【It's Raining】
Lotus is closely tied to the Chinese culture. In Yangshao culture 3000 years before Christ, lotus seeds were used as funeral objects. In religion and traditional mythology, lotus has a role to play, from a designated flower growing under the Buddha’s feet, to a transformed body of the reborn Nezha (a mythological Sino-Indian character). To poets and writers, lotus can be translated into another context. During unbearably hot summer days, when one could hardly do anything but staring at the transparent pink lotus petals in company with lotus leaves at the pond, the creative could indulge themselves in midst of the cool mood, mind going estray, pondering how the sound of the Chinese character “ho” in lotus resembles “harmony” in Mandarin, how its another character “lin” pronounces like “moderate”, turning these thoughts into classic poem lines:
“Emerging from the dirt up rises the uncontaminated soul/Washed crystal clean from riddles of the pond, the beauty of no evil/Hollow in heart (as an empty soul in purity), straightly it erects (against any external interferences)/Vining on nothing for growth, reaching out no branches (symbolizing an independent and righteous figure spoiling no relationship of its company)..”
Lotus is a friend of hot days. In the beginning of summer, large and round lotus leaves erect from water and extend themselves above the pond for photosynthesis, forming nutrients in their best so that lotus flowers can show up on time in June and July, then turn themselves into fruitful seeds as well as strong and thick stems.
Today, not many Hong Kong people write poems and couplets, nor plough among lotus in rural areas as our ancestors did. Yet when we see lotus, we smile from the heart as if it is a natural resonance of joy written in our genes.
I am no prophet, and in no capacity to predict the future. As a lucky guy born in the 70s, I have witnessed the modernization, digitalization and aging of the world, as well as global warming.With observation of the changes on the Earth for more than half a century, I have also witnessed: while desolate country parks are now resided with sky-climbing trees, sea resource is about to be exhausted owing to over-fishing; while wildfire destroys every living creature, the ice at the North and South Poles melts, gradually turning the areas into a new world favoring subtropical species.Hong Kong’s natural environment has been changing as a result of human activities. While local species, endangered species, invasive species, ornamental garden plants, and genetically-modified species have gradually become “features” of our local ecology, the incapacity to study nature is now the norm of Hong Kong people.That’s the reality. Let me repeat, I am not a prophet. I can’t foretell the future of Hong Kong if the flame of changes is burning so vigorously. Snapshots of the past can serve as reference for predicting the future, perhaps.
