Regards to Professor Lee at the English Dept. of NCCU

I felt quite at loss about the death of Professor Lee Wen-Bing (李文彬老師), my first professor of English literature in the department of English at NCCU, Taiwan. The news came a couple of weeks ago, the first piece of information about him that I got decades after graduation. I was never close to him as a disciple, but I truly enjoyed the first contact with literature that he initiated. He was never showy in his class, never explicitly zealous; however, his approach has been fundamental to my appreciation of literature.

There will be a funeral service for him this Saturday. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend it, and I have also failed to send a message in time to express my condolences, just like that I was never quick enough to be in touch over these past years. Deeply regretful. Here is the short message that I intend to tell him.

Dear Professor Lee, 

I have always been grateful that you are my first literature teacher. Twice a week throughout my first year in the English department of NCCU, you guided me from fiction, through drama to poetry. You have paved the first step to the realm of literature so beautifully that the subject became an instant charm. You were always kind, wise, instructive and never intimidating to us literature fledgelings - the style of a true scholar which I always look up to and always try to emulate. 

Thank you and please rest in peace. 

Alternative Energy

There was a protest against nuclear power policy in Yoyogi, Tokyo, on February 11. It was one of the numerous demonstrations against nuclear power plants since the catastrophe in Fukushima last year. 

After the earthquake in March, I wrote about some solar energy gadgets that we acquired during a period of power outage in response to the crisis in Fukushima Daiichi. In that blog entry, I also mentioned our purchase of solar panels and a turn to solar energy. I haven't had time to write about it since, but it has been working effectively well. 

After the instalment in March 2011, the house has benefited from the solar panels tremendously. Except on rainy days, the house was always fully self-supplied in summer. 

It is the first winter that we have after the solar panels were introduced. I was a bit concerned in the beginning about possible high expense of electricity that we would face if the winter was too harsh. 

This winter has been cold, the coldest over the past few decades. We have been using heaters of different sorts so that at least we would be able to work at home. The number on electricity bills in winter has increased as expected; however, we still manage to sell a considerable amount of electricity to electricity company. The  margin between our purchase and sales still leaves us some tiny amount to pay for gas. 

Today is very sunny. The following picture is an animated image on the monitor for the solar system of the house. It shows, as the picture itself illustrates, that at noon when the picture was taken the panels were producing 2.2 kw, the house was consuming 0.3 kw, and that allowed the house to sell 1.9kw to be used in the neighbourhood. 

As daytime is shorter in winter, it is quite rare that the panels can produce enough to support the entire house everyday. However, take yesterday for example, it was sunny and the production of electricity started since the sunrise and ceased around 4 pm at sunset. We still managed to reach 76.1% of self-sufficiency. Of course, much of the consumption of electricity took place at night when there was no solar power to use.

The picture below explains the extent to which the house is self-sufficient over the past week from February 5. It rained from last Monday to Wednesday and was cloudy on Thursday. Despite all that, the solar panels still achieved to produce 52 % of the energy that we used. 

Undeniably, we have tried to be more economical and efficient in power consumption since the instalment of the panels. It is probably because every watt of power that the solar system produces is now considered and imagined in terms of its monetary value, and we do want to save as much as we want to sell. This simple formula of energy and monetary gain may sound materialistic; however, I am very surprised at the ways in which this practical equation has helped boost the awareness of energy saving in our house. We do try every means to save while the solar paddies are working hard. 

The solar company with which we made contract provides monthly check up on the system. According to the technician 2 months ago, we sill manage to sell more than other households in the same neighbourhood. 

Before the system, we did not know how much energy we had wasted. Given that alternative energies are still expensive, saving is the best way to produce. 

Letter Writing

Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer

Bunkamura, Shubuya, Tokyo 

23/12/2011 - 14/03/2012

K and I went to an exhibition on 'communication' in Bunkamura last month. Honestly, to an audience like me who is not particularly interested in genre painting, the exhibition is not extremely exciting as a whole. Additionally, the level of painters in this collection varies too much that one cannot avoid feeling frustrated at times. 

Yet, the theme of the exhibition -- communication -- really intrigues me. What engages me the most is the section on communication through writing. In the 17th-century Netherlands, letters, in addition to its communicative role in commerce and public affairs, became a popular form for private interaction. 

Receiving, writing, and sending letters, cards, and postcards have been my long-term addiction. Even though I have been a heavy user of the Internet, a hopeless addict even, what this electronic invention cannot replace for me in my life is a genuine interest in real letters. 

As K rightly points out, the theme of communication is too broadly defined to provide insight, and too general to create coherence within this collection. Here I focus solely on the section which highlights Vermeer's 3 artwork: 'Girl Reading a Letter', 'A Lady Writing' and 'A Lady Writing with Her Maid'.  

