The People We Meet: Fong
This is Fong, I struck a conversation with her when she caught my eye with her smile as I walked past her stall. She’s had this stall since the 1980’s, just over thirty years she tells me.
She proceeds to interrogate me asking if I’m married yet and if I own my own apartment. Embarrassingly, I answered no to all the above. Her daughter, she tells me, immigrated to Sydney with her grandchildren. Their form of communication is limited to WeChat messages, although she maintained a smile, there was a melancholic air about her as she showed me their photos through her phone screen.
She has no plans to move to Australia, she’s lived in Hong Kong since the 1970’s and made a life for herself. From a young age she’s swept streets and worked her way to owning her own apartment and stall. She is one of many people who swam over from the mainland and naturalised to Hong Kong.
After taking her portraits, she tells me the most important thing in life is to be hard working and to studious. She offers me some of her fruits, I politely decline her offer while thanking her. As I am leaving, she jolts up as she’s forgotten something important. She wanted to know how to make a long-distance call, so I opened her WeChat and guided her through the steps to call her daughter.
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