Ten years away from Hong Kong - Hometown

In 2012, the year when Gu Maya predicted the end of the world, I came to Australia to live for exactly ten years next year. My closest relatives all emigrated to Australia, leaving only my childhood friends in Hong Kong. In the past five years, I only stayed in Hong Kong for two days due to a connecting flight to meet up with friends in a hurry. The Hong Kong in my memory is still the old Hong Kong in 2012. Instead of the familiar and unfamiliar Hong Kong in 2021.

I remember when I first came to Australia, I experienced the kind of identity that anyone who has lived overseas for a long time has experienced. At that time, I watched Australian YouTubers learn an Australian accent, and the dating circle deliberately stayed away from Hong Kong people. The TV and newspapers I watched were all local Australian media. At that time, I saw that Australia was very good, and I always felt that the place where I grew up was not as good as Australia.

After about two years, I finally got a firm foothold in Australia and was familiar with it enough to see its shortcomings. I also reached another stage: crazy homesickness. My playlist is full of Eason Chan and Miriam Yeung. I watch TVB and Hong Kong movies for dinner, and I have a lot of love for Hong Kong stars. I tried to hold on to that feeling thousands of miles away. At that time, my wish was to return to Hong Kong as soon as I graduated.

In another two years, I graduated and didn't hate Australia so much anymore. I remembered that I worked overtime for two months in Hong Kong, sat on the subway every day, and most importantly, the starting salary was far lower than Australia. I thought I would work in Australia for a few years, and then go back to Hong Kong when I have overseas experience.

But in the past few years in Australia, I am used to this kind of life. I'm used to smiling and saying "How are you?" when I see people, I'm used to coffee catch-up with strangers, I'm used to the "No worries" mentality here, and even the way I dress and speak has made many people Thought I was a local.

In this eventful autumn last year, a wave of immigration broke out in Hong Kong, and my friends who had vowed not to come to Australia began to ask me about immigration. Hong Kong people in Australia are united like never before. They are active on various social networking sites and set up websites to help Hong Kong people in Australia find jobs. During the epidemic, they spontaneously made Hong Kong food takeaways to help Hong Kong students who were unable to go out to buy food during the lockdown.

Just like trying to rebuild a Hong Kong in Australia, people are still thousands of miles away from their hometowns, but their hearts have never been so close to Hong Kong.

To this day, I still don't know if I am a Hong Konger or an Australian. Although I don't plan to go back to Hong Kong, I also hope to leave Australia in the next few years and go to a new country. I still have the shrewdness of the Hong Kong people, but I have added the open-mindedness of the Australians.

These two places form a part of me. From one day, I no longer struggled with my identity, and I understood this poem overnight.

 Often envy the world Zhuo Yulang, the day should beg and point cake mother. Although the song passed the white teeth, the wind picked up, and the snow flying and the sea of flames turned cold. Returning from thousands of miles, the face is less and less, and the smile is still with the fragrance of Lingmei. How about Lingnan? But he said: This place of peace of mind is mine.
Su Shi's "Ding Storm: Returning from the South China Sea, Presented to Wang Dingguo's Servant and My Lady"

In another eventful autumn a thousand years ago, Su Shi reunited with his friend who had been demoted to Lingnan and the singing prostitute Rou Nu, who had followed him all the way. Back then, Lingnan was the present-day Guangdong and Guangxi area. In the Song Dynasty, it was a poor and desolate land. When Su Shi asked her about her life in Lingnan, Rou Nu replied, "This place of peace of mind is my hometown."

When I first read this poem, I didn't understand the meaning of the poem. It is not until now that I remember the traces of the past ten years that I feel that people are in the destiny, like the plum blossoms in the snow. The only thing that can be done is to be at ease with the situation, and the place of peace of mind is my hometown. Rou Nu enters Lingnan, I leave Lingnan, both are the same reason.