Kai Ping in Guangdong (Ancestral Village)

Sunset on the roof

Gray tiles, thatched roofs and flapping shingles. Lightless streets & clay orange moons. Cold winds billowing from a changing backdrop. Quiet activities in time with day & night. They probably mean little to the people here. It’s those who have come back or those who have never been that find this place charming.

I am one of them. I would want to stay here for as long as I can. Ensconced away in a place where time is marked by orange glows on different horizons.

 

Night-time on the roof

It’s freaky living in a place that has not been used in a while. I clambered up to the balcony for a fag & to enjoy the night. The unlit stairs was daunting. Not because it was steep but because I can imagine old ghosts holding court there.

Dead silence could be the whispers of fore-gentry gossiping about us. A fleeting shape could be the dead out for a stroll.

But there’s nothing except for me & my thoughts. All rolled in cigarette paper & smoked away in the cold air.

 

 

Hong Kong during Qing Ming

Hong Kong is different when there are Chinese holidays (Not China Chinese holidays but traditional Chinese holidays). During those days, it’s as if everyone hung up their modern business suits and wore pigtails and samfoos instead. I was there for Qing Ming (“Cleaning Ancestor’s Graves”) by shear coincidence. That is the day when most (if not all) of the country / SAR go to pay their respects to the dead ones.

 

In Hong Kong, it’s called Bai Shan (“pray mountain”) because the cemeteries can be found on the hills. The dead get a breath-taking view; lush green hills bear-hugged the glimmering sea.  Only the very rich can buy personal space, the public do not have that. Even dead, they are given little space between each other. Tombstones jut out from the hills in precise order; one next to the other with barely a gap to squeeze through. Wide, narrow steps from the base of the hill to the top were the main thoroughfare between sections of tombs. That day, the very young, very old and in-betweens all climbed up to visit their dead granddaddies, aunties, whatever-gone people.