隨筆......

Thursday, 29 Jan 2009

前幾天去了朋友家作客。雖然不是很熟的朋友，但蠻愉快的——謝謝屋主的款待。不過我這裡想說的卻是當天玩的幾個桌上遊戲。

我不算是一個很有經驗的boardgamer，但可以說是很keen的boardgamer。香港人的生活都很忙吧，要兩三個人聚在一起玩桌上遊戲的機會實在不多呢——而且也有空閒時間不喜歡動腦的人。研究桌上遊戲的設計和mechanics卻也很有趣，不時就到boardgamegeek看看。

當天我們玩了三個桌上遊戲——Monopoly、Pictionary、Rummikub。

Monopoly（大富翁）相信很多人都玩過吧。當天慶幸有一個熟悉規則的朋友，大家不至於要玩不倫不類的Monopoly（例如停在免費迫車時可以拿錢、或停在哪裡才可以在哪裡買屋之類的）。不過我今天上網看看2004年度的國際賽官方規則，才發覺還有很多我不為意的規則呢……例如：1)如果有兩人同時想買屋但銀行裡沒有足夠的屋，則以拍賣方式決定；2)賣屋的價錢是買屋的一半；3)贖回抵押時要付10%利息；4)破產時所有屋和酒店要以半價折回現金才交予債主；5)所有錢都要放在桌上讓所有人看見；6)交易只能在自己的回合內，或回合之間進行；7)免費出獄証最多只能賣$50……等等等等。

說實在，我有好幾年沒玩Monopoly了。一是因為眾多的house-rule；但另外也是因為它最主要是一個trading-game。勝利的關鍵是在交易中得到一個profitable的地段群。而問題就在於：1)我缺乏口才；2)有時候會運氣差得行了幾圈只買到一塊地，沒什麼籌碼和人交易（特別是多人玩而又排後尾的時候）；3)如果部份人不太了解任何地段的真正價值，就會便宜了跟他們交易的人，打亂了平衡。

不過我也看到，大家玩Monopoly都好像玩得很開心呢∼玩遊戲追求的就是這個，是嗎？

Pictionary（猜猜畫畫）我們玩的卻是house-rule，就是每一個回合都是全部組一起進行（all-play），且不限時；最快猜到的勝，然後勝利的才能擲骰前行。而Rummikub（魔力橋數字遊戲牌）基本上是一種商品化的Manipulation Rummy——Rummy是一大類樸克牌遊戲的統稱，和中國的麻雀/麻將有相同的源頭，主要是把牌集合成一組組。

Pictionary我蠻喜歡的，但all-play永遠都有「聽到別組在說什麼」的問題。而且因為永遠都是鬥快，沒默契的（或沒empathy的）隊伍有可能一回合都贏不了呢。當然，這也不一定是個大問題。而Rummikub，好玩的地方是它需要邏輯思考，「看看」怎樣才可以把手中的牌和桌面的牌重新排列。但也有不少運氣的成份在內呢——有人可能兩個回合就贏了，但也有可能五個回合也未能排成第一個組。

∼　。　∼

回到之前的問題……是不是玩遊戲追求的就只是要大家玩得開心呢？又，是不是需要追求更好的桌上遊戲呢？對我來說，以上這三個遊戲都很light（輕型）。Pictionary可說是很典型的party game，很快、很熱鬧、有點混亂。Monopoly的appeal我想是因為大家對它很熟悉，很有親切感（特別是它有香港的地名）。Rummikub嘛，或許是因為它新奇，大家很少接觸類似的遊戲。

如果一個像Rummikub的遊戲能在一班年輕中「立足」和「生存」，那麼是不是其他的桌上遊戲也可以呢？是不是就代表其他更好更新的桌上遊戲也可以被介紹給更多的人呢？的確有很多很好的桌上遊戲，但technically superior是不是代表在香港的認受性和所提供的遊戲性和歡樂也是superior呢？

∼　。　∼

桌上遊戲圈子的人把一些遊戲稱為「gateway game」，就是適合介紹給不熟悉桌上遊戲（或只認識像Monopoly和Cluedo這些大眾遊戲）的人的遊戲。

如果要說最經典的gateway game，應該是《Settlers of Catan》(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13)吧。它其實和Monopoly有點類似，都是「資源管理」「建設」和「交易」的遊戲。不過它是在一個地圖上建築城市和道路，根據城市的所在生產資源，再用這些資料建設或和其他人交易。比起Monopoly，我覺得它讓玩家有更多選擇和參與，也有更多的策略和互動。

