Friday, January 30, 2009

Chinese Poetry - Cao Cao 短歌行

Recently, I have gotten into the interest of learning Chinese poetry. For an English educated person from young, the first task was to learn how to read Chinese. After spending a good 8 years (yes 8 years and still learning) to do that and now am able to read, i have started to go into Chinese poetry.

My personal ambition of reading the 三国 classics in Chinese is still today an ambition.

The first poem which I would like to post here is the one that was recited by Cao Cao in Redcliff 2. Cao Cao was a well known poet as much as his military might. The poem is call 短歌行。Will provide the meaning and translation once I am able to do it. Meanwhile, watch Redcliff for the poem.


对酒当歌,人生几何?

Sang while drinking without worrying life is short,too?

譬如朝露,去日苦多。

The past was bitter and the present fine days, like morning dew.

慨当以慷,忧思难忘。

Generously drink and drink,still worries hard to throw.

何以解忧,唯有杜康。

How to get rid? Only a Dukang bottle.

青青子衿,悠悠我心。

In my mind lingers your collars blue.

但为君故,沉吟至今。

I've been singing the love songs for you.

呦呦鹿鸣,食野之苹。

The cowards acts as deer eat wild apples with wail.

我有嘉宾,鼓瑟吹笙。

Wheneve my noble guests come I have Chinese zither and Sheng blow.

明明如月,何时可掇。

What can't I? --The moon, shining so.

忧从中来,不可断绝。

Where is my moon, in my mind only you.

越陌度阡,枉用相存。

Over tens of thousands of fields, I fly and go.

契阔谈宴,心念旧恩。

We meet,sit and eat, just for the ever home,

月明星稀,乌鹊南飞。

Togather from evening till early morning, though.

绕树三匝,何枝可依?

Like birds flying back and forth, not knowing where I can settle.

山不厌高,海不厌深。

Even if many mountains and rivers in the way,I'll still go.

周公吐哺,天下归心。

I'll win the global advisers' hearts, departing from you.

A Song by Cao Cao

Wine before us, sing a song.

How long does life last?

It is like the morning dew;

Sad so many days have past.

Sing hey, sing ho!

Deep within my heart I pine.

Nothing can dispel my woe,

Save Du Kang, the god of wine.

Blue, blue the scholar's robe;

Long, long for him I ache.

Preoccupied with you, my lord,

Heavy thoughts for your sake.

To each other cry the deer,

Nibbling grass upon the plain.

When a good friend visits me,

We'll play the lyre once again.

In the sky, the moon is bright;

Yet I can reach it never.

In my heart such sorrow dwells;

Remaining with me ever.

In the fields, our paths crossed;

Your visit was so kind.

Together after our long parting,

Your favours come to mind.

Clear the moon, few the stars;

The crows in southward flight.

Circling three times round the tree,

No branch where to alight.

What if the mountain is high,

Or how deep the sea?

When the Duke of Zhou greeted a guest,

In his service all wished to be.



對酒當歌,人生幾何?譬如朝露,去日苦多。


解释:端起酒杯高唱詩歌,人生在世能有多久?
好比早晨的露水,太陽一出來就消失。 逝去的歲月中,憂慮比歡樂還多呢!


慨當以慷,憂思難忘。何以解憂?惟有杜康。


應盡情地慷慨高歌,但內心的憂慮卻時刻難忘。
用什麼來消解我的愁悶?唯有酒呀!


青青子衿,悠悠我心。但為君故,沉吟至今。


離我遠去的朋友,使我長久地懷念。
只因為思念你呀!我一直低聲吟詠到如今。


呦呦鹿鳴,食野之萍。我有嘉賓,鼓瑟吹笙。


原野上的小鹿,一邊鳴叫,一邊吃著艾蒿。
我有貴賓,鼓瑟吹笙來相待。


明明如月,何時可掇?憂從中來,不可斷絕。


那皎潔的月亮,什麼時候才能把它掇取到?
我出自內心的憂慮,永遠也排解不開。


越陌度阡,枉用相存。契闊談讌,心念舊恩。


承蒙你們遠道來探望,
我們聚在一起談心宴飲,重溫舊日的情誼。


月明星稀,烏鵲南飛。繞樹三匝,何枝可依。


月明星稀之夜,烏鵲朝南飛去,
繞著大樹飛了幾圈,那一樹枝可以棲息呢?


山不厭高,海不厭深。周公吐哺,天下歸心。



山不嫌高,海不嫌深,明主不嫌賢士眾多啊!
周公一飯三吐哺,天下的人就歸向他了。

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Back in Malaysia

Back in Malaysia for the World Congress for IT 2008 in KLCC Convention Centre. I must admit that i do feel a bit foreign in my own country. Partly because I have never lived in Kuala Lumpur before and had been out of the country for the 11th year and counting.

However, I have been keeping up with the progress of the nation and its politics. I find that this song is very apt in the fragility of our government's state at this moment. Sung by Malaysian artistes for Unity.

And yes, it does tug me on my patriotic side.

Enjoy it Malaysians !

Saturday, April 12, 2008

A Chance Encounter With Olivia Lum of Hyflux

Yes, I have had the most fortunate chance encounter with Olivia Lum, the lady who built, grew and brought Hyflux to the world map. I remembered vividly it was around the year of 2004 or o5 when I met her while I was working as a Production Engineer (Supervisor) with Schering-Plough Ltd.

Olivia, was invited to by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) , my alumni for a talk on entrepreneurship to a bunch of engineering alumnus on the topic of technopreneurship. "Technopreneurship" is a word coined by the Singapore government to entice more engineers, technical graduates to venture into entrepreneurship.

The event was held in the NTU Alumni Town Club at OCBC building, Raffles Place. Olivia came into the room with no fanfare, typical business like with a mission and just in time for some quick hand shake before taking her seat right in front. In a room full of almost men, (majority of us were engineers so you don't get that many women) , she did stick out with prominent. Best part was that was no Power Points, so you know she would be speaking off the cuff in another words right from the heart.

She began by telling us about her life story and you can't help to be fascinated by what she has gone through. I will attempt to summarize it here in bullet points and as far as my memory can recall. Olivia, if you happened to read this blog, do correct me if I am wrong.

  • Olivia was an orphaned and raised by a stranger whom she known as Grandma in a town call Kampar , Perak. (Kampar is a very small town, approximately 1 hour drive from my home town Taiping. Majority of the folks there are not that well off in Malaysian standards)
  • Being poor and to help make ends meet, she started hawking at her school canteen.
  • Olivia did extremely well in her Malaysia public exams which prompted one of her school teacher to advice her to pursue her education in Singapore. ( for any less mortal, even those with proper family support, we would have thought it would be out of reach because of the high school fee , to be paid in Singapore dollars while our parents were earning ringgit , value at half the Singapore dollars.
  • Olivia, with almost no money in her pocket, boarded the train and headed straight to Singapore. She lived with good Samaritans who were willing to give her boarding while she knock on schools who were willing to admit her into their A- Level courses. ( i remember she telling us that she approach every single one but the entrance dateline was over and she was soon running out of money, but she persisted until she found 1 who was willing to make exception) Singapore, you need to make exceptions to find gems like these!
  • Olivia self supported herself through out her 2 years Junior College , finally got admission to National University of Singapore as a Chemical Engineer.
  • Again, she self supported her education working as Insurance agent and several other jobs. (What struck me most was when she graduated, she had bought a flat, HDB and a car ! Who would have thought that was possible ? A lot of graduates today, still buy their first flat with their parents money as down payment ! Imagine she doing that back in the 80s ! )
  • Olivia then started working for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK ) a pharmaceutical company at their Water plant. (For those who were not in the industry before, in the drug making industry, clean water is paramount to the production of all drugs. It is the key ingredient in ensuring drugs produced are safe for consumption and the US Food Drug Agency, FDA is has a very stringent guideline. IT was also at this stage, the idea of HYFLUX was born !)
  • After spending 2-3 years at GSK, Olivia decided is time to venture out. She went ahead and sold not just her car but her flat as well to capitalize HydroChem - the birth of HYFLUX. ( I remembered she saying that, she gave it a long hard thought about selling both that asset to risk it in being an entrepreneur. Money , she knows will come back but would the journey be worth it? And her answer was that "If I ever want to help anyone else who is poor or unfortunate, the only was is for be me to in the capacity to help , meaning to do well in business and make the money to help") The rest was history.
  • HydroChem ( HYFLUX) was started a the Industrial Park at Tampines, by 3 partners, Olivia being 1 of them and they started off selling filters as an agent. In order to get the agency, Olivia approached the principals and told them, she will only take commission for the revenue she made. So there is no risk on their end.
  • Of the 3 partners, 2 of them eventually dropped out. And Olivia continued to press on to make Hyflux what it is today.
  • Hyflux was in China right after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1991. She went straight to Shanghai, having no network or any of the business association or government body to help her. She carved the market up from scratch.
After sharing her life story and that of Hyflux , she opened the floor for questions. I will not forget that forum as I asked a question and her reply did not answer my question specifically but it continues to provide answers to all my questions in my career as a sales, business development executive and finally an entrepreneur until today .

