Rogers LS3/5a vs. Reference 3a Dulcet

Chojiro had noted in the previous post that while the EMI speakers were good, they were not superb. The overall performance left something to be desired. Technically, the oval-shaped woofer was an odd design because it compromised the mid-range and bass. After listening to the speakers for about two weeks, Chojiro returned them to his friend.

But Chojiro's friend didn't give up. As if challenging Chojiro, he turned around and lent Chojiro a pair of Rogers LS3/5a speakers, which would easily fetch above US$3,000 in the second-hand market! There is no way the EMI speakers could be compared with Rogers LS3/5a - the former would be worth about US$750 in the second-hand market but Chojiro suspected anyone would be actively seeking it. Clearly these speakers belong to two different classes.

(Pictured above: Rogers LS3/5a front and back views)

The famous LS3/5a probably needs no introduction. But for those unfamiliar with it, here is an article reproduced from the UK's Hi-Fi World audio magazine (http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/oldeworldehtml/rogersls35a.html) which said it all:

"Back in the early Seventies, the BBC needed a monitor 'speaker compact enough to fit into their outside broadcast vans. After extensive development work from the Beeb's Research Department what transpired was arguably the most diminutive serious hi-fi loudspeaker the world had yet seen, the LS3/5a.

A two-way infinite-baffle design squeezing a KEF B110 Bextrene mid/bass driver and 19mm mylar-dome tweeter into a cabinet just 304mm by 190mm by 160mm, it was remarkably compact. Frequency response was quoted as 70Hz-20kHz (+/-3dB), but the complex 26-element crossover and 83dB sensitivity meant the LS3/5a wasn't ideal for low-power amplifiers. And with a power handling of 25 watts 'speech and music' and a maximum SPL of 95dB, nor was it ideal for muscle amps ? it was a specialist design in the strictest sense.

As the Beeb didn't actually manufacture 'speakers itself, the LS3/5a was licensed to Rogers, Chartwell, Audiomaster, Spendor and Harbeth to produce. At first the response was mixed. People were used to far larger designs and just couldn't believe full-range 'high-fidelity' was available from such tiny boxes. And the sound was rather a shock after the big, wobbly plumminess of many larger speakers. The LS3/5as had small, rigid, well-damped cabinets with little sonic footprint, and sometimes the truth was hard to listen to!

Best characterised as clear, clean and uncoloured, particularly in the midband, LS3/5a's sound amazingly balanced even today. Another forte is imaging - with a wide, deep and consistent sound stage they're excellent on Classical and choral music, where voices and individual instrument groups in the orchestra are faithfully rendered.

As the saying goes, the LS3/5as are like much bigger loudspeakers minus the low bass. And that's the problem - they just can't shift air like boxes with big cones and really go to pieces if asked to. Another failing is the treble, which is pleasantly sweet but not the most transparent in the business.

The BBC revised the crossover in 1988 and the load was no longer specified at 15 ohms. Quoted impedance became nominally 11ohms. Subsequently bi-wiring was introduced and the LS3/5a became the speaker it is today, with a power handling of 80watts. And in 1995 Rogers introduced a matching stand-type subwoofer, the £549 AB1s. With an extra B110 kicking in below 120Hz, they transformed the LS3/5a into an even more attractive prospect. Not only do they go deeper, they'll also go louder and sound a lot less constrained when asked to boogie. Although not ideal Rock transducers, the LS3/5a/AB1s make a very respectable job of it.

Throughout its long life, several variants of the LS3/5a have surfaced, most interesting of which was the JR149. Designed by Jim Rogers, one of the great and the good in the BBC's Research Department, it uses the same drivers as the LS3/5a in a cylindrical aluminium housing. Aside from looking radical, the cylindrical enclosure is more rigid and holds fewer standing waves, making for an arguably better sound.

But the most successful LS3/5a spin-off is Harbeth's HL-P3ES. Although departing from the original in many ways, they're very much the LS3/5a in a modern setting ? with a smoother, cleaner, tighter and more detailed sound.

The great thing about LS3/5a's is that they're readily available second-hand, and their owners rarely use them as party 'speakers! Go for as new a model as you can, preferably with the phase two bi-wireable crossovers.

A pair of brand new Rogers LS3/5as costs £699 (in Walnut, black Ash or Teak), so pay between £100 and £500 second-hand, depending on age and condition. As for the different brands of LS3/5a, this is a veritable snake pit of controversy, but if they didn't all sound practically the same, the Beeb would not be amused!"

