kyrgyzstan

For the past couple years we've been sponsoring an international university in Kyrgyzstan through a Christian foundation. I decided to pay an explorative visit to the country and the university while in Taipei.

A straight line flight from Taipei to Kyrgyzstan (3000 miles) would include an overnight stop-over in China that required Chinese visa which I didn't have, so I opted for an alternative route that took me off Taipei in early morning, stopped by Seoul for a couple hours, then a 7-hour beeline to Almaty, Kazakhstan, then a short hour flight to Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, before a driver and two students from the university picked me up at the airport and took me for a one-and-a-half hour drive to the town of my destination, Tokmok, while the night was still young.

To most people--me included--Kyrgyzstan is probably just one of those hard-to-spell "-stan" countries in the middle of nowhere Euro-Asia landmass. Indeed it is first of those "-stan" countries sprawling west of China (Kazakhstan to its north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest), occupying a key section of the ancient international highway called Silk Road, carrying a mixed-bag of cultural and historical heritage spanning millennia, as ancient civilizations ebbed and flew, East and West met and left, at the heart of the Eurasian continent.

Take two ancient ruins I visited for examples: Suyab (碎葉) was once the principal capital of Western Turkic Khaganate (西突厥汗國) who got defeated by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty (唐太宗), and the rumored birthplace of the famous Chinese poet 李白; Burana Tower was one of the oldest architectural construction (a minaret) in Central Asia, situated in the old capital of yet another Khaganate established by people of Iranian origin.

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People here still call Chinese "Khitan" (契丹) because that Chinese ethnic group came and established the Western Liao Dynasty (西遼王朝) and ruled them for 100 years during the 12-13th century.

After some unsuccessful rebellions against Qing Dynasty by Chinese Muslims living in northwest China (陝甘回亂) in late 19th century, many of them chose to emigrate to Kyrgyzstan and other parts of Central Asia, whose descendants are now called Dungan ( 東干，東甘 ，甘肅東部 ) people, with whom you can carry on simple conversations in modern Chinese without much trouble.

Around the same time, a group of German speaking Mennonite Christians migrated from Europe to the northeast of Kyrgyzstan to escape religious persecution from the Catholic and other Reformed churches.

And tens of thousands of Korean families living in Russian Far East were force-moved by Stalin to this part of the world for fear of them being used as Japanese spies pre-World War II era.

Economically speaking, Kyrgyzstan is a poor country. It has few natural resources other than some minerals and water from the high mountains. Whatever little manufacturing industry it had collapsed after the Soviet Union breakup, and agriculture remains a major contributor to the country's GDP. Indeed I had tasted great delicious beet soup and potato mash, devoured biggest shish-kabobs ever, and crossed path with horse and cow herds on country roads.

I spent my 9-day stay at the Christian foundation's office-residential building rather than a hotel. It was a small two-story complex with nice meeting hall and homey kitchen, among other things, and a staff of capable and devoted Kyrgyz Christians who have done many great charitable works in a Muslim country for the past 18 years. I gave thanks to each of them and shared my spiritual journey with them in their daily morning devotion on the day I left.

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Crossing path with horses:

https://youtu.be/ENbEoYjrFcc

For more photos and trip details: 

https://www.facebook.com/cdwongx/media_set?set=a.10220522230190907&type=3  

palindrome, semordnilap, etc.

Palindromes are words that read the same backwards as they do forwards. For example: racecar, kayak.

It can be a sentence too, like
Madam, I'm Adam.
Never odd or even.
Marge lets Norah see Sharon’s telegram.
Able was I ere I saw Elba. (A fictive saying by Napoleon as he was being exiled to the island of Elba)

It can be long:
Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.

Extraordinarily long:
Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen sinned.

It can also be numerical, like those we use to keep dates. For example, these particular ones we just used for the past few days in September:

9-10-19 (September 10, 2019)
9-11-19
9-12-19
   .
   .
9-19-19

all mean the same whether read from left to right or right to left.

