The constant underlying worry about abduction portrayed in the mainland Chinese series (set 1979–92) reminds me of my first arrival in Hong Kong on 26 December 1974.
I'd booked the hotel (recommended by ex-classmate James from RI / Raffles Institution) through the travel agency (no DIY in those days, unlike now). Other than James saying it was a good hotel, i.e., not cheapo, used by backpackers, I didn't know anything else about it (again, no going online in those days to get a visual impression).
The driver was there at the airport with a cardboard displaying my name. When I followed him to the car, I found to my surprise that it was a limousine-looking vehicle (some American car -- Impala or Cadillac). I started to get a bit worried, because James had said the Peninsula Hotel would be out of my range, but not that my hotel would collect people in a limousine. What was more worrying was the driver then locking the doors after I'd settled down in the back seat. (Yes, I can hear you laughing, "What a country bumpkin!") I spent the journey from the airport (Kai Tak in those days) to my hotel with only one eye on the scenery outside.
(Hong Kong, 1974)
PS: Reader Valerio has asked about the worry about abduction referred to above. It is too much to add to this blog here, so I shall start a new one on it. See https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-footnote-on-issue-of-abduction-in-old.html
I was intrigued by the beginning “The constant underlying worry about abduction…”
ReplyDeleteI did not know about that. Who abducted whom and why and where, and what happened to the abducted?
The "constant underlying worry about abduction" is in the mainland Chinese series [set 1979–92] I've been watching. I say "constant" because it crops up a number of times in the series, and seems to be equally boys as well as girls.
DeleteThe answer to your question is too long to publish here, so I'm doing it separately. It's all good as historical knowledge anyway -- like most of my blogs, which are intended to be a mini series of social history (before my brain fails to recall the dim past...).
So the Chinese series you are watching is set before the 1949 revolution?
DeleteI refer you to this bit in the first line of this blog: "... portrayed in the mainland Chinese series (1979–92) ..."
DeleteI have, since my response above, added "set" to the date reference of 1979–92, which is repeated in every reference to the series in all the blogs inspired by it. So, it's now amended to "the mainland Chinese series (set 1979–92)", to make it clear what the date is about: that the series is set 1979 to 1992, therefore would NOT be BEFORE the 1949 revolution.
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