One of my students on the evening programme was Frazer Gleig (d. 20 Feb 2009). This blog is dedicated to him.
Frazer attended Reading School, and became a tunnelling engineer, working for Haswell, then Arup.
He'd worked on Hong Kong's MTR (Mass Transit Railway) and in Taipei (presumably on the Taipei Metro).
His middle name was Dewar (he was of Scottish lineage), so when he was in Hong Kong, the Cantonese speakers there pounced on the two sounds in Dewar, which sounds like the Cantonese F-word (dew ah).
When China's 三峽工程 / 三峡工程 / sān xiá gōng chéng / Three Gorges Dam project was in its later stage, Frazer was invited as part of an international engineering consortium to have a look around (and behind the scenes) before it was opened to the public. When he returned to London, he gave a talk to his fellow evening programme Mandarin students about his tour, calling it The Three Gorgeous Dames.
That glass of Guinness is still waiting for you to collect, Frazer. Missing you loads.
PS: Frazer is also featured in this blog https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2013/06/chinese-tones-ii-london.html
After reading this blog I clicked on the link to the 2013 blog at the end, and read that one, that I vaguely remembered having read already, and my first reaction was to ask an obvious question. But then I noticed a comment by Anonymous posted in 2013 with exactly the question I wanted to ask, and another comment with an answer. I strongly suspect I was the Anonymous of the first comment. But why Anonymous? I don’t remember.
ReplyDeleteMaybe at the time you were unsure about exposing your identity.
DeleteI'm now wondering: should I treat all earlier comments from Anonymous as being from you...??
There was a recent query from an Anonymous party left in one of my blogs a few weeks ago, asking if the mainland China drama series I've been watching and getting blog ideas from was set in China of pre-1949 revolution, when the mention of the series is always followed by "(set 1979–92)". Couldn't have been you, of course, as you are numerate...
The query posted by Anonymous asking if the series is set in the China of before the 1949 revolution is in: https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/01/be-careful-you-dont-get-abducted-02.html
DeleteFor your ease of reference, I'm reproducing the entry below:
Quote Anonymous 10 January 2026 at 16:04
So the Chinese series you are watching is set before the 1949 revolution? Unquote
This query was most peculiar, because "(set 1979–92)" is mentioned in the blog itself, as well as in my reply to your query (about abduction), so how could that Anonymous party have asked if it was set in China before the 1949 revolution...??? A big "huh??!!??" moment for me, I must say.