If you have picked November 11, 2011 (11-11-11) for your wedding date, there is really not much room for excuses for forgetting your anniversaries.

Legend has it that the famous Charles Bridge at Prague, Czech Republic was laid its first stone at 5:31 AM on 9th of July, 1357 by its superstitious namesake Holy Roman Emperor who believed such symmetrical, palindromic number (1357 9, 7 5:31) would bring extra strength to the bridge.

I always thought if these two big name companies, Adidas adding an "s", Toyota adding an "a" to the front of their names:

Adidas --> Sadidas
Toyota --> Atoyota

Then they both become palindromic, bringing additional fun to their marketing, maybe.

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In the case when reversing the letters of a word makes it a different one, it is called a semordnilap. (Notice semordnilap is the exact reverse spelling of the word palindromes) 

For example,

"desserts" spelled backwards makes "stressed"

"diaper" becomes "repaid"

“deliver no evil” becomes "live on reviled"  

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Look at the word SWIMS. Turn your head upside down. It still spells SWIMS! Such word is called an ambigram.

In many cases ambigrams are artistic designs that retain their meaning when viewed or interpreted from a different direction, perspective, or orientation. 

For example,

  

is a mirror image of the word wiki

 

conveys the idea of light being both a wave and a particle

 

is a mirror and rotational ambigram of an arithmetic operation illustrating the commutative property of 2+1+5=8

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Portmanteaus are the blending of two words into one to create a meaning for a singular concept. Words like brunch (breakfast lunch), motel (motor hotel) are among the most commonly used in our everyday vocabulary.

It can apply to people: Celebrity couple’s names such as Brangelina for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Kimye for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Places: New York City neighborhoods like Soho (South of Houston Street) and Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street); Mexico-California border cities such as Calexico and Mexicali; and a descriptive one like Hotlanta that says much about the temperature of Atlanta, Georgia. ‌‌

Internet: Webinar is a web seminar; malware is malicious software; emoticons are emotions expressed in icon form; and netiquette is a guide to how netizens (net citizens) should behave on the internet. 

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Can't end this without sharing some Chinese word play fun as well, like this one you might find on a tea cup:

可以清心也 (soothe my soul it certainly can)  

Expanding it into a matrix:

可以清心也 (soothe my soul it certainly can)
以清心也可 (can be used to soothe my soul)
清心也可以 (soothe my soul it might as well do)
心也可以清 (hence my soul be soothed)

也可以清心 (might soothe my soul as well)  

Notice each character takes turn leading a sentence, producing a slightly different but totally legitimate and meaningful sentence each time. And this is a symmetrical set: you can read not only left to right, row by row, but also top to bottom, column by column, and get meaningful sentences each time.

A bad-ass all-in-one palindrome, semordnilap, and ambigram in its own right, don't you agree?

As for the portmanteau: A good portion of Chinese characters are by design portmanteaus already. Take the character 清 in these sentences as an example: It is a combination of water氵 and deep blue 青, therefore means "clear (with water)", transcended to mean spiritual cleansing, soul soothing here.

Fun fun fun words!

singing group

Singing in my opinion is one perfect example of how body and mind work closely together: First you "imagine" the note you want to sing--how high the pitch, how great the volume, what sound to make--then you open your mouth, strain your vocal cord, lift your abdomen (if you are doing it right) or chest (if not), and out comes that sound you intended...

You then need to be "confident" and "persistent" with your utterance, so you can stay the course and not easily get off-keyed or swayed over to other harmonic parts of the song that are being sung by your fellow singers. 

Not that you should mental-block your fellow singers' voices, quite the opposite, you need to listen closely to them all the time, for their harmonics, so you can blend in yours, and for the rise and fall, twist and turn of the melody, so you can vest your emotions in.

If, as they say, when doing meditation, you imagine your mind like a steady river, letting go all the disruptive thoughts and noises like boats floating by, then when singing, it's like that river packs and flows all your thoughts and feelings up and away to the far far land of no return... 

