Inspirations

I'm done with my first Hong Kong sightseeing day. But I think I already have enough to go ahead and start my Sarah interview here in Hong Kong.

I'll start by having Sarah come to my hotel in Kowloon, discussing a number of things and looking at my computer (complete with a wallpaper of Calista Flockhart as Ally McBeal). We'll then explore Kowloon, first going to the nearby Tin Hau Temple to pay respects to Kwan Yin. We'll head to Tsim Sha Tsui for a dinner at a Szechuan or a Cantonese restaurant, overlooking the harbor; Sarah will probably give me a few tips on how to better enjoy Hong Kong. Afterwards, we'll explore the Avenue of the Stars, where we'll stop by Michelle Yeoh's handprints, and Sarah will nag me about my hopeless lesbianism one more time (as I've been known to discuss Michelle Yeoh's onetime appearance on the cover of a US lesbian magazine).

We'll retire to Sarah's room at a nearby luxury hotel, but not before seeing a few chess sets at a nearby souvenir shop, and wandering if there will ever be a set with Kwan Yin as the queen, as both are transwomen. Once in Sarah's room, I'll explore Sarah's computer for her writings as well as some photos, consisting of both Sarah's travel photos and Kirsten's artistic nude shots of Sarah. While Sarah will not showcase her body to me this time, I'll have her challenge me for even more board games. After three varieties of chess (Western, Chinese, Korean) and Go, Sarah will win all four - for a cumulative record of 8 for 8 against me. She'll surely feel very lucky; I'll then challenge her to a new game, Five-in-a-Row (gomoku in Japanese), which she'll win too, making it 9 for 9 - very divine.

Looking forward to writing this scene after my early sleep. While at it, I'll start planning my rendezvous with somewhat pregnant Kirsten, which will take back in Los Angeles after I return home and sell my BMW. It'll be a meeting of long-lost twin sisters, in character. Sarah may or may not be with us at that point.

Hong Kong

I've arrived in Kowloon.

I'll spend the next few days exploring the basics of Hong Kong - a one-of-a-kind city, and a major destination for Sarah's airline. In fact, I am certainly having another meeting with Sarah, right here in Hong Kong. In this "east meets west" city, Sarah will certainly blend in very well, even though she doesn't even speak Cantonese. (I don't either, but English is widely spoken, a relic of the British colonial era.)

I've found the last few days in South Korea to be extremely stressful, as I continue to find out about the treasonous, undemocratic activities of the new conservative government. It is a big concern, as it funds the Moonies in order to "pay respects" to a benevolent foreign force - the US Republican neocons - destroying American democracy in the process. South Korea is NOT a sovereign republic, but rather, a colony of a failed ideology and a discredited US political party. If South Korea were an actual colony of the entire US, and helping American democratic ideals as opposed to destroying them, I'd be much happier. In any case, I am glad to leave it behind for a few days and hang out in Hong Kong, which doesn't quite try to mess up US democracy yet (though mainland China might).

When I meet with Sarah here, she'll ask me about my South Korean road trip, which I had mentioned at our Seoul meeting. I will certainly spill the beans - but will fume about what I've seen in the past few days, and lament about the fact that I'll have to return to Seoul for ten more days after Hong Kong. I will, however, make clear that I continue to love the ordinary South Koreans more than ever, and take inspirations from them, despite their inability to pick a good government.

I am already thinking of a few possible venues for the meeting. We could meet at the Star Ferry dock, near the handprints of Hong Kong's famous movie stars, and take the ferry together to Hong Kong Island to climb Victoria Peak. We could return to Kowloon in the evening for a weird dinner, a stroll of the Ladies Market, and more, before retiring to Sarah's room for a few rounds of board games and a look at her laptop.

Hong Kong is warm and humid - but not too bad. It certainly beats freezing my behind off in Seoul. I'll reflect this in our wardrobe choices, though Sarah will probably dress in ways that Kirsten and I normally do (floral dress) while I'll probably take Sarah's style (tunic shirt with tights).

Looking forward to some great inspirations.

One more thing - the flight on Asiana went well. Boarding and disembarkation music were Christmas carols. I was recognized with my new United Premier status - Star Silver - entitling me to priority baggage handling. And as my flight did its takeoff roll at Seoul Incheon, I was able to spot a United 777 that had just arrived from San Francisco - always a welcome sight for me. In fact, I whispered "Hi Sarah!" at the 777, even though I knew that Sarah would be here in Hong Kong instead!

Photo essay coming up

I am about to prepare a photo essay and upload it to Facebook, when I get time.

It will consist of transgender-related stuff that I've come across in my past two months in South Korea. While transgender culture in South Korea is normally reduced to a few modern-day popular entertainers, there is a lot more to it - notably the worship of Kwan Yin and the prominence of shamanism.

The Kwan Yin-related stuff is already posted over at Christy's Art Blog. I already refer to Kwan Yin as the blog's "beloved transgender matron saint," and that's how I feel about her myself.

I hope some of the inspirations that I've taken over the recent months will make their way into my novel and into Sarah, as she continues to serve United Airlines' vast Asian network. And for that matter, I need to take those same inspirations into my own life.

More Travel Update

I've returned to Seoul, though I've been forced to relocate to the posh suburb of Seongnam, the birthplace of Harisu, South Korea's most famous transgender woman.

I've spent several more days on the road, and I am very pleased, as I've been able to pay pilgrimages to lots of Kwan Yin-related sites throughout the nation. Also, I managed to take my rental car into the parking garage of Lotte World in Jamsil, like I was supposed to do during my dinner scene with Sarah; it felt quite special, despite the pricey parking rates.

I must return my car tomorrow. I already extended my rental by a day, and I can continue to do so with advance notice, but it'll cost me dearly. Besides, as I keep driving, the Seoul road rage will eventually get to me, so I might as well give up my wheel while I am still loving the experience.

I'm looking forward to the next phases of my life. By the end of this week, I'll find myself in Hong Kong, finding new favorite hangouts for Sarah and making more Kwan Yin pilgrimages (one of them should take me to faraway Lantau Island, where the airport is). And before I know it, I'll be back in Los Angeles, replacing my Nazimobile with a Hyundai Genesis (and naming it after Kwan Yin). I expect to continue returning to Seoul for a while afterwards. Looking forward to all sorts of new, great inspirations for myself and for Sarah.

Travel Update

I'm in the midst of my road trip through South Korea, currently logging on from the historic capital of Gyeongju, a four-hour drive from Seoul.

When I had written my dinner scene with Sarah back in Seoul, I had picked a silver Hyundai Sonata as my rental car. Sure enough, that's what I ended up getting! I did drive the Olympic Expressway in southern Seoul, passing by Lotte World - the place where Sarah and I supposedly had dinner and did shopping - on my way out of the city.

Gyeongju is full of Buddhist relics, as it was the capital of the Silla kingdom, which had Buddhism as its state religion. I've come across more Kwan Yins than I can keep track of. I've surely seen a few very odd ones - including a topless Kwan Yin with a female hourglass figure but male breasts. And in all cases, the English caption boards continue to refer to Kwan Yin by her Sanskrit male name, Avalokitesvara.

If anyone ever did a portrait of Sarah, dressed in something feminine but topless and sporting male breasts, and captioned the portrait as Sanford, I think Sarah would really be offended.

I loved Gyeongju. I hate to leave the city and go back to Seoul, but I must in a few hours. At least I'll be able to come across a few more Kwan Yins, as I stop at three different Buddhist temples on my way back to Seoul. And once this whole deal is over and my car is returned, I'll look forward to doing even more Kwan Yin pilgrimages in Hong Kong. I am not sure if I'll ever send Sarah this way, however, as Gyeongju does not have its own airport, much less an international airport.

More interviews coming up

I really loved writing my dinner interview with Sarah, taking place in Seoul. And I am already thinking of what to include in the Hong Kong interview.

I need to keep this going, if only to get to know my characters better, and end up with an even better novel in the end. To that end, I will continue to write interviews with Sarah, in other places around the world. As I continue traveling to other Asian venues, including Tokyo, Taipei, and Bangkok, I will make sure to write a new interview with Sarah. Even Jeju Island, which I intend to visit in the future and which is certainly NOT on the United Airlines route map, may be fair game.

I will also interview Kirsten in Hollywood, as I need to get to know her a bit better too. Even if this means I have to meet a pregnant Kirsten in a maternity tunic sweatshirt, and even if it means I have to visit her while Sarah is on another foreign assignment, I will do it. I want this to pan out in the form of a sisterly meeting, as if we are twins separated at birth and meeting together for the first time. (In a way, we are!)

Looking forward to many inspirations ahead!

Pregnant Man is expecting again

Thomas Beatie, the transman who made headlines by giving birth to a daughter this past summer, is expecting again.

BBC

While I have zero plans to ever have a child or my own (or even adopt), this news makes Sarah's own reproductive plans all that more important. She and Kirsten will certainly cherish having their own child - completely their own.

A Facebook note

I posted my first-ever Facebook note, as follows. This was inspired by a very homophobic protest banner that I saw today, in front of South Korea's Human Rights Commission building. The commission has been very supportive of LGBTs and other disadvantaged groups, though its decisions are nonbinding; apparently, some people are VERY offended by the commission's continued support of LGBT rights. I have a post about it (with the offending banner, which is the second photo) over on my main blog.

I've seen the face of severe homophobia in South Korea. It hurts American LGBTs too, and proves that homophobia is far from a whites-only thing. But fortunately, the average South Koreans are as opposed to homophobia as I am.

In South Korea, there is a governmental body named the Human Rights Commission, which is completely nonpartisan and independent, and makes nonbinding recommendations regarding human rights laws in South Korea. It has generally been very supportive of many traditionally marginalized groups, including women, organized labor, foreigners, the young, and LGBTs.

The photo was taken in front of the Human Rights Commission's headquarters in downtown Seoul. Apparently, it recently made some rulings in favor of the nation's LGBT community. And as the left banner makes it clear, some people are clearly VERY offended. The banner, from an association of North Korean defectors, demands the resignation of the entire commission, for coddling and defending the destructive homosexual lifestyle while ignoring the real human rights problems over in North Korea. (Sorry, the commission doesn't have jurisdiction over North Korea just yet.)

Not pictured, there are two additional extremely homophobic banners hanging behind me, hung by other right-wing groups in solidarity.

It is very sad to know that the North Koreans, who claim to have defected to South Korea in search of freedom for themselves, are at the forefront of destroying other people's freedoms and their right to a pursuit of happiness. While "the right to a pursuit of happiness" is a fairly new concept in the Confucian, communal South Korean society, it is nevertheless firmly entrenched now and forms the basis of many new legal changes, including scrapping the old Confucian family registry system which denied many rights to anyone other than married men.

The North Koreans, due to their intense hatred of their home regime and its Communist orthodoxy, are prime and willing recruiting targets of South Korea's right-wing extremist groups, the neocons and the Republicans in the US, and the Christian extremists of both nations. While I previously held sympathy for their plight, I no longer do so, given this banner and the North Koreans' blatant support and praise of George W. Bush.

The homophobes have the upper hand, for now. Again, the Human Rights Commission's decisions are nonbinding, and certainly the homophobic Lee Myung-bak government will reject them. President Lee has been quoted as saying that homosexuality is an unnatural perversion to be discouraged at any cost, especially among the nation's youth. Lee is able to influence US politics by funding his US front, the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who has vowed to exterminate all homosexuals in South Korea, the US, and worldwide. I am very well convinced that all the homophobic legislations passed in the US this month, including Proposition 8 in Korean-American-rich California, benefited handsomely from illegal South Korean governmental influence. But seriously, Lee has more pressing issues that he must pay attention to first, including reviving the South Korean economy and ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula; with North Korea sealing the inter-Korean border as of next month, Lee is failing on the latter as well.

But he'd rather win religious extremist support by pushing homophobia, both within South Korea and over in the US. For that reason, he must be condemned, and the LGBT community in the US must wake up from its politically correct white liberal trance, and denounce South Korea and other foreign nonwhite homophobes in the strongest terms possible.

Fortunately, the people of South Korea are fed up. They are fed up with Lee, saying that the only reason they had voted for him was due to the lackluster candidates of the opposition, and even then they regret it now. And they are certainly fed up with homophobia. While it is very well accepted that religious and moral objections can be raised to homosexuality (after all, Confucians and Christians have tons of influence), it is also well accepted that such personal objections cannot ever justify systematic, legal oppression of LGBTs. The South Korean people love their economic accomplishments, love their budding democratic institutions, and love their freedom and equality; they certainly do not believe in taking any of this away from anyone, LGBTs included.

And unlike in the severely homophobic Korean-American community controlled by extremist megachurches, here in South Korea, just like in the mainstream US, the younger generation (people generally 40 and younger, and even well-educated ones a bit older) are strongly in favor of gay rights. They hate the Confucian orthodoxy, which hurts LGBTs disproportionately, as much as anyone else, and they are fed up with their society which still considers age, sex, and marital status as one's most important job qualifications. As this new generation rises through the ranks and becomes the establishment of tomorrow, South Korea will become a more equitable, more developed society. Expect gay marriage to be legal in Seoul in about 30 years, maybe much less. After all, the past several years have seen South Korea's transgender population gain legal recognition and many specific rights, and nobody ever saw that coming a decade ago.

I am more reminded than ever that I must fight homophobes throughout the world, regardless of their nationality or background. This includes Germany's BMW as well as various Religious Right groups in the US. I will certainly retire my once-beloved BMW 3-series as soon as I return to Los Angeles next month. However, we also must cultivate alliances with the fair-minded people of the world, regardless of nationality, religion, or any other characteristic, as well. The average people of South Korea are not outspoken advocates of the LGBT movement, but they nevertheless are important allies, and they will be the ones stopping the governmental and Moonie menace in the US. To that end, my BMW will be replaced with a Hyundai Genesis, a far superior vehicle anyway. It's also a reminder that South Korea managed to progress from crappy econoboxes to BMW-killers in just a generation, and that its people will make similar progresses on many other fronts - including LGBT rights - before we know it.

Looking forward to showing up at various California LGBT venues in my brand-spanking-new Hyundai Genesis! I will certainly share more stories of my South Korean sojourn, including the significance of Gwaneum (Kwan Yin in Chinese), the transgender Goddess of Mercy in Buddhism, when I show up.

I made sure to send a message to many of my Facebook friends announcing this note. Sure enough, I already got a feedback from Los Angeles - even though it's early morning there! I am hoping to spark something out of this. Who knows, Harisu may visit Deep Stealth Productions on her next visit to the US!

I certainly want Sarah to make similar observations as she travels around the world. To be honest, this very note may somehow become Sarah's own, as I write the novel.

Some afterthoughts

Yes, I had a great dinner with Sarah, right here in Seoul.

I did overlook a few things, which will have to be addressed in Hong Kong. I completely forgot about Sarah's personal laptop, which will probably be an Apple MacBook, with the capability to start up in Microsoft Windows as required.

I expect to have a peek into Sarah's own writings, including the Seoul travelogue that she is working on for the United Airlines inflight magazine. I want her to deal with shamanism, Kwan Yin, and other topics that are dear to her. She may even do this as an openly transgender employee of United.

I will also look at the programs that are installed in Sarah's computer. The Windows portion will probably run Microsoft Flight Simulator, which speaks to Sarah's love of aviation. I'll fire it up and expect to find the entire United Airlines fleet, as well as some preconfigured flight plans to her favorite destinations worldwide. When she doesn't work on the computer, I may find a screen saver as well, probably an official United Airlines screensaver of some sort.

Sarah may even show me the contents of her photo directory, which will have a number of her travel photos from around the world. She will also show me an online photo depository where she uploads the photos for public view. I also expect to find photos of Sarah herself, including the progressive nude photos taken by Kirsten. However, those will only reside inside Sarah's hard drive, as an upload could go public - even by mistake - and that will certainly put her career in jeopardy.

Finally, there will be even more tools of the trade that she could show me. Using Sarah's laptop, I'll be able to connect to an employees-only United Airlines server, where there will be lots of juicy information available. Sarah will connect to it primarily to bid for her favorite flights to work on, and to swap shifts with a coworker.

There is one thing that I considered, but scrapped. I briefly thought about having Kirsten come to Hong Kong to join us. However, I'll rule it out, due to her pregnancy, which takes a toll on her endurance as she travels. Besides, I don't want to meet her when she's dressed in a shapeless maternity tunic; I'd rather have her wear her trademark Ally McBeal miniskirt suits, tightly fitted. I may simply decide to wait until the childbirth, then visit Kirsten right at home in Hollywood.

Looking forward to getting to Hong Kong and writing the scene! Until then, I will enjoy my South Korean road trip.

Pleasant Surprise

Danish Girl is the story of a married artist couple in the early 20th Century Denmark, where the wife often painted pictures of women, using her crossdressed husband as her model. The husband turned out to be transgender, became the first post-op transwoman in modern history, and the two went on to live as lesbians, though the rise of the Nazis meant they had to flee their home. I've had a copy of this book, but didn't get around to reading it yet.

Now, I'm being told that there will be an independent movie based on the movie, starring Nicole Kidman as the husband and Charlize Theron as the wife. This is WAY too good to be true - but it is!

AfterEllen.com

I want to thank Lisa O'Connor, one of my Facebook friends, for posting this to her Facebook profile as a link. In the wake of even more gay marriage bans throughout the US, this is a very good news.

I'll certainly be waiting in line to see this movie. This one also has some parallels to my own novel plotline; Kirsten also works in the arts, she also happens to be an avid amateur photographer, and her favorite subject is Sarah in the nude in a flower field, at various stages of her gender transition.

And while at it, watching a Charlize Theron movie in this capacity will still allow me to show appreciation to South Africa and its long fight for justice and equality, even as I get rid of my South African-built BMW over BMW's inability to repent over its Nazi-era sins. Theron has also gone on record as saying that she will not get married, until gays can legally get married alongside her.

Dinner with Sarah - complete!

Between the plunging temperatures, the high humidity, and the tendency of full-blast heating in South Korea, I haven't been good at keeping my body at a comfortable temperature, and have succumbed to a cold.

As a result, I couldn't leave my apartment today. However, I took a lot of sleep and rest - and certainly used the time productively in completing my first dinner scene with Sarah, which takes place here in Seoul.

I took some fictional liberties; my original US election projections - a bare Obama win, and convincing passage of California's Prop 8 - were kept intact, for a slightly more pessimistic take on the actual results. I also fudged with the details of my car rental, as well as a few details within Seoul. But I am happy with what I ended up with. I ended up including a cell phone call from Kirsten during the scene - and that allowed me to speak to my alter ego for the first time! Of course, my new vow to get rid of my BMW as soon as I return to Los Angeles, as well as my upcoming trip to Hong Kong, also feature in the scene.

And speaking of Hong Kong, I am all set to go now. I simply need to stop by at an Asiana ticket counter tomorrow to pay for the ticket. Looking forward to enjoying Hong Kong - and to another wonderful evening with Sarah.

Transgender mayor

From Salon.com. Thanks to my mentor Gayle Brandeis for forwarding this to me.

Salon

This small-city Oregon mayor is a known quantity in local politics. He is a heterosexual man who loves to crossdress, and has now taken his crossdressing to the public. The residents of Silverton decided that he was competent enough to keep around no matter what. California needs to take a cue from these Oregonians.

I thanked her for the article, and informed her of my intentions to replace my BMW; as a Jew, she will be very glad to hear of my decision and the reasons. As I am planning to return home in mid-December, and won't be returning to Seoul until at least early January (if at all), I'll have ample time to look for a decent deal.

A few extra thoughts

I am too exhausted and mad to write the actual novel at this time. Even the dinner scene here in Seoul is a bit too much for me, for today.

But I continue to gather inspirations. The dinner scene consists of me and Sarah, in my rental car, driving over to Jamsil for a dinner and some shopping. Today, I spent time ice skating at Jamsil's Lotte World, the very place Sarah and I are going to in the scene. We may skate, even though Sarah is in a tunic shirt and I am in a mini; a number of mini-clad women do skate there. I also managed to see a few Western women around, a very tall middle-aged brunette and a young blonde, and both reminded me of Sarah to some degree. (And based on the sweatshirt, the blonde certainly seemed to be American.)