Will share that in my next post with you guys !

Friday, April 4, 2008

How Life Imitates Chess

"Why must I lose to this idiot" Nimzowitsch, a Chess Grandmaster

I was on my way to Shanghai on a business trip and had always make it a habit to grab a new book to read on the plane, both on my way to Shanghai and back. This time, I am looking for a book that will simulate my strategic thinking, in view of my new found role as an entrepreneur & CEO of the enterprise.

Boy, I found the book "How Life Imitates Chess" by Gary Kasparov. I used to be a Chess player who has represented my school, my zone ( you represent a zone when you have beaten other kids at the zonal level) and was competing at the District level (one level before State) as a 11 - 12 year old kid. And Gary Kasparov was the reigning World Champion at that time and I followed his battle with his all time nemesis Anatoly Karpov, fascinated at his mastery of the game and his opponent. Anatoly challenged him to the title several times but never won.

Sadly, I never pursued my talent in Chess, primarily I don't have the patience to wait for my opponent to think and spend hours agonizing on 1 single move. I was very much the aggressor like Gary, take no hostage, attacking , aggressive and taking charge player.

And after reading his book, I was pleasantly surprised by what he has said. I am still the same old kid who showed that behavior on the chess board today. Right up to now, I believe that if you take the initiative and be bold, you can achieve what others need 5 years to do in 1. Thus, I am not a person who thinks that years of experience is the most crucial element to success. If anyone is going to hire or promote anyone based on the fact that he or she has worked in that field for a certain amount of year, that is not the person whom I am going to work for.

Partly, the reason i am now venturing out is to prove to young people, people with dreams and above all myself that my principles are right and will stand the test of times.

Nevertheless, the one thing that really struck me in this book is the word quoted by Gary from Aaron Nimzowitsch , "Why Must I lose to this idiot. " In many sense, these words are bold words to say and in my upbringing we are not supposed to portray such arrogance. However, most of the time, I have that sentiment in my heart the same words when I met such people. Now I know it is not arrogance but being truthful to yourself.

Being bold, if you are truthful to yourself has a certain magic. Magic that will create in you dynamism and confidence. Confidence which will take you through the bad times , the good times and the trying times. Being bold on its own does not mean being reckless, it means telling yourself that you will do all in your might, prepare yourself to the hilt, work hours and hours to beat that idiot !

And for all stages of my life that "idiot" came in many different forms. I have always make it a personal goal to win in the best way I know how. Being bold, aggressive, taking the initiative and taking charge ! Just like the boy on the chess board !

Perhaps, my readers, you might discover yourself on the chessboard as well.






Saturday, March 15, 2008

Begins with a First Step

" A Journey of A Thousand Miles, Begins with a First Step " Mao ZeDong

So say Chairman Mao and you can't agree more with him. Everything begins with the single first step which most people hesitate to take. It is almost always a step that will take them away from their comfort zone, away from familiarity, away from security.

I am happy to announce that I am finally living my dream - an entrepreneur in my own right. We have started business officially in January 08, and Thank God ! Our Orders Book /revenue is looking strong and we should be able to ROI within the very first quarter.