I have joined a few choir or chorus groups off and on through the years. This most recent one my wife dragged me into joining over a year ago is made up of a group of 20+ people, men and women about my age or older, veteran and half-baked singers like myself, from all over Orange County.

I like the songs the group picks to sing: be it English, Chinese, Taiwanese or Hakka (a minority dialect in Taiwan), spiritual, classical, folksy or pop... all are melodically and harmonically rich and beautiful; the fact we have some veteran pitch perfect "big brother" singers singing next to me boosts up my confidence (and covers up my faults); and a cheery, always smiley sweet lady conductor that patiently nudges us on like kids in school... all make the weekly two and a half hour practices go fast and easy.

Here are some video recordings of a recent performance we did at an event commemorating the many great foreign missionaries and the work they did in Taiwan to share with you:

A spiritual--also the official--song of the group, in English
https://youtu.be/8Y7j-FNHOhc

A song in Hakka, about a legendary old tree and the tale surrounding it
https://youtu.be/a01Ba7C-OCk

A poetic "fisherman's song" in Mandarin Chinese
https://youtu.be/rxE6Wq_qTIc

A song in Taiwanese, based on a poem by George MacKay, a Canadian missionary who came to Taiwan in 1871 and devoted the rest of his life (30 years) there
https://youtu.be/a-VHahEwpYY

A jolly folksy tune in Taiwanese about an old man trying having fun riding a bicycle around town with a bumpy ending  

https://youtu.be/98WkM06BKS4

Hope you have spotted me but not heard my voices 

meetup groups

A meetup group is an online creation. If you feel like doing something with a group of like minded people--be it outdoor activities, intellectual discussions, business networking, skill learning, etc., one thing you can do is go online to the website meetup.com, and you will find scores of groups under all the above categories in your geographical area for you to pick and choose and join (and if you can't find any you like, you can create one yourself and hope others will join you) for the activities you desire.

I have on record joined over 20 meetup groups in the past 4-5 years. Most of them have gone dormant either because the group organizers stop holding events, or I lose interest or can no longer attend (e.g., those I signed up when I was in Taiwan). But here are a few I still remain active:

THINK was originally founded by a Christian seeking intellectual honesty in San Jose and now has chapters in many cities. It is a place for "people who want to engage more critically with their faith and those who have no faith but are interested in Christian theology and want to know whether it, or religious thought more generally, can be reconciled with modern science and philosophy." True to its "mission statement", topics we have covered in our monthly meetups include

Let's discuss logical fallacies -- Learn how to avoid types of reasoning that are seductive but logically flawed

Let's discuss physics and theology -- From quantum mechanics to the Big Bang the 20th century changed how humans view the physical world, are we finally getting close to discovering a "theory of everything"?

Let's discuss cafeteria religion -- Many people belong to a church or other religious group without accepting all the group's teachings. Why might someone take this "cafeteria" approach to faith and religion? Is the approach intellectually defensible? 

How should I live? Three Chinese philosophers' answers -- Mozi 墨子 promoted "impartial care"; Mengzi 孟子, a follower of Confucius, taught that people are born with "sprouts" of goodness inside them and can become good by "extending" those sprouts; and Xunzi 荀子, another Confucian, asserted that humans are born selfish but can become good through practice

Why I believe what I believe -- A 7-part series presented by members who are atheist, agnostic, non-scriptural monotheist, Christian, ex-Christian, returning Christian...

Last Supper with XXX -- Similar to the "Why I believe" series, except the speakers are from the outside community whose perspectives and experiences may differ from those of most of THINK's members, and if we don't like what the guests have to say, then it's their last supper! :)

Our group organizer, Joseph, is a young community college philosophy professor, who picks the topics, provides supporting materials, and arbitrates the discussions with full knowledge, incisive views, and gentle manners. One key reason I think why this group has been successful and I enjoy attending it.

