Prayer for Japan

For a country so close to home
who gave me peace during our visit,
for a country whom we fought and learned to love,
we send our prayer.
We share so much how we live, what we eat, the way we talk and what quakes and ocean bring.
To all the friends in Japan,
we are here for you. Please be strong!

什麼都要跟男生比嗎？

每次讀到那些一定要把好作品或優秀藝術家拿來跟別人比的藝評
我就會想昏倒
尤其是當你一定要把藝術史上的偉大男性拿來當比照對象時
就令我更想吐了！
"社會,文化,歷史標準都是男生定的
所以再優秀的女性或男性藝術家一定要拿來跟歷史上的偉大男人比喔！
因為我讀的藝術史都是男生寫的
所以請原諒我知識與眼界的淺薄"
藝評說

Lies to sell the water

Sometimes I get so angry about the corporations who lie to sell water to us that I have to yell on my blog.
Does it have anything to do with art? oh yes, if they put too much fluoride in my drinking water, I'll get poisoned by the heavy metal and become stupid. Then I won't complain about them feeding me fluoride, will I?

This is a letter I wrote to Glendale Water and Power, who buys water from Metropolitan Water District of Southern Cal., who takes my tax money to put poison in my water and charge me monthly to lie to me. Nice, the capitalism at it's best!

Dear Glendale Water and Power:
Thank you for sending the WQR.08 2008 Water Quality Report. We find the information very useful. Regarding to the answers provided by GWP to Glendale residents' questions about drinking water quality, I have some comments.
In the "Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water" section, GWP did not clearly instruct people "how" to dispose unused medication should they choose to dispose it in regular household trash. Pharmaceuticals are considered Household Hazardous Waste in the county of Los Angeles, people should do their best to Not dispose them in the trash. Even if they do, it should be "Put in a sturdy, securely sealed container, then in a trash can," according to County of LA's website. http://ladpw.org/epd/hhw/nodrugs/index.cfm

EPA is now proposing to add hazardous pharmaceutical wastes to the Universal Waste Rule. It is time GWP start addressing this issue in a clear manner. The fact that medication goes into the trash will lead to their impact in the landfill, further settles into the ground water. Best solution should be considering it as hazardous waste at all time.

Regard the "Fluoridation" section, GWP only offer One source for people to read about the fluoride's impact to human health. Unsurprisingly, the link goes directly to the MWD website, who caused a huge controversial debate back in 2007 by increasing fluoridation in water. I personally consider this report irresponsible as it failed to address the controversial issue from both sides. Fluoridated drinking water is especially dangerous to infants and nursing mothers. It is GWP's duty to educate people on that. Here is what some scientists, dentists and experts have to say about Fluoridation in drinking water: http://www.fluoridealert.org/ that Glendale residents have the rights to know about.

ps. Do you know that fluoride is byproduct from aluminum industry. Back in the 30's, some genius thought of tossing it in our drinking water to defer their waste management cost while raking in some of your tax money. It makes your teeth stronger, but is also cloud your brain and poison your blood. Teeth for intelligence, way to go!

Changes have yet to come!

200 years after the US congress banned slave trade, we now have a black president!

However, 25 years after Roe v. Wade, we have yet to walk out of the tunnel of abortion stigma. Congratulations to S. Dakota, Colorado and us Californian women, our voice had shed some light in the way out of the tunnel.

But shame on Californians who took the out-of-state handouts and swallowed their morality! Lesbians and gays' families fell in a shallow boat thank to the discriminating ideology.

Are LGBT humans?

Perhaps today's LGBT resemble Sara Baartman in 1814, a young African woman displayed naked as a science project in traveling circus in Europe. She was not a human, because the Bible did not mention any black skin. LGBT are aliens, because the Bible did not mention unions other than virgina and penis. Sara's brain and genitals were displayed in Paris until 1976; for more than 150 years, we did not consider this human have the same right as the rest of us. Will it take that long to admit LGBT, too, have basic rights to love, have sex, live together, marry each other and have children?

Does marriage mean a virgina and a penis? Do all non-child-bearing married women commit a crime? Do believes separate us from each other?