The Rogers LS3/5a lent to Chojiro were the original 15-ohm version. The fact that they were no longer in production made them a "collector's item". Some die-hard enthusiasts claim that the 15-ohm version sounds much better than its 11-ohm counterpart. Of course, very subjective judgment is involved but as it stands the prices quoted for second-hand LS3/5a speakers in the Hi-Fi World article are way off the mark.

Shortly after Chojiro hooked up his Leak Stereo 60 power amplifier to the Rogers LS3/5a, another friend offered a pair of Canadian made Reference 3a Dulcet speakers for trial. Chojiro gladly accepted the offer. Why not, he thought. He could always switch between these two pairs of speakers for A-B tests.

(Pictured above: Rogers LS3/5a on speaker stands in the front)


(Pictured above: Reference 3a Dulcet front and back views)

Reference 3a speakers are known for their unique "crossover-less" design. Dulcet's main driver is directly coupled to amplifiers. According to the Reference 3a's official website (http://www.reference3a.com), without crossover components interfering with musical signal flow, the sound is responsive, fast and articulate. A simple, very high quality high pass filter is used on the treble unit for better integrated sound. The cabinets are constructed to be very rigid with critical bracing. The massive motor assembly of the driver is mechanically grounded to damp and reduce superfluous vibration energy. All the drivers are broken in for at least 100 hours for meaningful pair matching to very close tolerances. The mini speakers are said to produce astonishingly deep and resolute bass, seamlessly integrated to a pristine treble range, delivering a relentlessly engaging musicality from their tiny enclosures.

Upon actual testing, Chojiro found the Roger LS3/5a and Reference 3a Dulcet speakers to be largely on par, with the Dulcet delivering much deeper bass and higher treble than the LS3/5a. Overall, Dulcet is the better performer; but LS3/5a has a magical touch, particularly in the mid-range, that makes you keep wanting to go back to it. No wonder the LS3/5a commands such a huge following. Chojiro is hooked on it.

EMI Speakers

Chojiro has not found a pair of good speakers for his Leak system, until recently. He has used his pair of Dynaudio Facette speakers with the Leak Stereo 60 power amplifier; but the Facette speakers, which are notoriously inefficient, are too much for Stereo 60 to handle. Other speakers used were makeshift ones and could not be taken seriously.

Last week, a friend in the business of trading secondhand speakers lent Chojiro a pair of EMI speakers to try out with the Leak. Chojiro had not heard of EMI speakers before but nevertheless gave them a try. At first the mid-range sounded muffled, but there were good spots in the treble and bass. The speakers had not been used for years. After being driven by Stereo 60 for an hour or so, the sound from the EMI speakers became noticeably clearer, although the mid-range remained a problem.

Then Chojiro noticed that the EMI speakers have an impedance of 4 ohms, whereas the jumpers on the Stereo 60 were set to 8 ohms. After setting the jumpers to 4 ohms, the sound from the EMI speakers suddenly "opened up". The mid-range was no longer muffled, the treble was astoundingly clear and the bass deep and clean. It is a good fit for classical music, producing a nice dynamic sound field without excess. Chojiro would not call the EMI speakers superb, but they are good, highly efficient speakers.

Chojiro has been listening to the EMI speakers for a few days and they sound better with each passing day. In each cabinet, there is a 10-inch oval woofer and two 3-inch tweeters. Chojiro did some research on the Internet and discovered that EMI speakers featuring elliptical woofers (some with tweeter arrays mounted in front of the woofer cone ala Bozak) appear frequently on eBay. There is some collector interest although they do not command high prices. The drivers were available in the UK in the late 60s/early 70s as a kit. They were also sold as complete speakers, like the ones used by Chojiro. The speakers were said not to take much power but produced a nice sound good for classical. Chojiro's experience testified to this point.

According to information on the Internet, EMI stands for Electric and Musical Industries Limited in Hayes Middlesex England. The same company controlled EMI records and Abbey Road Studios (the connections with the Beatles!). EMI produced records under many labels, including "His Master's Voice", and produced a huge catalogue of SQ Quad records in the 1970s. EMI also made some very good studio quality electronics and up-market consumer electronics and was one of the UKs biggest companies at the time. One person in the Internet forum confirmed the Beatles connection by noting that his grandfather worked for EMI Electronics from 1931 to 1980. He said the organisation was primarily a record company but had a highly innovative electronics arm that developed some of the earliest electronic television broadcast equipment and airborne radar. With all the money EMI made from the Beatles in the 60s the company threw everything it had into its latest invention: the CT scanner. However, a combination of bad luck and bad management saw the company almost fold in the early 1980s. Today only EMI Records remains.

