CTM 15

A Visit To Splendid China

Splendid China is exactly that – splendid. Only 15 to 20 minutes’ drive from Lo Wu is a world of semi naked guys dancing and dancing, Chinese opera shrieking through your bones and every famous thing in China so small you can pick it up, but perfectly formed.

Back In The Filming Saddle! (Camera Dies During Filming of Mexican Wedding)

Woo-hooo. My last message was pretty depressed. I talked about how I have the least job satisfaction in the entire world, yea, even less than people whose job is warning people about the dangers of world jihad.

I stand by the sentiment but of course there are some good days too. Some of my students really want to learn Cantonese and use every opportunity to practise. Yes, on real Chinese people! Yes, even if they risk the Chinese people not understanding them or they not understanding the Chinese people! Yes, even if they risk saying something “wrong”! That’s what language learning is all about.

Two of these intrepid students are 飛鷹 (can be seen in all his splendour in the film above) and 五天, both British. And they’re coming here today to shoot a film! I’m looking forward to it with enormous force, for my camera has been out of commission for too, too long.

It died in Mexico during a wedding

to which these two kind people, also students who really try to communicate in Cantonese, invited me.

But now it’s all repaired, the battery is charged and we’re ready to start shooting a new series called CantoNews, teaching basic Cantonese from the beginning. Watch this space!

錯 – cho (wrong, incorrect, mistake)
啱 – aahm (right, correct, just)
墨西哥 – Mak Sai Go （Mexico)
飛鷹 – Fei Yeng (Flying Eagle)
五天 – M Tin (Five Heavens)

Chatting with Author

Listen to the interview with famous Lantau author Jane Huong who isn’t Vietnamese or Malaysian, but married to a Hong Kong guy who wanted to spell his surname (Hung) differently from the herd. And talking →

CantoNews Live from the Throbbing Metropolis of Mui Wo

Nick (a.k.a. Cassette) and I go to an Italian restaurant in the throbbing metropolis of Mui Wo, centre of the universe and make a programme about lots of interesting things – specifically the idiotic spelling →

Last Column

Yesterday I had an email from a … person, who said: “I sobbed vehemently when I saw your last Sunday Morning Post entry had come and gone.” Me too, mate, me too. Except I didn’t →

Happy Hong Kong Celebration of the Glorious Return to the Motherland Day Extravaganza!

July 1st! July 1st! That day in year zero for Hong Kong, 1997, it was rather wet. OK, it torrentially bucketed down for about three weeks before and after that momentous day. Coincidence? I think →

“Don’t Look at my Spleen!”

Here is an interview I did for Radio Lantau a couple of weeks ago, with Edward Bunker from Mui Wo. Every single person I told this to said the same: “Oh, he’s lovely!” Not a →

Books Books Books

Can you learn Cantonese from a book? I would say no, not least because of the crazy spelling that bear little or no resemblance to the sound of the words. Can you indeed learn any →

Beautiful Day On “Dark” Side

It’s so much fun to have friends visiting Hong Kong, especially when the day they arrive kicks off a week of unprecedented beautiful weather! I shouldn’t say unprecedented; the weather was probably like this every →

How Now, Guangdong Prov?

I’m just about to write my last column ever for South China Morning Post; ever! When I was told the page would be discontinued, I was so sad. How now would I be able to →

CantoNews 5 Live From Roof!

Hello everybody, welcome to my roof! I normally arrange Sichuan dinners and lunches there, but this time it doubled as a recording studio for the best Cantonese news currently available on cassette! (And telex.) Talking →

Running Interview Live from Garden Café

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed the beautiful and delightful Zein Williams, mother of three and tireless champion for the Nepali people about her life and work – with the earthquake victims especially – →