Thoughts on Lo Ting and fish.
We were asked to bring in an object for storytelling during a workshop a couple of weeks ago, and I brought in this resin cast Lo Ting I received from Claire at her farewell dinner at Asia Art Archive, about a year before I also left.
Lo Ting is a folk creature dug up from obscurity by Yasi and Oscar Ho in preparation for the 1997 exhibition “Hong Kong Reincarnated: New Lo Ting Archeological Find”. The exhibition explored the story of my home city, both its truths and imagined histories. I of course, learnt about Lo Ting through the Oscar Ho Archive and Ha Bik Chuen Archive whilst at AAA (you can browse through the digitised archive yourself, or if you’re inclined, Oscar Ho’s notes on Lo Ting which also accompanied a Facebook thread in 2021 is also a very interesting read)
Resolutions/Intentions for 2024.
It feels like every time I remember to write on this blog is at the start of the new year, when I need a space to write down my resolutions. Of course, I could just scribble the list in a journal or a post it but there’s something consolidating and validating about writing on the internet — not that there is anyone who reads my things, but it feels like private, as though the infinite void of the internet will hold me accountable for it.
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Hope October has gotten you into a spooky mood! The month had passed by far too quickly for me, to the point where… honestly, I’m quite overwhelmed and am slightly stressed out now.
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Hello friends,
With the start of a new job, a two-week-long exhaustion cold (in which I nearly passed out cold on a train home), cleaning up the house (as everything I owned from Hong Kong had arrived), getting my partner’s birthday celebrations in order, and dealing with several issues and stresses that life likes to throw at you (doesn’t it always, at the most inconvenient times) — I had to skip out on writing up an August and (early) September newsletter. But I hope these two months have been good to you.
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Hello, it’s been a while hasn’t it? How have you been? Are you eating well? Have you spent time with your loved ones? Are you happy with where you are right now?
As I write this, I look out the window to this gigantic lush tree full of bird feeders, which blocks out the hustle and bustle of the main street. Across from it, a friendly crow is perched atop the roof of the local pharmacy. The crow is here every day between 9am and 8pm, flying off to wherever its nest is before the night sets in. Maybe I can befriend it at some point during my stay here in London.
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Happy February!
I remember talking to H just before Chinese New Year’s about how January doesn’t really feel like the new year. Instead, we seem to find the motivation to make those new year's resolutions after the lunar new year — whether that’s a cultural thing or a spiritual-we-follow-the-moon thing, I will never really understand.
