Among the group of friends who came to know Tseng Yu and Huang YunYu was an expat electrical engineer named Mr. RB. My first meeting with Ron was on the bathroom floor at a party thrown by Dr. Elizabeth Tang (better known later as Han Suyin, author of the novel A Many Splendoured Thing). It ws thought he was drunk and might cause trouble, so Elizabeth asked me to go and Œdo something).
In fact, far from being drunk he was in a mixture of distress and bad temper - a mood I became very familiar with later on. It seems his girl-friend had dumped him that evening at the party, and he was taking it out on the bathroom floor.and an unfortunate clergyman who had offered to help him. He was by now calmer, we chatted, and he finally drove me home to the University on the back of his motorbike.
At that time, in colonial Hong Kong, it was considered infra dig for an Englishman to get about Hong Kong on a motorbike, so you can imagine that for an English woman to ride pillion was downright scandalous. RB - from a a feet-on-the-ground Lancashire background - had not taken HK social norms into account when deciding to buy a boat rather than a car. After that, he
could only afford the motorbike. Well, I was a Lancastrian too, and not even aware till very much later how having Chinese friends and riding on a motorbike.made me increasingly "not one of us".
RB and I became firm friends and many of my students, incuding Tseng Yu, had enjoyable days out on his boa.t. This was how RB - and later his friend Don - became part of the circle around Huang YunYu.
A SNATCH OF CONVERSATION
Tseng Yu talking about RB: "Mr. RB is very nice but, I can't explain it - there is something missing.. ...., mmm......he has no fantasy. Mr Huang has, you have, and I have....but not at all Mr. RB." I think for a moment then say to TY that he has more than anyone. This pleases him immensely. He laughs and says "It is a big lack in Mr. RB," then adds joyfully, "especially if you are thinking of marrying him."
Two Chinese Painters
Chinascapes
The purpose of this blog is to celebrate the work of two artists, Tseng Yu and Huang Yun Yu, my friendship with both of them in Hong Kong 1951-2 and with Tseng Uu subsequently in london and paris. Please start by clicking on Backstory then my first meeting with Huang Yun Yu below. After that, wander freely among their pictures, plus my photographs and stories about us all taken from my diary and letters home. These last are still being posted, in random order.
The purpose of this blog is to celebrate the work of two artists, Tseng Yu and Huang Yun Yu, my friendship with both of them in Hong Kong 1951-2 and with Tseng Uu subsequently in london and paris. Please start by clicking on Backstory then my first meeting with Huang Yun Yu below. After that, wander freely among their pictures, plus my photographs and stories about us all taken from my diary and letters home. These last are still being posted, in random order.
