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The Life and Times of Ng Chung Yin: A Hong Kong Story Mok Chiu-yu and Evans Chan Ng Chung Yin was a Hong Kong activist in the 1970s and 1980s. His causes were legion from colonial issues, including the right of Chinese in the territory to have equal official languag e status wit h English , labou r dispute s an d latterl y th e democrac y movement s i n China , culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. He was an able, well-informed and persuasive columnist and editor, and subsequently essayist. The targets for his criticism were not only the British colonial administration and the trappings of global imperialism as he saw it, but also, for him, the cynical workings of the communist bloc. In short Ng was an idealist, but a very practical and resourceful one , who spent his life promoting the cause of social and political change, not only in the Hong Kong context but globally. Mok Chiu-yu, his contemporary an d close friend, whos e Asian People' s Theatre ha s become an institution in alternative theatre in Hong Kong, wrote The Life and Times ofNg Chung Yin, not simply as a tribute to the forgotten activist , who died of cancer in 1994 , but rather as a way of marking the transition from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 for the Arts Centre project entitle d Hong Kong: Past, Present and Future. The palpable sens e of uncertainty that pervaded the territory at this watershed time could be perhaps allayed by the recollection o f what has been. If political activism in the community, as exemplified b y the ever-optimistic and resilient Ng, could be seen to have been effective, retrospectively it might provide a source of hope and inspiration. As Mok says, 'Ng's story had to be written, because it was also the chapter of radical hopes and political organizing in Hong Kong.' Now with the advantage of retrospective on the 1 July 2003 protest march, which galvanized ordinary people in Hong Kong and changed the course of events in a significant way , the high-profile Ng' s escapades, high points and low points, as recounted in this stylized and witty bio-drama, seem uncannily relevant to our times. Using materia l fro m Ng' s politica l writing s an d share d reminiscences , a s wel l a s imaginative twists of reconstructed reality, Mok and his team creatively devised the work for performance, which in its turn evoked playback theatre-type aftershows, further obscuring the distinct line s o f authorship , s o dea r t o th e heart s o f antholog y collector s an d editors ! Nevertheless, it is justifiable t o attribute authorship of the English version to Mok himself, aided and abetted by Evans Chan, whose 2002 film version of the piece extends its afterlife , and puts it back into Hong Kong public awareness, where it belongs. With evocative Hong Kong settings, including appropriately the Club 64 Bar in Lan Kwai Fong, this challenging play revisits a period of upheaval and social change and commemorates a rebel with a cause, or rather, numerous causes. Incidentally, extracts from a live performance of the play feature in Ann Hui's acclaimed 199 9 film Ordinary Heroes. NOTE: Al l speaking parts are represented by the storyteller/actor, wit h the assistance of mimes. 72 Hon g Kong Identit y (Actor enters in a long gown worn by traditional Chinese storytellers. He is also holding a fanto make his points as he talks. Enter fromcentre and cross to centre-stage — keep fanciful steps and sharp turns.) Storyteller: Greetings , my nam e i s Mok Chi u Yu, thanks t o al l o f yo u fo r coming here to listen to my story, the story of a friend, a one-time political comrade. But, maybe this is also a story about a generation lost an d foun d i n the back alley s o f Hon g Kon g . . . Ah, Hon g Kong, the colony ceded to Britain 15 7 years ago because of the Opium Wars, was returned, Hallelujah, t o China on July 1 , 1997. (Sound of firecrackers) Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Open fan) Well , our story begins in 1757 with the British arrival in India an d the defeat o f the Nawab of Bengal a t Plassey. The British gave India a hard time. Then there...

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