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David Wong

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Book Review by Tervor Clark

Book Review on The Evergreen Teahouse by Tervor Clark in SINE Magazine of the Scotland-China Association

David Wong Tzi-Ki’s story is fiction founded firmly in facts, and his eye for detail evidences deep and wide research. Apprenticing himself after academic distinctions to career in journalism, he was later appointed to the HK administrative service, where he showed qualities in welfare and other work that eventually raised him to Secretary for Economic Services. Where some expatriate’s heart might as unavailingly as ostentatiously bleed for  disaster’s victims, he wisely preferred to encourage the national impulse in adversity to gather oneself together and fight back by one’s own efforts. Retiring at the top, he turned very successfully to business, and after retiring again he became an author. His first novel follows many published short stories. The Evergreen Teahouse takes us from 1952 to 1985 from the Korean War to the Joint Declaration. We follow the fortunes from boyhood of two sons: one of a successful businessman who had tried to be a good Confucian: the other of a disabled veteran of the Long March who had tried to be a good Party Secretary (in Anhui). The former deracinated by America becomes the archetypal tycoon and established pillar whose less public life brings him to a sticky end: the latter plays a largely unnoticed part in China’s outpost in Hong Kong and ends his integrity  unsullied in virtual diplomatic banishment as a Party Secretary in his remote and uninfluential home.

The  three  leading  British character, equally well drawn are a national serviceman who turns investigation journalist, a bluff lawyer who regrettably shakes the pagoda tree and a self-indulgent government information officer.  These round-eyes make friends with a senior Chinese administrative officer who has accepted the Queen’s shilling and is loyal to British policy whenever it places the ordinary inhabitants’ welfare first. It is interesting how anonymous and shadowy the UK diplomats and senior HK administrators are, and how quite severe criticisms of their motives, styles and inadequacies come mainly through the voices, not of the Chinese, but of these Britons. The assumptions of the later idealistic but youthfully naive students torn between loyalty to China as a concept and modem (unspokenly “Western”) ways are poignant. This is a thought­-provoking and stylish portrayal of human psychologies and relationships that should encourage  reading  of the  surrounding history.

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Biography
The Evergreen Tea House

Click to Download Chapters

  1. Catching Snakes - July 1952
  2. Letter From The Blue - August 1952
  3. Father To A Village - August 1952
  4. War of the Hills - May 1953
  5. Aftermath of Peace - September 1953
  6. Between Two Worlds - September 1953
  7. Dinner With Father - April 1954
  8. Days In May - May 1954
  9. Sugared Liquids - June 1955
  10. Conversations - July 1956
  11. Awakening - July 1956
  12. Fei-Fei - July 1956
  13. When Old Friends Meet - March 1960
  14. Lucille - July 1962
  15. Picking Up The Pieces - August 1965
  16. Evergreen Tea House - August 1965
  17. Pipe Dreams - April 1965
  18. The Battle Of Loudspeakers - July 1966
  19. Bombs And Banquets - September 1967
  20. Debits And Credits - April 1968
  21. The Meditation Room - August 1968
  22. Mortal Coils - February 1970
  23. Rallies And Riots - July 1971
  24. Law And Disorder - July 1971
  25. Plotters In Peking - March 1974
  26. Chance Encounter - April 1974
  27. Revelations - June1976
  28. Coups And Countercoup - October 1976
  29. The Puppet Master - May 1978
  30. The Work Committee - July 1978
  31. Shifts In The Wind - October 1978
  32. Dr. Chow - February 1979
  33. Reverse Osmosis - May 1980
  34. Sweet Sorrow - June 1981
  35. Another Stroll In The Garden - March 1982
  36. More Revelations - January 1984
  37. The Chief Secretary's Dilemma - September 1984
  38. Confronting The Past - November 1984
  39. Alarm Bells - December 1984
  40. Friendly Advice - December 1984
  41. Bill Of Sale - December 1984
  42. Fallouts - January 1985
  43. Life and Death in Su-Ao - February 1985
  44. Farewell - March 1985
  45. Author's Note

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