I loved watching TV when I was a kid. Twenty years ago there were a few mainland TV serials and still fewer entertainment programs. Instead, Hong Kong TV serials, widely known as TVB plays, were filled with our scanty channels day and night and were immensely popular among children and adults alike. The first one I still remember vividly now is I Have a Date with Spring, in which four girls met each other when working at a discotheque in the 1920s and became close friends. They used to play cards at the apartment they rented together and enjoyed a lot of fun cooking and chatting. It was screened at our local channel every noon in the early summer of 1998, my last year at primary school. My best friend came to my home every day so we could go to school together; and she, after seeing me so fascinated with this play, just sat and watched it with me. I also had another good friend, and all I wished at that time was that I should have another good friend so when we grew up we could play cards and mahjong together at our apartment!

During my middle-school years, TVB produced a series of gangster dramas, such as Interpol, Detective Investigation Files (I-IV), Armed Reaction (I-IV), and so forth, each of which I watched attentively and couldn’t move my eyes off from TV even one moment. Hong Kong policemen and policewomen, so different from the police well-known in our neighborhood, had become heroes in our adolescent years for their wisdom, wit and boldness. Besides, the ancient costume comedies are as appealing, such as Taming of the Princess and Happy Ever After, both of which starred by one of my favourite actor Ouyang Zhenhua, the amusing appearance, ways of talking and behaviors of whom would keep you laughing. In recent years, more TVB serials of various subjects are produced, and family series Fathers and Boys and Daddy Good Deeds are among my favourite ones. Be it about modern or ancient themes, all those TVB dramas feature well-designed plots, down-to-earth dialogues, excellent performing of the actors and actresses, and most importantly, the touching sentiments existing everywhere, which are also the reflections of the core values of Hong Kong society.

Hong Kong residents attach great importance to family. Due to the increasingly unaffordable housing price and other reasons, two or even three generations may share one small apartment; however, you’ll see most grown-up children get along well with their grand-parents, parents, uncles and aunts under the same roof and happily enjoy the typical Hong Kong dessert after dinner. Hong Kong residents are born optimistic with strength. The typical TVB line “Well, the most important thing of living is being happy” appeared almost in all of the dramas whenever someone met an obstacle and is too familiar to forget. Hong Kong residents cherish love. They enjoy sharing with their neighbors and friends, treating them like family, and the love stories are never overtly dramatic like those in South Korean dramas; they are simple, pure and fall right into the place. Seemingly a little bit naive and childish, I believe they are true reflections of Hong Kong and the seed of visiting the unique city of Hong Kong someday to view the scenery I had watched again and again was already sown at that time. Thus began my life-long love affair with Hong Kong.

Ten Years was a hit in 2004, and made Hong Kong singer Eason Chan instantly popular in the mainland. Though easy to sing, I didn’t like this song very much, and regarded him a random guy. However, in the years to come, I always stopped to listen to his song whenever it was broadcast by radio of our campus and paid attention to his news out of no reason. I became infatuated with his magnetic voice until in July 2009 I watch a live concert of him in Beijing. I sang every song with him and couldn’t help weeping all the time. I fell in love with him. In the following months I listened to all his 1000-odd songs , most of which are Cantonese, and learnt them by heart. In those beautifully melodic songs like Shall We Talk, Best Friend, Unparalleled in the World, and Boastful, etc, family, friendship, love and personal striving are told from a more poignant perspective in the implicit Cantonese with its special pronunciations and diction, making each song a magic piece totally different from its Mandarin counterpart. And it was then that I made the wish of watching his live concert in Hong Kong Coliseum someday, the most prestigious concert venue in Hong Kong and seeing him at his best, not the one being forced to sing Mandarin songs most of the time to cater to the audiences in the mainland, but choosing whatever excites and touches him.

