Asia-Pac conference at Uni. of Hong Kong

My HK poet friend, Dr. Agnes Lam (at a dinner she belanja)

Dennis, Sonia and Sami at lunch

Sun Yat Sen studied Medicine at Uni of Hong Kong

Dinner in the city

Pond at the Uni of HK

What an exciting day at the conference.Dennis' keynote speech was deep (he spoke of his Asian journey as an Australian poet...very deep and philosophical take on culture and personal growth)

Finally got to meet Otto and Page..nice and lovely duo who put the conference together (hard work!) and meeting old friends (and new ones).Agnes belanja makan both lunch and dinner (she was so kind to teman I pi cari pants lagi at the city.Semalam tak cukup..I'm here for a few days).

Mak oii...Uni of HK ni dah 100 tahun..besar kemain..byk tangga and hills and slopes.Berpeluh2 jalan.Patut lah org HK kurus2.But HK people baik2.One guy actually stopped and asked us kita nak  ke mana cos' we were holding a map and not knowing where to go.This is masyarakat berilmu so nyata berbudi.

My paper was in the last slot.I thought people would have left by then but no...full house cos' Joanna from Mindanao was talking on Muslim women who were rebelling against the norm (ada yang lesbian, kawin dgn org Xtian yang tak mau bayar dowry, etc etc).Kononnya ke hadapan sgt la tu.I had to betulkan apa yang pincang.I ckp tak boleh dok categorise org Islam gitu...nak jadi gay ke lesbian ke, itu hak dia as individu buat pilihan tapi jgn babitkan agama sbb Islam tak berkompromi dlm hal lgbt gini.Dan kalau dia pilih jalan gitu, org lain tak leh nak judge cos' hanya Allah Maha Menghakimi tapi jgn guna nama Islam kalau nak jadi lesbian.

Mereka semua tersentak but I got a few people dtg lepas session tu dan kata it made sense.I kata mmg la make sense..ibarat kita masuk jadi ahli kelab..kelab ada peraturannya..takkan kita nak demand buat benda lain kan? Tak suka, keluarlah keahlian kelab.Gitu la ibaratnya.Lagipun kalau kita straight, ada kita nak heboh satu dunia kata ini lah cara kita? Buat kerja senyap2 lah (ini discussion belakang pentas dgn teman dari Sydney).

Tapi interesting la juga we got to discuss openly benda2 gini.Otto suka sgt my paper with my supervisee on Spore & Cambodian women writers tu.Otto ni Swiss tapi lama dah ngajar kat HK ni.Baik orgnya.Matanya mcm kolam renang.

Syukurlah my paper dah habis on first day.Besok boleh bersukaria dengar org punya.