by Richard Wagner. But the 2005 movie Siegfried received a poor rating.

A medieval kitchen

I am not a German. I have not heard of the story. But thanks for the dub and subtitle, I was able to understand the movie. From it, I can also learn the story of Siegfried. But there is a slight problem. Siegfried is a comedy movie. So, most likely the plot of the movie detoured far away from the original story.

Mime and the young Siegfried

I decided to keep the DVD as a memory of the good old days of Narnia hit. I hope there would be another Narnia movie very soon. Netflix, are you listening?

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04-012 Introducing Betty Soo

04-012
Introducing Betty Soo

Back in the late September of 2022, when Hongkong decided to lift the hotel quarantine for inbound travelers, many are still expecting China to stay on its zero-COVID policy for quite a while, well, until at least 2024. Many, including those pro-Beijing politicians and those working in the Hongkong government, challenged our CEO Joseph Lee on lifting the quarantine requirement as an act of working against the will of Beijing government.

General public were, however, overwhelmed as we can finally travel aboard again. Since then, people started posting their travelling photos on different social medias.

“Living with COVID” was advertised as a kind of mismanagement and weakness of the democratic western world by the Beijing government. China will never follow this as the Beijing government cares the life of the people. But after several protests in November, out of everyone’s expectation, China dropped its zero-COVID policy all out of a sudden. Now, China has even announced opening of its border on the coming Sunday (8-Jan-2023).

Many are suspecting this abrupt change on COVID policy would lead to a disaster. Many people will die. They are correct. It is happening now. But anyway, like it or not, we are at the fringe of a new era. And I want to have a little recall of what I was facing at the beginning of the pandemic.

COVID-19 has changed the world a lot.

I am working in an international firm, a German company. The business involves very high-end technologies. However, many of our internal intercompany processes are decentralized. We still rely very much on low end systems – email, excel or hand-written form etc.

Take an example, if a technician used a spare part, he needs to fill in a handwritten form, has his supervisor signed, scans the signed form and emails it to the warehouse team. Upon receiving the email, the warehouse worker would manually input the form into the company database. Mistakes happen always.

So, back in 2019, we have planned to migrate to SAP, a centralized data management system. With SAP, data only needs to be input once. Error can be minimized.

Many business trips were planned for this activity. Hours of meetings were scheduled. Meeting venue negotiated. Hotels and flights booked. Everything was planned to take place in early 2020. Hundreds of pre-meetings were already taken place in 2019. Everything was ready. Even everyone was ready. Then all in a sudden, it came the COVID-19.

You can imagine what happened next. Lockdowns. People started working from home. Flights and hotel were all cancelled. Face-to-face meetings became skype meetings, with children and wife consistently screaming at the background. Handset quality widened the language barrier. And time zone became significant.

We all had a hard time. We all found out how inefficient is to work at home. And we also found out how much we missed our office. There were benefits though. We saved quite a lot in commuting, lunch and pants.

My first half of 2020 was just like hell. But I struggled through it. SAP successfully went live on 1^st of July 2020. It has been running for more than 2 years by now. So far, so good. God blesses!

Company did save an awful lot though. To appreciate all our hard work, management spent some of the saved money and organized a private concert for us. But how?

My first ever live concert on Skype

In the summer of 2020, I had my first ever skype concert in my life. Instead of meeting everyone in a concert hall, we all wore our headsets, sat in front of our laptops, with the skype cameras turned on and… Well, you can scream at your seat but since you are muted by the administrator, the singer can’t hear a thing. Actually, there was still a way to express your excitement, if any. You can type something like “Yeah!”, “Awesome!”, “You are so good!”, etc. in the conversation field on the left-hand side of the skype window.

It was just so weird!

But, but, maybe because most of us are Asians, the management board invited Betty Soo as the guest singer. I didn’t know who she is. Never heard of her before. The concert was at our 3pm, her 3am. And she sang so well.

Introducing Betty Soo to all of you.

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04-011 Cannabidiol

04-011
Cannabidiol 

My first post of year 2023 is a bit controversial.

Just before the countdown of last year, I bought something from a shop. Something that is not quite legal in some countries. Something that would become completely illegal in Hongkong after the end of this month.

It is a bottle of CBD bear gummies.

CBD Bear Gummies

What is CBD?

If you ask the locals what CBD is, most people living in this international financial city will answer you “Central Business District”. But CBD does not refer to Central Business District here. It means cannabidiol, an active ingredient in cannabis.

Laws on drug trafficking is very straight in most parts of the Asia, especially in those Southeast Asian countries. Compared to the local laws of those countries, drug laws of Hongkong are less strict. At least, there is no death penalty here. But drug trafficking is still a serious crime. Possessing a small amount of illegal drugs, even for personal use, would be enough to put you behind bars for months. Any larger amount would be considered as trafficking, which would mean years of imprisonment.

Although being legal in some countries, cannabis finds no grace in Hongkong. Consuming cannabis is treated the same as consuming cocaine here. Possessing cannabis product is a serious crime. But how about cannabidiol, or CBD? This falls into the grey area.

For years, CBD is not considered as drug. Selling and consuming of CBD is widely available in the territory. But recent local research suggested that all CBD products contain trace amount of THCs, a major ingredient of cannabis. Furthermore, THCs can be extracted from CBD products under special processes. The research result led Hongkong to officially ban all CBD products, making it the first jurisdiction in the world to have complete prohibition of cannabidiol. Law already passed in 2022. And the grace period will end this month.

