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Visit to Huashan Hospital
From Shantou, I flew to Shanghai. Before coming to China, I had written Dr. Chen Shiyi, and I told him that I will be giving a shoulder talk at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, which will quote a paper he published a few years ago. He insisted that I visit him on my way to…
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Ancestral Chaozhou
Sunday morning, on my first full day here, my dad and I walked around town and visited some of our relatives’ businesses. My mom’s older cousin is in the toy industry, and the younger runs a bicycle shop. It’s good to see that their business is really successful. My older uncle took us around town.…
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China Reunion
Between leaving home and arriving at my destination in China, the journey has taken 42 hours. It started off with a shuttle to LAX, leaving at 8:00 Thursday morning. I arrived in plenty of time, checked in, and had Panda Express for brunch. The plane, which looks like it has a perpetual frown, was full…
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Seagulls
This piece is titled Seagulls and Forgetting Schemes 鷗鷺忘機. The story originates from a passage in the Han dynasty text Liezi 列子. Therein, a seafarer finds that that seagulls have no fear until he intends to catch them to bring home. Like rolling waves, initial series of harmonic glissandi invite the listener to the serene…
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Salt Creek Beach Barbeque
After church, we had a lunch barbeque at Dana Point’s Salt Creek Beach. On the menu were Grillers burgers and salt & vinegar chips. Many friends brought specialty dishes as well. The water was warmer than usual, and the climate was perfect. I went for a run along the beach and took pictures of seagulls…
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Tenth Guqin Lesson
At my tenth lesson, my teacher gave me this piece to learn. It is the slightly shortened version of Pu’an Zhou 普庵咒. Apparently, the full version is extremely repetitious. As it is, this is the longest piece that I’ve played. The earliest form was published in 1592 and later printed in many guqin handbooks. The…
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Touring the San Andreas Fault
We’re having Alex and Nicolas visit from Europe as part the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons’ traveling fellowship. Chris arranged for us to take a tour of the San Andreas Fault, sponsored by the San Bernardino County Museum and led by Kathleen Springer. Our first stop took us by Lost Lake off of the Cajon…
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Summoning the Wind and Thunder
Like my most recent pieces, this composition, Summoning the Wind and Thunder 風雷引, is from the collection of the Mei’an guqin handbook 梅庵琴譜 and uses the lowered third string tuning. As with most pieces of the Mei’an tradition of briskly paced rhythm, this song employs unison and octave chords to reinforce fundamental frequencies. In the…
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Bergamot Station with Stuart Green
Today’s excursion took my brother and me to Bergamot Station to visit Stuart Green’s show. This exhibit highlights some of the key points of color theory. Dr. Green’s self-directed study of color theory—much influenced by Feininger, Itten, Albers, and faculty members of the Bauhaus School of Design—led him to take use photographs to illustrate such…
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Autumn Evening Moorings
Also in the Shang tuning mode 商調 and from the Mei’an handbook 梅庵琴譜, this piece, Autumn Evening Moorings 秋江夜泊, is a tonal painting depicting Su Dongpo’s 蘇東坡 (1037–1101) poem of the Red Cliffs 前赤壁賦. The site was where he thought the famous battle took place in the winter of AD 208–209. It was autumn of…
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The Phoenix Seeks His Mate
This next piece, The Phoenix Seeks His Mate 鳳求凰, is an introduction to playing in the Shang tuning mode 商調 and is of the Mei’an school of guqin playing 梅庵琴派. The story of this song is about the poet Sima Xiangru 司馬相如 (179–113 BC) as recorded in the Shi Ji 史記. During an evening gathering at…
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San Bernardino Peak
It started from a Facebook invitation, where I basically invited everyone who I thought would be interested in going. We all met in the Allen Way cul-de-sac just before 6:00 this morning and drove to the parking lot. There were orthopaedic residents, Ben, Mark with Sarah, and Lucas; medical students, Chris, Andrew, Charlie, Bjorn, and…
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Leoni Meadows and San Antonio
