Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez
In summer 2006, twenty-year-old Gerald Yeung and his childhood friends from Hong Kong travel to South America and Africa on their parents' dime. Confronted by challenges foreign to their privileged upbringing, the "Wannabe Backpackers" persevere in their Christian Dior clothes. They make plans to do it again when they turn thirty.
The decade that follows doesn’t go exactly to plan. Gerald chases the American Dream in a town of twenty thousand and subzero winters. Others pursue a fast-and-furious life in Hong Kong. They all experience failed relationships, career setbacks, and a decreasing ability to impress girls at clubs.
The summer of their thirtieth birthdays, they hit the road again to fulfill a lifelong dream — the 2016 UEFA European Championship. Set during European soccer’s most anticipated event, Kong Boys traces a friendship that transcends distance, culture, and time, dovetailing the different trajectories of seven boys in a decade of changes in Hong Kong. Kong Boys is a celebration of youth, brotherhood, and a sport of incomparable beauty.
Excerpt:
We return to our quaint country retreat after dinner. Though we have only rented the loft, Elisabeth gives us free rein to the whole house. She says she'll sleep in the smaller cabin because, again, her husband is out of town.
Her home has a Beauty-and-the-Beast quality to it. Sofas blanketed in white sheets, cracked photo frames, growth charts in the children's room, a wobbly foosball table, and an out-of-tune baby grand piano are all relics from happier days. DJ, a profile picture connoisseur, recognizes endless photo opportunities here. First, he poses at the piano doing his best Jay Chou impression. Next, he perches at the easel channeling his inner Picasso.
My own Facebook days are long gone; DJ is still at the peak of his game. His last profile picture update took social media by storm. Within hours of its release I was made aware of it by no fewer than four sources, one being Wendy, my cousin, and a hi-bye friend of DJ’s, at best.
“Your friend. LOL,” she captioned.
It was all she had to say.
When I first laid my eyes on the photo, I thought it was DJ's grandpa in his youth. It was shot in black and white with a graininess emblematic of photos from the sixties.
“We used a special filter at the studio,” DJ would later tell me. "Each shot took over an hour.”
Locking eyes with the subject in the picture for the first time, I came to understand the reason for all the social media commotion. Leaned slightly forward and with his face turned forty-five degrees, DJ's steadfast gaze breathed life into this candid shot. The implicit caption read, "Do you want to dance?" I didn't even notice that his blazer was open and he was bare chested.
For days we ridiculed him, both in his face and behind his back. We gave him a new nickname—Model.
And that wasn't the end of the story.
What he posted on social media was only a cropped version. On one of my later trips to Hong Kong, I stopped by DJ's place before dinner. When he was in the bathroom getting ready, I browsed on his computer to kill time. And there I saw the original. To my horror, it was a full body shot with no pants on.
All he was wearing was the blazer.
I closed the file quickly.
"Who took those studio pictures for you?" I asked later.
"My friend and his wife," he replied.
Some relationship he has with this couple.
***
My review: “Spoiled Hong Kong boys venturing outside [their] sheltered lives to see the world.”
A fabulous trip through Europe to watch soccer championship games. It starts off in Amsterdam with a visit to the sex museum and prostitution exhibit while smoking marijuana. They continue going from city to city, talking about their lives, drinking, and gambling on sports. The boys definitely have a love for soccer; it’s all they talk about. I liked the intrepid traveler aspect of the journey. Just the thought of stepping out of your world and into a new one was exciting to me. I honestly expected to hear a more reflective aspect from the boys during their travels like what they saw, what they learned, and how the trip correlated to their own lives. Did anything remind them of anything? Did they grow in any way spiritually or emotionally? And, most importantly, how did this trip change them, if any? I guess I expected a deeper, journalistic sense.
With its easy narrative on a fun and comforting level, the story exemplifies male bonding and brotherhood, and it inspires wanderlusters to take a bucket-list trip like this. It expressively summarizes the road blocks of travel on a budget and without a clue. These boys were basically flying by the seats of their pants.
A pretty good read overall.
My rating: 3 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment