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| www.goodbyeleslie.com |
| www.goodbyeleslie.com |
| Leslie's Autobiography Chapter 5 Translated by Puppet |
| CHAPTER 5: STUDYING IN ENGLAND An autobiography by Leslie (1985) ~ Commercial Radio (Source: Leslie Cheung Cyber World- http://www.lesliecheung.cc/biography/autobiograph/index/index.htm) Leaving Hong Kong For England Before I left for England, I felt rather strange. Many of my family members came and see me off. This includes my parents, my brother and sisters as well as Luk Che. I was elated to leave Hong Kong. Maybe this is an effect of my childhood, I did not feel sad to leave. I remembered just waving goodbye and turned round, never looked back. I didnÕt feel that there was anything worthwhile for me to ponder. I board the Laker. I am not sure if Laker still exists in Hong Kong. Laker mainly catered for the student market. Therefore it was rather cheap, it cost approximately HK$2000 at that time, and probably a few hundred dollars for a single ticket to England. It did not stop at too many places either. I remembered stopping at Karachi in India before flying direct to England. At first I felt lucky that I am boarding a jumbo for my first flying experience. I sat right in the middle. There was a TV projector. I sat right near it. When the plane took off, then suddenly the projector fell off. I could hear the screws coming off. It was not until the plane reached stability at higher altitude, right above the clouds, that the air-hostess asked me to leave my seat so they could fix it. That was my journey to England. When I reached England, the first thing I notice was the weather difference between England and Hong Kong. It was late August then, which can be considered quite late. Normally, student would arrive in early August so they could spend time with family members in England. However, I did not have any relative in England at that time. Therefore I arrive rather late. A friend of mine picked me up at the airport and I spent the night at his/her house. The next day, I was sent to the boarding school. My First Impression of the School That was the first time I ever slept for 28 hours. I was so tired when I arrive. I didnÕt suffer from jet lag though. I slept and slept for more than one day I felt someone nudged me awake and said ÒAiya Cheung Kok Wing, you need to go to schoolÓ. I still remember his name. His family name was Lee. He was the son of my fatherÕs friend. It was Lee who sent me to school. My first impression of the school was a positive one, it was quite big. At that time, I was not too demanding, anyway schools in England are large anyway. I never loathe about the size of the school. There was no one at the school on my first day. There was only a teacher and his wife. He invited me to join them for sandwich. It was not until the next day that I met my classmates. I was allocated in a dormitory that housed 16 people. Maybe I was a junior, well not a baby-class, but junior class, so when I arrived I found myself being promoted to Upper Forth (which is equivalent to Form 4 in Hong Kong). Perhaps I am a very adaptable person ever since childhood. Therefore I did not feel estranged. The classmate who came with me was a little bit more demanding. Maybe it was his family background. His dad was the CEO of a shipping company. Therefore he found it difficult to adapt to the new environment. He seemed to rebel using food. In fact I grew fatter when I was in England, because I ate his portion as well. There really wasnÕt much choice in terms of food over here in England. Well let me recount what was available on the menu whilst abroad. Eating Breakfast So, 7 oÕ clock, morning call. When I said morning call, it is not what you would imagine the morning call you get in a hotel, where you get to request the time to have your morning call. It was more like a fire drill. Everyday at 7 oÕ clock, waking up to the morning call, we would routinely get up and tidied up our beddings. Then we would get dress and walk for 10 minutes to the main dormitory. The main dormitory consisted of the canteen as well as the headmaster/mistressÕs lodging. Before breakfast, we would say our prayer. Breakfast was served at 7:30. We always ate more at breakfast, and the reason I will reveal later. The menu consisted of fish fingers, milk, bread as well as 2 eggs. I wonder what sort of eggs they serve. It wasnÕt like the eggs we found in Hong Kong. The eggs in England are really small. Eating Lunch and Sports Activities We have our recess at 12 oÕclock for lunch. The menu mainly consisted of meat pies and there was a pie call Shepherds pie. This would be considered inferior food in Hong Kong, but it was not so in England. Shepherds pie is made of minced meat, mainly beef (actually it is made of lamb). We drank water at lunch. Dessert consisted of trifle and/or jelly. After lunch, we would have class until 3 oÕclock. Then it was sports. My participation in sports, I think helped me to grow in size and became quite muscular today. In England, sports are compulsory. You were either selected to join football or basketball. Honestly, I have participated in both before. But after my first session in basketball, there wonÕt be a second time. At age 14, my size as a Chinese boy was no comparison to the British. They were all so tall, like mountain. Therefore I never play rugby. I donÕt like to be crushed to death. So, I played football. Of course I was never a goalkeeper because the goal was of standard size, 24m, equivalent to international standard. I was mainly left/right wing. Basically I donÕt think Chinese people run slower than the foreign people. I think we are of equal speed. My other friend was not too keen of sports. So he asked his father to write a letter to the school detailing his pretend ÔillnessÕ so that he can be exempted from sports. Hence