Some years ago, perhaps, as many as 10 to 15 years, a few Lighters were attending a Pui-Ching function at our old " dai lai
tong". The then-chairman of the PC board of directors was giving a speech to the students and guests. He picked a line of our school
song as the theme of his speech. The line was " Wing wai tseng lay gee gone shing".
The interesting thing was he said " wing wai tseng lay gee shing gone (not gone shing)". The moment he said that everyone in the
audience knew this guy was not one of us. No one who has ever gone to PC would have mistaken a line of our school song as grossly as that.
We immediately paid no attention to the speaker. Come on, guy, try to learn the song correctly before you lecture any of us on the
meaning of our school song. Those were the days of our PC board of directors. They may not have gone to PC even for one day, and they
came to our " dai lai tong" and tell us about our school song. The very same " dai lai
tong" where we used to sit and Ho Yee came and and lectured us. We paid full attention to Ho Yee. We did not dare
not to.
The question remained in my mind , however, what " gone shing" actually meant for decades. We must have sung the song
hundreds of times, I know how to sing it at anytime , anywhere , standing up or in my sleep. Not until recently that two PCers, one
from the class of 1943, and one from the class of 1954, told me what " gone shing" is. It has a Chinese literature origin, they told me.
" wing wai Tseng Lay gee goine Shing" means " forever the impenetrable city for the defence of truth".
Dear lighters, I've always figured that was what that meant, but it is nice to have someone who know all the lines of our school song
explained the meaning and the origin of " gone shing" to me. One PCer, class of 1950, jokingly told me "gone shing" meant "dry
city". That was pretty good.
Wonder what happened to the guy who tried to explain " Shing Gone" ?
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