Expedition to the North Pole and Jurogic

On 15 Feb 2013, I attended the "Lien Shih Sheng Youth Chinese Literature Fund-Motivational Talk talks" at Confucius Institute, NTU@one-north campus, :

* Motivational Talk on "Expedition to the North Pole" by Lien Choong Luen 连仲伦 in English
* Book Launch on  猪逻辑 "Jurogic" by 小邝 Ace Khong in Mandarin

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I like the talk on "Expedition to the North Pole" by Lien Choong Luen 连仲伦.

Mr Lien Choong Luen 连仲伦 graduated from the London Business School and he is an alumnus of Berkeley University, Cambridge University and University of Malaya.

A passionate adventurer, Mr Lien Choong Luen has been actively involved in various outdoor activities. These include marathons (eg. Ironman Triathlon and Gobi Desert Ultra Marathon), adventure racing, freefall parachuting and mountaineering. Some of the mountains he has scaled include Mt Cook (the tallest mountain in New Zealand) and Aconcagua (the tallest mountain in South America). His latest conquest is the world’s highest peak Mount Everest, where he spent two challenging months in this expedition.

I had heard Mr Lien Choong Luen shared his joy and hardship in many challenges in life two years ago. This time, he focus on the experiences on his expedition to the North Pole.

The challenges he had to face as well as his will and determination to accomplish the whole expedition is rather difficult for many comfortable Singaporeans to understand, especially the secondary school students who are among the audience that evening.

The part I like best was his comparison of climbing Mount Everest and the expedition experience to the North Pole:

Climbing Mount Everest, one saw different view everyday when one was at a higher point on the way up, and it was exciting to look forward to something new everyday.

While the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice and is also subject to the caveats.

When one is doing expedition to the North Pole, one see the same view everyday, and North Pole is covered by ice and swifting all the time.
The North Pole is one of the coldest and most remote places in the world,
overcoming the challenges and impediments in the expedition to the North Pole is rather similar to overcoming obstacles in life when you look at life in a longer perspective.

From the Q & A session, we can learn something from the younger audiences who have different concerns in life.

Listening to their questions make me think about the goal of education today:

* Are students being pushed to school by parents to obtain higher grades and they study without much inner quest and enthusiasm?

* How can they learn to treasure the material comfort of their life and excel in areas that they truely love?

* "Motivational Talk" likes this may not motivate them.  Do we have inspiring story that closed to their daily life to make them feel motivated?

I left the thought sink at the moment ... and listen to the speech by the next speaker:
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* Book Launch on 猪逻辑 "Jurogic" by  小邝 Ace Khong

The new Chinese picture book 猪逻辑 "Jurogic" by Ace Khong was launched on the same evening.

Mr Ace Khong,  邝伟雄, who graduated from art school in 1998 and worked as a graphic designer for local children’s education assessment books, and advertising designer for newspaper and magazines.

The picture book 猪逻辑“Jurogic” is illustrated by the exquisite full-colour drawings through the use of mixed media, a combination of colour pencils and design software applications.

The main overall purpose of the book is to stimulate the readers through visual communication, and to use metaphors that lead readers to reason differently, and encourage them to form their own opinions that really matter in today society. The text is in Chinese and I think it has the potential of being translated into English in the future!

演讲摘要：

小邝 " 一直都有个梦想，希望可以出版属于自己的绘本。选择以小猪来担任,《猪逻辑》这个作品的主角，并没有特定的原因；只是单纯地认为小猪那种懒洋洋，善良憨厚的可爱模样，特别讨喜，所以画起来格外轻松愉快，希望读的人也能够感到亲切有趣。"

" 给这只满腹经纶的小猪取了个带点古学者味道的名字：猪^子  （猪子），“子” 特别用了倍数符号，意味着猪^子;  它不一定只是可以代表单一的个体，也可以是代表着一个群体。"

" 希望通过这只拟人化的小猪，以其独有的思维和玩味的见解，配合轻松随性的图文；分享自己对周遭事物的一些看法和思想。"

猪逻辑 "Jurogic"：

“这个世界有多美好, 有时候,可以由你自己决定。”

“我相信只要执著于自己的理想，就一定会有出头的一天。”

“一辈子想做的事，有时候会在一霎那获得成功。”

“对，这世界是不公平的。有的猪等着车没几分钟就来了，而且来了一辆又一辆；有的猪等了好久连车的影子都不见。等不了的，上了德士，买了车子，有的则宁可走路。你呢，还要等吗？”

“虽然，这是一场公平决斗：有公证人，大家的枪一样长，一定数到十才开枪。但在这个世界上，真的有所谓的公平吗？"

“把时间花在埋怨，不如把时间花在改变。”

“我知道改变真得很辛苦，但我更忍受不了生活的一成不变。”

“这个城市，最宁静的乐土可能就只有这里了。”

“大家都会朝同一个方向走，不是都安排好了吗？怎会我总是感到不知何去何从？”

 “别把自己弄得这么好吃。”

“鱼快不快乐，我不知道，也不想知道。反正很多时候，我连自己快不快乐，也不是很清楚。”

“其实有什么好分的，我身上哪一处不是上等好肉？”

“他们画了范围界限，却又盼望我们出头。”

“表面上的赢, 不算赢。表面上的输, 不算输。”

“大家都在撑着伞，雨停了，谁也没发觉。”

“谁都不想自己的生活被局限。设法拥有一片属于自己的大海。”

“不管用怎样的速度，方法，只要一心朝着梦想前进，就不用理会任何对错。”

“ 有些事，我只能，眼睁睁地看着。我尽了力，或无能为力。”

“我在尘世中浮沉，一不小心坠入深渊；在小心翼翼爬出来后，兴高采烈，又再跌进另一个深渊。”

“因为如果不是跌倒，我又怎可能发现四周的风景如斯美好。”

“说实在的，钱包里有点钱，还是会更快乐一点。”

“成功，绝对不只是属于一头猪的。”

“快乐就像在走钢索，稍不留神就会坠入忧伤。”

“经验是老天给我的最好的安慰奖。而教训则是他给我最好的纪念品。”

“快乐的最明显的特征就是 — 快”

“快乐是鸟，但不长脚。”

“悲伤则是一种环保用品，我们总是喜欢反复的使用。”
“潜能要在紧急时才能发挥得淋漓尽致。天啊，我居然相信。”
“要快活，先学会慢活。”

“有些事，只有自己会急，有些事，只能自己去办。”

“不管你愿不愿意相信，你身边的谁都只能是过客。”

许福吉序文, 作品分析:

"因此《猪逻辑》的文字意象有禅味, 图象前呼后应，布满诗意与智慧，让人翻了几页，就好想找一个宁静的地方坐下来，和他一起思考人生，改变生活，甚至从新创造生活。"

"小邝,  邝伟雄有创意和巧妙地把我们带进“猪的世界”，用猪的幽默、睿智和反讽方式，把我们的心里话说了出来，让我们产生共鸣，发出会心的微笑与认同"


Source of reference:
* email from Confucius Institute, NTU@one-north
* North Pole, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pole
* Acekhong's inception zone, http://acekhong.wordpress.com/