"Yeuhng Ga"

After having a curry dinner in Mong Kok with Irene, Kar Wai, and Agnus, I hurried over to Prince Edward to the Sports Facility no.2, walked late into the squash court turned-into G. Capoeira Brazil Hong Kong beginner lesson floor. After a few jengas and other basic moves, Squirrel and Mona Lisa (these are their Capo nicknames) gave me gifts of black sesame-themed snacks. "I was the one that went travelling, I thought I was supposed to give the gifts!" I said.

"We remembered how much you like black sesame!" they said to me, referring to an inside joke from the dinner of my last night in HK a couple months ago. "Thanks!" I said to them, "I got you gifts too, from Japan, but I forgot to bring them out today!" After the lesson I went with the two of them along with the Mask (another Capo name inspired by the fact that Mestre thought he looked like Jim Carrey from The Mask) for singing Karaoke. We sang until 2 in the morning, me trying to pull out every single Chinese song I could sing, since the English songs I sang didn't seem to inspire any sense of fun from them. The Mask said he'd call in sick the next morning, while Squirrel sent me a text in all capital letters when I was at the airport, telling me she was really happy so she wasn't tired and work was OK. Before I went to the airport, I had lunch with Mona Lisa so that I could give her the gift I'd intended for her and Squirrel. She was the only one out of them all who wasn't working, since she'd just graduated from City U. Of course, I asked the standard question of what she wanted to do next.

I was struck by the importance of "Yeuhng Ga" in her job-search...which literally translates to "raise/support family." It's the standard custom in Hong Kong to financially support your parents as soon as you graduate and get a job. This isn't a secondary consideration, it's a guiding and principle factor. New grads choose their jobs and direction in life based on the necessity to pay up to their parents; interest and "calling" don't seem to factor as much into it as it does for new grads in the US. Yet, the HKers I've talked to seem to accept this responsibility of "yeuhng ga" without reluctance...without taking it up as if it were some burdensome chore their parents pushed them to do. Even if the parents have enough money, my friends give them money just out of symbollic gratitude.

Mona Lisa wants to be a school teacher. I, on the other hand, have no idea what I want to be...which is an attitude that seems to plague many American new grads. After our lunch, I flew to Bangkok, where I'd indulge in nostalgic reveries and nighttime licentiousness for the next 4 days and 4 nights.