This person said his grandfather still has some of these EMI branded speakers in his front room. He had hooked them up once and they sounded very very different to what you would expect from a modern speaker - not in a bad way though. He was really looking forward to setting them up properly and hearing them again.

Chojiro's friend told Chojiro that he can keep the EMI speakers for a good price. Chojiro is still evaluating the speakers. Who knows? May be the next day his friend will lend him another pair which sound even better!

Sauna Dialogue, Common Sense Politics

Cheung Lap's piece in the 28 September 2009 issue of Hong Kong Economic Journal is, as usual, interesting and thought provoking. Chojiro has taken the liberty to translate it below.


Departures from common sense are usually not trustworthy. This probably applies from title cons to national affairs.

The following conversation took place in a sauna room. A teammate and reader asked, "Why do you say Tibet Independence is a fake agenda? Isn't the Dalai Lama red hot in the West? Doesn't he have a lot of influence and followers?"

"If a person has left Hong Kong for 50 years and never once returned to Hong Kong during that period, would you believe him if he says he has a lot of influence in Hong Kong?"

"Of course not! That's exaggerating!"

"So is the Dalai Lama."

"How is the Dalai Lama's influence compared to Mao Zedong's?"

"Mao passed away in 1976. In the 33 years since then China has had two new generations and there have been profound changes socially and in reality. The times are different. Mao cannot do much even if he resurrects, not to mention Dalai."

"I see what you mean, now that you've explained it."

"It's nothing more than reasoning by common sense."

Another person in the sauna room interjected, "Lee Ka-shing would be a goner if he has left Cheung Kong for 50 years." "The Brits have left Hong Kong for 12 years. They are goners too," he added.

That's why Dalai's representatives are day dreaming when they went to Beijing to negotiate for resuming their administration in Tibet and to include Tibetan districts within Sichuan and Qinghai in 'Greater Tibet'."

In fact Dalai knows that this is impossible. But he has no control over his own destiny. Why? Dalai has many subordinates and followers who rely on him to be fed. If the boss wants you to say so, can you not say it? Who's the "boss"? "The guy who pays is the boss."

"Dalai runs a government-in-exile in India. Rents, salaries, transportation and lodging expenses have to be paid. The cost is at least US$20 to $30 million a year. Multiply this cost by 50 years. Who has been paying for it?"

Politics is complicated but also very simple. You see it through once you trace where the money comes from.

The insiders are absolutely clear about the situation. The outsiders are being fooled. People like Richard Gere think they are being very righteous. They are actually fools.

The bull shit is over.

Fisher and Leak Faceoff

[PHOTO]
Front row: (from left to right) Leak Stereo 60 Power Amplifier, Leak Varislope 2 Stereo Pre-amplifier
Back row: (from left to right) Fisher SA-1000 Power Amplifier, Chu Kee Pre-amplifier (with prototype modified Marantz 7 on top), Jadis Symphonia CD Player


Chojiro has not had a new post on his blog since April. It is as if he has “evaporated” from the earth. The truth is Chojiro bought an antique 1964 Fisher (US) SA-1000 tube power amplifier in May and he has been spending practically all his leisure hours on this machine. With the Fisher power amplifier, Chojiro also acquired from tube master Mr. Chu a hand-made tube pre-amplifier, branded none other than “Chu Kee“. The sound from this system has been spectacular. Then recently Chijiro made another purchase: a well-preserved 1961 Leak (UK) system comprising a Varislope 2 Stereo pre-amplifier and a Stereo 60 power amplifier. On Saturday, 19 September, Chojiro had the rare opportunity of comparing the Fisher and Leak power amplifiers and three pre-amplifiers at his home. The experience was one of a life time.

