Living in exile

Ambient noise has increased considerably. You can hear car horns at 1 am in the morning. What is there to honk?

Guard at our building back to being a loud fuck. People are now meeting up to have tea and smoking. Nothing wrong with these and it is not my place to report them. In the face of zero clearance (my interpretation of the word 清零), it is not surprising that people are getting more and more complacent. I am worried of a stronger backlash and we should prepare for this eventuality. In fact, I am worried about the resurgence of the virus infections in the coming fall and winter seasons. If the parallels between the coronavirus and the Spanish flu indeed hold, then the lessons from the resurgence of the Spanish flu after its initial onslaught should give everyone pause.

I am hoping that people would individually recognize that each person has a moral duty to not inflict harm (no matter how remote or small) on others to the best of their abilities. I think we owe it to the people who were locked down and are still subject to the most inhumane conditions, to honor their sacrifice and do our best to fight for mitigating the fallout from the virus. Calling it a “war” is futile if one only thinks of winning vs losing. Since “wars” are fought just with different actors, books, objectives, and values, the issue is not about winning vs losing anymore.

I was also hoping back when things “were a bit more serious” that people would spend the time thinking about the bigger picture (somehow the Chinese phrase 好好反省 came into my mind, rather than 好好学习). We had a window of opportunity to discuss how to operate under precarious circumstances in a very open manner. I believe we have missed it and everyone is back to their usual ways. This incident is not just a bad one night stand and the past months are not just a long walk of shame.

On a lighter note, I was wondering how far we can make jokes about the virus. I have been seeing puns recently (“疫”起 for “together”, yet not 抗“疫” for “objection” but I do see 抗疫). Somehow these puns are a bit corny. I have been seeing videos of footshakes and dances involving cleaning hands. In my opinion, we really should push the jokes even further, in the spirit of jokes made by Anthony Jeselnik. To get a taste of his jokes, look up his show, the Jeselnik Offensive, where he mocked someone who got torn apart by a shark with a full music and dance number. One of those brutal jokes he made in a comedy album was:

“My mom, for most of her life, was a Holocaust denier. And it was terrible for the entire family to have to deal with until, finally, a couple years ago, we had an intervention. And we had a rabbi come into the home, had him walk her through the history of the Jewish people, and then he made her watch “Schindler’s List.” And after that, my mom did a complete 180. Now she can’t believe it only happened once.”

Back to the more serious note: Aside from the jokes, I have been seeing discussions about the appropriate name for the virus. Some people feel that “Wuhan coronavirus” is racist. But then what does MERS stand for? What about the Spanish flu (this one had quite a lasting power)? Should it be the Chinese SARS (CSARS, pronounced Caesar's)? “Wuhan coronavirus” should be the name so that everyone will remember the totality of what has happened, including the spectrum of good and evil that humanity has shown, at that place.

We make such a big deal about names. It is both a good and a bad thing. Names gives us control. Naming things essentially differentiates us from animals and other creatures or objects in Nature. Names allow us to reinvent. Names steer the narrative. Names allow us to rationalize the past. I wonder why we couldn't move on to “spirit” instead. Perhaps the battle of names is a regular battle between different pasts all with different outcomes.

Whew, I have been waxing philosophical. Blame my liberal arts training during my youth. Speaking of youth, I have missed liner notes and artwork on music albums. I am not saying that we should all collect vinyl. Thank God there are people out there who use their time to convert 80's country-specific singles to FLACs. You know, there was a time when you will words like side A, side B, remix, 12” mix, radio edit, special version, Shep Petitbone Remix, etc. These are all different ways of listening to the same song. There is this song called Careless Whisper that was released in Japan as a single and the single had both English and Japanese lyrics! It even had the first version of the song, which I heard for the first time ever. Apparently, the singer was not satisfied with this first version because of the saxophone sound. So the singer re-recorded it with a different session musician. Apparently, it took 11 takes to get the saxophone sound up to what the singer wanted. I listened to both versions and could not hear the difference yet. I am giving it some time but I wonder if the difference in sax sound is related to sounds that could not be heard once you cross a particular age.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.