Hutchings memorial service 2017

Although the school's Speech Day was well and truly over - it was held on 3 Oct 2017 - Penang Free School stuck to tradition by holding its annual Hutchings memorial service on the 21st of October.

This morning, about 50 people had congregated at the gates of the Protestant cemetery in Northam Road to await Revd Ho leading a relaxed but solemn procession of the Penang Free School teachers, Prefects and pupils, Hutchings Secondary School teachers and Prefects, a handful of Old Frees - led by the Old Frees' Association president Billy Yeoh and PFS Board of Governors chairman Rafique Abdul Karim - and several other well-wishers, including the Press and a film crew, to the grave of Robert Sparke Hutchings in the cemetery grounds.

The service was completed in about 30 minutes, during which time, there were readings from the Bible and the school songs of both the Free School and Hutchings School were sang, before the solemnity was broken after the wreaths were laid at the grave.

Local historian Marcus Langdon was present to see the service for himself. I think he was much impressed by the dedication of the Old Frees.

Chinese surnames: where do you rank?

Whether we like it or not, we are all in the minority. Below is the latest ranking of Chinese surnames in China, given to me by someone. And if we tally up all the percentages for the top 10 surnames, it only adds up to 44.1 per cent. Hardly a majority:

01李 (Li) 7.94% 02王 (Wang) 7.41% 03張 (Zhang) 7.07% 04劉 (Liu) 5.38% 05陳 (Chen) 4.53% 06楊 (Yang) 3.08% 07趙 (Zhao) 2.29% 08黃 (Huang) 2.23% 09周 (Zhou) 2.12% 10吳 (Wu) 2.05%

11徐 (Xu) 12孫 (Sun) 13胡 (Hu) 14朱 (Zhu) 15高 (Gao) 16林 (Lin)  17何 (He)  18 郭 (Guo) 19馬 (Ma) 20羅 (Luo) 21梁 (Liang) 22宋 (Song) 23鄭 (Zheng) 24謝 (Xie) 25韓 (Han) 26唐 (Tang) 27馮 (Feng) 28於 (Yu) 29董 (Dong) 30蕭 (Xiao) 31程 (Cheng) 32曹 (Cao) 33袁 (Yuan) 34鄧 (Deng) 35許 (Xu) 36傅 (Fu) 37沈 (Chen) 38曾 (Ceng) 39彭 (Peng) 40呂 (Lu) 41蘇 (Su) 42盧 (Lu) 43蔣 (Jiang) 44蔡 (Cai) 45賈 (Jia) 46丁 (Ding) 47魏 (Wei) 48薛 (Xue) 49葉 (Ye) 50閻 (Yan) 51餘 (Yu) 52潘 (Pan) 53杜 (Du) 54戴 (Dai) 55夏 (Xia) 56鐘 (Zhong) 57汪 (Wang) 58田 (Tian) 59任 (Ren) 60姜 (Jiang) 61範 (Fan) 62方 (Fang) 63石 (Shi) 64姚 (Yao) 65譚 (Tan) 66廖 (Liao) 67鄒 (Zou) 68熊 (Xiong) 69金 (Jin) 70陸 (Lu) 71郝 (Hao) 72孔 (Kong) 73白(Bai) 74崔 (Cui) 75康 (Kang) 76毛 (Mao) 77邱 (Qiu) 78秦 (Qin) 79江 (Jiang) 80史 (Shi) 81顧 (Gu) 82侯 (Hou) 83邵 (Shao) 84孟 (Meng) 85龍 (Long) 86萬 (Wan) 87段 (Duan) 88漕 (Cao) 89錢 (Qian) 90湯 (Tang) 91尹 (Yin) 92黎 (Li) 93易 (Yi) 94常 (Chang) 95武 (Wu) 96喬 (Qiao) 97賀 (He) 98賴 (Lai) 99龔 (Gong) 100文 (Wen)

101龐 (Pang) 102樊 (Fan) 103蘭 (Lan) 104殷 (Yin) 105施 (Shi) 106陶 (Tao) 107洪 (Hong) 108翟 (Di) 109安 (An) 110顏 (Yan) 111倪 (Ni) 112嚴 (Yan) 113牛 (Niu) 114溫 (Wen) 115蘆 (Lu) 116季 (Ji) 117俞 (Yu) 118章 (Zhang) 119魯 (Lu) 120葛 (Ge) 121伍 (Wu) 122韋 (Wei) 123申 (Shen) 124尤 (You) 125畢 (Bi) 126聶 (Nie) 127叢 (Cong) 128焦 (Jiao) 129向 (Xiang) 130柳 (Liu) 131邢 (Xing) 132路 (Lu) 133岳 (Yue) 134齊 (Qi) 135沿 (Yan) 136梅 (Mei) 137莫 (Mo) 138莊 (Zhuang) 139辛 (Xin) 140管 (Guan) 141祝 (Zhu) 142左 (Zuo) 143塗 (Tu) 144谷 (Gu) 145祁 (Qi) 146時 (Shi) 147舒 (Shu) 148耿 (Geng) 149牟 (Mou) 150卜 (Bo) 151路 (Lu) 152詹 (Zhan) 153關 (Guan) 154苗 (Miao) 155凌 (Ling) 156費 (Fei) 157紀 (Ji) 158靳 (Jin) 159盛 (Sheng) 160童 (Tong) 161歐 (Ou) 162甄 (Zhen) 163項 (Xiang) 164曲 (Qu) 165成 (Cheng) 166遊 (You) 167陽 (Yang) 168裴 (Pei) 169席 (Xi) 170衛 (Wei) 171查 (Cha) 172屈 (Qu) 173鮑 (Bao) 174位 (Wei) 175覃 (Tan) 176霍 (Huo) 177翁 (Weng) 178隋 (Sui) 179植 (Zhi) 180甘 (Gan) 181景 (Jing) 182薄 (Bao) 183單 (Dan) 184包 (Bao) 185司 (Si) 186柏 (Bai) 187寧 (Ning) 188柯 (Ke) 189阮 (Ruan) 190桂 (Gui) 191閔 (Min) 192歐陽 (Ou Yang) 193解 (Jie) 194強 (Qiang) 195柴 (Chai) 196華 (Hua) 197車 (Che) 198冉 (Ran) 199房 (Fang) 200邊 (Bian)

