[Diary of the Absurd Life in 1997:
All Entries]

TH: Diary of the Absurd Life in 1997, in 28 sections, was written originally in Chinese by Mary Wong and serialised in Ming Pao 明報 in 1997. The pieces, translated into English by Chris Song, are serialised in Cha beginning from Monday 25 September 2023.

.

The First Meal
in Our New Home

5/28

.

Although Kwong and I lived under the same roof, we didn’t always cross paths. I worked at a women’s magazine from 10:00 to 6:30, often lounging until a quarter to ten before leaving for work. However, she had to leave by 8:30 because her boss demanded that the personal assistants be punctual for handling phone calls. Many mornings, while I was still lost in a chaotic dream, she had already applied her eyeliner, put on lipstick, styled her hair, put on a suit, had breakfast, and then “clack, clack, clack,” was gone out to work. We each had our own schedules, coming and going at different times, and sometimes we wouldn’t see each other for days. I only heard her voice from the other side of the bedroom wall in the mornings as proof of her existence.

On Sundays, Kwong usually slept till noon, like most office workers. But on this first morning in our new flat, when I pushed open the bedroom door, I was surprised to see her sitting at the table by the window in the kitchen, holding a crimson-coloured teacup. Her plump palm was wrapped around the body of the cup, as if the handle might sprout wings and fly out of the window if not held securely. “Good morning,” she said, and I looked at the alarm clock on the floor, realising it was only ten past eight. I couldn’t respond to her. I came out of the bathroom and dove right back into my blanket, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get back to sleep. The kitchen was still silent.

“How about I make us some breakfast?” I said as I pushed open the door again. After rummaging around, I could only find a jar of instant coffee. There wasn’t even sugar or milk, but Kwong found a cake in her handbag. She had bought it at 7-Eleven the previous morning, so the first meal in our new home was prepared. We sat facing each other with, each with a mouthful of cloying cake and bitter coffee. She told me that she had broken up with Bigfeet, and for a moment, I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. After a while, she picked a piece of paper off the floor and wrote on it: toilet paper, condensed milk, tea leaves, sugar, mop…

How to cite: Song, Chris and Mary Wong. “Platform Shoes and Canvas Shoes.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 29 Sept. 2023, chajournal.blog/2023/09/29/first-meal.

Mary Shuk-Han Wong 黃淑嫻 (author) is a Hong Kong writer. Her short story collection Surviving Central (中環人; 2013) received the “25th Secondary School Students’ Best Ten Books Award.” Her essay collections include How to Live the Sad Days (悲傷的日子如何過; 2021), Against the Grain (亂世破讀; 2017), and From Kafka (理性的遊藝：從卡夫卡談起; 2015). She has also published an online poetry collection, Cave Whispers (絕地抒情; 2022), in collaboration with Hong Kong composer and photographer. She was the co-producer and literary advisor of two literary documentaries: 1918: Liu Yichang (1918：劉以鬯紀錄片; 2015) and Boundary: Leung Ping Kwan (東西：也斯紀錄片; 2015).

Chris Song (translator) is a poet, editor, and translator from Hong Kong, and is an assistant professor in English and Chinese translation at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He won the “Extraordinary Mention” of the 2013 Nosside International Poetry Prize in Italy and the Award for Young Artist (Literary Arts) of the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. In 2019, he won the 5th Haizi Poetry Award. He is a founding councilor of the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation, executive director of the International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong, and editor-in-chief of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine. He also serves as an advisor to various literary organisations.

---