Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020 | Page 74

Fiction – Group 4
To help fill the void in my life, I worked tirelessly day after day - not giving up on
finding her.
However, I found solace in the community where I worked, during a time where I felt
gloomy and dejected.
I still vividly recall chatting with community members - on days where there wasn’t
much cleaning to do.
“Life’s moving too fast for an old man like me, isn’t it? You younglings still have a whole
life ahead of you, especially the one with all this ‘greater bay’ whatever going on.” The old
man by the wet market always told me. He would go rambling on tangents about his past
generations social issues and his too-high expectations of this generation - trying his best to
not sound too harsh to me about how “I never studied hard enough when I was young” and I
was “wasting my time”, but ultimately still turning his rambles into condemning lectures.
However, he always rose my spirits up - comforting me with his somewhat too harsh
words, but intentions pure and innocent. It brought me back into a place of contentedness.
And as time passed, he warmed up to me - and we talked about anything - ranging from
his past glory days, or my upbringing - the bond I had grown with not just him, but the
whole community was very heartening, and to me, it had become my second home, where I
learnt from their cultures and traditions as if I was one of them.
Watching The Greater Bay Area growth accentuating at such a rapid pace and keep these
traditions was to put it simply, amazing. This place had become a place where Cantonese
culture has prospered and has blossomed into the most beautiful flower. Once a dying dialect
many decades ago, this area has cultivated this articulate and buoyant dialect to never-seen-
before levels of widespread and common use. These traditions exclusive to people like the
small community of Iao Hon have been able to live on, teaching them to simple “passersby”
like me.
Thanks to the interconnected transport hub that was brought forth new transport to
connect these neighbouring Chinese cities closer and closer together. All different types of
Chinese people mixed and mingled about, learning about each other’s standard traditions and
local foods - how they differed from their hometown, how life was like over there. People who
came from all places to visit or work - whether it be the bridge connecting Hong Kong and
Macau, crossing the border from Zhuhai, or a ferry from any place - they all were learning
from others, all the while teaching others about what their traditions were back home.
Even in the situation that I was in, I enjoyed and fully embraced the lively community
spirit, and how welcoming the community was integrating me and considering me as one of
their own.
“Wait, Grandpa, does that mean you never met her again?” asked the younger grandchild.
I chuckled slightly, before saying recounting, “No silly, of course not. She’s your
grandmother now remember?”.
But, even as I found comfort in this small, but lovely community, I needed to know
where Siu Mei went. Even if they had given me a sense of belonging, my heart still ached
and yearned for her to come back. I searched high and low for any information regarding her
whereabouts, before finally being led into the radiant island, Taipa of Macau.
Those buildings that seemed echelons away were just mere blocks away, due to the very
fast modernisation of Macau. Here came a plethora of mountainous skyscrapers, protruding
the sky. All of a sudden, my surroundings were transformed into a contemporary landscape.
My surroundings evolved into more sophisticated and renovated buildings, in contrast to the
low-rise buildings in Iao Hon.
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