Okay, so I admit I have an obsession with Suzie Wong. I know it’s not the most PC thing in the world.
But as Hong Kong prepared to return to China at the stroke of midnight on July 1, 1997, its colonial history became quite fashionable in the expat world. Many of my friends picked up or re-read Richard Mason’s 1957 novel about a Hong Kong bar girl who falls in love with an Englishman.
It was at this time that I read the novel for the first time. And I was hooked. My mom visited Hong Kong five years after the novel first came out, so as I read the book, I looked for the Hong Kong she saw.
The novel spawned a Broadway adaptation featuring William Shatner and France Nuyen in 1958. And then of course there was the 1960 Hollywood movie starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan. Several years ago the Hong Kong Ballet premiered a dance version of the novel.
In Wanchai, not too far from the Luk Kwok Hotel, where the book takes place, a former nightclub and bar was named after Suzie (photo on right). Although the Hong Kong bar is long gone, Beijing opened a swanky World of Suzie Wong Club in 2002.
And thus Suzie Wong lives on.
I read the book and saw the film “The World of Suzie Wong” not just once, but several times over, since the 1960s.
Having lived in the former British Crown Colony of Hong Kong for many years in the 1970s and 1980s I travelled on the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong almost every day and worked for some years in the Hong Kong Arts Centre building on Harbour Road in Wanchai, Hong Kong (not far from the bar referred to in the book).
The film remains utterly fascinating to this day, though I must admit that the book contained many more details that the film could (very understandably) not cover within the limited time frame.
However the film’s very able, perceptive and talented Director, Richard Quine couldn’t have chosen more suitable and better actors for these particular roles i.e. Nancy Kwan and William Holden. They both rendered a magnificent and simply splendid performance. It was a most poignant and truly representative film of Hong Kong of that era.
I recall how my boss in Hong Kong (originally from Germany who was also widely travelled)) and I used to say that British Hong Kong was the best place in the world to be in at that time; and we’re still of the same opinion regarding British Hong Kong, when we communicate.
My old friends (natives of Hong Kong ) tell me that it has all changed now; and the ambience of
Hong Kong is sadly not the same.
Richard Mason was a brilliant writer. He was also the author of “The Wind Cannot Read”, “The Shadow and the Peak” and “The Fever Tree” etc.
How very sad to learn that Nancy Kwan lost her only child, Bernie Pock in 1996 under such tragic circumstances ! She is indeed a lady of tremendous fortitude.
Was also saddened to learn of the untimely demise of Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee). My boss rented the apartment in Kowloon Tong formerly occupied by Bruce Lee, as per the realtor.
Superstition apparently caused it to remain vacant for a long time, until my boss leased it.
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Thank you so much for all of this! I completely agree! I love your memories of the Star Ferry and the Hong Kong Art Centre, and Bruce Lee’s Kowloon Tong home. I love Nancy Kwan and William Holden, and also William Holden in “Love is a Many Splendored Thing”, which was another gorgeous Hong Kong movie. Nancy Kwan was phenomenal in “Flower Drum Song”, which I’ve seen a dozen times. It’s really sad about what Hong Kong has become. I really don’t know how people who were born and raised there are ruining the city for everyone there.
Dear Susan,
How very kind of you to spare the time to write back and publish my last text in full. I was hoping it would not be cut in the editing process; and was delighted that you were ever so gracious to leave it as is. Thank you so much.
Indeed William Holden was a marvellous actor all round; and I was in fact tempted to mention his incomparably brilliant performance in “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” in my last text submitted; but didn’t want to be irrelevant, since the main topic of discussion was “The World of Suzie Wong”.
The book “A Many Splendored Thing” (the true story of the infinite love between Dr. Han Suyin (of mixed Chinese and Belgian descent) and the “Foreign Correspondent, Mark Elliott” in the film, portrayed by William Holden (who was, in actual fact, the journalist, Ian Morrison and who was the greatest love of Han Suyin’s life), reflected the breathtaking background of the (then) British Crown Colony of Hong Kong (and Macau) most effectively. Despite the teeming crowds on the streets and the eternal hustle and bustle, Hong Kong undoubtedly exuded an air of incredible romance in its underlying ambience.
Dr. Han’s second marriage, to Leon Comber, a British intelligence officer with whom she lived in Malaya, ended in divorce. Her third husband, Vincent Ruthnaswamy, an Indian engineer with whom she lived in Bangalore and Lausanne, died in 2003. She had been married much earlier; and her first husband, Tang Pao-Huang, was a general in the National Revolutionary Army of Chiang Kai-shek, who was killed on the Manchurian front in the 1940s. The marriage was apparently a miserable one for Han Suyin.
