Sunday, November 14, 2004 @1:09 PM
I have a new idol! He's Shuichi Hidano, a Japanese tyco player.
Lay, Jen, Ah Ma and I went to the Singapore Chinese Orchestra Grand Orchestraa Series VI, Eastern Exposure at the Singapore Conference Hall yesterday night. We called Han and Fu Er along but they had something on at night. What a pity! We had MANY extra tickets which are worth $18 because many of my junior gave them up as they had programmes at night. Lay and I only managed to get Jen and Ah Ma to go.
I was damn impressed by him!!!! The way he played the drums with the percussionists from SCO, their co-ordination was perfect! I could almost see all his muscles and veins protruding! He shouted the command loud and clear before raising his drum sticks and that certainly added atmosphere and life to the entire performance. =) Everyone in the hall was filled with awe, clapping for him and his fantastic performance for 1 and a half minute non-stop! Even the SCO players on stage followed the audience in the clapping of an encore; the SCO percussionists were even more playful! They tapped the beat on the drum to force him out! In the end, we had 3 encores from him!!! And the last one, he sang! hee... that melted my heart! His voice rocks too! Poor thing, he was perspiring profusely after the entire performance! =)
At the end of the performance, there's an autograph session. I waited right in front of his seat and copied down his name on a piece of paper. Armed with Lay's handphone, I captured many photos of him, but many had him blocked by people. humph. ahha... he's so shuai! I heard from Jackson that he's only 22 years old. I will do more research on him.
But, I truly enjoyed myself last night! =)
However, I learnt from my mum last night after I came home that Iris Chang, the author of The Rape Of Nanking, committed suicide. 3L should be familiar with this, remember the book Mr Lim always recommended us to read in our school library during our History lessons? Finally, I saw her appearance in the photo published along with the report. Isn't it ironic? Why is it that we always know someone through his/her death? Before this, I knew her book at the back of my mind. Now, I am determined to borrow her book from the library and finish reading it.
Here's a paragraph of description in her book: "An estimated 20,000 - 80,000 Chinese women were raped. Many soldiers went beyong rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters and sons their mothers as other family members watched." The Rape of Nanking touched raw nerves, and I felt this after just reading this paragraph. I guess I would just burst into tears when I finish the heart-wrenching book.
She apparently put a bullet through her own head on Tuesday, losing a three-month-long battle with depression as she felt the pain of those she wrote about. I guess the accumulation of hearing those stories, year after year after year, may have led to her depression. I believed she took things to heart and became emotionally involved in the tragic stories about which she wrote.
Sadly, a great woman who brought the truth to light, exposing under-reported Japanese war crimes during World War 2, is gone forever.