我其中一個最喜歡的桌上遊戲也是個不錯的gateway game，叫《Carcassonne》(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822)。它很易學，而且可以很competitive、也可以很constructive。基本上每人要輪流拿一張小小的地圖，選擇怎樣把它和桌上的地圖相連，並且把一個「積木人」放在地圖上。這樣，桌上的地圖會越來越大，而積木人就根據所處的地方拿分。我覺得這遊戲的設計既簡潔，又明快，是非常適合所有人玩的遊戲。

其他的如《Alhambra》、《Ticket to Ride》、《Citadels》都是很適合未接觸過桌上遊戲的朋友玩的。又，就算是《Bohnanza》、《Mamma Mia》等其實都可以讓人認識到桌上遊戲的多樣化。而我個人非常喜歡的《Caylus》則可能只適合喜歡micro-management和strategy的朋友了。

我覺得桌上遊戲真的可以帶給人很大的歡樂呢，而雖然朋友聚在一起做什麼都可以很開心，但何妨擴闊一下自己的options，不只停留在Monopoly和Cluedo上呢？

http://www.kennethhon.com/recommend/board/board.html

Sunday, 28 Dec 2008

(I really should be talking about Hokkaido, but for the past few days my mind has been so occupied by the thoughts of how wedding (and the associated marriage rite) as Hong Kong people practised it -- is counter to the idea of a celebration of the love between the bride and the groom.)

We all know that HK is a place where East meets West, with traditions from both sides; but there is no doubt in my mind that we inherited some ridiculous practices along the line. In wedding and marriage rites we are so explicitly bi-cultural, with Western engagement party and Chinese 過大禮, both Chinese and Western wedding ceremony, and the banquet. And we suffer from the dual-personality of the wedding as a inter-personal and inter-familial affair. I myself would not be having my own wedding anytime soon, so I might as well tell you how fed up I am with all this......

I shall remind you that I am not saying these things are all bad per se, just that they do not seem to fit in with the notion of the celebration of Love, which I think wedding and marriage should be about. If you are really a traditionalist, which rate conforming to traditional as your highest priority, and is NOT under the illusion that wedding is mainly a celebration of love between the couple... Be my guest.

∼　。　∼　。　∼

Wedding was so much an inter-familial affair in the traditional Chinese culture that the giving of gifts from the groom's family to the bride's (過大禮) is the formal moment of engagement. If I understand correctly, it is like a deposit -- in one direction is the gifts, and in the other direction is the claim of the bride becoming a member of the groom's family. In a traditional society I guess this makes sense, as the bride most probably would live with the groom's family, or at least in the village of the groom's family.

In our own society, though, this feels ridiculous. In our generation, most couples live on their own. They form a new family, new societal and financial unit. (As in the bible, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.") The bride (nor the groom or any human being) is not a good, to be exchanged for other goods. If you really want to "compensate" the two families respectively for losing their daughter AND son, why not the couple giving gifts to their respective parents, as a form of emancipation, the freeing of oneself from the family?

∼　。　∼　。　∼

On the morning of the wedding, we have the ritual of the groom going to the bride's home to receive or retrieve her (接新娘), which is accompanied by some "challenges" for the groom and groomsmen to overcome. (I have to say this is the part I have most difficulties with; and which in my wildest dreams I hope I shall never be subjected to.) My guess is that this practice was originated from the past where the bride is passively waiting for the groom, guarded by her family, and that 1) the groom has to show his worth in order to convince the family that he is good enough for their daughter; or 2) there are more than one potential groom and they have to compete to show that he is really the best person for bride; or 3) the family do not want their daughter to be taken away and the groom has to "steal" her.

The first thing I have trouble understanding is why the groom has to prove himself. Nowadays, no matter the road to marriage is long or short, it is safe to assume that most people present at this occasion would be in favour of the marriage -- and the bride agrees to it as well. So who is the groom proving himself to? And what is he proving? If what he is proving is his love for the bride, then this is really a bad way of proving it, is it not? This is the beauty and majesty of true love being reduced to the level of a TV game show. If you are not sure of his love, why accept the marriage in the first place?

And the second thing is... is it about humiliation? From what I know, it is. In a sickening way, this is about the groom and groomsmen being humiliated, showing that the groom is willing to endure these in order to marry the bride.