Chojiro’s first impressions about the Leak system were that its output (30 Watt per channel) was clearly inadequate to drive his Dynaudio Facette speakers (sensitivity: 84 dB), which are notoriously inefficient. He had to turn the volume to the 3 o’clock position, or at times to the full, to get adequate sound. In doing so, overload distortion was obvious, particularly at the mid range (voices). It turned out that Chojiro had made a mistake with the cable connections. Leak has a proprietary cable connecting the power amplifier to the pre-amplifier, and this cable not only delivers electricity currents but sound. Chojiro had “double connected” an extra pair of RCA cables between the pre-amplifier and power amplifier. After rectifying this error, the sound quality improved significantly. Still the system sounded kind of flimsy and weak. Then a miracle happened. Mr. Chu replaced the pair of Adzam (Belgium) EF86 tubes originally installed in the pre-amplifier with a pair of Mullard (UK) EF86 tubes; and he did it while the music was playing. Right away the sound was so much richer! Music came to life and the system was overall much more powerful. It even sounded louder. Chojiro salutes Mullard tubes, wonderful British technology.

Then Chojiro played the same music on his regular system: Chu Kee pre-amplifier with Fisher power amplifier. The power amplifier delivered impeccable punch and vitality, yet the Chu Kee was gentle and well-mannered. The result was a delicate balance of tenderness and power – very good sound that never tires you out.

The final test was with Mr. Chu’s new prototype modified Marantz 7 pre-amplifier, which was connected to the Fisher. The same music was suddenly packed with tremendous power and drive. The energy level was endless and one could feel the power kept coming.

Througout the series of A-B tests one could detect the distinctly different approaches to high fidelity between America and Britain. America stresses power, as was manifested in the Fisher and Marantz 7. One would immediately be overtaken by the power and astounding sound. But when one listened carefully, the powerful sound of Marantz 7 had masked the details, muffling the music.

The Chu Kee pre-amplifier was much more refined. Details and depth came back, and thanks to the Fisher the sound was powerful as well. What might be lacking was probably that extra punch when you needed it. Chojiro thinks that Chu Kee fared better than Marantz 7 and that for the time being, his Chu Kee plus Fisher system delivers the best sound among the equipment compared.

But the overall winner was the Leak system after the Varislope 2 Stereo had taken in the Mullard tubes. The British approach to high fidelity was, simply put, taste. As you listen, the depth, detail and layers all spread in front of you. One could truly appreciate music with this Leak system.

Too bad the Leak system cannot really handle Chojiro’s Dynaudio speakers. As a result, the performance of the Leak system was compromised. Mr. Chu has a pair of giant Quad electrostatic speakers. He promised to let Chojiro try them with the Leak. Mr. Chu and Chojiro expected that the sound from this combination would be superb and they are looking forward to the occasion.

The Story of the Nail Cutter

［Photo］China Nail Cutter Centre Shanghai Boyou No. 626

What is so special about the nail cutter in the photo above that deserves it a valuable space on Chojiro’s Creative Forum? While it is an ordinary nail cutter, the process of purchasing it was far from simple and actually quite funny. It is therefore not your everyday nail cutter.

Chojiro was on a long distance bus tour with his family last week. On the way, a splinter had grown in his left index finger. Chojiro was very annoyed by the splinter during the long bus ride. Since he did not have a nail cutter with him, he tried to pull the splinter out with his right hand. He made his left index finger bleed but still the splinter was there. Finally the bus arrived the city of Qingyuan (清遠) and the tour group was accommodated in a hotel. As there were no pre-arranged activities for the evening, Chojiro and his family members spent their time walking around in a large supermarket near the hotel.

After spending some time in the supermarket and having bought some snacks, Chojiro suddenly remembered he needed a nail cutter. He took a long time but could not find nail cutter in the rows for cosmetics and bathroom supplies and had to ask the staff about it. One staff told Chojiro to look for it at the stationery section. Chojiro was a bit puzzled. What has nail cutter got to do with stationery? Why would they be selling nail cutter at the stationery section? Even though he had doubts, Chojiro went looking for nail cutter at the stationery section.

Chojiro could not find any nail cutter at the stationery section and had to ask another staff about it. It turned out that various nail cutters were displayed in a large glass cabinet near the stationery section. The staff struggled with the lock and eventually managed to open the cabinet door. Chojiro picked the cheapest Boyou nail cutter, which was priced at RMB3.00 (US$0.43).

The staff locked the glass cabinet again and took the nail cutter to the counter. She printed out a sales memo in duplicate, the top one in white and the bottom one in pink. She asked Chojiro to take the sales memo and go to the cashier for payment. Chojiro lined up for a while, then presented the sales memo with RMB3.00 to the cashier lady who, after collecting the money, wrote down some codes on the white and pink copies of the sales memo and stored them separately. The sales lady then printed a receipt from the cash registrar. Chojiro collected the nail cutter from the counter with the receipt.

Cutting the splinter with the nail cutter, Chojiro walked toward the exit. As he was about to leave, he was stopped by the security officer who pointed at the nail cutter and requested to see a receipt. Without hesitation, Chojiro pulled the receipt from his pocket, showed it to the security officer and left.

In hindsight, the cumbersome procedure was probably due to the fact that the nail cutter was sold on consignment at the supermarket. While this was a minor incident, it nevertheless was an interesting episode for the journey.

Competing for World Power

Cheung Lap had another excellent piece in his HKEJ column on 19 March 2009:

Since Zheng He (鄭和) [Note] began his seven expeditions to the Western Seas in 1431, China has never dispatched any forces to the distant oceans apart from making courtesy calls. 578 years later, in 2009, the Chinese Navy sent a small fleet comprising three vessels to the Indian Ocean to protect Chinese merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden. This is China’s first step in its march to the distant oceans.

This matter has historic meaning because hitherto the historical and reality perspective of the Chinese elites is “competing for power in the Central Plains”. They have never thought of reaching out from China to the world. Even the concept of “exporting revolution” in the Mao era did not actually gain any foothold overseas; and the focus was merely on “exporting”. After 2000, however, the perception in China started to change. It began reaching out to the world and had put idea into action.

There have been many “emigrants” from China since the Ming Dynasty. Poor farmers along the coast moved to South East Asia and the whole world for survival or to escape persecution. With a total population of close to 100 million, they have established roots locally and are known as “Overseas Chinese” around the world.

In the long stream of history, Chinese competition strategy revolves around resources and interests on the Chinese continent. But in the last 10 years there has been an important conceptual change among the elite class in Beijing and even the general population. It reckons that the survival and fate of China are already highly dependent on the global market and its resources. The national security of China is beyond the concept of defending national territories and the border.

More than 10 years ago, the elites in Beijing have talked about the Strait of Malacca and suggested constructing a canal in southern Thailand. It was a fresh concept among a few people at that time. Now such talks are all over town.

When there were boycotts for the problem in Darfur, Sudan, some perplexed friends asked, “What’s the matter?” Beijing establishing points in Africa has touched the interests of old empires such as Britain and France. These countries have suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem, and that Beijing, working hard to cultivate Africa, is not ruling out the emergence of “Chinese Immigrant Cities” in Africa according to Chinese metropolitan management models. Population is China’s biggest problem but it is also China’s most horrible strength. The rumour that certain countries in the east coast of Africa tend to systematically accept Chinese investment and immigration really touches the nerve of European and American countries. Exporting population is more horrible than exporting revolution.

[Note] Those who are interested in Zheng He (鄭和) and his seven expeditions to the Western Seas can visit http://melaka101.googlepages.com/chengho.htm.

Nature - The Way of the Tao

Cheung Lap had the following article in his Hong Kong Economic Journal column on 25 February 2009.

When the pendulum swings right, it embodies and saves energy to swing to the left. At the highest point in the right, it turns toward the left. It does the same in the left and finally settles in the middle.

Let’s look at breathing. When we breathe in, we embody and save energy to breathe out. When we breathe in to the maximum, we breathe out. The Buddhists say when we breathe in and breathe out, we include the whole world.

Why do the Taoists, the Buddhists and the Confucians interpret the law of “opposite and complementary” from different angles? It is because the person who tries to attain religious virtue understands this rule of the universe through self practice. If the solar system has the process of “formation, solidification, corruption and destruction”, and the earth’s climate has “spring, summer, autumn and winter”, then how can an individual, a race, an empire … escape this rule?

At its peak in the 19^th Century, the British Empire was described as the empire where the sun never set. At the end, the sun set. Upon the collapse of the empire of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, everyone thought that the pendulum of socialism had ended. Little did we know that when the United States became the single most powerful nation that could not be struck, it struck itself and the pendulum of history swung to the opposite direction.

