Vanishing of an era

The end of July 2007 marked the end for a certain of things/people for me. Queen's Pier finally went down to the HK government, Bergman had gone and so does Antonioni, my old kitchen had been cleaned out as well in place for a new one. But certainly one of the hardest were to face an end of my relationship with J. It all happened within the first week of my 33rd yrs in this world.

Yet while feeling a bit of helplessness about all these, it is a sense of relief, if not reborn, which I felt after all these happened. On the day of the governement literally dragging/chasing out "protesters" from the queen's pier, I was watching the whole process on television as I stayed at home for the kitchen renovation to take place. It suddenly reminds me about the very first scene of Bergman's film, Persona, in which the protagonist sat on her bed to watch haplessly the bloodly confrontation in front of a television. I went to the queen's pier many times during the past couple of months as I realised the fact that it cannot escape its fate of being demolished. (The last time was on the sunday before the clash happened). There are too many different voices as to what we should do with the piers, whether this is to do with our "collective memories", solution for traffic congestion; various policital reasons because of the name of the pier and/or a reminder of our coloney's history; or an argument on the architectial/historial value of the site vs. modern city planning. For me, the mere existence of the pier have provided me with memories of my past, a comfortable space yet so familar, almost like seeing an old friend everytime when I drop by the place. The view of the harbours from Queen's Pier always look the best, and behind you at the long chair of the pier, you can expect certain middle aged man playing their chess game. This is the kind of familarity which I missed the most. Yet all these, inlcluding my beloved Star Ferry Pier, had been vanishing in front of our eyes..and we seem to be helpless in terms of retaining anything that we like. Is this a sign of impermenance which we all have to accept?

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