This past week involved a lot of traveling. Instead of lugging around my dSLR, I decided to use my iPad. It generally took good pictures, but the dynamic range seems much lower than I’d like. I left Tuesday afternoon, after surgeries, and flew to Sacramento. From there, I rented a car and drove to Leoni…
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Jobes’ Bees
Chris readies the smoke to subdue the bees. He dons the bee suit, and I put on the head and face protection. We head over to the grove. Chris injects some smoke into the hive, and we crack the lid open. The bees suddenly become very active, but we’re both in nearly full body armor.…
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Spring Dawn at the Jade Tower
Like the two previous pieces, Tune of Utmost Joy and Three Repetitions at Yang Pass, Spring Dawn at the Jade Tower 玉樓春曉 is based on the RuiBin 蕤賓 tuning mode. The origin is from the MeiAn school of guqin playing 梅庵琴派, which is part of my teacher’s tradition. The tune employs numerous plucked unisons and…
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Three Repetitions at Yang Pass
One of my favorite melodies, Three Repetitions at Yang Pass 陽關三疊 captures the essence of the poem by Wang Wei 王維. His work, titled Seeing Yuan Er Off to Anxi 送元二使安西, depicts two friends about to part ways: one staying within what was then civilized China, and the other leaving on an administrative post to…
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Tune of Utmost Joy
It seems ironic that this song—Tune of Utmost Joy 極樂吟—sounds the most melancholy as set in a minor key. It isn’t truly in a minor key, but the guqin is tuned to the RuiBin 蕤賓 mode, where the fifth string is tightened a half step. In the modern tuning tradition, this changes the instrument from…
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Forty Years Ago
Forty years ago, at this time of the year, my parents spent their honeymoon in Japan. We brought them for Japanese food to relive their memories.
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Garden Harvest and Courtyard Barbeque
It’s almost the Fourth of July, and our vegetable garden has overgrown this year. Much of the produce for the menu came from the yard: field greens, broccoli, green beans, beets, onions, rosemary, lemons, and limes. With all the vegetables, we made: We celebrated with a group of friends. Ramiz, Sona, and Hannah brought me…
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National Harbor and DC
Very early on Wednesday morning, I leave home for the airport and arrive with the usual lead time to find the security line going across the entire baggage claim area and almost out the door. I nearly miss my flight. After transit through Dallas-Fort Worth, I make it to Reagan National Airport without any problems.…
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2012 Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Graduation
Congratulations to the graduating orthopaedic seniors: Chad Brockardt, George Gendy, Ray Grijalva, and Mark Mikhael. Also, congratulations to the research award recipients: Ben Chen and Ray Grijalva. The senior residents awarded Eric Lim Teacher of the Year. Paul Burton gave a nice salute to the seniors, taking snippets from their personal statements and interspersed into…
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Inland Koi Society at the Nyiradys
Steve and Laura Nyirady invited me over to their home for the Inland Koi Society potluck and general meeting. The guest speaker gave a presentation on koi herpes virus and how to vaccinate against it. I didn’t know such a virus exists. As usual, the Nyiradys’ garden is beautiful, with several ponds fed by waterfalls…
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Bridge Railing Construction
It has been months since putting the gazebo together. Last year, I also started the zig-zag bridge over the pond. I finally got some lumber and began the railing construction this weekend. After that’s done, the next goal is to make seats and backrests.
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Wine Madness
While this is one of the most ancient of guqin tunes, it is also one of the most popular in today’s repertoire. Wine Madness 酒狂 dates from the third century and is attributed to the poet Ruan Ji 阮籍, who was one of the seven sages of Bamboo Grove. His father, Ruan Yu 阮瑀, studied…
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Portland, Columbia River, and Silver Falls
Arriving in Portland on Tuesday gives a slow transition to the next part of this extended time away. Activities for the Western Orthopaedic Association starts on Wednesday. I spend most of Wednesday morning touring the Portland Chinese Garden 蘭蘇園, taking time to follow the self-guided tour explained in the brochure. For the last stop, I…