An opposite force is hidden in any kind of force. Many people laugh at the middle way, considering it a useless, regressive philosophy. Little do they know that the vision of the wise men in the past surpassed victory or defeat and extremism, and was a thinking that transcended humanism. If there are reasons for a tree to exist for a hundred years, how can a race that has persevered for a few thousand years, died but is not dead, have nothing outstanding?

In the hundred odd years since the Opium War, the Chinese were struck to the point of silliness. They learned from the Communists and the West, tried this and tried that, until they discovered that the most practicable way was the way of their ancestors.

The Chinese Communist Party got its breath of life only when it returned to Chinese culture. This was the basis of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening. Get rid of any form, destroy any stubbornness, return to the natural state of things and follow “nature, the way of the Tao”. This is the core thinking of the Tao Te Ching.

From My Insult to "Twitter Instructions"

Chojiro recommends anyone interested in writing to read the following essay by Mr Lin Yuet-tsang (練乙錚), Chief Editor of Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ). Before taking up his current position at HKEJ, Mr Lin served as consultant of the Central Policy Unit (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government) and lecturer on economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

I discussed language learning on weekends in the last month or so. The last two topics were, respectively, reading extensively and reading intensively. Today, I would like to talk about writing.

Writing is difficult. From 1985, I began my life in professional economic research. At the end of the year, I submitted my first paper, written without any direction from instructors to the American Economic Review (AER) for assessment. Thereafter, I spent almost two years arguing with three reviewers. The paper was finally accepted, but the editor-in-chief asked me to revise my essay according to the instruction of the last reviewer. The reviewer had this comment: “This guy absolutely does not know how to write. Redundancies in the essay have no relevance to the theme. I suggest deleting eighty percent of the essay before publishing it.” I was not convinced, but I could not say anything. The long, twenty odd page paper was reduced to six pages on publication. However, I calmed down after the essay was published. Looking at it again, I realized that shorter was better. In scientific research, the essence should be conveyed in fewer words.

I loved writing since middle school. I wrote diaries, journals, stories, essays and “poems” at will. Among all my classmates at school, I was the one who used up my essay pad soonest. Mass production did not assure high quality. In terms of content, I often imitated those ex-curricula books I read. They were filled with misused words. The more I wrote, the more mistakes I made. The teacher shook his head reading them. Later I knew quantity was important. As in reading, apart from reading intensively, you have to write extensively. The training I gave myself in Form 3 was to write extensively. It was at senior high school that I became consciously aware of the need to practice writing intensively apart from writing extensively. My English teacher in Form 4 was an Irish priest. He knew very well how to teach writing, and he was wholeheartedly at it. We had to submit essays to him at 9 o’clock in the morning twice a week . He was able to correct and return all our work to us before recess at 11 o’clock. There were comments in red ink all over the place. He not only corrected your mistakes, he gave you ideas on improvement. For those sentences and paragraphs that were really bad and could not be revised, he would ask you to rewrite them. After revision he would fix your work again. We had to copy the sentences corrected by him one more time for him to see. Students would be naturally active with an energetic teacher like that. I dedicated myself to writing intensively that year. Gradually, I learned that you have to “plan and organize” when you write essays.

Although I majored in mathematics and science in university, I did not give up writing. I took two courses in writing and I was especially impressed by what I learned in the second course. We mainly learned how to write sentences during the ten weeks. From easy ones to hard ones, we made various kinds of sentences. The professor gave a topic in class, and the students wrote their sentences immediately. The sentences were then copied on the blackboard for everyone to criticize, with the professor giving his opinion at the end. Those were small class instructions. In every class you could only write three or four sentences and critique on one or two. It did not seem economical but it was really good training. (Readers who are interested can try writing a sentence to describe the style, movement, sight and sound of the tonearm of a long-play record moving into the centre track after the record has been played.)

You apply what you learn. I learned writing intermittently for many years. What I had learned became useful right after my graduation from university. I returned to Hong Kong in 1972 and taught at a secondary school. In my spare time I started a biweekly for secondary school students with my friends. The contents were healthy and righteous. They promoted understanding China and caring about society. Each issue had more than ten pages. The diverse contents included literature, scientific and technological knowledge, movie reviews, jokes, interviews, examination tips etc. Literally everything was covered. At first there were many contributors but later most of the essays were “contracted” by several amateur editors like me. We used different pen names. Each of us wrote several thousand words per issue and we never failed to publish one. We struggled for seven or eight years that way until the publication exhausted its resources. Writing in those several years was not only extensive and intensive, it was desperate. One or two days before each issue was published, everyone would crowd in the typesetting company, revising while writing to meet the “deadline” which kept being extended. This was really another kind of training. Even so, I received that AER “insult” later. It shows that writing, to me at least, is so difficult.

