Gweilo

Something for the weekend, a book I am currently reading and found that I can hardly put it down.  The book was published a few years back, I remember seeing it in the bookshop but the title didnt appeal to me.  “Gweilo” is a slang used by the locals to refer to foreigners, “ghost guy” would be a direct translation.  In the Qing dynasty when Chinese was closed off, any people who looks different from the orientals, large colour eyes,  tall nose, blonde hair would spark the thought that one is from a different world, hence “ghost”.  As we are approaching a more politically correct times, I was a little resentful of the word.

An autobiography of an English boy who came to Hong Kong with his parents in the 1950s.  His adventure and observations was beautifully and vividly written, the 50s was before I was born but a world that I could imagine and indulge in.  Hong Kong is fast changing city, the Hong Kong I am familiar with is almost a different city than the one he described.  I began searching for images of that era and came across this site where the Gweilo fans researched and came up with images of the places he described.  Though not as vivid as Martin’s description and from that of my imagination, they somehow filled in gaps and completed the jigsaw puzzle.

http://gwulo.com/martin-booth-golden-boy-gweilo