17.1.2018

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Today’s class discussion revolved around Hong Kong Literature and the novella “Love in a Fallen City” by Eileen Chung. Yu Laoshi explained how Hong Kong used to be known as a “literary desert” before Hong Kongers search and reclaimed writings, especially previously marginalized works (e.g. Leung Ping Kwan). We also went over a way that Huang Weiliang categorized Hong Kong writers that depended on where they were born, where they were raised, where they wrote, and where they became well-known. We then went into a bit of Eileen Chang’s background and then different historical contexts that were relevant to the novella, such as the family structure, Shanghai landlords, family & social status/respect, and the significance of “I love you” in different cultures. Some of us went to have noodles in Fu Tai, where we chatted about love and many questions and fears regarding it.
After lunch, Adriana and I came back to our room, where I caught up with emails, reading, work, and sleep. Around 4 pm, we took the MTR to Causeway Bay, where we met up with some other students and had dinner at Pepper Lunch again in Hysan Place. We next wandered around until we finally found the general entrance to the Happy Valley Racecourse. I no longer felt somewhat tall, being dwarfed by all of the foreigners around me. Konnor, RB, and Zihan made some bets and we waited patiently for the race to start. When the race began, we watched the track as the horses and riders sprinted by, cheering for the horses bet on, and then our eyes turned to the screen to see the horses cross the finish line and the final places. Zihan made some risky bets and unfortunately did not win anything (he would have won BIG if he had won…). RB and Konnor ended up winning $2 HKD but then found two crumpled tickets on the ground with horses that had gotten top three. They went to see if they could collect any money and came back with $1400 HKD in their hands. We went crazy, overjoyed by their luck. They went on describing the details of the encounter and their shock for about five minutes, before revealing that they had tricked us; the tickets were actually receipts and in fact, they did not win any more than the $2 HKD (about 25 cents). Either way, I enjoyed the races the two races we observed (they were about twenty minutes apart) before we left to find some ice cream and then head back to campus, exhausted after another exciting day.