The Beauty of Colours

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By Paul Chong

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A Kaleidoscope of Colours

Colours are naturally positive

Nothing about colours is negative

How sad & dull it would be

In a world without any colours to see.

Behold the glorious sunset or rainbow

Behold the colourful flowers in rows

The rainbow attracts both young & old

Flowers delight the eyes, heart, mind & soul.

In art colours render their part

In films colours rapture our hearts

One colour alone cannot claim the glory

Different hue of colours magnify the story.

The world is never to be just black or white

Neither is sunlight of pure coloured light

It’s the mix and blend

That made all things grand.


Colour is not a personal or human reality, but has a political overtone attached. In dressing & art, white matches well with other colours, and whatever the mix & blend, the result is often grand. It seems a shame that politically it’s not workable. Instead of easy mixing & blending, we see ugliness, repulsion & all sorts of conflict.

A Good Mix of Colours

In the cinematography, black & white filming has long been out. Glorious technicolour is the result. There is beauty in a colour mix and the best qualities of each colour are often manifested. Qualitatively & quantitatively, the world will be a lovelier place with all its colours, like the sunrise or sunset, the rainbow and the flowers in different hue & rows. It does take a lot of colours to paint a beautiful picture.

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As can be seen, colours add beauty. There should always be a flow and blending of colours. If God had intended the world to be just white or black, yellow or brown, He would have created it so.

Ironically, white people would go to great length to get a suntan and risk having skin cancer. Freckles and other unsightly spots show clearly through white skin. Thus getting a good suntan gives that nice brown shine.

Let not our eyes turn green with envy or jealousy, but rather to let the beauty of the eyes – blue, green, brown, grey or black shine through for all to appreciate. As a matter of fact, white people are more fortunately endowed, apart from their eyes, with a variety & shade of hair colours too.

The world is interestingly full of colours. Can you imagine what the world would be like without colours? Or just White? Black? Yellow or Brown?

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Friday, 17 July 2009

Chinese Western Opera Stars Coming of Age

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Chinese Western Opera Stars Coming of Age

Most of the average men & women in the street have never been to a night at the opera, or stepped into the grandeur of the Opera Houses in the world like The Vienna Opera House, Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, Paris National Opera House, Metropolitan Opera House New York, or the Sydney Opera House. A night there in any of those Opera Houses with real life tenors, sopranos, altos & contraltos will be a lifetime experience.

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However, in modern times, with the availability of the multi-media, we have been privileged to hear “The Three Tenors” in the persons of Luciano Pavarotti (deceased), Jose Carreras & Domingo. The appearance of the three great tenors singing together has contributed much to the popularity of the opera. Most people are also familiar with The Phantom of the Opera, the stage musical & movie made famous by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The original novel by Gaston Leroux tells of a disfigured musical genius (Gerald Butler) who haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House.

My romance with the opera stretched back to my early school years in Taiping, Malaysia where we were taught simple appreciation of the classical music. Names of Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli & Björling, the legendary three tenors, come to mind vividly. Caruso with his famous rendering of Verdi’s Rigoletto “La Donna e Mobile” (better known in English as “Woman is Fickle”) was featured in a film by Mario Lanza. As a school cinema operator, with the carbon arc screening 35 mm projector, which by now must be long obsolete, I used to enjoy such great musical shows, and would you believe it, I used to have the voice of Caruso in the my ancient “wire recorder”- a souvenir from the war years.

This afternoon, Hunan Satellite TV presented a tremendous opera program featuring three tenors & three sopranos who have made their talent felt on the world stage. They were demonstrating the unique style of opera singing and what a difference with the conventional pop singing.

Australia’s answer to the famous Three Tenors are the Chinese Trio – Hao Zhou, Stephen Wu & Shidi Chen who came together in early 1990s and were first invited to sing as part of Sydney’s bid for the 2000 Olympics. Since that time the group has performed across Australia as well as in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. They have migrated to Australia charming & amazing audiences with their songs in Italian, French, German, English and Chinese, all in the one program.

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It’s universally contended that authentic western opera can only be found in Europe. But another tenor Ding Yi has broken both the tradition & the mould. He’s made a place for himself on the world stage, while maintaining his strong foothold in his native mainland China. It’s been a long hard road.

