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The Days of Hoisting Flags : Tiu Keng Leng
For those coming from the generation of Wong Jum-sum’s father, Tiu Keng Leng was a symbol that trigged among them a constant self-inquest: does one have to love one’s nation? How does one decide between family and nation, incorrigible loyalty and pragmatic survival? The shabby huts and latrines of Tiu Keng Leng symbolized these dilemmas graphically, ensuring the inquest passed on across generations. There is a ten-page fax document in James Wong Study. On it were conception notes on a film entitled The Restless Tiu Keng Leng that James Wong contemplated directing in the late 1980s. The film did not materialize, the notes remained. (Pictures: Conception notes of a movie “The Restless Tiu Keng Leng”). On the notes, James Wong wrote: “Tiu Keng Leng is a symbol. Tiu Keng Leng represented a group of incorrigibly loyal old soldiers, Chinese who gave their all for the nation.” This view has a firm ground in history.
For those coming from the generation of Wong Jum-sum’s father, Tiu Keng Leng was a symbol that trigged among them a constant self-inquest: does one have to love one’s nation? How does one decide between family and nation, incorrigible loyalty and pragmatic survival? The shabby huts and latrines of Tiu Keng Leng symbolized these dilemmas graphically, ensuring the inquest passed on across generations. There is a ten-page fax document in James Wong Study. On it were conception notes on a film entitled The Restless Tiu Keng Leng that James Wong contemplated directing in the late 1980s. The film did not materialize, the notes remained. (Pictures: Conception notes of a movie “The Restless Tiu Keng Leng”). On the notes, James Wong wrote: “Tiu Keng Leng is a symbol. Tiu Keng Leng represented a group of incorrigibly loyal old soldiers, Chinese who gave their all for the nation.” This view has a firm ground in history.
For those coming from the generation of Wong Jum-sum’s father, Tiu Keng Leng was a symbol that trigged among them a constant self-inquest: does one have to love one’s nation? How does one decide between family and nation, incorrigible loyalty and pragmatic survival? The shabby huts and latrines of Tiu Keng Leng symbolized these dilemmas graphically, ensuring the inquest passed on across generations.
There is a ten-page fax document in James Wong Study. On it were conception notes on a film entitled The Restless Tiu Keng Leng that James Wong contemplated directing in the late 1980s. The film did not materialize, the notes remained. (Pictures: Conception notes of a movie “The Restless Tiu Keng Leng”). On the notes, James Wong wrote: “Tiu Keng Leng is a symbol. Tiu Keng Leng represented a group of incorrigibly loyal old soldiers, Chinese who gave their all for the nation.” This view has a firm ground in history.
