Who am I

Now that the world barely exists outside the so-called blogosphere, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to assert my existence, however insignificant.

Having recently uprooted myself from my adopted home town (Cambridge) for the last seven years and a half, and deserted various friends to return to my genuine home town (Hong Kong), this will hopefully serve to amuse these friends and allow them a glimpse of my current life. Whilst my life is largely going to be uneventful – no unicorn-riding under a shower of stars – I’m sure that everyone will find the feebleness laughable. If that’s the case, I will have done humanity a great favour, for presenting my life as a joke to be shared by all.

Perhaps a recap of my life thus far will be appropriate here. Born in the Year of the Monkey to a newly wed, hardly affluent couple, I was a fairly quiet child. Not exactly the sporty type, I spent my early childhood reading and writing (I doubt it was anything intelligent). Apparently I loved singing along to music played on TV too,  and dragged around with me a stuffed toy panda (complete with a big red heart in its hands – a rather gruesome idea, now that I think about it). Those who know me well would realise that I’ve hardly changed at all since – these remain my favourite pastimes (minus the panda, which perished long ago, God rest its soul), with a few rather less innocent ones acquired along the way. Aspirations to become a teacher lasted for a good many years, during which I covered wardrobes at home with writing in stolen chalk, and forced my little brother, six years my junior, to sit through test papers I set. These young and foolish dreams for power eventually faded away with the onset of adolescence, most of which I spent filling my head with trashy Canto-pop. 

In the year of 1997 – a fateful year for my home town as well, whose sovereignty was returned to China by the British – a serendipitous opportunity opened up that sparked my love affair with the UK. (In other words, as soon as Hong Kong was back in Chinese hands, I hopped right back into the UK’s bosom, though I did not do that consciously.) Two years at a boarding school in Hampshire proved eye-opening and highly enjoyable, and they were probably key to my being admitted into Cambridge, where I spent the next seven and a half years. It would be impossible to summarise my experience in Cambridge without going on and on – suffice to say that it has been wonderful – and on this oscillating rollercoaster filled with fun, tears, sweat, silliness and heartbreak, the years simply flew by. Three years of undergraduate studies were followed by four whole years of PhD, and by the end, I was almost fooled into thinking that I might settle in the UK after all.

                 

Life, of course, threw in a surprise. While I was planning to apply mainly for UK jobs, I was introduced to a researcher at a university in Hong Kong, and before I knew it, I have agreed to work for him. For the coming year at least, I shall be stationed back in my home town. Even though I spent nearly seventeen years of my life in this skyscraper jungle, I do feel, to a certain extent, alienated here in my home town. At times I feel nigh on schizophrenic with my mentality a halfway house between Hong Kong Chinese and British. However, c’est la vie, and I’m sure I’ll manage just fine.

Henceforth, I shall record my various musings here semi-regularly. Thanks for dropping by, do keep visiting and leave a comment if you feel like.

GW

25 April 2007

 (Second photo courtesy of Sara – thanks for capturing one of my non-hideous moments.)