Artist or Worm or Both

Steve,

I can read the Chinese passage regarding choas sent. To me, it is not the people's behaviour but the attitude (value) of the society towards it that matters. It is quite a complicated sociology issue for one need to understand the concepts of society and its poeple, and their interlocking, interacting relation.

Talking about that so-called cross-media veteran who received his college education in the UK, I would like to quote a sentence recently learned elsewhere: "The decay of society is praised by artists as the decay of a corpse is praised by worms." (corpse means dead animal body)

Below is a translated (by me) version of Tao Kit's reply to the criticism to his money oriented work attitude and his 無風骨 during the interview published in the latest Express Weekly:

"So what, it is the way to live in HK. I would not pretend highbrow (清高). As living in HK, I will ask myself to follow its value. 'When in Rome, you have to what the Romans do.' What else except money do HK people focus on? I would be different if I were to live in other place. Now if I am cheated out of my money, I will feel painful. Being cheated out of my empathy (sympathy or love) or trust on somebody is a minor issue to me. It is because, as his age grows, a man will cool down and his emotion settle down."

Noting his saying above, what could one expect from such man who is proficient in history and literature of both Europe and China, and knowledgable about Western value, and had worked in BBC? He might be ambitious to be not only an artist but a worm.

Sadly, what could one expect from the society in and by which he is being transfomed, on some way consciously and on other unconsciously? Fortunately, the value of the society might be measured by Heng Seng Index, complemented by its GDP, land auction prices, and so on.

Cheers,
Eric