Traveling today, leaving Hong Kong, on holiday. Smooth connection of minibus to airport bus. An early Sunday morning calm over the streets; but we can tell it’s going to be another scorcher, as the sun climbs in the sky. Climate change affects us all. Records for heat constantly break out all over. But still we travel, seeking friends, family, relations.
Memories pop up like bubbles as we pass through the streets.
Time memories—watching and reading news of demonstrations. In 1986-87: quashed. In 1989: squashed.
Place memories in and on the streets—There was Kai Tak Airport where we came and went so quickly. There was the San Po Kong Magistracy where we got married, now another shopping mall. There we can see where slogans painted up and then painted over. Remember when we sat down at the junction on Nathan and Jordan Roads? Remember when we walked in groups in hope? Remember when we used to gather in Victoria Park on today’s date, the very mention of now is considered, “sensitive” to remember?
So now remembering all of that is becoming a form of meta-memorialisation.
What was the name of that book by Ackbar Abbas? Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance? What was that line by T. S. Eliot? “Footfalls echo in the memory / Down the passage we did not take / Towards the door we never opened / Into the rose garden”?
Documents checked. Security passed through. So now we sit by the gate. Remembering, trying to remember, and preparing to fly.
How to cite: Caplan, Victoria. “Just Another Day: Victoria Caplan.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 4 Jun. 2023, chajournal.blog/2023/06/04/victoria-caplan.
50+ years ago, the Old Man under the Moon tied an invisible red cord around Victoria Caplan‘s ankle. 30+ years ago, the thread drew her to come to Hong Kong to work. There she met her love and found her life’s work, both of which (love and work) continue. She is an HKSAR permanent resident.
Cha 