1 Janaury 2024

At the beginning of a year, I wish you a very successful one ahead of you.  Many of us look back to the previous 12 months, to what we did wrong, and wanted to improve, and what we wanted to equip more in the next 12 months. We call it a new year resolution.  As a school, we are determined to let students learn much about Chinese cultures, as well as cultures around the world. Hong Kong is an international city, the understanding to the world is a need, rather than a request. Junior form students learn more about Japan and Korea this school year; senior students spread their wings more to the rest of the world.

 

Our Japanese month was very successful; I hope we will have the same this March for our Korea focus.  Likewise, we hope that Form 6 students are equally strong in their study and exams. But the more we learn about different cultures, the more we might be confused. When do we begin to doubt the cultural security? I have a simple definition: when we only see the good of others and only see the bad in ours, then we must be alert.  To me, culture is both tangible and intangible, the rights and wrongs can also be subjective. If we objectively see only the bad in our cultures, perhaps we are right, but if we are inheriting all the wrongs and we fail to correct them, then we will slowly lose everything in us. That is, we need a balance; if the balance is not there, we create the balance.  We know there are Seven Seas in the world, but we must remember the Four Seas in China, and their origins.

 

In the last two months, I lost two young friends of different upbringing and background, one passed away because of illness; the other because of his delusion, and always thought that there were conspiracies around him. He believed that he was always in the right, and others always took advantage of him or framed him.  I am tired of dealing with such nonsense. Come to think of it, the first friend put me down as well through her religious beliefs and diets. To them, I was a commoner with vulgar taste; I cannot deny that because we have had different standards. But I must approve of the times exchanging ideas with them, the differences in cultures and upbringing did allow me to learn more about the world. I feel sorry for not seeing their ways of life, and their philosophical needs. But I learn to accept my limitations and learn to be shut away.  The silver lining is, if there is one, that we keep true to ourselves, you can call it stubbornness, and move on in our ways to a better place which we find for ourselves. None of us lose ourselves or our beliefs to please the other party; our individuality and thinking were not wiped away.

 

I wish them well, whenever they are in Seven Seas or Four Seas. I wish all King Ling members the same prosperity and happiness in our important year of the 30th school anniversary.

 

Anson Yang