As for the group members, they run the gamut: We have Reba--an inquisitive Muslim woman--and Akbar--a composed Muslim businessman; Phil, a pharmacist and ex-Catholic who hosts a web forum for fact-belief debate; Caleb, a high school teacher whose knowledge and deep understanding of theology and philosophy amazes me; Dave, a gentle old man who often acts as a Christianity apologist even though he personally had been wronged by the church in his long journey of faith; and Rhett, an energetic, big-hearted man who became a born-again Christian in college, went to theological school, served at the church, then left and re-converted to an agnostic atheist and staunch humanist.

Forum for Humanist Association of Orange County is a chapter of American Humanist Association that focuses on the philosophy of secular humanism. It has often invited guest speakers (scholars, book authors, government officials) to address serious issues such as climate change, Mueller report, community relations development, or has its own members or those from sister organizations promote volunteer work (food bank, beach cleaning), social justice movement (poor people's campaign), etc., in addition to intellectual discussions on interesting concepts and ideas such as universal basic income, golden rule for humanism, etc.

Beginner's Practical Philosophy is a group I joined relatively recently in April, and was immediately drawn by its discussion topic ("How do scientists and artists make creative discoveries"), format (chatty discussions around tiny patio table under mid-morning sun), and the host, Richard, a retired ER surgeon doctor with whom I share very similar world views despite our very different backgrounds.

The group is now merged with another larger, older (14 years) "philosophy cafe" group led by a retired philosophy professor/minister and will focus their discussion on Existentialism starting September.

1 Million Cups has become my favorite and most regularly attended meetup group in the past 3 months even though I had joined it more than 2 years ago. It is a country wide public forum sponsored by a philanthropic foundation (Kauffman Foundation), Starbucks, who provides free coffee, and UC Irvine, who provides the venue, to help entrepreneurs and innovative businesses engage with local mentors, advisers, business people, and fellow entrepreneurs.

On every early Wednesday morning, one or two entrepreneurs from startup or early stage companies step forward to present their business or concept to the audience, who--after doing some round table discussions among themselves--give their feedback, questions, suggestions and referrals to the presenters. It then follows with a free-for-all, pick-whomever-you-like-to-talk-to hour long mixer session before the place is closed.

What I find most satisfying, besides hearing interesting startup ideas every week, is getting to know and bond with people of various backgrounds, such as

Rob, the owner of a 400-property real estate transaction and management company looking for good "PropTech" app for his business

Babak, a retired ophthalmologist screening for startup investment opportunities for his business network group

Cindy has a firm specializing in legal and intellectual property affairs for startup companies

Dan is developing a 3-D, holographic rendition software for big board advertisement while negotiating with a major web hosting company to sell the mail server business he's been holding on since the Linux days 

Josh is building gear that monitors eye movement and brain wave to predict viewer preference for independent TV series studios

Liam is a local boy and newly graduate from an east coast university developing an event scheduling, life style app with a developer partner

Wolfgang is a German industrial designer who travels between offices here and Paris

RJ is a marketing consultant fine-tuning a social media platform targeting non-profit organizations he has been developing for the past 18 months since I first talked to him

We come, we meet, we connect... May the world be better for it!

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​One day Dan brought his daughter to the meetup, who was also entrepreneurial spirited and just started selling her own doggie cookies online. I tried the cookie she showed me and became one of her doggie food's first human consumers (after her father).

book group

Though I love reading, I have never joined a book club or the sort. But then I heard there's a book group at a library in Irvine that meets once a week, one short story at a time, section by section discussion per meeting... that seemed to fit my liking, so I went, and have been going there for 8 consecutive weeks so far.

A short story is a challenging read as it is a challenging write for the writer. To tell a compelling story in the shortest stretch possible (typically between 10-20 pages), the author weaves it with tight sentences, power words, witty remarks, nuanced descriptions, twisted plots or interesting turn of events that capture your attention but require more efforts to follow than a plain-talking non-fiction book would.

And even after you have got all the words and expressions, syntax and semantics figured out, you only get half the story of what the author wants to convey... Those clues, metaphors, hidden meanings, etc., only get revealed during the section by section discussion when our discussion facilitator poses questions and we respond and ask our own questions and share our own thoughts... Then at the end of the two-hour session we suddenly realize how much more we have got out of the story than when we first read it by ourselves!