Undoubtedly, Vermeer's three paintings stand out in the exhibition. His approach and colours create an immediate resonance to the memory that I have about writing, posting off, awaiting, and reading letters.  It was my first time to see these three pieces of work in reality. One of them, 'Girl Reading a Letter' (the first below), is on public display for the first time in the world after its recent restoration. An enchanting colour of lapis lazuli is recovered on the canvas. The shade is powerfully embodied and mysterious, but it is also cold in tone. It asserts a sense of centrality that anchors not only the light flowing from the left, but also an ongoing communication and an unceasing exchange of emotions thereof between the sender and receiver through the letter. 

Johannes Vermeer, 

Girl Reading a Letter, (c. 1663-64)

The lady in the painting below shines in her yellow coat in the mood for writing. She suspends her task and looks into the direction of the beholder, perhaps the painter or the addressee of the letter. Although some critics suggest that she is the wife of the painter himself, I am not particularly interested in that biographical interpretation. Instead, if the letter in preparation is a message of love, the painting presents a powerful portrayal of a woman in love, no matter it is family love or romantic love. While penning down her affection, she illuminates the room with the emotion contained in her body and the expression of which on the paper. The natural light cleverly brightens the writing space in which a feather pen occupies the centre. How important the pen is here! It channels invisible thoughts and emotion unto the paper, transforming the invisible into the visible. The lady's gaze is tender and touching fully embodying every single trace of her loving thoughts. She is probably temporarily lost in writing, recalling a moment in the past, pondering over how to put it into words, imagining probable reactions of her reader. 

 Johannes Vermeer, 

A Lady Writing, (c. 1665)

The one below is the the third work by Vermeer in this exhibition. The presence of a maid renders the occasion semi-public. The lady who is in the middle of writing seems to be concentrating on her task. Compared with the other two paintings here, this one presents a better-lit space, the source of light is identified through the window, the writing table and the interior are clear to viewers. It is commonly argued that the painting about the Holy Family on the back wall suggests what is being written about in the letter. With the presence of the maid, a bright room like this, and the lady's focused attention to her work, it is very suggestive that she is probably reporting a family business to her husband away from home. Such a letter between family members is probably written with concision but not without affection. 

Johannes Vermeer, 

A Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, (c. 1670) 

I remember a letter that I once read. During a visit to our previous landlady, at her eighties she was talking about her family history. Her grandfather was once a prime minister during WW II in Japan. A man of high position like him also wrote to his family. The landlady showed me a letter written in English from the grandfather to his son, her father. One of the details that I couldn't forget is in relation to an amount of money enclosed in the letter. As he, the grandfather, wrote, the money was meant for the use of building an addition to the existing house for some purposes. I was very touched by this small detail buried among other reports on his work and his parental advices to the son. His concern and answer to this domestic decision, though expressed in monetary terms, connected him to the family and made him intimately close as a father. 

**************

The two paintings below by different artists are also in display in the same section. 

 Jacob Ochtervelt, 

The Love Letter, (c. 1670)

Frans van Mieris the Elder, 

Woman Writing a Letter, (1680)

At the end of the visit to the show, I was also drawn to this trompe-l'oeil painting of a letter rack. I understand that this work probably does not show any creative talent of the artist. However, the way the rack is represented here seems to tell viewers that letter writing shouldn't be thought light of. Emotion is surely the main constituent to a good message, but a good letter cannot be completed without the assistance of professional stationary including envelop-sealing wax, letter opener, feather pen, ink, and stamp. The owner of this rack must be very serious about everything s/he writes and about how s/he writes it, and that seriousness matters much both to the writer and reader.  

Edwaert Collier, 

A Letter Rack, (1703)

Other Links

Essential Vermeer

Seaweed, Meals during Spring Vacation

A couple of weeks ago in an agricultural fair in Takashimaya department store in Shinjuku, we found a gem for Japanese cuisine - seaweed. I cannot quite recall whether I ever tried this type of seaweed before, but it definitely was never an ingredient on my shopping list for grocery. However, at the moment when the stall clerk opened a pack, I knew I would not want to miss it anymore. It has the most mesmerising aroma that I have ever encountered; the taste is amazingly distinct with its bitterness subdued. 

At that moment I had an illusion that I suddenly became a gourmet capable of tasting good food! 

We sprinkled it on meatballs made of of burdock roots and pork last night. It effectively reduced the greasy taste of pork . 

For lunch today, I mixed two kinds of seaweed: sushi seaweed (commonly available every where) and this green hairy seaweed, on top of finely chopped bluefin tuna. The dish was only simply seasoned with soy sauce and spicy sauce, but the virtue of such simplicity in turn helped to enhance the humble flavor of the seaweed: elementary and real.