Cheung Chau, Hong Kong
I arrive in Hong Kong in the damp heat, feeling sulky. In the taxi from the airport, the driver curses his fellow drivers loudly in Cantonese while I howl silently inside—I need to stay in this place for some time.
I never expected the move, nor was I pumped about it. My impressions of the city were built on old Cantonese films, sad pop songs—the kind I’ve always sought refuge in after break-ups—and very brief encounters. As a mainland Chinese kid, I saw Hong Kong portrayed on TV as the epicentre of capitalism and sophistication; Hong Kong in real life, when I finally got to see and feel it for the first time, was much more than that. I hadn’t visited for a long time but constantly heard about it from afar. Without speaking much about it, I think of it often.
A native of bustling Yau Ma Tei, my friend J had been keen on my move long before my arrival. In response to my incessant grunting, he told me to give it a chance. I made a request that I assumed Hong Kong couldn’t fulfil: I want to live in a spacious place, with cheap rent, around artists, poets, writers and the sea. “Well then, Peng Chau is exactly the place for you,” J replied, “and we live there too!”
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A poem by Yago Tse.
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Among the Braves is an attempt to tell the story and struggles of a city, through the lives of the people who have been active in a decades-long movement for democracy.
- Tags: Hong Kong, Issue 34, Peixuan Xie