Born of a composer father & a soprano mother . . . the teacher was telling him he lacked the talent to be a good opera singer. Doctor told him he should stabilize his voice with controlling his Adam’s apple.

“Concert of Chinese and Foreign Classic Songs” was performed at the Shenzhen Grand Theatre. Of the dozen singers, the most admired was Ding Yi, a tenor who the MC said is the No 1 singer at the Central Opera House in Beijing. He was certainly good. He and another soprano, Ma Mei (who was great too) wound up the concert with a duet from the famous Madame Butterfly.

Opera Arts described him as “a tenor that has made Italian directors sit up.” He has numerically represented China on the world stage & winning awards & praiseworthy criticism. At home, he is equally in demand whether it’s public or charity performance.

China with a pool of 1.3 billion people & millions taking up music, it goes without saying how much more impact the Chinese tenors & sopranos will have on the world stage. It will only be a question of time.

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Friday, 17 July 2009

Turn Your Disability to Victory

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Turn Your Disability to Victory

In golf there’s often that love hate relationship!

Do you look forward to your weekend round of golf, only to experience frustration, anger and disgust!

If so, the following story will fire you with inspiration and wild imagination!

The human body is a miraculous piece of biological mechanism capable of performing feats beyond your wildest imagination. Recently, I learnt from CBS of a young man by the name of Kyle, through the mishap of congenital birth was born without arms and legs, and yet is a champion wrestler. For the keen golfers, whether you are only a weekend player or playing more frequently, you might have heard of Dr David Gaudin, whose handicap, as low as 12, is now about 20.

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Such a handicap you might say is nothing worth emulating. However, David Gaudin was born without legs, and like Kyle, that hasn’t stopped him from playing the game he loves. Zeke Bratkowski, that old Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers quarterback, a 5-handicapper at age 73, who’s been to places and seen lots of things, has this to say: “Dr. David shows how magnificent a human being can be.”

The amazing thing is that he uses regulation clubs and hits full shots from his stool with a conventional grip. He pitches, chips and putts from the ground. His best drives are low-trajectory fades that go some 200 yards to his target. He makes an uncommon number of putts inside 10 feet. This is what he has to say: ”We all do the best we can with what we’ve got.”

David Gaudin is 57 years old and has played golf since his Baton Rouge High School days, when a school buddy said. “Let’s get a stool.” Initially, David was falling off the stool and repeatedly getting on and was soon loving it. At Louisiana State University, whenever he and his buddy Walter Smith III were short on grocery money, they would look for golf opponents, or rather golf pigeons, eager to take advantage of a handicapped player with no legs. Smith might have negotiated three shots a hole because of David’s physical handicap – no legs and how could he ever play golf? At day’s end, two shots a hole were more than enough to feed the hungry college students.

David was born with a condition known as femur-fibular-ulna, a good-looking guy and everybody’s friend. He wrestles, plays football. With a torso of a 200-pounder, he bench-pressed 450 pounds, but they wouldn’t let him wrestle heavyweights saying he might get hurt.

Together with his wife Beth, a nurse practitioner, and four partners, they have 25,000 patients. Now a husband and father of two sons and step-father of a daughter, Dr. Gaudin drives most every weekend from Louisiana to Florida, where he pilots his 65-foot yacht and plays golf with whatever pigeons flutter his way.

Paul Chong

An Avid Golfer

Story of the Five Fingers

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Story of the Five Fingers

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Let me tell you a moral story

Of the Five Fingers seeking glory

The Thumb was strong, stout & proud

Ruling leadership contest out

Whereupon the Index Finger pointed out

That challenge was there and about

The Third Finger stood tall and said

“You’re all short & below me you’ll stay.”

Then the Fourth Finger countered

Urging them to recall their day’s of great encounter

Everyone agreed that it was their wedding day

When they had the ring with the Fourth Finger there to stay

Being so important, he claimed the day

Finally & amusingly, the Last Finger took hold of the ship

Reminding them all of the Holy Bible

“The first shall be the last & the last shall be the first principle.”

