Mid Autumn Festival 2011 and Musings on a Small Village Victory

I will post the photos soon, but this was a very good Mid Autumn Festival...Keohi was even one of the winners of the Lick Hang lantern festival contest. I'll post a photo of that. We drank a lot of milk to get those octopus tentacles...it was an Octopus Lantern. Specifically, a Giant Pacific Octopus lantern.

Mid Autumn festival this year was the first time that Keohi could really enjoy the event. Tuesday night we headed down to the playground and Fion, Tiffany's mom, a former art teacher had prepared a lovely evening for the small Mui Wo kids. There was a shadow puppet play, a brief explanation of the different types of special Mid Autumn foods and fruits, and then the lighting of the lanterns that floated up to the sky.

I didn't actually hear all of the shadow puppet play, but it was all in the spirit of the genre as actually, this particular genre does not follow traditional narrative structure. What may actually transpire in most shadow puppet plays, and certainly in the play I saw in Bali, are a series of short scenes, some linked, most not, and this upends the narrative expectations of the stuck-in-the-three/five-act structure audience that all of us have come to be, inured as we are by Hollywood films and novels. So to these who want to break out of the rut of standard literary narrative--go to a shadow puppet play! This one was no exception, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Then came the explanation of fruits and the like--I suddenly understood WHY there were so many pomelo lanterns made at Keohi's Lick Hang kindergarten. Pomelos for lanterns are a bit like pumpkins and jack o lanterns. They are carved up, fruit eaten, and maybe pieced together with wire to make a lantern design. Back in the old days, people might not be able to afford paper and so would use this special fruit for this purpose.

Then was the lighting of the lanterns. Big paper ones that went up and hopefully did not come down until the candle part was all burnt off. I can only say that these lovely things are a firefighter's nightmare. I think that these would be great to light anywhere, but definitely you'd get a citation and fine if you would ever dare to light one of these in the US, given the way they might just land anywhere. We watched these ascend from the playground and the beach.

Then, the bike back up to the Tai Tei Tong village square. The big BBQs were scattered about the square and the stage was set up and little Gin Ho was dancing, as were a few others from Lick Hang. A big evening. Keohi carried his panda bear lantern, saw his former teacher Miss Yeti and ran around a bit with his pals. A good time. We went in quite late.

A good evening in Mui Wo, made special by someone who wanted to share her cultural background with others. We were lucky to be a part of it.

As for small village victories.

There was really only one. And it just happened. HOORAY. CLP will NOT install the light at the back of our house! HOORAY. Stephen wrote to them, we discussed this with the village head, we tried unsuccessfully to get others this would affect to agree and to also voice their opinion, but in the end it happened. Yes, independent individuals can make a difference. Yesterday I went and knocked on our neighbor's door to get a yea or nay about the light. The older local neighbor who has been here forever admitted that he put in a request for a light years ago, before all the houses were up in this neighborhood. Now there is too much light streaming in his house. So he told the village head today that he too did not want it!

I'm pleased about this for a few reasons.

a) It's an environmental blight that was stopped simply because we voiced our opinion. Imagine if CLP went ahead with this unwanted streetlamp and it blared all night long for the next 50 years or more. How much energy would be wasted? If you believe in environmental change you have to voice your opinion about it. Light pollution in HK is terrible.

b) If you want to be a part of a community, then it shows that you have to participate, and if you participate by voicing your opinion and caring about what happens, good things will come your way. People can be silent because they feel that this is not their home country. But environmental pollution knows no national boundaries. It is a problem for everyone--we're all on the same planet. We voiced our concerns and I'm very glad we did.

Now we just have to get rid of some of the lights that are already ON.

The only way to improve things is to stand up and say something or act upon it. You know what is crazy? People say, oh this isn't our country, so we can't. But there are things that are beyond national lines that you have to stand up for. The environment. Fairness and tolerance to human beings. Certain ideals are universal. I think that it just boils down to this--are you the type of person that stands up for things in your home country? If you really are, then you will remain that way. But if you never were, then you won't here, but you'll just think that you are different because you are now an expat. But you're not. You're the same as you always were...yep. Wishy washy. People don't change unless there is a very good reason to do so. And HK usually doesn't give people a reason to change for the better. Here people become more insular and as a result of wealth due to lower taxes and the status bestowed upon individuals by virtue of speaking English, usually more narrow in thought...that's just HK...signing out.

Pleased and proud to be from a member of the vocal family from Sun Lung Wai...