Advertisement on minibus showing the new law

Since possessing of CBD would become illegal after January, the government has placed a number of special disposal bins in different areas of the city, asking people to stop consuming CBD products immediately and discard the remaining on hand. 

CBD and me

I am a good Christian. I don’t take drugs. I don’t even smoke. But many countries are talking about legalizing marijuana in recent years. Hongkong, a city which claims itself as “Asia’s World City”, seems to be going the opposite way, again.

We Christians are allowed to do anything, as long as we do not act against the law, and as long as the act is not harming others.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. (Roman 13:1-5, NIV)

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. (1 Corinthians 6:12, KJV)

As there is no strong evidence of negative side effects or causing addiction, the grace period of possessing CBD would only be expired by the end of January, and I am writing a blog on different cultural topics, I decided to give CBD a go to see how it could affect me. And it happens that there is a shop selling CBD products just around the corner of my working place. So, on one evening after the Christmas holiday, I went there.

Rabbit Habit @ Oriental 188

The shop is called Rabbit Habit. It is on the ground floor of the Oriental 188 shopping mall in Wanchai. It is a tobacco shop, mainly selling cigars, cigarettes, and other accessories such as lighters and cigar cutters. It also sells some trendy products like the latest Nike trainers. Selling CBD products is not their main business. There was only one storekeeper inside the whole shop, a young guy busy looking at his cellphone.

The shop mainly sells tobacco products

“I heard that CBD is good for sleep. I have never tried any CBD before. Any recommendations?” Without noticing a customer has walked inside his little store, he put down his phone, looked at me with a bit of surprise. Clearly, he did not expect a middle-aged man to be inside his shop. “Try the bear gummies. They are the easiest to take.” Although I am not in his expected age range, he did clearly explain to me about the benefits of CBD and the proper way of consumption. “Just take 1 gummy first. If the effect is not strong enough, take one more on the next day. But never overdose.”

The bottle costs HKD 308, which is almost USD 40. I later saw the same pack selling on internet at USD 20 only. I paid by cash.

“I think I need to finish it up by the end of January?”

“Technically yes, but who knows if you keep one or two bottles at home.”

Yes, I have never had a police searching my home in my whole life. But law is still law.

“What are you going to do with all those remaining CBD products in your shop?”

“I will stop selling CBD after year end and send all those out to Thailand before the end of January. We have outlets in Bangkok.”

It seems that I just managed to hop onto the last train. And there would not be any clearance sales.

How do the gummies look like?

Gummies in a plastic bottle

The gummies are packed in a palm size plastic bottle, which make them looking not much different from other supplements. The gummies are made by a small company in USA. The ingredients clearly state that there are CBD inside the gummies. 

Ingredients of the gummies

Warning message on the label

The instructions printed on the label match with what the guy told me. But the warning message is a bit scary. THIS PRODUCT IS INTENDED FOR USE BY HEALTHY ADULTS 18 YEARS & OVER. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. I need to hide it away from my kids. I am sure that my son would finish up the whole bottle in an hour if I left it open on the dining table. Also, it is funny that the instructions said maximum dose is 2 gummies, but the serving suggestions said 4.

The gummies look cute!

The gummies themselves look pretty innocent. They look just like ordinary bear gummies. 

Does it work for me?

I am not a supplement geek. I am currently taking no supplements. But according to Wikipedia, “there was limited high-quality evidence for cannabidiol having a neurological effect in humans.

I have sleeping problem, especially after recovering from COVID. I constantly wake up in the midnight and sometimes stay awake until sunrise. On one hand, I am hoping that CBD can help improving my sleep. But on the other hand, if CBD really works, that would raise me another problem. CBD is not a drug but a supplement. It requires continuous consumption. If CBD works for me, what should I do after January, 2023? Will I be tempted to illegally import CBD for personal consumption? Anyway, I have already got a bottle on hand and there is no reason for not trying it. It costed me 40 bucks!

On the very first night, I took my first CBD gummy before sleep. Apart from those artificial fruity tastes, the gummy also got a bit of bitter taste. I guess that was the taste of cannabis? After taking the gum, I quickly feel sleepy. But that dizzy feeling I got was different from that of taking flu pills. I felt my body was sleepy but my mind was still wild awake. And just less than 10 minutes, I walked out from my bed and drank some water. It was a busy day and my wife bought takeaway instead of cooking at home. And if you like Chinese takeaway, you will know that Chinese restaurants cook everything with tons of MSG. I am allergic to MSG so I woke up many times on that night, kept drinking water and going to toilet. I did not sleep well. First test failed.

On the second night, I took again 1 gummy before sleep. And it happened that I was dining out with my in-laws to celebrate year end. History repeated. It was another sleepless night. I kept waking up, drinking water and going to toilet. Second test failed.

The third night was a bit better. I did sleep through the midnight but still feeling sleepy on the next morning. From the fourth night onwards, I starting taking 2 gummies instead of one. 

Conclusions

After taking CBD gummies for more than a week, I can conclude that CBD has no effect on my body at all! There is no improvement on my sleeping. And CBD is not causing addiction to me as well. I almost forgot taking it before sleep on some nights. I wasted 40 bucks! Happy New Year!

However, I get to know myself more from all these. I still remembered how my heart was pounding when I was carrying the gummies in my bag. I was almost passing out when I hopped onto the bus. I laid dead on the seat and can even hear my heart beating.

The label states clearly that it contains THC

Yes, CBD is still allowed until the end of January 2023. But THC is not. And technically, all CBD products contain trace amount of THC inside. Even the gummy bottle label states that. If a police found that bottle of gummies in my bag, I may still be questioned.

My body is not designed to do anything against the law.

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