Journal of James's Journey with Jesus

Legend of the Condor Heroes

Recently, I've been hopelessly addicted to The Legend of The Condor Heroes, which is the prequel to The Return of The Condor Heroes. Currently showing on Channel U, this drama series is about the life story of Guo Jing, Huang Rong,Yang Kang and his wife Mu Nian Ci.

Well, I never expected to like this show as much as I do now. There seems to be more remakes of its sequel so I naturally thought it had a lousier plot and boring storyline. But my mom had bought the DVD box set and I am pretty idle nowadays.

I have spent 15 hours in a single day just putting in disc after disc, honouring the couch potato code dilligently. After watching this show, I am in awe of Chinese history, culture and its novelists.

In my opinion, there cannot possibly be any novelist in this world who is greater than Jin Yong. His stories have such good storylines and it shows the good and the dark side of human psychology. It's like a cross between a Marvel comic book and the Harry Potter series.

The personality of the characters are so well-defined you can relate to them and even believe they are not a work of fiction. Of course, this remake consisted of a stellar cast that brought the production to a higher level.

First, I am so impressed with the charismatic acting of Ariel Lin Yi Chen. She managed to pull off Huang Rong's adorable, intelligent and cunning personality naturally. She made the character of Huang Rong so alive and bubbly. I am so infected with post-drama infatuation.

Secondly, I am amazed by our very own MediaCorp host Guo Liang's acting skills. Whoever said we don't have good actors in Singapore will surely eat their words after watching him act as Jurchen Jin prince Wan Yan Hong Lie in the show. I am so proud of him. I never expected him to act so well as he mainly hosted game shows or programs on television.

When I was in Secondary 4, I had the good fortune of being on a Chinese reality program called Kinergy. It was an Amazing Race spin-off and we had him as host. I was already impressed with his command of the Chinese language then.

But more than the actors and actresses, I was infatuated with this show because of its moral values. It showed a world which held its hope in good and chivalry. It encompassed good traditional Chinese values like patroitism, integrity and keeping promises.

It also dismissed moral dilemmas on revenge and killing evil people. In the world of martial arts or the jiang hu scene, it showed how different practitioners had different values. Some abused their strength while some used their skills to contribute to their world.

The good showed mercy even to the evil; they knew it was not their call to decide who lives or dies unless they were doing a lot of harm unto others. They led simple lives and tried to contribute to greater good any way they could. How I wished I lived carefree days like theirs.

It made me proud to be Chinese and also remorseful that I have not had the dilligence and passion to find out more about my heritage. If only I had better and more Chinese influences, maybe I would have been more interested in Chinese culture and language.

On Life and How We Always Seem To Shortchange Ourselves

Since I was young, I always had nagging thoughts in my head. This world and our human systems never made full sense to me. Bear with me as I share my childish thoughts on the things I cannot change but hoped I could. Perhaps, things should even remain unchanged as they are.

I had always wished that I could live in the era when the Legend of the Condor Heroes is set in. Or even earlier times. I just feel that their way of life is just so simple but yet beautiful. What we defined as primitive might actually have been a better lifestyle for us.

We would have more time to appreciate the beauty of life and lead fuller, deeper lives. But in our quest for comfort and better living conditions, we seem to have become more shallow and discontent. Humans constantly try to change their world for the better but we always seem to suffer more from its side effects than gain from its benefits.

Whereas our ancestors lived in rural places and were self sufficient, we now live in our modern homes connected to the world in so many ways. But because of this, we have gotten so dependent on the world and the systems put in place.

We trust education to equip us with the ability to get a job in the future. Everyone is forced to study almost the same subjects up to secondary school level. We then head on to our Institutes of Technical Education, Polytechnics or Junior Colleges.

The rat race begins from the moment we are born. Some parents try to equip their children with skills and knowledge by sending them to Montessori, music classes, art classes, acting classes, tuition and other things. The rich and intelligent ones usually win in this contest.

