Twentysomething

After years of expensive education
A car full of books and anticipation
I'm an expert on Shakespeare and that's a hell of a lot
But the world don't need scholars as much as I thought
Maybe I'll go traveling for a year
Finding myself or start a career
Could work the poor, though I'm hungry for fame
We all seem so different but we're just the same
Maybe I'll go to the gym, so I don't get fat
Aren't things more easy, with a tight six pack
Who knows the answers, who do you trust
I can't even separate love from lust
Maybe I'll move back home and pay off my loans
Working nine to five, answering phones
But don't make me live for Friday nights
Drinking eight pints and getting in fights
Maybe I'll just fall in love
That could solve it all
Philosophers say that that's enough
There surely must be more
Love ain't the answer, nor is work
The truth eludes me so much it hurts
But I'm still having fun and I guess that's the key
I'm a twentysomething and I'll keep being me


I first started listening to Jamie Cullum in high school and now, this song is finally relevant (though you can replace Shakespeare w/ literary journalists & Asian American scholars ha). This past month I've finally felt the "Oh shit, I'm useless to society" as school ended and I'm not working either.

Everyone's been asking me what I've been doing in Hong Kong and well, to be honest it's pretty much just eating, hanging out, shopping, and dragon boat. I suppose I went for the "maybe I'll go traveling for a year" option (since this "study abroad" has been more about being abroad), but now what?

I'm still not 100% sure on what I want to do, but I hope when I go back home I'll find a job and this will probably be me: "maybe I'll move back home and pay off my loans; Working nine to five, answering phones."

-__- to reality....though for now "I'm still having fun and I guess that's the key"....

Snow White (Part I)

I was surprised to find found out last night that my (new & current) local HK roommate actually likes to tan!  I emphasize local because I have yet to meet a local Hong Kong girl who likes to tan. Considering she does, I have to explain that she isn't a totally typical HKer.  She told me that her parents are not 100% Chinese, as she is a mix of Chinese, Indonesian, and even a very tiny percentage of European blood, so she was born tan anyway and has taken it upon herself to embrace it.

The majority of women here, as in most of Asia, like to be "bak," which means white in Canto.  Of course, there are some who don't mind being "huk" (or dark) during the summer, but they equal a small portion of the female population.  My cousin mentioned that being a bit tan for summer is good, but they quickly revert back to whiteness when fall comes around.  What's funny though, is that it's acceptable/good for guys to be tan.

Everywhere from drugstores to cosmetic counters, whitening creams, masks, lotions, etc. etc. cover the shelves and women clamour to get a hold them.  It's pretty much equivalent to tanning oils, lotions, sprays, and salons that are everywhere in California.

As I learned in my Body, Beauty, Fashion course back in first semester at HKU, this whole skin color issue stems from notions of class centuries ago.  In China, people who worked outside (i.e. farmers) became tan, while those who were rich didn't have to work and remained inside, thus fair skinned.  As for Americans/Europeans, those who were wealthy enough could go on leisure cruises and beaches to faraway places where they could lie around under the sun and tan.  There are many other issues, but I'll leave it at that.

Having grown up in California, I've always liked being tan especially when summertime came around, which wasn't too difficult considering I can tan very easily.  All of my friends also liked to tan as we'd go to the beach or chill poolside.  Also, back in high school, being on the swim team caused me to be seriously dark.  This was something I never minded...until I came to Hong Kong.      

I have never once in my life wanted to be "whiter."  I always knew Asians liked to be fair and use whitening creams, but I scoffed at it.  The thought or "issue" never crossed my mind until this past year living in and being surrounded by Hong Kong culture.

Apparently, I wasn't alone either.

Help

Seeing domestic abuse happen on the streets of Hong Kong makes me ill.  I'd heard from others who've seen couples fighting or yelling or seeing a guy hit the girl and sadly, I finally witnessed it too.  What sucks is that it's one of those situations where you want to help, but you can't...or you can (because in reality, you always can in whatever way possible) and it doesn't help.

We watched the World Cup final in LKF at a bar near 7-Eleven where they didn't have cover (yay!) and in the end, they didn't make us pay for 2 drinks (just one and the manager/owner/whoever even decided to give us more drinks later on tehehe).  We all rooted for the Netherlands because Francis, who moved into PM a few weeks ago, is Dutch and none of us had any ties to Spain...and well, none of us are extremely avid fans of soccer...err football (though it is fun to watch).  Unfortunately, Spain won and we left to find a taxi as everyone, but me had to work the next day today.  Of course, considering everyone else in LKF needed a taxi as well, we couldn't find one.

On our way down, we saw a girl struggling in the arms of a guy--so much that eventually she was grasping onto his shirt to get him away and the shirt ripped apart.  We continued staring at them from across the crosswalk and weren't sure what to do...call the police??  He was holding on to her and wouldn't let her go no matter what she did.  If I was a superhero, I would've swooped right in to save her, but alas, I don't live in a movie.  By the time we decided to call the police, they were too far away.

While we walked around Central, we came across them again in line at a bus stop and she was still struggling.  He had his arm around her neck, practically choking her, and was pushing her face while cussing at her in Canto.  No one around them did anything, so being the brave one, Lizzy went up to him and told him to let go of her and that we'd call the police.  He proceeded to reply, "Mind your own fucking business," and everyone continued to stare.  Nothing happened, so we continued walking down (feeling helpless, though I can't imagine what the girl felt) and turned the corner only to bump into a policeman (yay, what we were looking for).  We told him briefly about the situation and to look for this shirtless guy, but when he left us we saw that he didn't stop to look for him at all.  I think he probably didn't even care.

All I hope for, is that the girl is ok and that nothing worse happened later on, but that's only hoping.  I also hope that soon she'll realize what kind of relationship she's in and will get out of it, but that's also only hoping as it's an extremely difficult cycle to get out of.  This situation reminds me of what we'd discuss in our Vagina Monologues rehearsals considering the main purpose of the show is to address violence against women.  This shit happens all the time, but no one ever talks about it, so I decided I'd talk a bit about it now...

If you were in our situation, seeing it happen, what would you do?