Sadly her next and greatest love after her first marriage i.e. Ian Morrison (named Mark Elliott in the film), did not live long enough for them to marry, as he was in the process of obtaining a divorce, which held many hindrances for him. (Actress Jennifer Jones played the role of Han Suyin in the film, as you’ll recall.)
Han Suyin passed away in 2012 in Lausanne aged 96.
A point of interest: She visited my office (an international airline in Frankfurt, Germany) in the late 1960s with her last husband (the Indian engineer) when he came to visit the Managing Director there, whom he knew. They paid just a brief visit.
Sorry to have taken your time with this rambling; but I know you’ll find it interesting. My best wishes to you for good health, peace, happiness and well deserved success at all times. – Vanessa K. P.S. You don’t need to publish this, if you don’t wish to – as it might not be relevant to this particular site. I just thought you may like to read the above.
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So sorry for the delay in posting this. I don’t know where the time went and thought I had replied to it already. This is all so fascinating and I love that you met Han Suyin. I hadn’t realized she lived so long, or maybe I forgot.
Dear Susan,
Please forgive the delay in responding to your very kind message of May 13. I’ve been unexpectedly busy, albeit I’ve been wanting to write the next day and the next………. and an entire fortnight has gone by !
I wish we could meet one day en personne, if you should visit South West Florida; or if I’m in the Chicago area, There’d be so much to talk about and discuss.
My life in the Orient had an uncanny similarity to yours; but on a somewhat different foundation.
I think it’s a rare blessing that you and I emerged from the trauma without bitterness; but with an outlook that exudes the renewal of fresh flowers in the spring and an even greater love of humanity, in the eternal hope that a better world will eventually develop, despite the continued unhappy events that so many hapless beings are unjustly subjected to even now.
D’you know I ordered your book, “Good Chinese Wife” from Amazon and it’s just arrived. I’d begun reading “The Fever Tree” also by Richard Mason, which arrived from Amazon shortly before yours did. Though I’d read his other novels i.e. The World of Suzie Wong, The Wind Cannot Read and The Shadow and the Peak, I hadn’t read The Fever Tree.
I can’t wait to start on yours, once I finish reading The Fever Tree.
I’d never seen a photograph of the late Richard Mason and always wanted to (though I’ve read his biography). His picture was not depicted on the back cover of his three other books that I have.
The face of a writer also tells a story in its own invisible way. I was not surprised on seeing and admiring his visage, for it expressed a latent positivity about the manner in which his extensive travels and his British colonial past and way of life shaped his unique persona and helped cultivate the sentimental, tranquil and compassionate aspects of his nature, that are evident in his writings.
Your review of Anne Salton Eisen’s Pillar of Salt was magnificent. Your natural and more importantly “gentle style and presentation” pervaded the entire the review, where you effectively portrayed man’s inhumanity to man; BUT with a softness of emotion that is not easy to let flow into a theme that centres around brutality. Congratulations ! You were born to be a writer and one can perceive the depth of feeling and understanding in your writing.
Wishing you and your family only the best of everything that life has to offer – most of all health and happiness. – Vanessa (P.S. Do you have another email or an address, at which I could sometimes communicate with you ?)
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Yes! susan at susanbkason dot com
Unfortunately, the real Suzi Wong died quite a while ago. She stayed around the Luk Wok (Nam Kwok) and was aware of her fame after publication of the book, which scored her too many free drinks. I was a British sailor at that time and enjoyed yarning with Richard at the Central Hotel where he was staying in the evenings before going on to the livelier Wanchai bars later. My friends nor I featured in the book – it was pretty much finished in late 56 early 57 when I arrived.
I loved H.K. at that time. I’ve returned many times since but it’s just not the same.
Still a great run ashore but different.
brandon lee went to la salle college in kowloon tong and would probably have been around bernie pock’s age. tragic they both had such an early death, both eurasian children of mega-filmstars too, creepy coincidences
Oh, that’s right. I remember reading comments on pictures you posted that the Lees waited outside for the bus when Brandon took it to school. Both Brandon and Bernie died way too young.
nancy’s son, (the late bernie pock dec. 96), was a student at my school albeit a few years my junior- talk about global village. a couple of my facebook friends remember nancy doing the ‘bus mother rota’ on the school bus to beacon hill (they didn’t let siblings or amahs do it – not enough ‘authority’!) the dvd of the suzie story has some fantastic authentic footage of the star ferry, aberdeen and a walk through a wanchai market. unfortunately, like most films, it misses out a lot of the details in the book. i still have an ancient copy on my shelf. nancy is still a stunner!
That’s so sad about her son! I remember reading about it. Didn’t Bruce Lee’s son go to the same school, too? I have the DVD and love it, but also agree that the book is so much better. “Flower Drum Song” is another Nancy Kwan movie I love. I have that on VHS tape. Might need to upgrade to a DVD!