Don't get me wrong; I am not jealous of fortunate children or disapproving of enrichment classes. I just feel sad and sympathetic for the 'dumb', 'poor' bloke who cannot survive in our fast-paced and competitive society no matter how hard he tries. Nature has not endowed him with intelligence or skill and his parents were unable to provide a better environment for learning.

I feel that our society is too harsh a climate for the poorly educated to survive. In our present time, it seems like having a bachelor's degree just barely suffices. I just pity those people who are in ITE and have to study like a buffalo for many years to get a decent job. I'm sick of studying and I feel we have a very discouraging education system in Singapore.

If we had only valued passion as the only requirement for excellence, perhaps we would have had more Thomas Edisons in this world. If we gave people more chances to apply themselves to subjects they liked, they might have found their niche.

After all, Thomas Edison was able to find the right material for the filament of the light bulb not because he was a great scientist. He just kept trying because he had a passion burning in him.

I am not trying to downplay the importance of education. Rather, I am trying to move the emphasis of education from a structured system to a laissez faire system whereby we literally let nature take its course. Trial and error is after all the mother of success. Let's just agree that success has more than one parent, shall we?

But as it is, the education system is strict, inflexible and shallow. Instead of grading youths so quickly, should we not let them try out things they might not be good at? Our Singaporean culture of 'sticking to what you're good at' is very damaging to the spirit of discovery.

You will never discover your strengths until you try everything out. A stroke of brillance is not only attributed to intelligence, but also dilligence and chance. Primary and secondary school education should offer a wide variety of subjects for young minds to be immersed in. It's like a taste test where the marks don't matter.

Only when the students have known for themselves what they want to pursue in life can they be happy working in their line of business. Tertiary education should be conducted like an apprenticeship, whereby passionate students learn on the job.

After I've been through internship at an advertising company, I realised I learnt more in the workplace than in school. And more than half of what I learnt in school was unnecessary and not applicable to what I was doing at work.

I just find that this approach would help students appreciate education more. I feel I have gone through most of my primary and secondary studies without applying what I have learnt or knowing what I want to do in life.

Less time wasted in primary and secondary schools will provide more time for students to pursue excellence in an industry. We should specialise in an area of work sooner and waste lesser time on general subjects.

Singaporeans head on to tertiary institutions and their jobs based on how well they performed in their exams. But this process leads them blindfolded into a job and education they might not like or excel in.

For example, those'O' level students with bad grades are usually forced to take engineering as their course of study in polytechnics. By this, we imply that engineers are stupid people who cannot learn or be good in anything else. But can we gurantee that they will be proficient in engineering then?


Just because someone is not good in Languages, Math, Science and Humanities does not mean he will generally be unable to cope in generally any industry besides engineering. And it's pretty obvious we seem to disregard art, music or technical skills as areas to develop a career in. Have we given weaker students enough time and opportunities to suceed in subjects they are passionate about?

We have become so shallow in pursuit of our studies. Our common goal of doing well in academic studies has left us little time to pursue hobbies and life skills. Nothing else seems more important to us than education.

Do you know how to cook or tend a garden? Would you survive if you got lost in a jungle for a month? Do you know how to build a raft or make a fire? Would you know how to fish if I handed you a fishing rod? It's ridiculously funny that many Singaporeans today tell me that their only hobby is sleeping.

We talk about job creation but there will always be a shortage of jobs, especially in popular industries. And as we multiply in numbers, this crisis will seem ever more real and primary. We should not look down on primary or secondary economic sectors.

If everyone is being primed to work in an office, who will be the farmer or the fisherman? Who will be left to assume the job of the steel maker or automechanic? We seem to have left these 'menial' jobs to poorer countries and exploit them by paying little money for their huge efforts.

Beyond excellence in skill and knowledge in an industry, I believe diligence should be the prime factor for survival in a society.

