Hongkongness

Below are some notes of my thoughts in Edinburgh last summer from which I expanded a little bit:



Reflecting on my own identity, I realise that my Hongkongness came into sharp focus when I moved out of Hongkong.
This seems to be a common occurrence for Hongkongers. You don’t necessarily practice your Hongkongness at home over the breakfast table.
But when you move away you are forced to think about whom you are and where you fit.
I have been living in Edinburgh for almost three months, from June to August 2010. I arrived in the city centre with a sense of nostalgia.
It is not because I had came here five years ago. But because of the music of the city, bagpipe music precisely.
Scotland the Brave. It is the most well-known bagpipe music to me and to us, Hongkongers.
Like everyone in my generation and those who lived through the 80s (perhaps even early 90s), I grew up with this song, and many others which I can't quite recall now, played by the bagpipe band of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. Or we got familiar with it whilst we watched Junior Police Call's (JPC) TV programme every weekend.
When I was very young, I never realized the Scottish heritage of British Hong Kong. One day, it struck me in my face when I first came to Edinburgh. When I returned, I felt home.

書展與她

兩屆書展，人在外地，有點可惜。
夏日書展，納悶中叫人興奮。大家不愁話題，不會寂寞。
話題到處，既是「書」，也是「人」。
從前，書展只會想起馬榮成，也只為他而六點起床去排隊。馬仔畫出彩虹到倚巒看日出。成敗從來不爭朝夕。
現在，大家或許只會想起周秀娜。
離港赴英前匆匆看了一本很有趣的書。粉紅色封面以外，更加吸引我的，是一篇由她寫的序。
她承作者邵家臻的邀請，為他的〈o靚模之亂〉作序：


感謝「o靚模」這名詞令我今年過得十分精彩刺淚，我學了很多，感受更多；
我不是社會學家，也不是教育家，沒有能力去分析或教育這個社會；
作為娛樂圈新人，希望大家可以從我身上得到娛樂，香港人工作壓力不少，開心一下不是很好嗎？
大家都在談「o靚模風潮」會過去，我沒有太在意這事情，反而重視完成手頭上的工作之餘，還有今年的計劃付諸實行。（出自《o靚》（香港：kubrick，2010），頁74-75。）


她距離成功還遠嗎？

my teenage dream...

After finishing the painstaking Bristol conference paper in a stuffy Saturday and stepping out of the one-mile neighbourhood to make the first tour to the high street in ten days' time in a sunny and breezing Sunday afternoon, I returned home and settled to listen to some Canton-pop 90s musics of a legend whose bold and entertaining songs should deserve more applauds than the unjust criticism he had received over the years. My schoolmates and I had used to make fun. But now I feel overwhelmingly enjoyable and sweet as to recall my teenage memories doing silly and stupid things while pretending to look cool. Then I laughed out loud to myself. After all, it's my teenage years and I grew up with it. Bitter but splendid.

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I finished the painstaking Bristol conference paper in a stuffy Saturday. In a sunny and breezing Sunday afternoon I stepped out of the one-mile neighbourhood to make the first tour to the high street in ten days' time.

I returned home and settled to listen to some Canton-pop 90s musics of a legend whose bold and entertaining attempts, I think, should deserve more applauds than the unfair criticism he had received over the years.
My schoolmates and I had used to make fun of him and his songs. But now I feel overwhelmingly enjoyable and sweet as to recall my teenage memories doing stupid things while pretending to look cool.

Then I laughed out loud to myself. After all, it's my teenage years and I grew up with it. Bitter and splendid.