方順生撰文談家事、國事 (3)

Bob Choi & Others

27 August 2013

Peter Tsang: Your respond to the article written by Mr. Fang is indeed very positive of which I fully agree. Though you have been living in England for thirty eight years, your written Chinese is much much better than me & many Chinese here in Hong Kong. As I have mentioned in my previous e-mail to Bob that I am typically end product of the colonial education, that is poor in English & even worse in Chinese. Nevertheless, I have the same feeling with you that being a Chinese, nowadays, I feel greatest proud ! From being occupied by the Japanese in the second world war to now, China has become the top three countries in the world. It’s wonderful, amazing & extremely uneasy !

Metis, you & I are born Chinese. Our parents are Chinese & we have no choice of our nationality. I admire your firm perception of not giving up your nationality – Chinese. We were NMC graduates & have undergone unfair & unjust colonial governance for many many years in Hong Kong. To the best of my knowledge, it is a common saying of the White people that Yellow is just only a little bit better than black. This is told by many old aged overseas Chinese that discrimination in terms of race, colour & class was obvious & serious in the western world. Happy to say, for the past decade, situation is observed to have improved !

As far as I know, overseas Chinese are mostly very hard working, humble, polite, sincere & friendly people. They make no trouble but contribute greatly to the prosperity & development to the society they live & work. They are most welcomed by the local people where they immigrate. I am excited to know that the reputation of overseas Chinese in the western society is overwhelmingly excellent & superb. Metis, you are certainly one of them that deserve our greatest respect & admiration.

Take care & stay well. I am here desperately awaiting to meet you in our future reunion in Hong Kong.

Bob Choi: Excellent article! It demonstrates the fact that in politics, there is no one single truth, but only different points of view. That's why two highly educated, intelligent individuals who grew up in the same family (Anson Chan and Philip Chan)can hold such different positions. I don't think we should judge that one is right and the other is wrong. In my book, both are right because they stand up and speak their mind on what they believe in

Tim Fook: I quite agree to your view. In my family, my father, elder brother and me , all have different political believes and they had encountered different taste in their career.

I have the similar experience. During Korean War, my elder brother , a medical doctor, worked in MASH for the Volunteer Army of China and at the same time, my father worked for CAT, a Taiwanese transportation company with working site in American Airbase in Tachikawa, Japan. Last year, Sydney Shi HO told me that his father also worked for that CAT in that period.

Bob Choi: Even a seemingly simple concept such as patriotism can take on very different meaning depending on circumstances. Are the political dissidents in China enemies to the state (as alleged by the authorities) or are they true patriots who speak out because they wish the best for their country? Is Edward Snowden a traitor to his country or a hero who sacrifies himself to expose injustice committed against the people by its own government?

While we are at it, what is the difference between "country" and "government"? Can one love his country and hate his government, at the same time? There are no easy answers, but by asking the right questions, we can at least avoid the common mistake of labelling someone as being "patriotic" or "unpatriotic", or being "pro-China" or "anti-China".

In ancient China, we read that some emperors would designate some high level officials whose primary duty is to criticize the emperors. Many of them met their untimely demise while carrying out their duties. It would appear that modern China has not made much progress in handling criticism. Criticize the government and you will be labelled "unpatriotic" and be condemned, neither proof nor evidence is ever needed.

-To be continued-