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Auntie remembering Weng Meiling as a child

This article was written down by Loulan. It was written in September 2001 when Loulan called to check on Weng Meilings family.

 

I started by asking her if they wanted a girl, because both of of her children were sons.

Shella (Weng Meiling's aunt) said, "No, I don't think so."

I asked, "Didn't her uncle like girls?"

Shella said: "When I had my first child (in 1984), her uncle had never thought of having a girl, not even a girls name."

I said, "Why not? He loves Weng Meiling, doesn't he? Girls are so cute!"

Shella said, "It's because it's so hard to bring up Weng Meiling and I'm always worried about her, so I don't dare to have a girl. I had to worry about the boys around her when she grew up. For example, when she was 13 to 14 years old, some of her classmates arranged to meet her at the Tai Wan Shopping Centre in Hong Kong. When she arrived there a few minutes early, she could have stayed there and waited, but her uncle suddenly felt something was wrong, and for no apparent reason, he took Weng Meiling's hand and walked back, saying he wanted to go for tea first. (This was a very famous incident in Hong Kong back then, probably a gang war...)

When she was a child, her family was very rich and lived on a hilltop, and they hired workers to look after her. The workers were supposed to eat different meals from their masters, but Weng Meiling always liked to eat with the workers, eating simple salted fish and eggs, which made her family very angry and even spanked her. At that time, her father had not yet died.

Every day before she went to bed, her mother would feed her a glass of milk and she would hold the milk and behave. Her mother saw her holding the milk, and she went away in peace. Then one day the worker said that every night the young lady poured something down the stairs, and I don't know why, but her mother opened the window downstairs to see what was going on, and she saw little Weng Meiling secretly opening the window and pouring the milk downstairs, thinking no one knew. She thought no one knew.

Later, when Weng Meiling went to primary school, the family worker made a nice sandwich for her to take to school for lunch every day. Later, when Weng Meiling's mother went to a parents' meeting, she met a parent of one of her classmates who said, "My son has been bragging about your sandwiches every day and now he has grown fat. When she asked her mother, she found out that she didn't like to eat lunch and was afraid of being scolded by her family, so she gave her lunch to a boy classmate every day.

After her father retired, the family was much worse off. But her father pampered her, and Weng Meiling liked to play with his hair (heh...). For example, she used to play with Hong Qi Gong's and Huang Yao Shi's moustaches and hair in Shooting Eagles), he would hold her on a high stool and let her play with it while he read the newspaper and let her cut her hair with scissors.

Although her personality is not exactly the same, her speech, expressions and gestures are the most similar.

Weng Meiling's life had many ups and downs. When she was a child, her family was very well off, but later on, her family fell into disgrace. The other day, Shella complained to me that her sons were useless, and that they could not even be told to cut the grass or take out the rubbish in the garden.

Then I asked her if she used to do these things. She said of course she did, she did everything. She washed the floors, cooked the food and helped in the shop. And when she was at university in London, she used to come home every weekend to help out with ....

When I think about it, I think it's very rare because young people and university students always have a lot of activities and parties on weekends. But Weng Meiling didn't spend many weekends in London during her years at university. She also worked at a McDonald's in London and taught Chinese at the Republican Chinese School.

Her aunt said that whenever Weng Meiling was interviewed, Weng Meiling used to send home newspapers or magazines, videos or whatever. I asked her to send me copies of newspapers and magazines because if she sent them home... she must have seen them herself... without adding too much to them. I think it's more objective to her. I'll be looking forward to it.

I'm in a hurry, so I'll just write this down, so forgive me if it seems confusing

source: http://www.barbarayung.net/

舅媽回憶阿翁小的時候

本篇內文是由Loulan筆述下來與大家分享,這是在2001.9月時Loulan打電話問候阿翁家人的近況時,阿翁的舅媽提到她小時候的一些事

 

我一開始是問他們希不希望生女孩,因為兩個都是兒子?
Shella(阿翁的舅媽)說:不希望。
我問說:她舅舅不是喜歡女孩嗎?
Shella說:當時我生下第一個孩子的時候(1984年),她舅舅從來就沒有想過要生女孩,連名字都不去想女名。
我說為什麼啊,他不是很喜歡阿翁嗎?女孩多可愛啊!
Shella說:就是因為帶大阿翁太辛苦了,老是提心吊膽的,所以不敢再養女孩了。因為每天的接送,還要怕她出事,晚回家一些都很擔心,長大以後就要擔心圍在她身邊的男生。

Shella提起了當年的一段往事:她舅舅從小就很疼愛阿翁,而且經常有種感應,比如阿翁13~14歲的時候,有一次幾個同學約好在香港的大云商場見面。因為她舅舅從小就非常注意她的安危,於是就送她到商場。提早了幾分鐘到達那裡,本來可以待在那裡等的,結果她舅舅突然覺得不對勁,也說不出為什麼,就拉著阿翁的手往回走,說要先去喝茶,不久那個百貨大樓就炸了,死了不少人。(這事當年在香港很出名,可能是黑幫戰鬥吧...)

阿翁小的時候家裡很有錢,住在山頂,家裡也請了工人來照顧她。本來工人和主人吃的飯菜是不一樣的,可是阿翁從來都只喜歡和工人一起吃飯,吃些簡單的鹹魚鹹蛋,搞到她家人很生氣,還要打她屁股。那時她父親還沒去世。

阿翁小時候每天睡覺前,她媽媽都要餵她喝一杯牛奶,她的媽媽看著她捧著牛奶乖乖的。就放心得走了。然後有一天工人說每天晚上小姐都從樓上倒東西下來,也不知道為什麼,她媽媽就在樓下打開窗戶來看,看到小阿翁偷偷的把窗戶打開,把牛奶倒下樓來,以為沒有人知道。呵呵。

後來阿翁上了小學,每天家裡的工人都做了很好的三明治讓她帶到學校當中午飯。阿翁每天都帶了一個空的飯盒回來,大家都以為她吃了,後來阿翁的媽媽去開家長會, 碰到一個同學家長,然後人家就說,我兒子天天都誇你們家的三明治做得很好吃,現在都養的胖胖的。阿翁的媽媽很吃驚,一問之下才知道阿翁不喜歡吃午飯,又怕家人罵,就每天都把飯給一個男同學吃。

她爸爸退休以後,家境就差了很多。但是她爸爸很寵著她,阿翁喜歡玩他的頭髮(呵呵... 看來阿翁從小就有玩別人頭髮的嗜好,比如在射雕裡她經常玩洪七公和黃藥師的鬍子和頭髮),他就抱著阿翁讓她坐在高凳上玩,自己拿著報紙看,一邊放心的讓小阿翁在頭上拿著剪刀亂剪一氣,反正也不工作了,不用出門會不好意思。

阿翁從小就很調皮,他們家人也說阿翁拍了那麼多戲,最像她自己還是黃蓉,雖然性格不完全像,但是但說話,表情和動作最像。

阿翁的一生起落特別大。小的時候家境很好,後來就家道中落。那天shella和我抱怨說生的兒子都沒有用,讓他們去花園剪草,倒垃圾都叫不動。

然後我就問說以前阿翁做不做這些事呢?她說當然做,阿翁什麼都做的。洗地板、做飯還要到店裡幫忙。還有在倫敦讀大學的時候,每個周末都回家幫忙....

我自己想想都覺得很難得,因為年輕人,大學生周末總是會有許多活動party什麼的。但阿翁大學幾年都沒有怎麼在倫敦過過周末。她還在倫敦的一家麥當勞打過工,在共和中文學校教過中文。

她舅媽說以前每次有她接受的訪問,她都會把報紙或者雜誌,錄影帶什麼的寄回家。我請她把一些報紙雜誌複印好了寄給我,因為如果是她寄回家的...一定是她本人看過...沒有經過太多加油添醋。應該是她覺得比較客觀的。我就翹首以盼了~

時間匆忙,簡單記下來,如果看起來亂亂的大家也包涵了。

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