I once read that Fear is the only that we should fear. Overcoming that is what a country like Singapore will need to nurture an entrepreneurship environment. That alone, cannot be taught. However, I do believe it can be influenced. But that "fire" in the belly can only come from within.

Being a late Generation X - early Generation Y, I have always harbored to take my first step,however perhaps due to my Chinese origin, I have also not been overly impatient. Plan was always in the book but I have also learned the key to everything is "Preparation & Timing"

养兵千日,用在一时 - Preparation of the army takes a thousand days but deployed in a single moment.

My thousand days has been filled with preparation as a Pharmaceutical Production Supervisor whereby I have learned Operations and Leadership, a Business Manager with a SAP Partner in Singapore and a Business Development Manager in Greater China whereby I have honed Strategic sales, Business Development skills.

Now is the execution of that single moment.

In Him.





Sunday, September 30, 2007

Learning Mandarin /Putonghua For English Speakers

It has been a while since I posted as I thought that no one was reading my blog until a dear friend of mine asked me whether if I have posted anything new recently.

So , that sparks me to write again and to share things or issues that are dear to my heart.

Thus, in continuation about learning Mandarin / Putonghua which I have last posted, I would like to share my experience and the technique which I have used to get to a stage whereby I can read and speak the language.

1. Speak
Mandarin - It is essential that you go back to the basic of pin yin - learning the basic sound from romanized lettering. (i.e, bo, fo, mo po and etc) For Malaysian like me who are English educated, I know that you would think that you know how to speak simple conversational Mandarin - you should still get proper training in this area before you go further. This is the building block of the language. Once you master this like the back of your hand, you can not go wrong.

2. Write Mandarin -
Frankly, this is one skill which you have to give up so that you would not always trapped with knowing limited characters. For adult learners or those who start late, learning how to write is just too fastidious. And if you are learning from beginners, I assure you, you will be bored with those primary, beginner or children level book whereby you can't seem to go beyond "Greetings" or "When to Meet for a Picnic". Once you know the basic Pin Yin and if you ever need to write, you can always use the computer to help you with that.

3. Recognize Mandarin - the most important element.
I have deliberately replace the word READ with RECOGNIZE. Unlike learning English or any other languages there are written in alphabets, you can't read Mandarin. You recognize Mandarin ! First thing to do is to learn the basis of how Mandarin characters are form. Do you know that almost 80% of Mandarin Characters are differentiated by 1 part of the character to represent meaning , while the other part of the character represent sound ?


What i have done was to master the 1st item followed by the 3rd. My wife would be a testimony to how each time when i get to the restaurant, I will start reading the menu and also every time when I am out, I would be reading the shops name and etc.

To bear testimony to those who read my blog, I am willing to share an e-book which I have authored for those who write to me. It details the concept or methodology which i have learned my Mandarin.

P/S Just to give you a boost of confidence, I am now working in Greater China and am giving presentation in Mandarin to my clients.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

The China Dragon

China - first of all it is an extremely fascinating place. For a start, it is one of the first 4 earliest civilization in the world. And with a history dating back to more than 5,000 years, it is not
surprising that it is a sophisticated society but not necessarily modern.

The country is a fascination by itself. I guess most of us has heard about how cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou has developed in such a short period of time. I akin that to the hunger that has been suppressed for so many years.

However, to understand any people or their culture, we need to learn the language.

I, for one is a Chinese but from Malaysia, a South East Asia country found it difficult. Like many Chinese immigrants my forefather seeks his fortune in South East Asia while the rest chose countries like Northern American, Europe and such.

As such I grew up without learning Chinese or better known as Mandarin or Putonghua. I grew up with English and Malay Language. I only started learning when I was 21.

And yes, I learned it like a native English speaker.

Is it difficult to learn ? You bet it is and still is. I gave up before several times but always my goal to be understood in China pushed me on.

The good news is that I had found a way or rather a system of my own to learn the language. The key was to be able to recognise as many characters as possible so that I can start communicating in it.

Will share more in my next post.