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A Corner

Writer's picture: Peter K F Cheung SBSPeter K F Cheung SBS
  1. FADE IN.


  2. Act 1


  3. INT. CAKE SHOP - DAY


  4. PETER is checking the cakes on display.


  5. PETER (V.O.): My wife has heard about Sumikko Gurashi cakes. Here they're are! They look sweet!


  6. As a STAFF (20s) approaches him, Peter points at the cake.


  7. Peter pays and gets the cake happily.


  8. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Like the cartoon characters on the cake, it's good to be oneself by staying at a corner. I often did that in receptions before the hosts speak.


  9. Reflecting.


  10. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But when a person or a state is pushed to a corner, then they may have to do something that they didn't want to do.


  11. Act 2


  12. FLASHBACK


  13. INT. SITTING ROOM - DAY


  14. Relaxing on a sofa, Peter is watching TV.


  15. PETER (V.O.): US is going to postpone the G7 meeting from June to Sept 2020. The timeline is just too optimistic given the pandemic situation in US.


  16. More news stories.


  17. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): US wants to expand the G7 meeting to include Russia, Australia, South Korea and India.


  18. Pausing.


  19. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): It's clear that Trump wants to build a stronger alliance against China.


  20. Pausing.


  21. PETER (V.O.)(Coint'd): But Russia was banned from western-led summits since Putin's annexation of Crimea.


  22. Pausing.


  23. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Furthermore, unlike other traditional US allies, Russia hasn't toed the US line to badmouth Hong Kong.


  24. Pausing.


  25. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Throughout history, there aren't just class struggles from within or among races, but also competition for dominance among states.


  26. Pausing.


  27. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Why peoples or races and states like to dominate or be dominated?


  28. END FLASHBACK


  29. INT. STUDY - DAY


  30. The TV is broadcasting images of violence and an ANCHOR is commenting.


  31. PETER (V.O.): These are violence in US cities triggered by a white policeman's brutality against a black crook. Racial discrimination of the whites' that I-am-better-than-you in US is deep-rooted.


  32. Peter surfs the web.


  33. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): The first Africans enslaved within the continental United States arrived in 1526.


  34. Pausing.


  35. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): I recall when I visited a family in South Carolina as an International Visitor in 2007, I was shocked to hear from the entrepreneur-host that people there still felt unhappy with the abolition of slavery as it impacted on their productivity.


  36. Pausing.


  37. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): The slaves from Africa had to no choice but to submit for centuries. But now is 2020.


  38. Having taken a deep breath, Peter continues to follow the TV stories.


  39. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): It's interesting to hear the anchor's comments that the masked mob, in particular those wearing Guy Fawkes masks, have a different agenda.


  40. Thinking.


  41. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): When the journalists of the same TV channel reporting on Hong Kong riots, they always say it is a pro-democracy movement and stop at that.


  42. More TV stories.


  43. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): The consecutive nights of riots in US cities are even more infectious than CONVID-19. It has spread to UK, Canada and New Zealand.


  44. Pausing.


  45. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Would the racial injustice movement infect Hong Kong?


  46. Smiling.


  47. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): No way. Some would discriminate against their own race and want to be dominated by the whites.


  48. Pausing.


  49. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): If they follow the news at all, what's happening in their dream countries should be eye-opening to them.


  50. Thinking.


  51. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): But how about US' allies? Why do they like to be subordinated to US?


  52. Pausing.


  53. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): They probably won't want to suffer in any way and there's the hope to get some residual advantages from US.


  54. Pausing.


  55. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Why should US like to dominate then? Yes, the dominant power gets most of the advantages.


  56. Pausing.


  57. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): And thus a dominant power will deploy means at its disposal to keep those less than it from acquiring more power to compete with it.


  58. Pausing.


  59. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): That's what motivates Trump's G7 expansion.


  60. Pausing.


  61. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): When a person or state is weak, there's no feasible choice but to submit - like the citizens in Hong Kong when it was colonized in the 19th century, or when China was attacked by UK, US, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Austria and Italy in 1900.


  62. Peter sighs again.


  63. Act 3


  64. INT. SITTING ROOM - NIGHT


  65. We see images of violence on the TV screen.


  66. PETER (V.O.): Since its opening up in 1978, China has been capturing and delivering value relentlessly, and the British Hong Kong has become Hong Kong, China on July 1, 1997.


  67. Pausing.


  68. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): China has been patient. It has been increasing its strength for the past four decades. And time is right that Hong Kong shouldn't be influenced by western-led powers anymore.


  69. Pausing.


  70. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Even when China becomes the largest economy in the world, I believe it won't be dominant as it knew how bad it was when Chinese and China were subject to foreign dominance.


  71. Peter sees his WIFE putting the Sumikko Gurashi cakes on a table.


  72. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): I find it good to be myself at a corner now.


  73. Pondering.


  74. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): I anticipate there should be a new order around the corner.


  75. FADE OUT.


  76. THE END


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