So many things have happened in the last couple of days, the culprits behind the Boston bombing have been identified. The elder brother was shot dead by police. The younger was also shot, but they managed to arrest him alive. Just as Bostonians are celebrating the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a devastating earthquake struck Sichuan, China near the Tibetan “border” at Lushan. At the time of writing, more than 100 bodies have been recovered and over 2,000 have been found injured.
Closer to home, while having lunch with a university classmate of mine yesterday, he told me that his father passed away a week ago. And this morning, veteran actor Huang Weng Yong passed away after a losing a battle with cancer. A couple of weeks ago, fans and relatives of the late Mr Huang were still furious about rumours of his death.
My first memory of Huang Wen Yong 黄文永 is not as Ah Shui in The Awakening 雾锁南洋. My first and strongest impression of 黄文永 was in a special feature on Channel 8 starring Queen of Hats, the late Feng Fei Fei. In that show, Huang Wen Yong was the emcee and he did a little cross talk that went something like this.
FFF: 我家门前有座山.
HWY: 什么山?
FFF: 开门见山. 山前有条河.
HWY: 什么河?
FFF: 无可奈何.过了河就看到我家大门了.
HWY: 门牌几号?
FFF: 跟你一样。不三不四。
Throughout the show, Huang Wen Yong’s hands were visibly trembling. And we noticed the same sort of trembling on many of his appearances as host and emcee on variety programmes. Till this day, I’m not sure if the trembling was caused by nervousness or some other health issues.
Even closer to home this evening, my son was pulling out his cup from the pile of cups and glasses that my maid had just washed. A small glass had found its way into the cup and as he pulled it out, it dropped on the floor and shattered.
Life is as fragile as the broken glass. Every existence is like the smell of perfume. No matter how strong, it will gradually fade away. All this reminds me of one of the songs that inspired me to write my second novel.
“Remember I once told you so proudly
That I’ve been in this world in a previous life
Don’t tell me the meaning of Forever
I’m destroyed at my brightest moment”
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