When the argument seemed futile

The Guardian Angel from above put them to the trial

She dropped a piece of paper for each one to pick

Seemingly ridiculous, the Thumb tried to stick

But alas he could not lift

Likewise with each & everyone in turn

The paper appeared to be such a burden

When everyone was satisfied with their own vain attempts

The Guardian Angel urged them to combine to save their energy then

Together they picked up the paper

Then they realised what they could master.

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Time – The Threshold of Eternity

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TIME – THE THRESHOLD OF ETERNITY

(Read Ecclesiastes 3)

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William Shakespeare, the great English playwright, said that everybody had twenty-four hours a day. . . it’s what you do with your time that matter. Time, after all, is an illusion. It expands

and contracts to suit one’s convenience.

Time on earth is brief and fleeting

Rapidly it passes like a ship a-sailing

Three score and ten years are but a span

The life of man does come to an end.

Time cannot be accumulated nor recalled

Every moment though precious, cannot be stored

Unlike the bank of money deposits can be made

The bank of time offers only “Take”.

Time can be spent or wasted in reality

Make your priorities with keen possibilities

Procrastinate not with rationalization

God’s calling requires no justification.

There is a time for everything

Everything demands your right thinking

No human logic can be applied however

When it comes to God’s grace and power.

Make your spiritual life count

Care not just your bank account

Send your booking ahead to heaven

Lest it’s too late towards the end.

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Golfing Heavenly!

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Golfing Heavenly!

(By Paul Chong)

SANY0871One-Putt Shot

Every now & again, we simply love to get that wonderful great feeling of being alive & living. It’s a feeling difficult to paint in words or utter in poems or sing in songs. It’s like nothing on earth – a sensation akin to playing golf on the fresh light of day amidst the rolling green of Joondalup Country Club Golf Resort.

The scene that greets our eyes is simply stunning and spectacular, as my son David & I step into the first tee of “The Lakes” course. The spectacular beauty as provided by the Lakes course speaks volume of joy & excitement, as like being greeted by Peter at the Pearly Gates (not that I really know what that will be really like). Fresh rolling green . . . the alluring blue of the Lakes . . . featured captivatingly at the first fairway against the background of the clubhouse as the ball soars through the air along its narrow passage way. It is the first telling sign of what’s ahead and the concluding end of this nine-hole course. Beauty to begin with and end with at the clubhouse. Nothing compares with such a captivating scene set against the backdrop of the alluring lakes, the clubhouse & the resort hotel, befitting an ace as the superb tournament-finishing hole.

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Of the three courses, The Quarry, The Lakes and The Dunes, making up the 27-Hole golf course, we were told by regulars and members, that The Lakes is the least difficult and challenging. Nonetheless, this first hole can be quite intimidating as the nine winds its way to the highest point of the Joondalup course with views across to the Rottnest Island, south to Perth City and inland to Perth Hills.

The last hole is most dramatic & challenging, cascading downhill to the green guarded by one of the lakes. Most parts of the course are fairly open without any obstruction, except for the tricky numerous bunkers and isolated grasstrees or clumps of them. The course is largely undulating with unseen grassy deeps or hollows and quarry. Its natural environment attracts kangaroos which appear to be more than friendly in close proximity. The paved paths from hole to hole clearly show the way for golfers who walk or those on golf carts.

Many posh residential homes back unto the edge of the golf course. Players are pleasantly reminded of their responsibilities towards any damage to the private properties that may arise. Signs are clearly displayed.

As with most play, it is imperative to have straight tee shots, keeping to the fairway to avoid losing balls to the trees or to the waters or to the pits. Accuracy rather than distance rules play here on the whole. Holes may be set up close to the water edge or to the edge of high elevation such as the eighth hole.

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We golfers tend to concentrate solely on the balls and in the process fail to see the surrounding beauty which God has provided and enhanced further by the architect of the golf course. This is exactly what happened to us both when we overlooked the great span of scenery to the Indian Ocean, Rottnest Island, Perth City and Perth Hills at the 4th hole.

To thoroughly enjoy such a spectacular course, an early tee-off is recommended. You will then not be plagued by crowds in front of you nor pushed by players behind you. We certainly took our time, taking pictures and video for memories sake. At $50 per player (for non-members) on a week day for a nine-hole play is a bit pricey for a pensioner like me. But the services and friendliness of the staff do make all the difference to give its image and prestige as one of the top golfing retreats in Western Australia.

