| Wing Tip Hsu aka Gerry Lo |
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| They call me Gerald, Gerry, JenYe (Mandarin), JunYip (Cantonese); 'Cet ingénieur chinois damnable,' or 'Eso carajo chino,' to certain construction crews in some parts of the world. Email me You are visitor |
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| Welcome. I am fortunate; marvelous friends and wonderful family have blessed my life, and my pleasures are meeting new friends and renewing past acquaintances. Fond of crosswords (New York Times, Financial Times, Times of London); coffee that tastes like coffee; chocolate; jazz; George MacDonald Fraser; Rex Stout; PG Wodehouse; Robert B Parker; Donald E Westlake; Koike Kazuo; good food; junk food; Chuck Berry; Benny Bell; Larry Vincent and His Lookout Boys, the Goon Show, pulp fiction (both the genre and the film); The Avengers (decidedly not the film); The Wild, Wild West (ditto); Wegman (both the supermarket chain and the artist); Tamara de Lempicka; Monty Python's Flying Circus; films (absolute sucker for anything with Tsui Hark, John Wayne, Katsu Shintaro, Wakayama Tomasiburo, Humphrey Bogart, Kwan Tak-Hing). A student of life, and lover of thrills (both cheap and expensive). Guilty (least-common-denominator) pleasures include the Three Stooges (with Curly), Rocky and Bullwinkle, and the prodigious output of Termite Terrace; an occasional cigar; annual single-malt whiskey tastings; Kona coffee once in a while; admiring the feminine form (ample evidence here that I've never gotten over my childhood obsession with the great Cheng Pei-Pei); listening to Carmen Miranda, John Philip Sousa, Heino, Cantonese Opera (most folks, including many Chinese, observe a resemblence to a catfight in a telephone booth), pibrochs, der Große Zapfenstreich, and Elvis. I've been introduced lately to this new (to me) contact sport of "networking," look for me on LinkedIn, Classmates, and Monster. Be seeing you? |
| Favorite music: The General's Order (Nam Yi Dang Ji Keung/Nan Erh Tang Jr Chiang/ Once Upon A Time in China/Wong FeiHung's theme) Last Night - the Mar-Keys Java Jive - Ink Spots Nadine - Chuck Berry Morse Code of Love - the Capris Largo al factotum - Rossini Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso - Mozart Welche wonne, welche Lust - Mozart Der Voegelfanger bin ich ja - Mozart Abschied (Muß i denn) Der Froehliche Wanderer (Valderi, Mein Vater war ein wandersmann) Tico Tico no Fuba |
| Favorite Films The Third Man The List of Adrian Messenger The Producers From Russia With Love From Beijing with Love (Stephen Chiao) A Chinese Feast (Leslie Cheung) Casablanca Once Upon a Time in China ffolkes (North Sea HiJack/Assault Force) |
| Favorite Books Journey to the West (Xi Yo Ji/Sai Yu Gee) The Water Margin (Shui Wu Jen/Sui Wu Gin) A Critique of Pure Reason In Praise of Folly Anthem |
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| Favorite Poetry Howl Lays of Ancient Rome Die froehliche Wissenschaft |
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| What's in a name? |
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| Chinese |
| Surname (Family): Herbert Yardley observed in his Chinese Black Chamber the confusion endemic to a language comprised of monosyllabic units. Formerly, a short self-introduction was "Lo - 'Four-thread' Lo" (see right), the use of which phrase now mostly just earns me a really puzzled look from younger native Mandarin speakers. |
| Generational (by gender): As in "This is my brother, Jun, and my other brother Jun." |
| Personal (distinguishing): Folks would change from the three-character given name to a two-character one after a seminal event (passing exams, marriage, graduation, entering the work force). I figure, why look for more trouble than I really need? |
| Lo (Mandarin luo), phonetic; archaically, to ensnare with a net. Top radical "to trap" has devolved into a resemblance of the modern numeral "four." Bottom radical for "thread" or "line" This form has been superseded in Singapore and the mainland by the homophonic word for "evening." |
| Jun (Mandarin jen), vibrant, intense. Left radical for "hand", right for "prompt," "timely," or "handy." Sounds like the word for "trembling" |
| Yip (Mandarin ye), estate, station, profession. "Tree" radical, with "its foliage." Phonetic. Sounds like the words for "leaf," or "to steep." |
| English |
| Gerald: Germanic origin, imported to England by the Normans; from ger "spear" and wald, "rule." Family tradition has it that, about three hundred years later, a late relative (who did not, in my experience during his lifetime, demonstrate a strong command of the English language) chose our Christian names (Gerald, Vivian, Jeffrey, Everett). I'm thankful not to be "AEthelbert" or "Leslie." Fine names though they are, I had sufficient difficulties of my own as a boy growing up in New York City during the 1960s. |
| Chinese amenities take the form of "What manner of person are you?" meaning, "Where're your folks from?" We are descended from a line of honest sea-cooks of Sam Jo (Three Kilns) of Chung Shan (China Mountain) village, in Canton (Guang Dong) Province. A place notable for its most famous son (acknowledged by the elder generation, both Nationalist and Communist, as the George Washington of China) Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, second President of the Republic. Lee Kwan Yew once said educated Chinese know Mandarin, which accounts for my lousy vocabulary, and terrible accent. The written form of Cantonese is practically extinct; ModernChinese is mostly transliterated Mandarin Guoyu "national speech"or putunghua "vulgate" (the local Beijing or Peking dialect, imposed upon the ethnic Han majority by the ruling ManChu of the final Qing dynasty, who incredulously discovered the absence of a lingua franca despite around five thousand years of recorded history, by tradition). |
| Pursuits: Philology, epistemology, Kozure Okami, Zatoichi, Baritsu, aficionado of ecdysiastical performances. |
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| Favorite Artists Tamara de Lempicka Piet Mondrian Paul Gauguin Hieronymous Bosch |
| So what? I've followed in my late father's footsteps all over the world. During and after World War II, Dad served as a sea cook and travelled to England, Russia, Mexico. My engineering work has brought me to those places, and to the Middle East, Asia and the rest of Europe as well. Great name; Thanks, Dad! |
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| Some places I've visited |
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