August 31, 1998 Dear Lighters, Our fortieth reunion is drawing nearer. Now it is only eleven months away. Serious preparation has been underway for a few months and many of us have signed up for different activities. Needless to say, I am looking forward to seeing you at one or more of these activities. Even for those who does not think they can attend any of the activities at this time, feel free to change your mind later and come join us. For sure, you know where to find us in August, 99. After much soul searching, a few of us have decided to publish a reunion-book to celebrate this occasion and I again invite your participation. Don't say no. You have much to contribute to this book. After forty years and many children later, I am sure you have much to tell. Desmond Wong told me sometime ago, he really had an uneventful life and could not think of one thing worth writing down. Assuming that I can accept his words at face value, the fact of a totally uneventful life in school, at work and at home is quite a remarkable feat. I want to know how he did it. Seriously though, I know Desmond fairly well. There is much he can tell us if he just puts his mind to it. Unlike the 1959 year book and the 25th anniversary book, our plan for this version will emphasize longer articles. The usual vignettes are welcome of course. We are not excluding anything. I just feel that since we have lived longer and experienced more, on this occasion, you are being offer the chance to express yourself in an essay or short story instead of two or three short sentences. Tell us the most interesting events in your life. What it is like to run a factory, a store, a business or a school. What it is like to be a school teacher, a house wife/husband, a manager, a professor or an engineer. What it is like working all your life for a firm like IBM or a little outfit like TSC. Who is TSC? That is the outfit that I worked for from 1971 to 1978. The company was a success, then a bust, then a success and then a bust again. The company had only 100 or so worker but it included some of the most talented engineers I know. For many of us, we are at or nearing retirement. What are your plans? If you had retired already, how do you like the new experience and what would be your advice to those about to retire? For those living in the US, we would like to know what it is like living in HK or the Orient, in New Zealand or Australia, or in England and the rest of Europe. I suppose some of you may like to know what it is like to live in the US or Canada. Should you wish to do a summary report on what every classmate around you is doing, that is welcome as well. Besides essays, we are planning four additional sections for our reunion book: Sketches, Words from Our Teachers, Group Photos and Family Voice. Instead of the usual photos of our school or scenes of HK, we like to include sketches, drawings or watercolor of the places that mean so much to us. Through our WEB, I have discovered that some of us are quite talented. Why not take this opportunity to bring forth these talents? The idea of a class song comes to mind, does anyone out there want to give that a try? (If you think I am dreaming, you are wrong. I knew for a fact that Gina Mok's nephew is a professional operatic tenor and Shun-Kai Tse's son is an accomplished jazz musician whose compositions, in my opinion, surpass those songs so popular in HK.) As you know, we are going to invite some of our teachers to participate in our reunion activities and in addition, we are going to invite them to contribute to this reunion book. If you know any of our teachers who may like to participate, let me have his or her name and phone number. We shall contact them. As to group photos, we want to include pictures taken from our youth up to the time of our next reunion. Obviously, we cannot include every picture ever taken for this publication. If you have a good one that you think deserves a place in this publication, please send us the picture with an explanation of the occasion and the people in the picture. I promise to return all submissions to their proper owner. The most unusual section of this reunion book will be the family section. In our previous publications, we have seen faces of our spouses and children. On this occasion, I like to give them voices as well. On our WEB, you may have read articles from the children of some of our classmates. Although there has not been any article from spouses, they are certain very much a part of our class. At this time, I extend to them an invitation to contribute to this reunion book. It may be in the form of writings or other types of art work like painting or photographs. In what format should you make your submissions? Don't worry. This is not a technical publication. Feel free to submit your work in any form that is most comfortable to you. You may write in English or in Chinese. You may draw in ink, watercolor, acrylic or even oil. It will be easier for us if you submit your work in electronic form. However, if you cannot do that conveniently, we are ready to do that for you. You don't have to tell me that you are busy and that writing does not come easy. All my life, I have the same problems. But this is one occasion that comes just once in your life. After next year, you will not have another fortieth reunion again. So, please make time and tell your spouse and children about my invitation. When you have decided what to do, drop me a line by email, by telephone or send me a letter. We like to know what you are going to contribute by November 15, 1998 and have your final submission by early February next year. In any event, I hope to see you next year. Best regards.
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