It is hard to think of any situations where humiliation is the right thing to do. We used to have criminals being dragged around the streets for people to throw gabbage at; new students at schools or dormitory instructed to run ridiculous errands; new group members having practical jokes played on them. In countless TV game shows we have guests being humiliated, and somewhere, somehow, someone seems to enjoy watching that.

We really need to look within ourselves, for the sadist inside us, for the way we enjoy watching other people suffer. Not suffering as a punishment for any wrongdoing, but just for being others, being not-ourselves; just pure abuse -- physical abuse or psychological abuse. I cannot even begin to think how wrong this is; how immoral and unChristian. We should be ashamed when we fail to help the people who are suffering; so what should we feel when we orchestrate the suffering of other people, and enjoy it?

And then we make a film about it and show it in the banquet.

∼　。　∼　。　∼

In that part of the video to be shown in the banquet, I guess we are supposed to marvel at how beautiful the bride is, and how much the groom loves the bride. I sometimes wonder what would it be like if we have it the other way round -- if we always show the groom finely groomed and well-dressed, and the bride walking around in pajamas without makeup, being told to go to casueway bay and stand outside Times Square -- just to prove her love? But that is the banquet, and it is more about the ego and the guests' expectations.

I know a lot of wedding banquets in HK are labelled as hosted by the groom's parents. And within that, a number of tables are given to the bride's family. So why are the new couple paying for it? We are so highly constrained by all the people around us. The two families determine how many relatives and friends they want to invite, often not because these people care about the couple, but because it is the diplomatic thing to do, because these people invited them to their own or their children's banquet.

And even the structure is highly constrained by people's expectation. More often than not there are videos and slideshows of photos; and there are entrances and gaps for changing clothes; and there should be certain dishes and not others. And last but not least, it has to be in a Chinese restaurant. So what we usually get are groups of people who do not want to be there, below average food, and being overcharged by the restaurant. Am I the only one who thinks this is just about tradition and expectation and face (面子); and the big ego being satisfied by the fact that so many people come to the banquet?

∼　。　∼　。　∼

Would it not be great if the wedding is a celebration of the love between the bride and the groom? With the couple sharing the joy of their reunion with their love ones; where family and friends come to give the couple their heartfelt blessings? Where they share good food and drink; laugh and sing and shed tears of joy together?

And if you are capable of surviving this dehumanising, impersonal, unromantic and sadistic experience and still feel the love, I applaud you -- and wish you two would live happily ever after.

Tuesday, 9 Dec 2008

今天是Sociology的考試。不知大家考得怎麼樣？記得去年剛入職，最初幾堂的Lecture就是這班Nursing學生的Psychology課。還有接過投訴呢……。六堂Psychology、六堂Sociology，算起來也只是24個小時而已，但卻也像是伴著我成長呢。如果過去一年來，我在教學上有所成長，或許應該要多謝他們。或許沒有機會再教他們了（我只教一二年班的課），或許沒什麼機會再認識他們多一點，但祝他們每一位都前程錦繡呢。期待他們畢業的日子。（又，今天考試上見到很多不太熟悉的面孔……我認人的能力真的那麼差嗎？）

《Principles of Public Health》今天也是最後一堂。MPH的課嘛，我當TA的也只有這個和《Healthy and Society》。聽Professor Hedley的課，是獲益良多；帶學生的小組討論，則有點像crash course。MPH的其他課程不知能不能旁聽？不經不覺地我對public health也有一點的認識了呢，或許真的可以考慮在這方面發展。Social determinants和Health literacy我都很有興趣。

工作上是暫時可以鬆一口氣了。明年的lecture，好像全部都是我已經教過的。不用趕著完成每一份lecture notes，就比較有時間去改善一下它們的quality吧。這幾個星期希望可以花多點時間在office看書。……說起office，過去幾個月有不少的人事調動。兩位說得上是朋友的同事都走了，我也要從新適應吧。

最近好像比平時更sentimental。或許是天氣變冷了吧——有點像英國。很喜歡冷冷的天氣呢，總想唱《White Christmas》。《Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas》也一樣的bittersweet……

P.S.
K just started a new placement, and one of J's family members just passed away... God bless them...