Paul Chong

An Avid Golfer

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Friday, 5 September 2008

Love Is . . .

On By Paul1 Comment

Love Is . . .

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Love is not physical

It surpasses words mentionable

It generates from deep within

In the heart and soul it shall cling.

Love is patient and kind

It may not have outward sign

Love transmits through feeling

Even distance prevents not the yearning.

Love is care of the utmost

Understanding in the foremost

It binds the heart together

Rids fear and insecurity like no other.

Love is pure and gracious

Never you have to feel anxious

Truth and happiness prevail

As all good relations entail.

True love never die

It grows with the tide

The bond of love should grow

Like the stream it shall always flow.

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Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

I Love Thee

On By Paul2 Comments

Thee I Love

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I love Thee

As though there’s no tomorrow.

I love Thee

In joy and in sorrow.

I love Thee

Not for all the silver nor gold.


I love Thee

For the reasons that follow:

You’re kind

You’re divine;

You’re sweet

You’re cute;

You’re loving

You’re caring;

You’re beautiful

You’re dutiful;

You’re thoughtful

You’re faithful;

You’re great

You’re a mate.

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I love Thee

For a thousand more reasons.

I love Thee

Throughout all the Seasons.

You’re the Spring of my Youth

You’re the Summer of my Charm

You’re the Autumn of my Grace

You’re the Winter of my Life.

tn_moncherie


Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Watch Out! Being Old & Disabled

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Watch Out!

Being Old & Disabled

mr_six_contest_smallStill Spirited & Energetic?

It’s said don’t grow old, but grow up. Yet from my own personal observation, this phenomenon is hardly the case. You would expect that after years of togetherness as a couple, each partner in the relationship would become more caring for each other. Relationship can mellow and sweeten with the years or contrarily sour for all you care! It would be sad to see the latter happening.

Modern relationship is so fragile. Long established ones are rare. Surprisingly, especially going by Hollywood’s mode, you’ll find a few exceptions like Ronald & Nancy Reagan – best known actors for a sustaining relationship. Even then there’s the tint of shadow in the form of Jane Wyman.

flu seasonOld & Miserable – “I see not, I hear not, I speak not”!

I know of a nice Singapore family with a son confined to the wheelchair, and more recently a doctor friend of mine with multiple-systems atrophy, both suffering from abandonment by their partners. These are two paraplegic examples only – one still in the prime years and the other in the golden years of life. It’s all a question of “for better” certainly not “for worse” as spelt out in the marriage vow.

Alas where do we find romance lasting till the end! The musical strains of tears and stress through the years have but all disappeared. People still love to hear of a romantic story of courage without fear, of love with all the tears, of sharing and caring with the years. But they are not happening in real life. “What about me?” rather than “What about we?” Gross individualism predominates in all situations these days . . . my own car, my bank account, my social life, my this and that. The list is unending with the divorce lawyer laughing all the way to the bank.

40-animals-tendernessTenderness & Togetherness – Human Can Learn from the Birds

Don’t human beings care any more? Are we so devoid of feelings and emotion in the face of materialism? Don’t we ever going to consider negative consequences resulting from the fall-out?

I am not an expert to provide you with solutions.

I just provide you with thought provoking questions.

Your comments are most welcome.

Paul Chong


The Golden Sunset

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The Golden Sunset

Most people gaze at the sunset than they do with sunrise.

In the morning it’s always the constant rush for work

Or sleeping late when weekend’s on.

But sunset coincides with time when work’s done.

SANY2065Sunset Over Perth City from Perth Hills

As I look out towards the city

And behold the sunset in all its glory

Streaks of red, orange, yellow and gold

The magnificence of colours gradually unfold.

City lights below slowly twinkle on

Seeming to respond in a song

As the sky slowly darkens

The multitude of lights brighten.

Like all good things twilight soon fades

Darkness and night come in their wake

How fleeting must all this be

Like all the wonders that we see.

Sunset precedes the dawn of a new day

Brave yourself, be glad and pray

The dark hours will soon pass away

Dawn and sunrise will be on their way.

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent