This is the fourth time I’m writing my year-end summary for 2011. The first time was on New Year’s Eve, in the dormitory at my workplace in Shiwan. The second time was required by my workplace and has already been printed and submitted. The third time was on the night of January 14, when I returned home and was alone in the office. The fourth time is now, on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the eve of the New Year. Despite repeated attempts, I still haven’t managed to complete this year-end summary.

When exactly did the existing Cantonese hybridize?

First of all, Cantonese is definitely not the ancient Chinese from the time of Confucius. Just compare it with any Middle Chinese pronunciation video, and you’ll see that the phonetic structures are almost entirely different.

Secondly, it’s also unlikely to be from the Sui and Tang dynasties. If Cantonese had been passed down from the Sui and Tang periods, there should be N types of Cantonese dialects in Guangdong today, similar to the situation in Hunan and Fujian, where dialects vary every three miles. The uniformity of Cantonese across the region suggests that its formation period couldn’t have been too long. Most of Guangdong, apart from the Pearl River Delta, is made up of secluded mountainous areas. In an agrarian environment, where generations have lived in the same place, the language couldn’t have changed significantly (without the migration of people speaking other dialects). However, due to continuous wars, residents moved around, and dialects hybridized. It’s easy for the language on either side of the same mountain to change due to the migration of people from different regions. But this phenomenon is not prominent in Guangdong; people in the Pearl River Delta can generally understand the dialects of western and northern Guangdong. This indicates that the existing Cantonese likely formed during the last large-scale population migration, which was during the Yuan and Ming periods.

Occasionally reading the “People’s Court Daily,” there was an article mentioning a case of illegal absorption of public deposits tried by the Foshan court:

Subsequently, Aosizhida Company joined as a subordinate distributor of Huasida Company, operating entirely according to Huasida’s fraudulent model: promoting to clients the advertising spaces on the business opportunity zone of the P.CN website, owned by the top-level company of the entire fraudulent network, Greater China Weisida Network Technology Co., Ltd., and their development and investment prospects. They promised that for every 10,000 yuan invested, clients would receive about 1,600 yuan per month, with the investment doubling in less than a year. They then used the received funds to pay out some of the due returns, enticing clients who had received small profits to increase their investments, thereby continuously expanding the scale of public funds absorption.

Some say, “It takes 21 days to change a habit.” While the number may not hold up under scrutiny, it does represent a trend. Through deliberate acceptance or abandonment over a period of time, forming or changing a habit becomes a natural progression.

Developing a habit of regularly blogging started around my sophomore year, but by July of this year, it seemed to come to an abrupt halt. What I once thought was the most unlikely habit to abandon has, along with that dreaded judicial exam, become a thing of the past.

Regarding “birthdays,” in the past, apart from remembering my own, it was difficult to remember others’, although there is no logical connection between the two. Later, with continuous reflection on family and social life, I began to pay special attention to the birthdays of “close relatives” as defined by civil law and those of some important friends. However, due to the repetition and confusion of the current calendar systems, it is often challenging to unify whether that particularly significant date is based on the Gregorian or lunar calendar, depending on the place or group of people.

After reading this post: The Retrial Case of Super Racer, Highlighting the Dark Side of Foshan Judiciary, I felt deeply uncomfortable. Judges, as neutral arbitrators, are constrained by the Judges Law and the Code of Judicial Ethics, which limit their freedom of speech. They cannot respond to public criticism of their rulings, nor can they publicly express their views or attitudes towards their own or others’ cases.

Therefore, on the internet, it is rare to see judges responding to various case-related criticisms. In fact, due to their rigorous training, judges have developed a method of sifting through and discarding various criticisms. However, public criticism of cases can easily undermine the trust of the general public in the courts and judges. Spreading rumors is simple, but debunking them is far more difficult. Moreover, baseless rumors and insults against judges, due to the special nature of the judicial role, are extremely hard to refute unless they rise to the level of criminal behavior.

Recently, there has been a little more content about Yu Qiuyu on Weibo, among which the following two are more representative:

[Yu Qiuyu publishes “Mob Theory”: “Everyone who attacked me worshiped me”] Yu Qiuyu published a new book saying that attacking others for no reason is a sin. Those mobs who really lack morality use celebrities to complete their spiritual compensation. They will have criminal impulses when they see wealth, sex, and power, but because they have nowhere to vent their criminal impulses, they can only reluctantly sustenance by framing celebrities. Chinese celebrities must undertake psychological projection obligations for these people.

Last weekend, I had a small gathering with two friends at a KTV we frequented during our later university years. Since there were few people, I ended up singing from 8:30 PM until past 1:00 AM. Afterward, I took a taxi back to my dorm, showered, and collapsed into bed, exhausted.

The next morning, the noise from ongoing construction outside was still loud, so I went to the office to study. During the day, amidst various environmental sounds, I didn’t notice anything unusual. However, by evening, especially after 8 or 9 PM, as the outside noise gradually subsided, I began to sense an abnormal ringing in my ears. By around 11 PM, this sound became unbearable in the quiet, empty office.

I rarely stay in the dormitory, so having an Ethernet cable isn’t a big necessity for me at the moment. Occasionally, when I need temporary internet access, I use my BlackBerry.

However, using a mobile phone for internet access has its limitations. For example, when I bring my laptop back to the dorm at night and feel like singing along with Foobar2000, I find that I can’t download lyrics because there’s no internet connection, which is quite disappointing. So, I connect my phone to the computer via USB, open BlackBerry Desktop Software (previously known as DM), and enable the mobile network to easily allow the computer to use the phone’s internet connection.