There are about 6 or 7 regular attendees to the meeting besides our discussion facilitator Doug, a thin, tall gentleman in his 70's who has been leading book groups like this and teaching English literature for years. Kathy has a well rounded reading voice and a perceptive mind; Cris is a fun loving lady who sometimes burst out laughing when reading a part of the story that seems so funny to her; Merrie is light speaking and articulate (they all are!); Marcy is a sharp Jewish lady who doesn't always read the story beforehand but can get the hang of it right as the story proceeds; Charles is analytical and inquisitive; Bob is a retired school principal with many interesting life stories to share; and for a couple weeks Frank is this neat, gentle, and relatively quiet guy who lives in a homeless shelter sitting right next to me.

The short stories we read are from the "Best American Short Stories" book series, a yearly collections of notable works from hundreds of periodicals selected by reputable editors per year. This particular one we are reading is from year 2006. ​The stories we have read so far include

Secret: An adolescent girl's coming of age story with hippie parents and some outsider kids in the 1960's

Dominion: The confusing, mythical fear of death in an old man's mind exemplified in real world as the hounding coyotes surrounding a pond and a country house, all cleared up in one fell swoop by his no-nonsense wife

So Much for Artemis: The frustrating story of a laid-off NASA engineer at the end of Space Age seen from his son's eyes

Self-Reliance: A rich reflection and surreal depiction of the life and death of a retired doctor who learned of her terminal cancer and decided to end her life her own way

Tattooizm: A dreamy, rootless young woman with an aspiring tattoo artist boy friend who she plans to dump but ends up having a "souvenir" non-tattoo done on her thigh

The Dog: Set in contemporary China, the story between a Beijing couple and their rural relatives and an outlawed fight dog exposes the conflicts the economic prosperity brings to the old communist social orders

After a Life: A touching story, also backgrounded in contemporary Beijing, on love and hope, lost and rebirthed, between couples and parents-children

How We Avenge the Blums: A somehow comical but realistic story on anti-Semitism that happened in suburban Long Island in the 1980's 

Can't wait to read the next story and for the next discussion!

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interfaith meditation walk

I felt America was so great again I went to an interfaith interdependence walking meditation to celebrate its independence day on 4th of July.

The event was held at a lake park just north of downtown LA. I met and picked up Grace--one of my fellow "Club Med" weekly meditation group friends in San Clemente--and her husband Kris at a local Costco parking lot and headed north.

If you want to experience what perfect traffic on LA freeway is like, pick 4th of July to drive. No stop-and-go, crawling or tailgate hugging, not even a single slowdown, but smooth-as-silk driving all the way, reaching our destination 60 miles away in less than 50 minutes that could take an hour and a half during normal weekday rush hour.

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We took a quick tour around this busy community park before the event started. Lots of people jogging, strolling, fishing around an elegant, curvy, placid lake, sufficed with a red bridge, white lotus, and a tall fountain at the center.

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About 20 people (that grew to about 30 as we proceeded) gathered when the procession started. Led by a couple of young ministers of the event's organizer, the Interfaith Ministry of Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, we walked along the lake in silence, stopping every few minutes at a "religion station", where a representative from said faith shared the essence of their belief or their personal take on it.

The Hindu station referenced Mahatma Gandhi's effort and skill in achieving justice while building harmonious relationships among people in community.

The Christian station cited the New Testament's metaphor of eyes, hands, heart and mind serving in harmony within one body of Christ, recognizing that all components of the body are needed for health and vitality.

The Jewish station, represented by a young Lecturer and "Diversity Consultant for Organic Communication" at UCLA, relayed the story in the Torah that finds the people of Israel dwelling in community, with tents respecting individual space, yet arranged to be part of the unified whole.

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At the Islamic station, a young woman shared her heart-touching understanding of the teaching from an Islamic sage "Ask questions, not to find fault, but to understand" that helps her practice a life of true loving that pleases God.

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The Sikh station pointed out their long standing tradition of providing generous hospitality that is currently exemplified by their daily feeding of 14,000 refugees at the Syrian border.

And the Buddhist, the Humanist, the Baha'i stations...

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After circling the lake and all 8 stations, a casual refreshments and mingle session was held at the indoor center for those who opted to stay. We each shared briefly our background and reflection on today's event. Two of them registered in my mind in particular:

A humanist/atheist: "Surveys consistently show we atheists are the most despised people in the US... even though our humanist beliefs dictate us to live by high ethical and moral standards... It looks to me our only hope of reconciliation with the religious people will have to go through progressives like those of you I see here today."

A mother who brought her two young children (one in a stroller) to the walk: "Though I left my Christian faith then later came back to the church myself, I want to bring my children to environments like this so they can see, feel and smell the air of diversity for themselves as they grow."

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The drive back home was smooth as well, ignoring the fact that there were more cars on the freeway and a wayward mini van almost grazed me by the side. We stopped by a fusion (or should I say "inter-culinary") restaurant in Aliso Viejo for a late lunch, where I had a delicious Ahi tuna salad and Grace and Kris had their favorite steak sandwiches.

It would have been a perfect driving day for me if I did not make a wrong turn at our final freeway exit, forgetting we were to return to the Costco parking lot not my home. But like a little aberration in life can only deter but not detour us from getting where we want to go if we know where we want to go, a swift U-turn at next light got us back on the right direction again and I delivered my two most pleasant companions of the day to their cute Mini at the Costco parking lot safe and sound!

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“We're all just walking each other home.”

― Ram Dass    

​At the Buddhist station, Marianne, born in Hawaii when it was still a US Territory, celebrated her 90th birthday with us all

  

ecuador, peru

Our recent South American adventure took us from an Andes Mountains high city (Quito), down to the Amazon rainforest, up to an Inca holy site (Machu Picchu), then to the capitals of old Inca (Cusco) and New Spain's (Lima), by plane, train, bus, canoe and hiking boots, all in 11 days.

Quito is the pleasant capital city of Ecuador. Its high altitude (9350 ft) probably contributes to the bluer skies, brighter sunshine, and fresher air we experienced, and its geographical spread on the hilly sides of a canyon made the long drives in the city scenic and tolerable.

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Outside the city we visited the country's namesake, the Equator of the world, where the Earth is scientifically and markedly divided into South and North halves.

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Going east, passing the continental divide we entered the western fringe of the Amazon rainforest, where we anchored ourselves in a cozy lodge by the river, and spent two days learning the indigenous way of life, trying exotic food, hiking and flying through the jungle on a zip line basket, canoeing and rafting and swimming in the river... things I never thought I would have done before I came here.

 

​Going up the 8000-ft high mountains of Machu Picchu--one of the New Seven Wonders of the World--sounded like another indomitable task to me, but in reality it only took a long train ride from a small valley town to an even smaller foothill village, a short bus transfer to the site, then final legwork of no more than 20 minutes of climbing up that strenuous as it might be was no more treacherous than trudging narrow muddy trails in the Amazon jungle.

It was open, serene, panoramic, misty and mystique all around.

In Cusco we watched an Indian shaman perform the old ritual of praying and presenting offerings to their pantheon gods, visited a historical cemetery that houses tens of thousands of deceased behind well decorated glass windows, and a local market flush with colorful fruits and vegetables and rows of eatery booths that offered exotic fruit juice and lamb head potato soup, etc.

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Outside the city, we explored an ancient fortress whose stony structures were mostly destroyed and not much was left to see except for the magnificent view of the city from its lookout point.

With one extra day of our own in Lima, we took to its ocean parks, shopped at a cliff side mall, then sauntered our way back through its busy streets, quiet neighborhoods, leisurely parks... to get a feel of what life in one of the oldest and largest metropolitan cities in the Spanish New World might be, before flying back to our own half of the continent en el norte!

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For more photos and trip details, click on the following (and swipe the photos upward for descriptions):

Quito

Amazon

Machu Picchu

Cusco

Lima