Friday 24 February 2017

六年前的一件小事

2011年夏,去過一次外交部駐港特派員公署的座談交流活動。有貌似高層手持演辭,以平靜的語調照本宣科。讀到「你們青年人朝氣蓬勃,好像早晨八九點鐘的太陽」時,好像忽然想到了甚麼,問在場者知不知道是哪位名人說的。鴉雀無聲六七秒之後,有人舉手,半認真地答道,是偉大的領袖毛主席。貌似高層略帶欣賞地說,對,是毛主席,然後放下演辭,面向觀眾朗聲道,「世界是你們的,也是我們的,但是歸根結底是你們的。你們青年人朝氣蓬勃,正在興旺時期,好像早晨八九點鐘的太陽。」然後他又拿起演辭,以原來的語調繼續宣讀。

現在的我想,如果二十一歲相當於忙於起床梳洗換衣服出門的早晨八九點鐘,那現在就也許是早上十一點。街上行人還稀落,社會的齒輪如常轉動,甚麼也不大發生的十一點。

演講之後是答問環節。問題不算多,而我只記得其中兩條。

在下問了一條。具體用字當然無從考究,但大意是:正如閣下剛才所講,貴公署根據基本法第十三條設立,處理職責屬外交部的外交事務,但與此同時,基本法第一百五十一條訂明本港可在「經濟、貿易、金融、航運、通訊、旅遊、文化、體育等領域單獨地同世界各國、各地區及有關國際組織保持和發展關係,簽訂和履行有關協議」,兩者是如何調和的。貌似高層好像把不多的笑容再收起一點——或者他只是要組織一下答案,我向來不擅於觀言察色,不敢妄作猜測——回答說,當然大家都要根據這本基本法來做事,公署負責的是外交事務,等等。

我續問說,或者我表達得不好,或者可以舉例說,(2011)年初香港和紐西蘭剛剛在世貿框架下簽署了自由貿易協議,不知道公署有沒有和港府合作呢。他說,據他所知,這個協議基本上是你們香港方面去談的,我們沒有太多的參與。

然後有與會者問,要報考香港的公務員職位,我們知道要怎樣做,但如果想為祖國效力,又應該怎樣報考加入中國外交部呢。貌似高層說,在一國兩制之下,兩地制度、文化都相當不同,現時也沒有這樣的機制,如此之類,並勸勉大家為香港的繁榮安定努力。

講座後我們去參觀圖片展。印象最深刻的是一幅地圖,詳細標出周恩來、陳毅某次出訪中東、非洲,還特地繞路到阿爾巴尼亞的來回路程,實在是時代的見證。在入口大廳的樓梯上拍過大合照,便告解散。

今夜在回家的地鐵上,無端又想起這小小的往事。

(LBWE-E02)

臉書連結

Saturday 18 February 2017

Import & Export of Children in post-war Britain

After I got my haircut this afternoon, I walked past China Exchange near Leicester Square. It was hosting an exhibition on the Connection between London and Hong Kong. Not a bad way to spend the rest of my Saturday afternoon, I thought. And my friend Timson Lau was helping out there, I was pleasantly surprised to find.

There I learnt the stories of the tens of abandoned children from Hong Kong who were adopted by families across the South East during the '50s and '60s. A recent study found many of them reported to have encountered racism in their lives or felt detached from both white and Chinese communities. But at the end, the report concluded in terms of "psychological adjustment and life satisfaction, there were no statistically significant differences between the ex-orphanage women and the comparison groups".

Which is fair, I thought. We all have an equal chance at misfortunes in life; they just come in different flavours.

And the stories of Britain's own child emigrants came up in my mind. It was in V&A Museum of Childhood that I read about them, more than a year ago. Charities, religious organisations and governments ran migration schemes that sent children from poor neighbourhoods - often born to single mothers - to Australia and Canada. Many were forced to leave school as early as 15 and work on farms as hard labourers. Some were abused. The last child left the shores of Britain as late as 1970.

What an interesting country I'm in. On one hand, thousands of British children were sent to the other side of the world to toil in farms; on the other, at the same time, well-meaning middle-class families in the Home Counties imported orphans from the Far East for adoption.

At the end, it worked out for some and didn't work out for some other, in proportions not statistically unlike people who stayed where they had always been. Statistically.

(LBWE-E01)

===========================

Also on Facebook

Read also: