The Inside Story

James Koo

First, wishing all a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Recently there are many articles about the HK reunion, and more detail will come, no need for me to add more. I will write an inside story about the HK reunion.

Peter's article generated a strong reverberation here in HK. The reunion committee immediately called an extemporaneous emergency meeting, and "invited" me to attend, to see if the sky is falling. Peter's article was read, re-read, and re-re-read again at the meeting. We read each word, each line, and between the lines. Then the committee reviewed the itinerary then concluded "NO," the sky is not falling. His points are excellent, for somebody living in Washington, D.C. area. The main reason is still due to different way of doing things on opposite side of the Pacific, or "moon lone and tsing si" mentioned in an earlier article. For me, even if the sky is falling, there will be tall persons holding it up.

Then we studied the response by W. T. Pang. I was both impressed and depressed in reading his article. It impressed me with his vocabulary, his fluency of classic Chinese, his reference to history, his choice of words and phrases, and the flow. It depressed me as it immediately reminded me when I first came to Pui Ching from Mainland China. It totally annihilated the little bit of self-confidence left in me. The talents of fellow Lighters are both impressing and depressing. Disregard the contents; I enjoyed reading it even for literary reasons. 

The committee unanimously suggested for W.T. Pang to submit his article for website and asked all the committee members and me to follow with more submissions to the website to keep the interest level high. The committee believes that more articles about HK reunion on the website, the better, be it positive, negative, indifferent or ridiculous. 

I am glad to see these articles stimulated Prof. SS Lau, Bob Chen, and May Chen to write. We should all thank Peter; his article stimulated many articles, and immeasurable interests in the HK reunion. To show our respect to all Peter's articles, we will even work on his geometry problems (if you think we are kidding, just wait). All those five at the meeting have written. Now it is my turn to stir things up again.

Peter questioned if I "talk the talk, but not walk the walk" regarding my better half, as I always proclaimed "Winnie is always right" but did not take her to the meetings. I have at three reasons for not bringing her to the meeting. 

First, you do in Rome what Romans do. Nobody here brought his wife (I confirmed beforehand). 

Second, more importantly, when I first got married, the male chauvinistic me decided that I will make all the major decisions such as should U.S. declare war against Afghanistan, should Japan support its currency and etc.; while she will make all the minor decisions such as where we will live (like HK now), how many children we will have, even trivial things like what tie should I wear and what we will have for dinner. This division of labor has worked well even after I came to realize she is always right. The HK reunion definitely equals the importance of U.S. Afghanistan action. So that is that. Now, since I am just a "reporter" at the meeting, play no roles in the decision-making; I will bring Winnie along if others will bring theirs (In Rome, one … …). 

The third reason is that after a while, Winnie is surfeited with me and is back in U.S.

Just to show I took Peter's suggestion to the heart, I invited the wives to come to our apartment to watch the New Year fireworks, and invited Mrs. W. T. Pang to come alone without W.T. (he was out of town). In addition, I have also invited a talented (and beautiful) female Lighter to be the advisor to the reunion committee, and am waiting for her acceptance. Should she accept, the chairperson of the committee will contact her in person. Myself, I routinely ask female Lighters to preview my submissions, including this one.

Regarding about half of the Lighters will be late, first, I am happy to report that for this emergency meeting, heeding Peter's comments, we were there all on time believe even by Peter's standards. Scientifically, with quartz watch accuracy, one was 2 min. 35 sec. another was 4 min. 17 sec. late. However, dear fellow Lighters, in case you have been away from HK too long, this is more than "on time" to show our respect to Peter. At 6:45PM, Wang Chou Cheung (D15, from Fremont, Ca. visiting HK) and his wife was the only couple at our 6:00PM fireworks party, and then he called W. T. Pang in Beijing asking if or when Mrs. W.T. Pang will come. The 11 others all came later, most more than an hour late. In Rome, one … … .

Now Peter has a point and he foresees the problem. To show our respect to Peter, come to HK, and be on time!

Last but not the least, at Prof. S.S. Lau and May Chen's suggestions, I went to 詠藜園 in 蔡瀾 food court next to Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom, to taste the famous TTM from Diamond Hill. There is a sign saying due to popular demand, and limited supply, only one order of TTM per person. The TTM, mmm … … . Come find out for yourself! 

At Welcome Supermarket, there is a "trio tropical ice cream" of pineapple, coconut, and mango by Nestle, red bean, chestnut red bean, and green tea read bean ice cream bars by Meiji, a Japanese company. There is none at ParkNShop. I dared not to try any as I can hear Winnie would admonish me by saying it is all "empty calories." She is not only always right, but also always right with me, even though she is in California. Now when you come to HK reunion, in addition to an empty suitcase, also bring an empty stomach. Try the HK magic. Presto! Both your suitcase and stomach will be full when you return.