For the shopping portion, we were supposed to stock up on high-quality Korean hosiery, but I will go beyond that. We'll duck into a puzzle store to pick up magnetic game sets; while Sarah already has a magnetic travel set for chess, I will also give her another travel set, for Go and Korean chess, as she'll certainly want to try those games out. (In fact, I will even have Sarah tell me that she's been studying Go online for a year. However, Korean chess will be completely new to her, though she may have played the similar Chinese chess before.) Sarah is a natural at board games, and when we return to Sarah's hotel room to play the games, she'll beat me in all three games. We'll even attempt to play Chinese chess with the Korean set (which is definitely doable), and Sarah will give me a swift checkmate in that game too.

We will also shop at MAC Cosmetics counter at the department store, primarily because I need to replace my worn-out foundation case.

It'll be fun eating, shopping, and playing together. And in the privacy of the hotel room, Sarah will get to nag me quite a bit about spilling everything about her body in this blog. We will also look at Sarah's tools of the trade, as well as a Seoul travel article she's writing for United Airlines' inflight magazine.

Looking forward to resuming my writing once I am in a better mental state, and looking forward to collecting more inspirations.

Location/Time Zone Change

Given that I won't be going home until January at least (most likely after Obama takes office), and given that I am extremely fed up with California's tradition of reactionary politics, both from the white natives and from the Third World immigrants, I will no longer list my location as California.

I've been in Seoul for the vast majority of my past two months. Seoul is now my second home, and will remain so for a long while, as I continue to return here frequently over the next few years. There are lots of things for me to do here, from meditating to gathering inspirations to kicking some asses of the South Korean right-wing extremists who are glad to fund California's destructive tendencies.

To that end, I will list my location as Seoul until further notice, and switch my blog timer over to GMT +9. When I visit Hong Kong, I may reflect that in my status. But when I do return to California, my location will simply go blank, and the time stamp will go to GMT.

Now, back to the novel.

A shout-out to Grandpa Warren

Yesterday, I took a quick bullet train trip to Daejeon, to visit a decent science museum there. The museum had an outdoors exhibit area showcasing some older military equipment, and while I normally don't show much interest in war machinery, this exhibit certainly caught my attention.

This is the North American F-86F Sabre. It was one of the first jet fighters to see service, and served the US Air Force during the Korean War. During the war, Sabre pilots shot down 792 MiG-15's while losing only 78 of their own. This example, however, is not a USAF example, but flew for the South Korean Air Force between 1955 and the late 1960s before being replaced by the F-5; South Korea had to make do with P-51 Mustangs and other prop planes during the war itself (and had been dragged into the war with no real air force at all).

For Sarah, the F-86 is important, because her maternal grandfather, Warren, was a USAF pilot during the Korean War, busy shooting down those Soviet MiG's. Warren is the one who inspires Sarah to take an interest in aviation, after countless stories of his service in the Korean War and all sorts of weird facts about the F-86, the MiG-15, and the Gloster Meteor, the British Royal Air Force's own jet fighter in the Korean War.

I loved being reminded of Grandpa Warren and his service here in Korea - as well as Sarah herself and her own service over the Korean (and other nations') skies, though in a very different capacity.

As I returned to Daejeon's train station to start my return to Seoul, I was able to get the updates from the US presidential race, with Barack Obama confirmed as the winner. Both Sarah and I should be rejoicing, as W has been horrible to both the LGBT community and the economy (especially Sarah's employer), and Obama will certainly make improvements. However, the enthusiasm has been severely dampened, as the South Korean governmental interference in US politics, in the form of California's gay marriage ban, is apparently successful, though the last time I checked, some votes still needed to be counted, it's still quite close, and the final word is not out yet.

Update

I am in Seoul, most likely until the New Year.

Not much to say, other than that my dinner scene with Sarah, which takes place right here in Seoul, is coming along very nicely.

I have taken a few liberties as I wrote it. First, I am assuming that Barack Obama wins the US presidency, though barely, and that California bans gay marriages. (I sincerely hope I am wrong on the latter.) Second, I am picking up my car and taking Sarah to dinner later this week on a rainy day, even though I don't expect rain this week, and I won't even have my car until around the end of the month. And lastly, I am putting a Thai restaurant on the top floor of Lotte Department Store in Jamsil, even though in reality, there is no Thai restaurant there. (Lotte's main store in downtown DOES have a very nice Thai place, and I decided to simply move it over to Jamsil.)

Looking forward to finishing the scene up soon, and learning a lot about Sarah in the process. And we have to also set up our next dinner - in Hong Kong!