Happy Year of The Dragon

pic: traditional Paper Cut of traditional Dragon Dance during the New Year.

Happy Year of The Dragon

The coming Monday is the Chinese New Year It comes rather early this year. Why, we need more time to pay tribute to the mighty Dragon!

Human Saga The New Year is not quite party time, but a time for family gathering. For many, it is the only holiday they get all year. Transportation is over-stressed as many travel thousands of miles for reunion with family. From wikipedia entry (here I salute wiki for their libertarian efforts):

Chunyun (traditional Chinese: 春運; simplified Chinese: 春运; pinyin: Chūnyùn), also referred to as the Spring Festival travel season or the Chunyun period, is a period of travel in China with extremely high traffic load around the time of the Chinese New Year. The period usually begins 15 days before the Lunar New Year's Day and lasts for around 40 days. The number of passenger journeys during the Chunyun period has exceeded the population of China, hitting over 2 billion in 2008.^[1] It has been called the largest annual human migration in the world.^[2] Rail transport experiences the biggest challenge during the period, and myriad social problems have emerged.

As I am an avid watcher of Shenzhen TV, during this period every year I get to watch the extensively covered drama of how migrant workers scramble for just a ticket to get home. It moves me deeply. Most of the people in Shenzhen (increasingly for other big cities too) are migrants, and as a result the city is rather empty during the New year. This year I too will join the Chunyun, as I shall be spending the New Year in nearby Guangzhou. Not too far, fortunately.

pics: L, my WE133A; R, pic of Brook 12A from the Klipsch site

Brief Retrospect I am quite contented with what I have done in the last days of the year of rabbit. Firing up the Western Electric 133A amp (last article) should be named the event of the Year of the Rabbit ! Thinking about it, the year has been quite eventful in terms of hifi.

Looking Forward Last night I also fired up, for the first time, my pair of the Brook Model 7 mono preamps. Amazingly modern sound. You shall be hearing from me. But that is just a prelude for something else of even more import. My friends have requested that I let them hear my Brook 12A amps, and I shall try to comply this year. First I have to service them! 臥虎藏龍！Also, the recent WE experience has led me to re-evaluate from the grounds up my other systems. I am happy to report that I have broken new grounds with my Kondo setup, and I shall finally write that up in the Year of the Dragon. I think you shall be often surprised this coming year!

Thank You Note I take the opportunity to thank you for your support, wherever you are. According to Flag Counter, which I have installed just over 13 months ago, This Blog has logged more than 58,000 unique visitors from 141 countries in little over a year. Keep reading! The important thing is, have fun!

這裡提早跟各位拜個年。謝謝大家兔年的支持。這廂提供一個關於龍的故事，還有兩個索龍女。新年快樂！身體健康！