Until we recognize that all are equal: animals, plants, women, men, LGBT, handicapped, the dying and the young, until we learn that the majority do not have the right to exploit the minority, Changes have yet to come!

February 12, 2004, San Francisco made history by granting the first ever same-sex marriage license to a prominent lesbian couple as part of a challenge to a ban on gay marriage. Longtime activists Phyllis Lyon, 79, and Del Martin, 83, who have been a couple for over 51 years, said their vows at city hall after Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered officials to wed gay couples and issue marriage licenses in an act of civil disobedience against a state law that bars same-sex marriages.

Quote of the week

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson 1802

sounds familiar?
It's the American spirit.
You can not trade US dollar for gold, but you can trade your smaller US dollar for a even smaller US dollar. To know more, watch clips from Zeitgeist.

Go to school for art? or to kill art?

"Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, outlines the current crisis in American education, compares our schools and universities with others around the globe, and with wit and humor, shows us the path towards a more enlightened America. Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has advised national governments in Europe and Asia as well as and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations including the European Commission, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Education Commission of the States."
He will be talking at Hammer Museum this July 1st at 7pm!

限定,場域,再現...誰最會翻譯深奧無解的外來辭

三不五時閱讀典藏今藝術的電子版,
盯著一大段明明在說中文的國字竟然組合不出一點的意義
大量的外來語透過白人學者的揣摩, 重新定義, 然後再發表, 變成新的深奧辭彙
說穿了往往就是古老文化中以一個字便解決了的單純概念
但是想要假裝有深度的人就一一地拿起來當口頭禪用
寫在自己的文章裡

這些自以為是的文章留傳到海外
我們努力硬著頭皮把自以為是的學者用辭硬坳成另一個新辭
另一個看起來很深奧卻空虛又喪失自尊的辭彙
另一個只有看過原文的知識份子才了解的高階層文化
古老有趣的中國語言變成坑坑疤疤的"後現代"拼圖

為什麼我們不能用單純的心和單純的語言來看藝術?
我以為有深度的東西和難以了解的東西之間是沒有等號的,
因為往往越深奧的理念其實就是最簡單的概念

如果你不能以簡單的一句話解釋一個理論
那你便是一點也不了解其中道理!

有些人把藝術說得比天氣還難懂
引這個德國學者說的, 引那個美國學者說的,
灌滿了字數卻讓自己的言語看起來像是翻譯來的,
喪失了"原著"的真誠

每看到這種令人傷心的文章
讓我想告訴這隻筆
您不妨寫英文,德文或法文還省事點
何必折磨自己與讀者的想像力呢?

Husband's name

People are surprised that I did not take my husband's name when I got married.
I find them odd the way they find me odd.

I know few married women who take their husbands' names in Taiwan.
Not my mother, sisters, aunts, nor did our girlfriends.
Perhaps that is the custom, or I grew up among self-conscious women.
Grandmother was recorded in the family tree with her maiden name only.
When I was young, I thought that was her full name. Dad laughed, "she does have a correct name (first name), you know?"
Therefore, I never called her maiden name anymore. She is independent from the Chou family, both in my mind and in reality.

It may be difficult to take husbands' names in a western country where the divorce rate is as high as 50%. Does one continue collecting names after seven marriages?
But my point is, why?
Is it important?
Perhaps it is, to ladies who dreamt of glorious wedding, beautiful husbands, children and houses since they were seven years old.

Does taking a husband's name make one married woman proud (that she is taken, occupied, belonged)?
Is it a shame to my husband if I don't take his name?
It must come from some religion, since religions often motivate the needs to "control."

Anne Carson quoted Plutarch in her "Men in the off hours:"

After veiling the bride they put on her head a crown of asparagus, for this plant yields the sweetest fruit from the harshest thorns and so may the bride, if properly managed, provide a civilized and sweet contribution to her husband's life despite her original roughness and sourness.


Well behave, all married women with husband's names! Thou shall not soil husbands' names and their family.
Is it alright to soil Father's name? Why am I a Chou, instead of a Lin like Mom is?... wait, that is Grandpa's Lin, afterall, not Grandma's Lin.

ps. Mom's mom and dad are both Lins, same character, same pronunciation.