Poetic & Persuasive
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- Nov 26, 2020
- 3 min read
FADE IN.
Act 1
EXT. ROADS - LATE MORNING
PETER drives, listening to the radio.
PETER (V.O.): Ah, the CE is reading her Policy Address.
We hear from the car radio:...近水楼台先得月...
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Literally, it means: Moon shines first on balconies close to the water. A similar English idiom is: A baker's wife may bite of a bun.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In the latter part of 2019, some young people in Hong Kong were quite mad. Then came the on-going pandemic. They've caused great harm to the well-being of the Hong Kong SAR.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): What people in the Hong Kong SAR can do is to continue capturing, creating and delivering value.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Hong Kong is a SAR of China - the world's 2nd largest economy. It should play a better role in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.
Peter drives inside a car park.
Art 2
INT. CAR PARK - LATER
Inside a stationary car, Peter is still listening to the radio.
PETER (V.O.): To turnaround, there's a lot the Government has to do. The Policy Address might not be short...
Hearing an interrupting commercial, Peter gets out of the car.
INT. STUDY - LATER
Plugging an old portable cassette and CD player, Peter tunes its radio. We continues to hear the Policy Address.
PETER (V.O): Yes, this old set still has some residual value.
From the radio, we hear: ...Art Tech...
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): This is a new direction for the creative industry. My younger daughter is studying that with a UK university. Good for her!
Recalling.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): My wife and I were so glad that our elder daughter graduated from Chinese University in 2018. And we had a great time, participating her graduation ceremony in campus.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): And our younger son quit HK PolyU three years ago for his medicine study in Australia.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): I observe that very few smart people would take teaching as their careers, particularly in non-tertiary schools.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Further, teaching has never been a profession as there isn't any professional body to regulate their ethics.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Young people need to learn how to empathize with others, to think critically and to discipline themselves, abiding social and legal standards.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): I always believe only the best should be allowed to do knowledge transfer.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Some institutions in the Hong Kong SAR, despite their facades, are highly political.
From the radio, we hear a DJ summarizing something and then ending the live radio broadcast. Quickly, Peter turns on the TV and watch the Policy Address.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): I can see there's order in the Legislative Council again. Yes, those who have been disrupting its due process for years are now gone.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Earlier, I read in Quora answers by others explaining to the world why those legislators had to go.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): One answer included a photo depicting a former high-ranking Hong Kong official smiling wide when some of those legislators went shaking hands with a US dignitary.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): For those who didn't know her former civil service background might have inferred that she was working for the US dignitary.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Living in the Hong Kong SAR, how could they do that? Without conscience, they're bad, if not mad.
Act 3
INT. STUDY - CONTINUOUS
From the TV, we hear: ...To conclude...
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): The Policy Address reflects the key activities the Hong Kong SAR Government will do to create public value.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): With the support of the Central Government, it shouldn't be hard to deliver some positive visible and tangible outcomes.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): What was the origin of the line: 近水楼台先得月?
Peter surfs the web with his phone.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Legend has it that the author was a civil servant working in outposts. When he found he was passed over by others who worked close to the supervisor, he wrote him a two-line poem.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): The other line is: 向陽花木易為春, literary means: Sun-bathed flowers and plants are like Spring. A similar English idiom is: A brewer's wife may drink of a tun.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O) (Cont'd): Chinese can be poetic and persuasive in governance, then and now.
FADE OUT.
THE END
Comments