Thoughts on Manga: Young Guns

I decide to start writing down thoughts about manga (Japanese word for "comics") that I read. It might be interesting if I look back at these thought 10 or 20 years later of my life :)

Interesting thing is, the first manga I want to write about is not by a Japanese artist.

Title: Young Guns
Artist: Lin Zheng de (林政德)

Apparently this is a very popular manga in Taiwan during the 90s. The artist is from Taiwan and Young Guns is his most famous work. Young Guns started at 1990 and finished at 2010 with 12 volumes.

Young Guns is a slice of life/situational comedy type manga. It doesn't really have a major plot line. The story focus on the life of main character, a 1st year senior high student JianPing Yuan (袁建平). It begins with JianPing falling in love on first sight with HuiWen Su (蘇慧文), a 2nd year senior high girl JianPing he met on the school bus. The story revolved around JianPing's high school life, about how he tried to win the affection of HuiWen and about all the other new interesting friends he meet and the misunderstanding that arises.....

The main male casts: ShinPeng Zhang (張士朋), JianPing Yuan (袁建平), and RiHui Yeung (楊日輝)

The story may not sound very interesting but the casts left me a very deep impression. The three main male characters are what considered to be trouble makers in any high school. The artist tried to portrait them as the "handsome bad-ass" type. They often drive the humor of the story and shows the troubled side of boys in school.

The female cast from left to right: HuiWen, Daiya, YouLan, JiangPing's sister, BaoJin, and I don't remember who the last person is...

I love the female casts of the manga. Each of the girls are beautiful in their own way. Not only there is the smart, beautiful, top of the class HuiWen, there is also the sexy but trouble making girl YouLan Ji (紀幼蘭), the cold appearing class-rep Daiya Chen (陳玳雅), and the cute neighborhood type girl BaoJin Zhong(鍾寶津). They are often the cause of trouble for the boys at that age and brings many misunderstanding.

The artist's drawing is all right. The facial expression needs more work, but the artist pays a lot of attention to the fashion design and that really gives each character individuality.

One things that really make this manga stand out: the dialogues. The artist really pay attention to the use of slang. Just like the fashion in Young Guns, the dialogues really give individually to each characters.

I had a good laugh reading this manga. I finished all 12 books in one sitting. It is very enjoyable, but I didn't really like the ending. I believe Young Guns was originally intended to be a much longer series, but the artist's situation just doesn't allow it. Young Guns would probably have a better conclusion if it finished with 19 books like the manga "Suzuka."

Hong Kong's Failing Government System

At least the public is still confident at the judicial branch,

Hong Kong is probably the only territory in China that has judicial indepdence

Today's Hong Kong mingpao newspaper has an editoral on challenges Hong Kong's government is facing in governing Hong Kong. After reading this editoral, I feel like sharing some of my thought on the system.

Hong Kong's government system mirrors the US system in many ways. The executive branch and the legislative branch are completely seperated. The chief executive (CE) and its cabinet members are often not members of the legislative council. It is a system that works well in the US but is failing Hong Kong.

When the legislative branch and the executive branch are divided on an issue, the United States President has the political captial to negogiate with the Congress because the president is elected by the people of the US. On other side, Hong Kong's CE looks weak in front of the legislative council because it is elected by a non democratic electoral college. Unlike the US president, it is much more difficult for the CE to claim its own opinion represent the interest of the general public.

Another major failure of Hong Kong's current government system is on the selection of the cabinet members (In Hong Kong, the term "cabinet members" means the secrataries to the major departments and members of the executive council.). Most of the cabinet appointments in the US must be approved by the Congress. The appointees are also usually professionals that have tremendous experience that is related to the appointment. It is not uncommon for the president to select members from the opposing parties to be in the cabinet. This rigorous selection system doesn't exist in Hong Kong. The CE could form a very biased cabinet and only hear one sided opinion on many issues. This makes it very easy for the cabinet and the legislative council on a collision course in many issues.

Money is what keeps us together

There is an article in the Globe and Mail today that caught my interest. The title of the article is called "Harper's Fourth Pillar of Federalism."

The article basically discuss the current Primer Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, is strengthening the Canadian Federation using the new infrastructure funding within the economic stimulus package. The author labeled these infrastructure fundinsg as the "Fourth Pillar of Federalism." The other three pillars are the cash transfers, equalization and tax collection deals with the provinces.

It would be interesting to see if these infrastructure money will continue to flow from Ottawa to the provinces and cities in the next several years. I really doubt the cities have enough cash to maintain all these newly built infrastructure on the years to come.

Sometimes it really feels like the Canadian federation is not about common ideals or cultures. The sole reason of the federation's existence seems to be money. Money from Ottawa is what really keeps us together as Canadians. Maybe this is not a bad thing, it keep things realistic and peaceful.

If the Canadian federation is governed like China (where Beijing has the ultimate say in everything), I am sure Quebec would have left a long time ago.

Maybe I will write about China next time.