I was the only Chinese person who can mix well with the foreigners, because there were only two Chinese in the entire school. Eating Dinner Time flies. I would say life in England was quite boring. Saturday was the best day of the entire week, especially for the British. Saturday is the day one is Ôreleased from the cageÕ so to speak. Unlike in Hong Kong, most people (approximately 300 of us) would spend weekdays at the boarding school with the exception of two of my schoolmates who were allowed to go home. They were daytime students. After sports, from 3-5 oÕclock, we will be goaded to the library for so called revision. Two teachers would patrol us. Basically these teachers did not really care what you did with your time in the library. It didnÕt matter if you chose to study, sketched stars it was up to you. By 8 oÕclock, the bell would ring and we would go back to our hostel. I donÕt know if you are familiar with Oliver Twist. Dinner was exactly the same. We would hand out our mug, and they would pour in this so call tea and we were given some biscuits. And that was it, that was how we endured our ÔmemorableÕ night. Supplementary Diet Ð Instant Noodles If you want a body like Lo Yuet Mei, I would advise you to study in England. I am sure you would immediately lose a few pounds. A lot of foreign students found the meal in England unappetizing. Most dislike fish fingers or shepherds pie. Many of them would write home and lament so that their family would either send them more pocket money or some instant noodles as supplementary diet. Theft was quite common back then in the hostel. We slept on bunk beds. Next to our beds, they would be some lockers for us to put some essential items. Our instant noodles had been mysteriously missing once or twice. Hence we complaint to our Geography teacher. Out of compassion, he agreed to let us use his kitchen. Do you know how we cook instant noodle before we have access to a kitchen? Let me tell you. In the hostel, there were hot and cold taps. We will let the water from the hot tap to run for about 5 minutes in order to reach just above boiling temperature. We were always cautious when opening the packaging of the noodles. We will then open up the packaging to form a cover. We bought some plastic bowls and place the noodles in. We will then pour in the hot water and immediately covered the bowl with the packaging itself. We need to push the cover using our hands. Even after 3 minutes, the noodles would still not be ready. It is only after about 15 minutes would the noodles be soft enough to it. Nevertheless, instant noodles were considered a luxury back then because there really was nothing to eat. This was to go on for several months before we were allowed to use the kitchen of the Geography teacher. The Geography Teacher Talking about the Geography teacher, I still very much miss the time I spent with him. Unlike geography, there werenÕt many experiments to do if you take history or English literature classes. Geography lessons normally have many field trips. I remember our school was located near East Anglia, in Norwich. Then we will take a bus in Norwich to go to Leeds. Leeds is very near Scotland, therefore it was more mountainous. England itself is quite flat. It was in Scotland that you would find natural beauty such as waterfall or mountain. Leeds University and Returning to Hong Kong I remember when I came back to Hong Kong for holiday; I watched a film call Fourteen Heroin (Sup Sei Lui Ying Hung). There were many famous female casts such as Ho Lei Lei, Lee Ching, Lee Lai Wah etc. I remembered climbing at the Yorkshire district. There was a YMCA in Yorkshire. In the morning we explored some the geographical elements, such as waterfall and caves. When we reach the mountain, its steepness was like those in 14 Heroin. It was quite dangerous. I remembered threading a path, there was something fell off the edge. Guess what it was, it was a sheep! I remembered I studied for 5 and a half years, from Forth Form, then OÕ Level and then AÕ Level. Then I was awarded a scholarship in a school at Chelmsford to study at Leeds University. I studied Textile at Leeds. I studied for approximately one year. People always laugh when I told them I studied Textile. They taught I was doing up a bedroom for Sleeping Beauty. In fact there were quite a diversity of subjects in Textile. There were art direction, beauty design as well as fine arts. Actually I was very interested in the subjects. I am sure that should this interest be nurtured, I would be a successful designer. Unfortunately, in the early days of my second year, I received a letter from home. My father was paralysed (I think Leslie said due to alcohol.) For an elderly, my father felt that one is useless and hopeless when you are paralysed. He felt that it was time for the son to take over the business. Therefore he summoned me home to Hong Kong. When I went home, I felt that there was nothing for me to do. However my father felt that I should not return to the UK. This is because he felt that I should be by his side in case he dies. I donÕt feel like going into employment just yet because I was rather young then. I also do not want to take over my fatherÕs business. Instead I went back to secondary school as top-up student. I never really tell anyone about this. By that time, my English language has greatly improve that I scored an A in AÕ Level. As you know, in private school, the English level is still rather low. I remembered the headmistress said to me that I could actually teach the English Language at Form 2. She asked me if I would consider teaching. I taught she was joking. In fact I insisted in doing Form Five because my Chinese language was not as competent as my contempories. |
| All the autobiograph translations are Goodbye Leslie Originals. If you see them elsewhere, they are a repost. |