201辜 (Gu) 202吉(Ji) 203饒 (Rao) 204刁 (Diao) 205瞿 (Qu) 206戚 (Qi) 207丘 (Qiu) 208古 (Gu) 209米 (Mi) 210池 (Chi) 211滕 (Teng) 212晉 (Jin) 213苑 (Yuan) 214鄔 (Wu) 215臧 (Zang) 216暢 (Chang) 217宮(Gong) 218來 (Lai) 219嵺 (Liao) 220苟 (Gou) 221全(Quan) 222褚 (Chu) 223廉 (Lian) 224簡 (Jian) 225婁(Lou) 226蓋 (Gai) 227符 (Fu) 228奚 (Xi) 229木(Mu) 230穆 (Mu) 231黨 (Dang) 232燕 (Yan) 233郎 (Lang) 234邸 (Di) 235冀 (Ji) 236談 (Tan) 237姬 (Ji) 238屠 (Tu) 239連 (Lian) 240郜 (Gao) 241晏 (Yan) 242欒 (Luan) 243鬱 (Yu) 244商 (Shang) 245蒙 (Meng) 246計 (Ji) 247喻 (Yu) 248揭 (Jie) 249竇(Dou) 250遲 (Chi) 251宇 (Yu) 252敖 (Ao) 253糜 (Mi) 254鄢 (Yan) 255冷 (Leng) 256卓 (Zhuo) 257花 (Hua) 258仇 (Chou) 259艾(Ai) 260藍 (Lan) 261都 (Dou) 262鞏 (Gong) 263稽 (Ji) 264井 (Jing) 265練 (Lian) 266仲 (Zhong) 267樂 (Le) 268虞 (Yu) 269卞 (Bian) 270封 (Feng) 271竺 (Zhu) 272冼 (Xian) 273原 (Yuan) 274官 (Guan) 275衣 (Yi) 276楚 (Chu) 277佟 (Tong) 278栗 (Li) 279匡 (Kuang) 280宗 (Zong) 281應 (Ying) 282台 (Tai) 283巫 (Wu) 284鞠 (Ju) 285僧 (Seng) 286桑 (Sang) 287荊 (Jing) 288諶 (Chen) 289銀 (Yin) 290揚 (Yang) 291明 (Ming) 292沙 (Sha) 293薄 (Bao) 294伏 (Fu) 295岑 (Cen) 296習 (Xi) 297胥 (Xu) 298保 (Bao) 299和 (He) 300藺(Lin)

2017's harvest moon

While we Chinese people calls the occasion as the Mid-Autumn Festival on account of the full moon, people in the West are referring to this particular full moon as the harvest moon. According to the almanac, the harvest moon is the full moon nearest the start of the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere which was 23 Sept. Normally, this coincides with the full moon in September but in 2017, the October full moon occurs nearer to the equinox than the September full moon. These two scenes of the harvest moon were viewed at about 5.45am this morning.

The legend of the Moon Goddess

Tonight is the 15th day of the eighth Chinese lunar month which means that we can see the full moon hanging above us and shining bright in its full glory, weather permitting, of course.

The Chinese has it that Chang-Er is the Goddess of the Moon and the story goes, according to wikipedia, that in a very distant past, 10 suns had risen together into the skies and scorched the earth. The archer Yi shot down nine of them, leaving just one sun, and was given the elixir of immortality as a reward. He did not consume it straight away but hid it at home, as he did not want to gain immortality without his beloved wife Chang-Er.

One day while Yi went out hunting, someone named Fengmeng broke into the house and tried to force Chang-Er to give him the elixir. She refused and drank it herself. Chang-Er was transformed and flew upwards towards the heavens, choosing the moon as her residence. When Yi discovered what had transpired and felt sad, he displayed the Fruits and Cakes that Chang-Er had liked and offered them to her in worship.

That is why if you peer hard enough at the full moon in the eighth lunar month, you may see some semblance of the Moon Goddess dancing in the heavens.

Lucky strike

It took between 35 to 40 shots on my mobile camera before I could manage to freeze an image of a lightning strike in Kuala Lumpur about a month ago. When I returned to my room at the Cititel in Midvalley after losing one of my chess games, any thought of frustration was forgotten when I noticed the darkening sky from the room. Soon afterwards, it was a lightning storm blitzing the city. I had a regret that my regular Olympus camera was being serviced but I still had my mobile phone with me. Ah well, better than nothing, I had supposed. So I started clicking away, sometimes at nothing and only in anticipation of a lightning bolt appearing, and was lucky enough to have captured two strikes.