Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady (Part 6)
By Emily Ho
Editor’s Note: The author runs an ice-cream parlor on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. When time allows, she draws caricatures and writes. The following are semi-autobiographical anecdotes blending fact and fiction.
Gwei-lo
Local Chinese people use the word gwei-lo to refer to Westerners (especially Caucasians). Literally, gwei means ghost and lo means male fellow.
In the past, the Chinese called Westerners “foreign devils” because they had invaded, looted and killed people in China. Obviously devils are more evil than ghosts because devils are self-made whereas ghosts are of destiny.
In Emily’s mind, the modern Chinese reasoning is that most Westerners look white and have colored eye-balls, much like the ghosts described in Chinese books. But she doubts if anyone has seen such ghosts.
Regardless, the term has become so common that even the Westerners in Hong Kong call themselves gwei-los. Yet many of the Chinese wear colored contact-lenses and put whitening lotion on their faces. Many dye their hair different colors. So who are the real gwei-los anyway?
Indigenous Inhabitants
Many indigenous people elsewhere, like the United States and Australia, see their status undermined and know that their ancestors were exploited. By comparison, the indigenous people living in Hong Kong’s New Territories and its outlying islands, like Lamma, are the lucky ones. They inherit special benefits due to their identities.
Firstly, they’re allowed to build village houses, or ding uk in Cantonese (meaning small houses, or houses that belong to the male descendants), without needing to pay the government for the land. These three-story village houses measure a maximum of 700 square feet per floor.
Secondly, since they have this right to land for “free” in a city where land is very scarce and extremely expensive, the decision if they must make a living like the rest of us becomes an individual option. Emily knows some indigenous people who never worked in their lives.
“How work life is like?” they ask Emily.
East Meets West
Quite a few Westerners on Lamma Island speak fluent Mandarin or Cantonese. Probably it’s because they married someone Chinese or lived in Hong Kong a long time. Meanwhile, some Chinese-looking people can’t say a word in Chinese because they were born overseas.
Emily believes that within 50 years, Asia will be largely occupied by Westerners and the Western countries by Asians due to migration, overseas employment and inter-racial marriages. Many Lamma children have parents of different races, maybe a British or American father and a Chinese or Filipina mother. It’s another form of “globalization”.
In peculiar cases, some such parents also have families with grown-up children back in their home countries. For them, an advantage of living on a “remote” island like Lamma may be to avoid their original “better halves” in a distant, almost non-existent way!
Coming soon:
Wrestling One's Weight in Treats
(more Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady)
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