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click to enlarge This week I read Mingmei Yip’s beautiful novel, Petals from the Sky (Kensington Books, 2010). I felt drawn to her book before I even opened it. She’d taught at my graduate school alma mater, The Chinese University of Hong, and now lives in New York, my favorite city in the US. But to [...] In my posts from last week, I wore the same lavender skirt in several of the photos spanning my first year in Hong Kong. Yes, I traveled lightly when I moved to Hong Kong. “People in Hong Kong dress up,” my mom warned. She was going on memory from her last time there in ’65, when [...] click to enlarge It’s Saturday morning again. I don’t know if it’s just me, but these weeks seem to fly, especially as the summer comes to an end. Or maybe I’m just getting old. To round out my week of looking back at my stay in Hong Kong 20 years ago, I remember how I spent [...] Hong Kong by Jan Morris My 1990 Hong Kong retrospective wouldn’t be complete without a book review. While I didn’t read Jan Morris’s Hong Kong (Vintage, 1997) this week, I did read an earlier version back in 1990. For anyone who’s been to Hong Kong or who wants to learn more about it, Morris’s Hong Kong [...] click to enlarge When I moved to Hong Kong 20 years ago, I had good joss. It can be scary to live with strangers, especially when you come from different backgrounds and countries. During my first few days at the Chinese University in 1990, I was paired with another American exchange student, sharing a metal bunk bed [...] click to enlarge I spent so many afternoons in this room 20 years ago, I can still smell the musty fragrance of the building. When you’re halfway across the world and 19 years old, it’s nice to have a place to go where you can feel at home. I lived across the quad from the Office of [...] click to enlarge Yesterday I read with horror about the hostage stand-off in Manila, where a disgruntled ex-cop hijacked a Hong Kong tour bus. It sounded like something you’d see on a Hong Kong movie set. And then something went terribly wrong and 8 tourists were murdered. Like everyone else, I shudder; these lives could have been [...] click to enlarge I took this photo 20 years ago next Monday, standing in Lok Ma Chau, the scenic border town with mainland China. There’s not much going on here. Back then, no one knew what would happen in China. Tiananmen had just happened a year before and Deng Xiaoping had yet to take his southern “to [...] click to enlarge I first arrived in Hong Kong 20 years ago this week. To commemorate this anniversary of sorts, I’m going to dedicate this week’s posts to my favorite memories of my favorite city. I sent this postcard to my paternal grandmother in 1997, a few months before the handover. My mom’s colleague and his wife [...] click to enlarge When I look at this photo, I want to cry. It’s not because I’m appalled by the living conditions or the monotonous architecture. Or the fact that many people have no choice but to live in these buildings. (In fact I’m not appalled by any of this. I love the architecture.) When I say [...] |
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Copyright © 2010 Susan Blumberg-Kason - All Rights Reserved |
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