Sunday, February 28, 2010

Lin Sicheng Wishes All a Prosperous New Year

Lin Sicheng, aka Baby Winston, has been busy with New Year activities. Here is a sampling.

Lin Sicheng takes receipt of his first Little Red Envelope, but happily does not open it. "He who wants not need not open the Little Red Envelope," he says. "Besides I just like to scrunch it up to make funny noises."

Lin Sicheng inspects peonies in the garden. Actually, Master Sicheng has been too busy to plant his own, so the garden is his neighbor's.

As the Spring Festival comes to an end, Master Sicheng ponders which should take top priority in the Year of the Tiger: eating or sleeping?



Sunday, February 14, 2010

Now I am a "Veteran Entrepreneur"

The company I started almost 4 years ago has been acquired. Overall, it is considered a success, especially in the context of this economic recession. I have received a lot of congratulations from many people. Some are just simple “congratulations”, while others required me to think a little bit.

“Congratulations on the bona fide success. I can see that perhaps you are not to gain much in the immediate future, but it has been a net positive for you still, in that it’s a rapid learning curve.”

“Wow. How do you feel about it?”

“Congratulations. You should be really proud of yourself, since you are one of the few entrepreneurs who have successfully started a company and sold it at the end.”

“Now is this your desired outcome?”

“Are you satisfied?”

“Congratulations. I hope that you are taken care of.”

"Now you are a veteran entrepreneur."

And so on…

Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the past four years. Maybe a quote from Confucius captures my thinking succinctly: “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

"Electric Shadows" and "Cinema Paradiso"


What a little-known Chinese movie “Electric Shadows” shares in common with the international hit from Italy “Cinema Paradiso” is how powerful movies can be, especially for impressionable children. Quoting something rather trite from a Landmark Theatres commercial, “the language of film is universal.”

While “Cinema Paradiso” was about a naughty boy Toto finding a father figure in the projectionist of the local movie theater, “Electric Shadows” is about a little girl who eventually did find herself the reluctant stepdaughter of the projectionist. Both kids were mesmerized by movies. However, the fate of the Italian boy was much better – after his heart was broken by a beautiful girl, he left home and became a famous film director. He only returned home 30 years later, when his father figure died, and that was when he rediscovered the power of movies, as well as how much this seemingly grumpy old projectionist loved him. The little girl in the Chinese movie, however, started out quite happy, but turned melancholy after the departure of her best friend, the marriage of her mother to the local projectionist, and especially the birth of her half-brother, whom her mother and her stepfather favored. She became grouchy and resentful, and even bullied her little brother. But this little boy was such an angel that he kept his own sister’s bad behaviors away from the parents. When she was told to study instead of watching a movie with the rest of the family, the little brother lied to the mother and said that he wanted to go back home to go to the toilet. So the mother gave him the key, and he opened the door to let his sister out to watch the movie in the open-door theater. The sister decided to take him up to the top of the roof, where she and her best friend used to watch movies through a pair of binoculars. As they were taking turns watching the movie with the binoculars, she again got impatient with the little brother hanging onto the binoculars too much, so she pretended to leave. When the little brother got up to follow her, he lost his balance and fell from the roof to his death. After that, the girl left home and became quite eccentric. Eventually it was a semi-happy ending in that the girl was reunited with the parents, after time had healed all the pain, or most of it at least, in the setting of an outdoor movie theater again.

Obviously, the story is a bit of a stretch, and there are many aspects of the film that could make one roll her eyes. The message is perhaps a little too loud and clear. It is about the power of movies – its power of inspiration, power of intoxication and power of redemption.

However, I found myself dwelling over a peripheral aspect of the movie – the little brother who fell to his death from the roof, after sneaking away to let his bitter and jealous sister watch the movie together. What an angelic little boy! – I thought to myself. Needless to say, every time I see a little kid, especially if it’s a cute little boy, my thoughts return to Winston. I simply cannot imagine the kind of pain a mother has to bear for losing a little kid. I am glad that at least now and here there is a lot of awareness about child safety, because I would otherwise be terrified of having Winston out of my sight for a minute!

He is so sweet and angelic. Yesterday at the doctor’s office, his chubby thighs got three(!) pokes from a needle for the three vaccines, and he only cried when the needle poked him. The minute I held him up, he stopped crying. He laughed the whole way back home, even though he was really tired and sleepy as it was past his nap time. He is so ticklish (like me) that he’s often laughing his head off if I blow air to the back of his neck, massage his belly, or tickle his armpits.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Winston Ventures Forth Out of His Warren

Until recently, Winston hadn't seemed to enjoy activities outside the house. On his excursions, he would only look around quietly, a departure from his usual laughing babbling self. He has become more active on the last few trips, though, so perhaps he is becoming less disoriented by all the new visual stimuli. Or perhaps he is getting accustomed to the embarrassment of the ridiculous outfits his parents choose for him. Sorry Winston, you don't get to decide!




Monday, February 1, 2010

I Need to Watch Some Real Comedies!

When I was about 9 or 10, a very popular movie at the time was called “Reaching Middle Age”. It was overall a tragedy, describing a middle-aged doctor almost broken by the heavy responsibilities on her shoulders from work and from home. The heroine was played by Pan Hong, an actress who seems to embody tragic beauty. She would give a tired or understanding smile, but she would never laugh, and it was hard for me to imagine how someone like her could ever have a belly laugh.

I also remember reading somewhere that the least happy period of one’s life is the middle age, because the excitement that accompanies limitless opportunities and hope is gone with the youth, and the satisfaction from having fulfilled most of one’s responsibilities is not there yet, with the unhappiness often exacerbated by the numerous daily tasks that remind one of his/her responsibilities at work, at home, for the parents, for the kids, for the spouse, for the siblings, and for perhaps some other relatives and friends. For support and advice, we can no longer rely on the parents for support and advice, because they are too old. The kids? – Too young. The spouse? – Too busy. The siblings? – Too distant. Other relatives and friends? – Well, we can only bother them so much, as they are in the same situation themselves!

We have all been taught the importance of independence from an early age, presumably because naturally as social animals, we human beings are not exactly born to be independent. We can think and feel independently of others, and we don’t like others to interfere with our business, but we don’t like to be alone either. All of a sudden, I find myself in the position of huge responsibilities towards the generation above and the generation below. I find myself the source of strengths for others - if my strength fails me, it will fail not only myself but also others.

As I am writing it, we are in the midst of an economic recession, which has had a negative effect on almost every sector. That has direct implications to the company I started, and this topic weighs heavily on my mind. My son Winston obviously is completely dependent on his parents, and we have to be there for him in every sense of the word. We can never be lazy and say, “well today I am too tired and I want to take a break so he will have to make do without me.” My mom is getting old, but as a woman who has been used to her way of life, she does not want to come over to the States, which means that she will only have my sister nearby in case anything happens. My sister has not been happy, and has recently been upset at both my mom and me, either due to miscommunication, or perhaps other more serious reasons. Michael started his faculty job at Stanford when the government is short on money, which makes an already stressful career even more stressful.

Since I started subscribing to Netflix, I have watched quite a few old movies, many of which are completely forgettable. “Summer Hours” by Olivier Assayas from France – I am amazed that such movies can be made since they are truly about nothing. “The Personals” starring Rene Liu from Taiwan – I realized that I had seen it before, which shows how boring it is. “The International” is presumably a thriller with hot stars like Naomi Watts and Clive Owen, but I have already completely forgotten what it was about. Unfortunately the only movie that I can remember is a sad one from Germany “Cherry Blossums”, exploring life and death, happiness and sorrow, hopes and regrets. I was haunted by the tragic undertone of the movie that I woke up at 3 am this morning, unable to fall asleep again. All I could think of was how ironic that in this one movie both husband and wife had to learn to deal with the other person’s death, one in prospect and the other in reality. I thought to myself, “ this is all too morbid. I need to watch some comedies!”

Not surprisingly, my favorite comedian is Woody Allen, whose comedies are not exactly the most lighthearted. Maybe what he said captures the lows I have been feeling and the weight I have been feeling about life with my responsibilities at this stage of my life:

“Most of life is tragic. You're born, you don't know why. You're here, you don't know why. You go, you die. Your family dies. Your friends die. People suffer. People live in constant terror. The world is full of poverty and corruption and war and Nazis and tsunamis. The net result, the final count is, you lose - you don't beat the house.”

I need to watch some real comedies!