By Emily Ho




Editor's Note: The former proprietor of an ice-cream shop, Ho recently launched a book, the semi-autobiographical Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady (2011, Proverse Hong Kong, 104 pages, HK$98).


MAIN STREET, Lamma Island, Hong Kong -- “I could write a book like this so easily!” hissed one of my helpers. When working at my former ice-cream shop, she had read some anecdotes from my memoirs.

“How much money did you ‘win’?” an old friend asked when I joyfully told her I had become a finalist for an international literary award, the Proverse Prize. She must have regarded the prize as similar to her idle-afternoon mahjong games with other housewives.

Now, with my book, Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady, finally launched on November 22, I have to remind myself to stay humble, although I've received positive feedback from distant places like Australia and Britain. I also remind myself that I must sell as many copies as possible because I'm a first-time author without fame or popularity in the literary world. Publishing, after all, is a business.

Thanks to Sharon of The Island Bar, who offered her business for a book-signing event, I gained some exposure among the Lamma Islanders who inspired the book. Sharon's kindness helps me to regain some faith in human relationships.

The book-signing took place on the misty, cloudy afternoon of November 26. I used a table outside the bar and put up some posters designed by my partner, Gary, who had them printed in the city after he spent an exhausting day teaching hyperactive children.

Although not all my friends had learned about my book, many expressed happiness that I finally had become an “author", a designation over which I'd procrastinated. The book involved so much hard work and even hard feelings because it took me back to some dark moments in my life. Besides, some characters and incidents in the book may arouse anti-Emily sentiments among certain locals, past business associates, friends and even my family. Not everybody is pleased with my book's publication, I believe.

Still, I felt shocked when a friend told me to take the book back, that she wouldn't buy it, after inspecting the product. She said instinctively: “What a thin book! It doesn't look worth HK$98.”

Rather than getting angry, I somewhat appreciated her frankness. It's true the book is thin, but the contents are what matters. So I could only recommend that she buy a telephone directory instead because it's thicker.

At first the book-signing went smoothly with some locals having books signed before going to Central District for a protest against the proposed Lamma Baroque property development. The bar was quiet because it was a Saturday afternoon, and the weather had been less than ideal.

Then a group of tourists (about 12 people, mostly Westerners with Asian-female companions) came to the bar and had several rounds of beer. Suddenly, the place had filled with customers and “liveliness”. Seizing the moment, Sharon tried to help me to sell books to these people who were too drunk to listen or having too much “fun” with pretty Asian ladies in their arms.

Then I heard loud giggling from an Asian lady sandwiched by two Western males, prompting a variety of sexual moves in the middle of the street. Suddenly I thought of the wonderful Lamma children who always had visited my ice-cream shop. How I missed their innocent smiles and laughter!

“Maybe no one appreciates reading or writing anymore,” I thought while seated at the table and surrounded by the tourists who drank and loudly chattered as if I wasn't supposed to be there. Without asking, some put their glasses on the book-signing table, and some sprinkled ashes from their cigarettes near my ears.

Slowly, the sky turned grey, and rain started to fall. At certain moments, I struggled to hold off tears. It seemed like no one else would want to buy the book. Before I'd believed that no one would want to run their own business after reading my memoirs. Now I thought that no one would write books if they saw what a new writer had to endure.

Then just before the end of my event, a teenaged girl cried bitterly when her mother refused to buy the book. She was one of the many children who used to cry when their parents declined to buy them ice cream at my shop. Fortunately, her mother then relented and let her have the book. A very cheerful smile, like a golden beam, transformed the girl's face as I signed the book for her – almost as had happened at the ice-cream shop just a few years ago.

After two book-signings, one at the Island Bar and another at Pizza Milano (thanks to the kind restaurant owners), I felt full of gratitude to the Lamma Islanders who bought copies. They could have purchased second-hand books for just HK$10, but they paid nearly HK$100 for my very “thin” book.