Eye of Modok

Solar powered lights in Beijing parks are great, but something is wrong with this picture!

While the finger-pointers in the West may look scornfully upon China as the biggest threat to global warming, despite that fact that many of China’s emissions are a direct result of offshoring by said finger-pointing countries in an effort sate the mindless consumerism of the local residents, who don’t want such dirty stinky polluting factories in their own back yards, especially as it wouldn’t be “environmentally friendly”, few may be aware that from a policy standpoint, at least, China is in many ways ahead of the pack. Now if we can only work on execution…

There is, sadly, a major disconnect between the lofty heights of academia and government, and the real world of practical implementation. I’m not even talking about the selfish money-centered attitude that manifests out of a universal human tendency to choose what it is good for an individual personally, even at the cost of the community as a whole. I’m talking about something far more fundamental. Knowledge takes time to trickle into human consciousness, despite the best intentions.

If you haven’t taken a good look at the picture above, please do so now, and see if you can find something wrong with the picture. At first glance, the picture can be seen as a true measure of progress… solar powered street lights using CFL lamps in a public park in Beijing. However, something went dreadfully wrong with the installation - a major disconnect between the supplier of the new technology and the park planners. Have you guessed correctly! Well done! Go to the head of the class.

For those of you who aren’t as familiar with the nuts and bolts of renewable energy technologies, take a look at the orientation of the solar PV panels atop each street light. They are all facing different directions! Some are facing in opposite directions!! Which means that they are working at a fraction of their capacity, as solar panels should be aligned for maximum exposure to solar radiation throughout the day, in a southward direction in the northern hemisphere. Ideally, the angle of the panel should be adjusted for the time of year, as the sun is much lower in the sky during the winter than in the summer.

Now, it could very well be that the designers of the panels have over-designed them to be able to operate in spite of such gross inefficiencies, but if this is so, then this too is simply inefficient. As solar panels are still rather costly to produce and come with an environmental price tag when considering their manufacturing process, as well as disposal and recycling, greater care and consideration should accompany their use.

So, what are your views? Am I overly critical? Not critical enough? You tell me.

My friend Elyse Ribbons is a dynamo. Not one to sit around twiddling her thumbs, she is also likely to challenge others to step up and deliver. I met Elyse when we were both extras in a movie, “Beijing Taxi”, part of which another friend of mine, Nora Wong, was directing, and we talked about acting, writing, producing, et al, and I lamented the fact that I could never seem to finish a script, my enthusiasm always fizzling out shortly after the first plot point. That’s where she challenged me. “Do you think you could finish one if it was only ten minutes long?”

“10 minutes?”

“Yes, as in a one act play around 10 minutes in length.” It turns out that Elyse was at that very moment looking for acts for her ShiFen Theater Festival due to take place a couple months hence through her Cheeky Monkey Theater production company. Never one to refuse a challenge I believe I can meet, I had to take her up on it, and it turned out to be the single most rewarding experience of my life thus far.

I knew immediately that the play would absolutely have to star my little darlings, as well as myself, but was unsure what to write about. Something about our life in Beijing, but what…? Well, I didn’t have to wait long. Blysse came home from school and told me an amazing story that brought home how wonderful it is to live life in foreign country, in “Expatia” as I like to call it, and experience things that you just plain wouldn’t back “home”. The play actually wrote itself.

Now the fun part was taking my two talented but untried and tested daughters through the rehearsal process, and somehow get them to deliver, on stage, in front of over 400 people. The rehearsal process was not only easy, but it turned out to be some of the best quality time I have ever spent with them. They took my script and, adding in their natural ham factor, developed it into a much richer more enjoyable play than I could have imagined. I suppose it helps that I was writing dialog that they, playing themselves, were easily able to embrace and augment. The first few rehearsals led to quite a few re-writes, but by the time the festival approached, we were ready.

The biggest challenge came right before our performance. Blysse, who had by far the most lines, was so nervous she had tears welling up in her eyes. Daddy director to the rescue! “Blysse, you know your lines. We’ve practiced it so many times, you will not forget your lines. It’s your story! Even if you mess up, just remember the story…”

“But there are soooo many people out there!”

“What’s your first line?”

“What!? It can’t be time for bed already!”

“See! You’ll do great! After that first line, it will all just flow, just like in rehearsal.” And it did! Blysse and Ellie not only delivered all of their lines as well as they did in rehearsal, but they projected their voices well and could be heard all the way at the back of the rather large Yan Club Arts Center at the Old Factory 798 Art District. Feedback has been great, but that is absolutely secondary to the thrill of the best daddy-daughter event ever.

After the show, I thanked Elyse for challenging me. “Great!” she said, “Now you can write a 40-minute play!”

Hmmmm. I like a good challenge.

After the short break for New Years (solar - the big break for the lunar new year is coming up) Ellie came home from school very excited and brandishing a honglingjin 红领巾 (red neckerchief) that she was awarded that day. For most Chinese kids, this is probably not that big a deal, because most Chinese kids are good students by anyone’s standards, but it is a big deal for Ellie. The honglingjin is awarded to kids who show exemplary behavior in school, and those who wear it are considered to be model students, even model junior citizens. I’m pretty sure not too many foreign kids have been given one.

It turns out that in Ellie’s class, most of the other kids had already been given a honglingjin, so the ceremony rather singled her out. Ellie and the others who were to receive a honglingjin lined up in front of the whole school, and some older kids came up and tied it around their necks. (To Ellie’s dismay, it was a boy who tied hers!) Now only one kid in her class is without one, and he is generally considered by all to be a “bad apple”.

Makes a daddy proud!!