Leepo's Visit to HK

James Koo

This Tuesday was Oct. 1, the National Day of People’s Republic of China. There was a fireworks show in HK. It is now a semi-tradition for many HK Lighters to get together in our apartment to watch the fireworks.

Then Prof. SS Lau told me that Leepo Cheng has just arrived HK and possibly can join us. I was so very excited sent 3 emails and a phone call to SS to invite her to come. She is possibly the most well known Shanghainese girl in our class as I have heard other Lighters mentioned her name many times since I came back. She was the most smart, most mature, and nice looking too. She acted like the eldest sister of ours, took care many things, and looked after us then so they say. While most of us would be salivating to ride a bicycle then, she drove a car to the school and bussed people around. Guess in Chinese I would say “She is larger than life and heard her name like thunder pouring into my ears.” 

I never spoke to her then, and only met her briefly in Toronto in our reunion. I immediately sensed her smartness when I meet her this time—she can speak Cantonese like a native while she spent only one more year than I did in HK then.

After graduation, she went to Pomona College, a well-known private college in S. California, and to Brown Univ., an Ivy League school known for its liberal views, and then got her PhD in Biophysics when the world has not coined the word Biotech. While I am not familiar with Victor, her husband, also a PhD in Physics, their son, with a pedigree like that, just graduated from MIT with an MBA. 

Leepo is here in HK to visit her aging parents. We wish them good health. However, she will use up all her vacation time now and the other Lighters will not have the pleasure of meeting her at the reunion. She is still working at National Institute of Health, doing research on muscles.

Leepo is very easy going and generous. Looking at the old photos I have, she sensed my penchant for old memories, she immediately offered to scan her old photos at home and send that to me (I put this in writing here so she will not forget once she gets back to U.S.). Should you have any would like to share with the Lighters, please email them to me at jtkoo@hotmail.com. 

Normally we drink, eat, sing (karaoke), “car cannon” and watch the fireworks just as a sideshow. But this time we asked, and Leepo readily agreed to sing Chinese Opera “si long tam mou” (the fourth son visiting his mother), and then she explained the theatrical, and historical background to us. Please note I did not use the word "Peking Opera" as that was "Kung Ji." Kungsha is a town between Shanghai and Suchow. I wish my knowledge in liberal arts and history in particular was better. From the day I got into Puiching, the width and depth of talents of my fellow classmates have never stopped to amaze me—one of the most important things I learned there. 

For whatever the reasons, we started to take up the subject of capability of Shanghainese women including their legendary ability to manage their man (a legend in HK). After I told them that I call Winnie daily in California to inquire about her health and safety, Chang Pak Lap (A39) decided to teach me to sing a song on how man is always right. It does not matter how hard I tried, I failed to learn it as this is against my fundamental belief. It has been drilled into me since the day I got married to her. Believe Victor will be here soon. I am going to ask him what is like being married to the smartest Shanghainese girl of Puiching.

During the party, I took the opportunity and offered those came from U.S. the red bean ice cream popsicles that I got last year while investigating what May Chen wrote about HK. But then I forgot the whole pot of rice that I have cooked. Eating alone, I can eat that for the next 20 days or up to a month eating 5 days a week. Should I freeze them and offer to them next year? Or is that the reason they insisted on bringing their own food and make it a potluck gathering? Actually we enjoyed the camaraderie the most as Leepo said we behaved as if we were in high school days. Should we behave any differently? By the way, the dishes prepared by the wives were excellent. Wish you were here. I still have many days to consume them in the refrigerator.

Looking back over 20,000 days, we have lived, how many can we remember? Those days we have no recollection of; do they really count and mean anything, or just mark the time and make us grow older (in my theory of relativity, the world grow younger, we stay the same)? Life is normally fairly even punctuated with occasional peaks and valleys. It is those peaks and valleys that we remember, and that constitutes our life when we reminisce. To live a full life from now on, we should endeavor to make everyday a special day (and take many photos). Last reunion at Toronto constitutes the most special days I can remember among all the days in 1999. This Oct. 1, with Leepo singing Chinese Opera, is a special day for all of us here, and I took several photos to help us to remember for years to come (one attached). This coming reunion will be equally memorable if you come. Let us make every day count, come to the HK reunion.