Sunday, 12 Oct 2008

新年和生日，都是很多人作resolution的時候。我的生日也近了，也讓我想一想來年要怎樣改進自己。其實是想 —— 打少點遊戲機、多看點書；少吃一點、多做點運動；少點上facebook、多弄弄自己的網站。

家裡其實有百多本書買了還未看完（或未看過），辦公室裡也有八十本從大學圖書館借來的書。當然有部份只是想作為參考的，但大部份本來都是打算好好從頭到尾讀一讀的。有幾本經典的作品我打算先讀：Ivan Illich的《Medical Nemesis》、Geoffrey Rose的《The Strategy of Preventive Medicine》和Thomas Kuhn的《The Structure of Scientific Revolutions》。最近在辦公室工作得有點悶時，就讀讀《The Selfish Gene》的作者Richard Dawkins的《The Ancestor's Tale》。

說起運動，我也蠻喜歡游水的，但那實際上有點兒麻煩，還要帶著毛巾和?液去泳池。羽毛球也不錯呢，如果能定期的打球就好了。其實只要不坐在家裡，到處走走也是一種運動。順便還可以去拍照呢，不管是郊野還是市區、日出還是日落，攝影最重要的還是眼睛和腦袋，在心中計劃燈光和構圖，把眼前的景物捕捉下來。

不過陪伴著我好幾年了的鏡頭最近又壞了呢。Minolta的AF 24-105mm鏡頭，和上次一樣是對焦的部份壞了。記得上次壞掉時Minolta已經和Konica合拼了……今次甚至連Konica Minolta也退出攝影這行業了。在考慮是不是要買一支Sony的鏡頭呢？我還剩下兩支Minolta鏡頭——一支是50mm、一支是70-210mm，所以最主要還是需要一支基本的變焦鏡頭。Sony的蔡司16-80mm好像是不錯的選擇呢，比起我舊的24-105mm好也說不定，只是有點貴而已……

工作上當然也有不少事情要做。最急切的就是寫好考試的題目吧。不久前才和同事去了一個關於寫multiple-choice questions的workshop，說最要就是題目要符合「cover-the-options test」，就是應該不看選項就說得出答案的。其他要做的還有之後的sociology課。還有下年六月的專業試，已經向上司表明我要應考了……真的要加油呢∼

Tuesday, 15 Sep 2008

今天參加了Joseph和Emmy的婚禮和婚宴。首先當然要恭喜他們吧∼但我本身也有不少感觸。

他們拍了拖八年而結婚……。我也記得我八年前在做些什麼。而我的愛情路或許並不算坎坷，但通往婚姻的路還是非常崎嶇。看著別人的婚禮，不禁要想想自己什麼時候，或是要怎樣做，才可以和他們一樣站在那裡發同一樣的誓願……我們經歷的也不少吧，或許要跨過的欄杆比別人還要多呢……我甚至想像不到我們的婚禮會是怎樣的一個婚禮……

在婚宴中，播著今天早上新郎和兄弟們去接新娘的經過。或許這是我對香港現今的婚姻習慣最反感的一環吧……。我一直不明白為什麼新郎去接新娘時要被整。有誰可以解釋給我聽嗎？難道新郎要經過這些羞辱，才能表示他對新娘的愛嗎？難道不經過這考驗，就不明白他的愛嗎？這是什麼心態呢？只是為羞辱而羞辱嗎？有聽過「己所不欲、勿施於人」嗎？只是因為這已是習俗嗎？還停留在那個以功積/財富換得美人歸、交易式的陳舊思想嗎？可以想像如果是要求新娘在一大班兄弟前（或鏡頭前）做出尷尬動作才能証明她的愛，有多少人會接受呢……？

不禁想起十年前和一個朋友的通信。那好像是我在英國讀書時她唯一寄來的一封信吧。她說她正想像和她的他的婚禮，希望減少「玩新人」的部份，多點分享和音樂。很久沒見這位朋友了，真希望天主能繼續光照她，賜她平安和幸福。

說起朋友，今天晚上也有一個經歷。還是相同的經歷。只能說，我在聖堂的圈子中還是缺少熟稔的朋友呢。我很明白自己有點socially-challenged，也很明白自己的模式。我知道自己在一個環境或圈子裡，總需要一個要好的朋友，起碼能讓我站在他/她身旁，像是作為我的homebase……。今天晚上，我甚至不知道自己要站在哪裡、望向哪裡、聽誰在說話。

我也知道，我找到一個這樣的好朋友，就要好好去珍惜。