Dessert - 甜食

The Sarah Palin vs.Michele Obama saga over dessert was quite an eye-opener for me, who grew up in China, where dining table dessert was a concept rather foreign.

Palin's ridiculing the first lady's caution on balanced diet was plain silly as we would have expected from her but Mrs. Obama's rationale itself was quite incredulous to me.

According to a Washington Post article,

In fact, the first lady has never suggested that sweets be banned from the dinner table, cafeteria or campground. She says she tells her daughters, Sasha and Malia, that "dessert is not a right" and that meals should be balanced with fruits and vegetables.

What I read in this paragraph was that as long as her daughters eat fruits and vegetables, they'll get their desserts.  I used to think that dessert was served on special occasions rather than everyday implied here.

I did some inquiries amongst my friends and colleagues who was born and grew up in the US on how often they have desserts.  The result was less than conclusive.  Some said that they have it often but not on daily basis yet someone told me that they have dessert everyday, usually with dinner.

Similarly, in China, when there are guests, they were treated with fruits, nuts and tea, instead of crackers, cheese, chips, beer, wine and liquor.  On the other hands, Chinese people used to serve cigarettes too though that practice has been dumped.

佩林与奧巴馬夫人就甜點的争执为我大開眼界，因为我在中國長大，在那里，餐桌甜點是一個陌生的概念。

佩林諷刺第一夫人的平衡飲食的提议是愚蠢的，与我們对她的期望相符; 但奧巴馬夫人的理由本身却很让我懷疑。

據華盛頓郵報的一篇文章讲，

事實上，第一夫人從未建議，在餐桌上，餐廳里或露營地禁止甜食。她說她告訴她的女兒们薩沙和瑪麗雅："吃甜點不是权利"，而應該与水果和蔬菜平衡膳食。

這里我讀到的是，只要她的女兒们吃水果和蔬菜，她們就會得到她們的甜點。我曾經以為甜點是在比较特殊場合吃的，而不是這裡按时的每天都吃。

我在我的出生在美國并在次長大的朋友和同事之間做了一些調查，他們吃甜品的频率。其結果没有定論。有人說，但他們常长吃甜是, 但不时每天读有, 而有人告訴我，他們每天吃甜點，通常是晚餐时吃。

同樣，在中國，如有客人，他們用水果，堅果和茶葉招待客人，而不是用餅乾，奶酪，薯條，啤酒，葡萄酒和白酒。但另一方面，中國人给客人敬香煙，雖然這種做法现在已經被拋棄了。

Calendar Time - 日历的时候

When I switched to a new calendar, I always remembered the calendar time in China when I was in middle school.  It was a time China just started to open up to the outside world but in many aspects we were still rather isolated and in the art fields it was very bad indeed.  We had no opportunity to see any masterpieces created by western masters, even in reproductions for decades.  Artists' monographs were very rare if any.

In that environment, calendars opened the window for me to that part of the world.  Every year, from perhaps as early as October through December, my father, who worked in cultural field then, would bring home several dozens of huge rolls of calendars, featuring photographs of landscape, cityscape, traditional Chinese paintings, oil paintings or sculptures by old masters, folk arts, movie stars, and sometimes, propaganda.

I remembered vividly the first time I encountered Rembrandt through the calendar.  It was the first time I beheld wonders as his majestic Juno and melancholic Man with a Golden Helmet.  I was alternatively in awe and rapture.  I couldn't believe that paintings could be so beautiful and powerful.  I had been to many art exhibit before but was largely indifferent to those creations under the influence of socialist realism.

Finally I realized what was true art.

Over the years, the importance of calendar in my life has decreased drastically but I would never remember how profound impact they had when I was in the most malleable age.


Man with a Golden Helmet, Rembrandt


Juno, Rembrandt

當我換到一個新的日曆时，我總是想起在中國當我還在讀中學的日曆時期。那時中國剛剛開始對外開放，但在許多方面還比較孤立，在藝術領域尤其糟糕。在幾十年内, 我們沒有機會看到任何西方大師創造的傑作，甚至複製品。藝術家們的專集如果有的話也非常罕見。

在那種環境下，日曆为我打開那部分世界的窗戶。每年，或許早在10月到12月，我的父親，当时在文化領域工作，就會給帶回家數十個卷巨大日曆，内容多為山水景觀，城市景觀，傳統的中國畫，西方大師的油畫和雕塑，民間藝術，影視明星，有時，宣傳画。

我記得我第一次通過日曆看到倫勃朗作品。那是我第一次看見他的嵩峻朱諾的和憂鬱的戴黃金頭盔的人。我感到敬畏和狂喜。我簡直不敢相信油畫能如此美麗和有如此影响力。我曾参观過許多藝術展覽，但對那些社會主義現實主義影響下創作的作品大多無動於衷。

终于，我意識到什麼是真正的藝術。

多年來，日曆的重要性在我的生活中以大幅下跌，但我永遠不會忘記它們对我曾有多麼深刻的影響，尤其是在我可塑性最强的年纪。