Confessions of a Cat-holic (113)

But Granduncle Ben immediately refuted my suggestions. He told me that he already retired, despite his lifelong tenure at UIUC as the department head and an esteemed author with a list of published textbooks widely used across universities in the states. What happened to his connections? I sometimes wondered if name dropping meant anything at all, in today's highly competitive world. If anything life had taught me, it would be that if anyone went around to brag about his family history and connections, he was either too hungry for attention, or more possibly, that he was a con man and/or a mental disorder patient. Only Hong Kongers would understand this. Once upon a time before the handover, there was a senile man known by everyone in the city for his graffiti work that self announced his ownership of the entire Kowloon. His name was Tsang Tsou Choi, or more publicly known as "The Emperor of Kowloon".

Name dropping would not work in Hong Kong, at least not in my circle. Acquintances and superficial relationships would not bring you any benefits in effect. Welcome to Hong Kong, hasta la vista.

My former boss at Lehman Brothers, Eric Tsang, was a relative of the New World family. But I never heard him say a word about his relationships with the tycoons when I sat next to him during my summer internship in Hong Kong. He rarely talked about himself. Apart from the fact that he lived in Repulse Bay, he almost did not disclose any personal details with his co-workers. Hey, he trusted me enough to give me his password to his desktop login, corporate email account and bloomberg terminal. He even gave me his corporate American Express card to sign off meals paid overtime. And I was only an intern! Only years after I left the firm that I realized he was a tycoon.

For over a few times, Granduncle Ben had discussed with my mom about my persona. He commented on my aggressive behaviour, saying that I seemed to always get what I wanted and that I was a goal getter who was determined to aim high and go after my dreams. I got his message. He was implying that I was the up and coming Deng Wendi, a girl from the poorest village and province of China who somehow earned a visa to land in the states and eventually slept her way up the social ladder by seducing all the old men having helped her get into Yale's business school. We all knew that Deng Wendi took a first class flight with Murdoch and wedded him after a brief period of dating, by crashing a party held by Star TV, partially owned by his conglomerate. Now, I was Deng Wendi in America.

I had a feeling that Ben's family didn't understand Asia at all. Even though I hated the word a lot and it was kind of offensive, I had to say that they really were a bunch of "bananas". Except for their skin color, they had nothing in common with me. Their world views, their perspectives and their cultural identities had no Asian roots at all. Maybe they did not want to be tagged as "Asians" as much as I did not want to be tagged "Filipinos". I got that, it was propaganda. Every country had it. It was no surprise that they hated their own race and ethnicities as much as I frowned upon Asians who only wanted to marry white and spoke no Chinese. In Hong Kong, we called them "bun bun".

Granduncle Ben had three daughters: Christina (Tina), Lori, and Linda. All three of their daughters could not command any Chinese and spoke English at native level, like many other Asian Americans. They all ended up marrying white guys. Christina wedded Ned Graham, and Lori wedded a banker named John Dillon. Linda married Michael Reed, a graduate student and professor of the Computer Science department at Columbia. I was not entirely sure but I suspected that Michael was Jewish because he had a long face with brown hair and a pointy nose. But Reed didn't sound like a Jewish name, so I could be wrong. I could not just go up and ask him if he was Jewish, if you knew what I meant. Things like these were somewhat sensitive, especially when it concerned races and identities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdPZbv_phTY