A Story from Family History.

To inform Third Draft Man Hong Chung

A Story from Family History

Jonathan Chung is the man who I have always respected and I will still do for the rest of my life. He gave me everything I have and I believe I will pay him back one day. He is a well-educated man, just like the way his father wanted him to be. I believe it is fate that has brought us together.

John, now the father of two teenagers, was born in one of the largest villages in Hong Kong. This village was called Lam Tsuen and it was located in the northeast of New Territories, in Tai Po. This incredibly large village still exists today and has become one of Hong Kong’s main tourist attractions. He was born on the 6th of January 1950 and had 6 siblings, 1 brother and 5 sisters. Nowadays, this may seem a lot, but in the olden days, it was a typical number of children a couple had. This was because it was the only way they could think of to improve their living standards. People in the 1950’s were still poor and there were no vaccinations yet. Even if there were, it is very unlikely that they can afford the medication, vaccination or even a medical consultation. Therefore, they needed more children to support the family by working and earning money, as it was likely that the children would die at a young age. However, as time went by, the British started to develop the city and the villagers discovered a second way to make their lives easier. This second way was emigrating to a more economically developed country and for most people, that country was England. However, the British government only allowed those villagers to fulfill this dream. Therefore, the indigenous villagers may consider themselves lucky.

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As I said before, Jonathan Chung was born in a village and therefore, he had the right to immigrate to Britain. By using up most of their savings, the Chungs managed to get two airline tickets for John and his father. And on Sunday, 2nd of February 1966, John and his father left Hong Kong at Kai Tak Airport and headed for England. The journey was exciting for John as it was the first time he had ever left Hong Kong. When they arrived, it was already midnight and all of the shops have closed. The airport gave him a bad impression of the country as well. The streets were wet, damp and cold. The wet atmosphere gave him a feeling of loneliness as well. This was because he was alone with his father and they had to find somewhere to stay for the time being. Everything seems so dark and damp, he felt disappointed, as England was far worse than what he had expected. It seems as though the country did not want him to be there.

In order to buy those two airline tickets for Jonathan and his father, their family used up most of their savings and the pair could only afford a small room. The room had one single light bulb and the walls were old and dirty. After a week or so, Jonathan went to school so he can study and bring honor to the family. John’s father wanted him to become a well-educated man and earn respect from the other villagers. Because all of the men from John’s father’s generation did not go to secondary school and only some of them went to the primary school in the village. John’s father used to call himself a ‘cow-dung man’, which meant an uneducated country bumpkin in Cantonese.

The school was more challenging that he thought as everything was written in English and he had to communicate with most of his classmates who were Caucasian with that language. Luckily, there were some Chinese boys who helped him whenever he was in trouble. However, other problems started to arise as well, which stopped him from making progress. Firstly, the whole electrical circuit was shut down at midnight at the small room he rented. This was because the landlady did not want her electrical bill to be too expensive. Therefore, he had to light a candle in order to study at night. Secondly, as he did not speak English fluently, he did not understand some of the instructions his teachers gave at school and this lead to other students despising him.

As time went by, his English improved and he was qualified to study at the University of Sheffield. He did well in his exams and managed to pass the exam for the Doctor of Philosophy course in Chemical Engineering as well. Now that he achieved what his father gave him as a target, he had truly brought honor to the family and become a well-educated man.

Commentary

Since the first day I went to school, my father gave me an impression of a very clever and humorous man. This reason I chose to write a biography on him is because his life is far more interesting than my mother’s. He traveled to many places in the world and it would take him a long time to explain all of his experiences to me. However, even though his life story is very long, I can include the interesting ones only. My way of retrieving data is combining my knowledge and asking him for any undiscovered facts. This is because, when I was still young, my father used to tell me about his experiences. Therefore, I can remember most the facts about his life off by heart.

I chose to inform because in my opinion, it is easier to inform than to entertain. When you entertain, you usually add imagery and you start in the middle of things. This makes it harder to start for me.