Reminiscences

About the author Privacy policies, terms, and conditions   Years ago, I published an essay in a Chinese newspaper entitled "Snow in March." I had trouble finding it online--a hard copy of it is likely lying in a small cabinet in my HK home. Because I deem it one of my best works ever published, I try to recall what I wrote and recreate it in English. *** My favorite subject in high school had always been Geography (and in senior high: both Geography and English Literature). The primary reason was that the geography textbook contained many scenic pictures which satisfied the needs of a little girl who did not get the chance to travel to many places. Well, it should have satisfied the wanderlust of those who travelled rather frequently, as the less-travelled places rather than tourist hotspots were featured the most. Think: the rocky deserts in the interiors of North America, the sand dunes in the Sahara, and the tropical rain forests in the ...

About the author Privacy policies, terms, and conditions It is time to write about Jordan Peterson, given that he was recently ordered by the court to undergo "social media training" to retain his license to practice as a psychologist. This post, which contains solely my views on his calling Yumi Nu "not beautiful" in one of his Twitter posts in 2021 rather than my thoughts about "social media training," is indeed long overdue. However, I did not have a blog then, and no media outlet was willing to accept my pitch.  Since his Twitter post went viral, countless responses have appeared on various forums most of which are, as one might expect, driven by simplistic perspectives, e.g. it is unkind to call a seemingly overweight woman "not beautiful"; "the woman is not overweight: she is only big and I found her hot!"; "beauty standards are subjective: who is he to judge?" I do think Twitter/X...

About the author Privacy policies, terms, and conditions In all of my courses that touch on freedom of expression, I have asked my students to discuss this question in my first class: "The President of a Canadian university said freedom of expression is 'Eurocentric' and leads to the suppression of minority groups. As such, it needs to be remade in the era of globalization. Do you agree? To what extent do you agree? If you don't, why not?" This usually comes after my explanation of the "natural law tradition," according to which there are universal, fundamental principles governing people in all societies and cultures who enjoy fundamental, innate natural rights based on these principles. Examples of fundamental rights are the rights to freedom of expression, life, and property.   As expected, students in general appreciate the natural law tradition and even expressly embrace it. However, some students agreed tha...

About the author Privacy policies, terms, and conditions We often hear people say "The enemy of our enemy is our friend." This seems to make good sense. In fact, it is a strategy frequently used during wartimes: countries that might not be on friendly terms form alliances to fight against a common enemy and these allies are "friends" against the bigger enemy. During peacetimes, this strategy is frequently used in politics. During the US Presidential Elections, for instance, some candidates, recognizing that they are losing out, typically withdraw from the race and express support for a remaining candidate whose position aligns with theirs more and/or whom they believe would benefit themselves (more) should he become the President. When only very few candidates are left, voters, fearing that their most dreaded candidate would win, typically vote for a strong contender whom they might not like very much in the hope that the latter ...

About the author Privacy policies, terms, and conditions I re-watched a TVB drama series that first aired in 1990, called "Blood of Good and Evil."  In this series, the protagonist is torn between loyalty and love for his surrogate father, a gang leader involved in money laundering and other criminal activities, and his biological father, a cop reputed for his dutifulness and moral righteousness. In the end, he reconciles with his biological father, from whom he has been estranged for many years, whereas the gang leader commits suicide.  I enjoyed more time I did last time, and it was a couple of years since I last re-watched it. I did not pay attention to what made the series so popular and critically acclaimed: the relatively straightforward plotline, very real and likeable characters, and intricacies of their emotions portrayed. Whereas the son is obviously and understandably grateful to the gangster-father, he is tortured by his new-f...

  About the author Privacy policies, terms, and conditions A couple of days ago, I introduced to my readers this formula by American legal scholar and economist Richard Posner. Economists do not care as much about the nature of rights, including the right to free speech, as about economic efficiency. A good law restricting certain expressions is good as long as the perceived harms of the expressions are greater than the costs of suppressing them. This seemingly complex formula isn't all that complex if you understand the reasoning: I want to embark on a more challenging and contentious endeavor this time, which is to study the economic efficiency of laws regulating the use of (gender) pronouns. As you may already know, some US states such as New York and most of Canada have added pronoun laws in their human rights codes or anti-discrimination laws. Whereas "misgendering" people--aka not addressing people by their preferred pronouns--b...

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