Prologue
A couple or more of chit-chats back, I wrote about Goldbach's conjecture
and the US $ 1,000,000 reward for its solution. The proof must be accepted
for publication before March 2002. I asked for lighters help in findind a
math journal that will be quick enough to accomplish that. The journal
does not need to be top notch, as long as it is on the list from AMS
(American Mathematical Society). Leung Kwun (C 7) in Canada called shortly
after the article went on Tony's web-site, and told me to contact Siu and
Yau at Harvard. Both are Pui Ching schoolmates class of 60 and much later.
Siu won the Cole prize, and Yau, the Field's Medal. This
phone call moved me greatly. I found a mistake in the proof. My proof was
trivial, all even numbers are a sum of two odd numbers, not odd prime
numbers! I decided no matter what I'll get to the re-union. Later on,
Shirley Lam prodded me to book the airline ticket, gave me Cathay-Pacific's
phone number, e-mail address etc. Above all, she told me to contact Gina
Mok. Gina was arranging the trip for Kung Huai-Han (C 28) and wife. I did
that, and sure enough, Gina got me the lowest ticket.
Aside from my late, but not the last, re-union account; I am confident
that my jui (¿jbrick) will entice more yu (¥Éjade) to come. "Pao
Jui Yum Yu ©ß¿j¤Þ¥É"! Throwing brick to attract jade, that is.
Finally, I want to repeat again my thanks to the Hong Kong organizing
committee, and Prof. S.S. Lau for a job well done. All events we attended
are truly chiu jet (¶WÈexceeds the value)!
One Morning in Hong Kong - 21 years later
I went back to Hong Kong last time in ' 81 when my mother was sick. I saw
the tall buildings in Victoria, rode the subways, and Star Ferry. This
time the subways are longer, and the harbor crossing by Star Ferry is much
shorter. I guess the latter could be the same effect as Pat Wong's claim
of the Pui Ching round stairway becomes smaller. Lots of lighters said
that the night we were there.
Before I left for Hong Kong, Desmond Wang taught me to ride the high-speed
train to Hung-Hum, but get off at Kowloon Station, and take A21 bus or taxi to the Y. Gina told me Peter
Tong (F 4) was arriving 30 minutes ahead of me on 11/21/02 morning at 6:30
AM from San Francisco via Cathay-Pacific. We can meet up, and go to the Y
together. There were four more groups arriving that day but all later.
When I landed, Peter did the latest fact finding already. He said we can
ride A21 bus all the way to the Y. We almost succeeded, if not starting a
chat with a local passenger, who works at the airport. He told us to get
off at Miramar Arcade. We walked one or two bus-stops with luggage in tow.
We even over-shot the Y to the water-front, believing Star House was the
Y, and then doubled back. Anyway, Peter and I were healthy enough to do
more. We checked in at the Y. We started out on foot to find our old
apartments. We found the right numbers on Kimberley Street, and Cameron
Road. We took pictures standing under the numbers. We had breakfast of
jook, and resumed walking. We went to Observatory Road to check out
Stamford-Harbour View hotel, the other hotel on Gina's short list. We
turned into Observatory Court, the street James Koo lived I told Peter why
I know that part of Kowloon quite well cause we were roller skating down
the slope there in the mid ' 50's. Next stop was St. Mary, Connie (Mrs.
Tong)'s alma mater. The lady security guard would not allow us to enter,
citing the fact that it is a girl school, and we are men. She did not
relax her rules even after Peter's plea. Sorry, Tony. The security guard
did not consider us as "far gap low ownªá¥Ò¦Ñ¯Î", or gray
haired old man.
Epilogue
Beyond - Preparation for 2004 Re-union
We have voted for our 45th re-union to be a Scandinavian Cruise at the Gala-dinner; however, some of lighters' better
halves pointed out that the votes were collected from the lighters present, not all lighters. I don't want to be the
one rocking the boat, or cruise liner to be exact, but I do have some facts to bring up. The lighters from Los Angeles
are the smaller half of all lighters there. We had a larger representation at the ' 99 40th re-union. At the beginning
of voting for the dates of the 2002 re-union, the Los Angeles lighters, or most American lighters, preferred a later
than November date. I understand it was too close to Christmas and all that... May be we can put all the collective
minds together, and come up with a all lighters agreed upon plan. James Koo is very kind in saying kind words on my
weight problem, spouse picking, and what not. The latter I was not lucky enough, I got the
restaurant part, but the location was wrong. I guess one should not assume all
restaurants everywhere are the same. I thought Durban, South Africa was the same as America, or Hong Kong. How wrong was I. James and Winnie are living in Hong Kong now, Prof. Lau
has six more months in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong organizing committee are the main active movers and doers. Gina will do
her best. If we remove all doubts at the very beginning, the number of participants will be more. There are less than
two years till the 2004 re-union. Let us start off as near perfect as possible for the 45th re-union
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