我太太喜歡手工藝製作，不單只是學習現成的，有很多還是自己的創作；家裏其中一個房間就是她的創作室，擺滿工具、材料、和製成品。她也藉著這個興趣賺點外快，開了一間網上店舖售賣自己的製成品；每逢聖誕期間，我們住的小鎮有類似年宵市場的擺賣市集，她都會擺檔三兩天，賺錢是其次，最令她開心的是顧客欣賞她的作品。每年擺賣回來，她也有些滿是人情味的故事告訴我。
今年有三個小故事值得寫出來。一位顧客付錢時頻說她買的那件製品索價太低，對我太太說那件東西所花的時間和手藝，絕不止值這個價錢，然後硬要多付三分一的錢，好像不付那個價錢就是不該的樣子！
另一位顧客除了買東西，還送給我太太一疊摺紙用的紙，頗精美的，而且是她特意帶來；這位顧客自己也喜歡做手工藝，但認為這些紙應該屬於手藝好的人，所以轉贈。這不只是物輕情重，還是惺惺相惜了。
最後是一位老太太，每年都來幫襯的，而且每次都細心欣賞所有製品，像欣賞藝術品似的，今年就在這小小的「檔口」逗留了幾乎一小時。她邊看邊和我太太交談，還說每年聖誕前都很期待來這裏逛逛，看看我太太有甚麼新的作品。她不只是看，欣賞完之後都會買不少東西；不過，我知道就算這位老太太光看不買，她那欣賞的態度已令那些製品的作者十分開心了。
這種充滿人情味的行為，在美國的大城市未必沒有，但在小鎮較容易經驗到，這算是在小鎮居住的一個好處吧！
Hi Professor Wong, I just read Peter Higgs' interview and found his view insightful and interesting. I am reading sociology and political science in Canada. Most of my professors often say the accountants and business people have ruined universities, and that they have been pressured to published. As a result, it is difficult for scholars to conduct high-quality research (which often takes time), especially in humanities and social sciences.
回覆刪除Sadly, while hard sciences still offer something 'useful' to society, social sciences (except for economics) and humanities are often considered useless nowadays. A professor of commence at my school even said that humanities and social sciences were just disciplines of speculations. Anyway, I'd like to know your view on the academia nowadays as a humanities scholar. Thanks!
Well, this is a big topic. I agree with what your professors say; the humanities indeed have been marginalized. I think this is a bad trend and may get even worse.
刪除請問可否貼些製成品照片？
回覆刪除Better yet, please post the website address here. --zpdrmn
回覆刪除would you pls post the website link here?
回覆刪除本來是有 link 的，但老婆大人見到後下令刪除，只得遵命。
回覆刪除問咗先穫准嘅機會可能大D. 冇計. 冇計la. --zpdrmn
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