We pay the construction worker meagre pay even though what he does is crucial to the infrastructure of a country. He exerts more physical strength than white collar office workers do but is valued lowly for his efforts. Yet, without construction workers, offices could not have been constructed and there would be no white collar office workers.

All this talk brings us to our economic system. Currency was invented because barter trade was inconvenient and usually unfair. But in creating a worldwide economy, we seem to have become its slaves rather than its masters.

While currency is convenient for purchase of goods and services, it seems like we are at the beck and call of our economy. Whenever there's an economic downturn, people get into this financial crisis frenzy that I do not understand. How pathetic are we when we have actually let numbers affect the way we live our lives?

So I'm supposed to feel moody when stock prices are low and good when they are high? I am supposed to feel depressed when unemployment rates are high and good when they are low? If we were self-sufficient farmers, we would not need to buy into the education, employment system and much less the economic system.

Let's not even talk about how unfair it is that currencies of countries differ in strength. Let's say I'm an Indonesian making a transaction with a Singaporean. If it was up for barter, I could have exchanged an apple for an orange.

But because of the difference in currencies, my proverbial apple can now only be exchanged for half an orange from Singapore. And the price of the orange changes every few minutes because of changing currencies. In a way, this system seems more unfair than the barter system. At least for the barter system, I know quite certainly that an apple can be exchanged for an orange.

I don't claim to have an answer to all the questions I'm posing or know the implications of the changes I want to effect. I just feel that maybe life would have been better if humans were not so smart. Our quest to change for the better might have backfired on us, beyond our knowledge or awareness of what is happening.

We seemed to have made everything so complicated that it is so hard to keep track and measure the factors that affect our quality of life. It is almost impossible to calculate whether the pros of a particular invention or change outweigh the cons. While we feel confident that everything is going according to plan, our lives have never seemed more out of control.

Healthcare products and services have improved drastically. Average life expectancy has increased. Modern technology has gone to new frontiers and scientists have made breakthroughs in treatment of diseases and disabilities.

Yet, our immune system seems to have taken quite a shock. We're getting sick more often and scoops of antibiotics are not helping. More people are suffering from new diseases everyday; diseases that are more widespread in our generation than previous ones. Diseases that would not have struck us if we did not try to be smart.

We have concocted dietary supplements, food preservatives, additives, colouring and monosodium glutamate to make food more nutritious and enticing. But we are also suffering from kidney failure, premature hair loss and other diseases unknowingly.

We have invented computers and the television but there are more myopics than before. We have high-quality surround sound systems but more people are getting deaf in our generation.

We use chemicals and hormones to enhance growth of crops and poultry but organic is now the 'in' thing because of swine flu, mad cow disease and avian flu. We will never know whether what we did to better our lives proved to be something more detrimental to our health.

Everything we try to change for the better seems to rear its ugly head back at us. For all our intelligence, we seem inept to solve problems at the root. And our selfishness, greed, indifference and an ever growing lust for comfort and a better life will kill us one day. Being content is the way to live.

I firmly believe that conservation is a waste of time and effort because of our human weaknesses. While conservation tries to preserve the environment, it can only be a long-term solution if the majority of humans actually care about it.

I mean, the earth is getting warmer but we don't really care, do we? We'll never switch off our cars and switch to public transport even if the sun burns our skin. We will just invent better sunblock or install cooler airconditioners.

You know why repeated attempts to stop prostituion, poaching, timbering and the like will always fail? We can't choose a certain part of life or the world to conserve. We're selfish in our quest to satisfy our ever growing greed and materialism without ever caring about the less fortunate.

The less fortunate, in turn, do what they can to survive, even though they know what they do is deemed illegal and unethical. He'll rather the animal be extinct, the girl be enslaved and the great oaks desecrated than he meet an early demise. But when they touch something close to our hearts, we call them barabarians. Is that fair?

If the world is to be salvaged, it will only be achieved through united efforts to ensure justice and equality for every country, tribe and faction. Sympathetic apathy will not work.