Over the years, I have come to realize that writing, as in reading, can be differentiated along the lines of “extensive” and “intensive”, the two being complementary to each other. And the most important foundation to writing itself is reading – extensive reading and intensive reading. Only with extensive reading can one write extensively. Only by making an effort on the word “extensive” will one have rich thoughts for composition and smooth writing skills. Similarly, only through intensive reading can one write intensively. Only by grabbing the word “intensive” will one’s essay be clear and logical with precise expressions as well as elegant and tight structure.

I have heard from friends in the education sector that the younger generation have no interest in writing and seldom write on their own. I dare not agree. In the information age, communications among teenagers have increased markedly and there are more, rather than less, opportunities for using the written language. Young people either set up and host their own blogs or chat at cybercafés; or they compose short messages with their mobile phone or introduce themselves and update the contents daily on Facebook. These are writing activities. The only thing is the writing training provided in many schools has not adequately attended to or made use of these new modes of writing.

How do we make use of electronic media to nurture the writing ability of students? Let me give an example. Recently the most “trendy” medium of communication is “Twitter”. Young people get on the web with their mobile phone only to tell fellow twitters what they are doing. Each “Twitter” piece is limited to 140 words. In language usage, one less word means one higher level of difficulty. Why don’t teachers try exploring with their students in class techniques of expressing oneself using 140 words? Isn’t this kind of training similar to that I have experienced in university? Actually, youngsters nowadays have strong interest in composing and expressing with words. What they are lacking are technique, content, and the means of upgrading themselves on a simple basis. Why don’t educationists write on developing this interest?

Above are my ideas for reference only. I have written several times on the topic of language studies since last month. I would like to close this topic with such a suggestion.

Ye Mingchen (葉名琛) and Taiwan Politicians

Here is Chojiro's translation of Cheung Lap’s article published on 18 February 2009.

Ye Mingchen was Governor of Guangdong (廣東) and Guangxi (廣西) at the time of the Second Opium War. When the British army approached the city of Guangzhou (廣州), Ye asked for fortune from the mythical Taoist god Lǚ Dòngbīn (呂洞賓, also known as 呂祖) using the Fuji (扶乩) method. He was instructed to place on the wall of the city chamber pots, which could defend against the British cannons. There is no need to ask about the result, and this has become a big joke in contemporary history. People like Ye could be Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. The Qing Dynasty was corrupt to the bone. Rather, the farmers from 108 villages in Sanyuanli (三元里) inflicted considerable losses on the British forces using primitive weapons.

Ye Mingchen was superstitious. He believed that “the Brits would withdraw in a hundred days.” In defense of Guangzhou, he proposed the “six nots”: “he would not fight, not make peace and not defend; he would not die, not capitulate and not run away.” The city of Guangzhou fell within hours.

Ye made me think of the politicians in Taiwan. The historical background and circumstances are different, but these people make me laugh all the same. Take Mr Bian. He did not declare independence for Taiwan when he was president and wielded power for eight years. However, he trumpets the concept of Taiwan independence when he is imprisoned and cannot even exit the front door. As an ordinary citizen, I really fail to understand. It is as if a person remains single while at home but wants to get married and have a child when he has shaved his head and become a monk. People will think you are crazy.

Also President Ma Yingjeou. When I read about Ye’s six nots, I immediately thought of Ma’s policy of “no unification, no independence and no war.” How similar.

When the British forces were outside the city and about to attack, there were only four choices: “fight, make peace, surrender or run.” There were no options such as “not fight, not make peace and not defend.” For today’s Taiwan, you either unify or separate. There is no middle way. As a political leader, if you don’t set the direction and only talk about a holding position, you are merely presiding over a side government, letting the days go by and be marginalized.

The fact Mr Bian grabbed money when he was president and publicized ideals when he became a prisoner shows that Taiwan independence is a “false agenda”.

Naturally, senior Qing official Ye Mingchen was defeated easily when he replaced defense with Fuji in front of a strong enemy. For Taiwan today, people in and out of government talk rubbish. When there is really a war, it could be like Ye Mingchen defending Guangzhou.