Adding to this Hong Kong complex is the little cute cartoon pig called “Mcdull”. I chanced upon him in one of my listening classes in 2006, when my teacher played one of the most popular Mcdull episodes, where Mcdull kept asking for fishball and noodle in his innocent voice. Henceforward, I’ve watched all the Mcdull series: My Life of Mcdull, Mcdull, Prince de la Bun, Mcdull, Kung Fu Kindergarten, Mcdull, Pork of Music and Mcdull, Me& My Mum, the last three of which were watched at cinema. Mcdull is never smart. In fact he’s a little bit slow, lazy and stubborn, never good at school even when he tried hard, like the ordinary us, the real us, instead of the one that our parents or teachers taught us to be. But he is kind, kind in the real sense of the word, to his friends, teachers and strangers. He loves his mother and would do everything for her, like participating steamed stuffed bun competition and practising Kung Fu , even when he hated it and it was at that time that his potential was fully tapped and he could also make small wonders. And no one could ignore the beautiful voices of him and his classmates in Mcdull, Pork of Music, which subtly touched the softest part of our soul. Once I took Duoduo to watch the newly-released Mcdull, Kung Fu Kindergarten in the summer of 2009, and to my surprise, he didn’t like it. In fact, he told me he couldn’t understand it. So Mudull is essentially a cartoon for the grown-ups. It is for all those who still cherish love and innocence, and are stubborn enough to believe miracles would happen to them despite all the obstacles confronted in life. I’m among the Mcdulls.

Mcdull

With the timing being perfect, I finally set my foot on Hong Kong with my family in August 2012 for the first time. Like other tourists, we walked through the avenues and alleys, were amazed by the grandeur of the lighting show along the Victorian Bay, had a lot of fun at Disneyland, Ocean Park and Madame Dussauds Wax Museum and I did watch Eason’s concert, not at Hong Kong Coliseum though. But accidents came along all the way: we experienced the super-fast subway, where the door was shut down immediately after my aunt stepped into the carriage, which took her away, leaving all three of us standing still perplexed; I did a lot of homework about Hong Kong food and were ambitious enough to have a taste of all, only to find that my stomach was not that cooperative and the last several days were lived through with dessert only; my mother fell ill on the third day, so our primary mission on the following day was to buy inexpensive coat in 35°; being a little bit heavy for his age, Duoduo broke the brittle bed board in the hotel when he abruptly sat on it. More than that. The time I breathed the humid air, viewed the colossal skyscrapers and little stores along the crowed alleys, and came into the building where more than a dozen apartments were suited on the same floor, with some being gymnasium and the barber’s shop, the others occupied by local residents, I knew this was Hong Kong all over. For me it is never a place just for shopping or entertaining; it is a city of robust energy, of constantly struggling for a living, and in nowhere else can you see more perfect combination of tradition and modernity. All you need to do is slowing your pace, roaming around the streets, stop by a local restaurant or taking a walk in the park. They’ll tell stories by themselves.

My first trip to Hong Kong was not an easy one, for the things confronted in four days may never happen if travelling somewhere else. It has not only fulfilled my long-time wish, but is memorable enough to make me visit it time and time again. So I did. In the spring of 2014, I came to Hong Kong again during a transfer for a few hours. This time I went to the Gold Bauhinia Square to watch the flag-raising ceremony. It was a small square and only a few tourists from the mainland were there watching it as one of the scenic spots organized by travel agencies. But surprises are everywhere. Upon arriving at the airport, I came across a little counter selling Mcdull products, which I searched in vain in 2012, and had a really good harvest before happily returning home.

Last year I met a girl Anna from Hong Kong and we became good friends. Besides learning a few Cantonese, I also got to know more about Hong Kong. Young people, like us, are under great pressure finding jobs that suit their interests and talents and pay well. For example, a starter in the cultural sector may earn about HKD 8000 per month, while the salary of workers in the service field is well above HKD 10000. Besides swarming to Hong Kong for milk powder, more and more mainlanders are choosing Hong Kong doctors for treatment, adding more pressure to the medical service of the local residents.

So like all the cities in the 21st century, Hong Kong is facing unprecedented challenges in resources, education, environment and so forth. But Hong Kong residents, like the protagonists in TVB dramas and little Mcdull, are endowed with perseverance to overcome any difficulty and will become stronger. For me, I will keep visiting Hong Kong in the years to come and will continue recommending Hong Kong as the unique city in China, whose beauty and wonder await you to explore by yourself.