Great visit!
This is my third day here in Edinburh, and I am typing from a net cafe. Edinburgh is one of the most gem-like places I've been to: my father and I have just visited the legendary Edinburgh Castle.
We have also visited my sister, and I was utterly amazed by the sheer beauty of her campus. I will try to type some more later this week.
P.S. Religious life in Edinburh has been vibrant. I went to an evening "service for healing" in the Parish Church of St. Cuthbert, which is a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) congregation. Tomorrow I will be visiting Friends in Edinburgh in Old Town Edinburgh.
Leaving for Edinburgh
I will be leaving for Edinburgh Scotland tonight to attend my little sis' high school commencement. It's gonna be a week-long trip and I'm really looking forward to setting for the first time my foot on the soil of both England and Scotland.
The school my sister attends is housed in a gorgeous historical complex, built some 200 years ago. Here's the website of the school:
http://www.fettes.com
Since it's such a historical place, I've decided to bring my custom-made three-piece suit (probably without the waistcoat, since it's summer) with me.
Justice served
Edgar Ray Killen, the mastermind behind the 1964 "Freedom Summer" killings of three civil rights worker in Neshoba, Mississippi, has finally been convicted of manslaughter. He was acquitted on the charge of murder since the Jury believed that the State of Missippi should have presented them with more evidence. (Since most of the witnesses were dead, the transcripts of their testimonies, made in 1966-1967, were read aloud in the Court.)
A Juror summed the dilemma up pretty well. He noted that this man "needs to be" convicted, though the State ought to come up with better evidence as well.
Which brings us the question of fair trial. What should a trial judge/juror do when an accused has already been convicted in the hearts & minds of the public?
http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/usworld/8575941.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/21/mississippi.killings/
Monthly Meeting of Friends in Hong Kong
Today I went to worship with some Friends in Hong Kong. The room we used for worship was the "David Kwok room" in the annex of St. John's (Anglican) Cathedral in Central.
It has been a great experience, and I made some new friends. One of the women present is a rising 3L student at Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, whose home is not far from Swarthmore College, and who's spending her summer searching at HKU's faculty of law. Another Friend is a scholar in the philosophy of religion who was from Northern California who has been teaching at the Hong Kong Baptist University for 23 years as lecturer and professor. There are also some local Friends present, and one of them, Eric, is a sociologist who has published several papers in Chinese journals. I should be seeing them again, since Eric is getting married next First Day (!)
One of them, Austin Meredith, gave me his business card. It turned out that he is an inventor who has been a visiting scholar at Brown University for some time. He has been visiting Hong Kong on a yearly basis for 25 years, since he has some family members who live here. Originally from Providence, RI, he will be moving to Harvard next fall (his wife has accepted an appointment to the Radcliffe Institute,) and hopefully, we will be able to hang out again.
I also met the two Friends I met last time I was back: Julian and Margaret, and I am very happy that both of them seem to be doing very well since we last parted.
Books
I've been gradually picking up my piano skills these days...
As the saying (Schumann) goes, pieces written by Bach (fugues in particular) are the spiritual bread of all musicians, so I'm currently practicing Bach's second English Suite. It has been fun experience so far.
I've also been reading "The Civil Law Tradition" (1953) by John Henry Merryman of Stanford. Although Merryman was quick to point out the diverse prejudices Civil Law jurists and Common Lawyers harbor towards each other's tradition, he himself (almost subconsciously) reveals a great deal of similar prejudices against the Civil Law tradition in this little booklet. It has been a little bit annoying, listening to Merryman repeating how abstract, unrealistic, dogmatic and "radical" the Civil Law tradition is. Geez...some much better treatments could be found amongst the historical essays contained in John Honnold's "The Life of the Law" (1963?) (Honnold himself was an authority on private international law and a law professor at Penn.)
Back in Hong Kong
I have had a great time spending the first part of my summer vacation here in Hong Kong. At first it took a while for me to get used to the crowdedness, the heat and the humidity, but now I'm really enjoying myself. Hong Kong is in many ways much more "modern" than Philadelphia (in terms of the hardware of the city) although in some other sense it is also pre-modern when compared to American cities in general (the existence of pre-modern marketplaces, small family-owned-and-run workshops, and the social ethics that ties all these together, etc)
I have visited many of my friends, most of whom have already found their first jobs, whether it be trainee solicitor, assistant hotel manager, investment banker or software engineer. It seems that many of my friends end up becoming lawyers (or lawyers-to-be like myself.)
During this past week I also had the chance of teaching high school kids in my former high school St. Joseph's: the coach of our Chinese debating team had to supervise oral examinations and so she asked me to step in her shoes and lecture on "Chinese Language and Culture" (in all honesty, a most moronic high school subject) to 2 Form 6 (grade 12) classes. It was after this experience that I realize how demanding it is a high school teacher's job (at least physically speaking, since I had all three 35 minutes sessions back-to-back.)
Aside from former classmates and former high school teachers, I also had chance to hang out with some other folks, including my former piano teacher, Mr. Choi Sown Le, who also happens to be the chairman of Hong Kong Piano Music Association. A professional pianist, Mr. Choi received his education at the Royal College of Music London and the Conservatory of Geneva. His teachers include the legendary Arturo Michelangeli and a former pupil of Scriabin. It was a real pleasure having dinner conversations with him again.
I will write some follow-ups later this week.
