Newsletter (2017-2018) January 2018 Newsletter | Page 15

reluctant they were to listen their acquaintance’s
nonsense, how annoyed they were to pretend to
be attentive due to politeness, and how their son
appeared at the right time so they could escape.
Their son found it funny and clapped his hands.
Happiness, anger, sadness and fear are univer-
sal. We do not even need language to communi-
cate such emotions.
With the enthusiastic chatter from my Hong
Kong aunt and English uncle, and their son’s
applause, we drove home together under the or-
ange-ish sky.
Tyler with his cousin, Luke, at an amusement park,
along with two of Luke’s friends, Robbie and Danny.
Given how differently they think on certain is-
sues, their different ethnicities and the language
barrier, how could they marry each other? How
could they communicate and fall in love in the
first place when they seem to have so little in Tyler enjoying his first-ever Christmas dinner in a re-
sort cottage with his Aunt Ida, Uncle Ian, and Luke.
common? The elements which connect them per-
haps are their same inborn possession: emotion.
Once in the tennis club, Ida and Ian saw a friend
of theirs, Sam. My younger cousin, Luke, and
Sam’s son knew each other because they went
to the same school, and all of us were waiting
for the two boys to finish the tennis lesson. Sam
began to ramble on about her life, from how her
son behaved at school to how she kept fit. I shut
off from her boring monologue and played with
my mobile phone already; however, Ida and Ian
responded attentively and laughed occasionally
when Sam cracked a humourless joke. Fifteen
minutes passed. Their sons came back from their
lesson. Ian cut the conversation short. We then
said goodbye and walked to our cars.
Tyler majors in En-
glish at EdUHK. He
established his own blog,
tylerhhwong.wordpress.
com, and writes for the
EdUHK Editorial Board.
He enjoys writing for the
expansion of the human
knowledge database with
a cup of chocolate sundae
at McDonald’s.
With Ida and Ian in the front, and their son and
I at the back, we shut the car doors. Surprising-
ly, as if planned, both Ida and Ian burst out and
complained about their pathetic friend the mo-
ment the doors closed. They talked about how
15
JANUARY 2018