The food descriptions alone make me wanderlustful for a trip to Hong Kong: ‘huai shan and wolf berry seed soup, yellow cucumber salad, beancurd dumplings and sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves’. For example, a scene is set when they ‘walked to the LockCha Tea House, passing fountains and manicured hedges in Hong Kong park’ so we can imagine the greenery-relief in the chaotic metropolitan. Through meeting places and food, we are reminded that we are in busy and humid Hong Kong. I love how subtle the setting is to the story. Woven in the main plot are sub-plots of politics, class, authenticity, culture and language. When Julian leaves Hong Kong for work, Ava meets Edith with whom she can be herself and navigates a new, and only other, real connection in Hong Kong. Mostly though, she is the reader’s teacher as we learn about what Irish English is, the contrasts between Ireland and England, Hong Kong and Ireland, colonialism, views on British, important issues in today’s society, politics, rich and poor, English rich and Irish rich, culture, love, self-worth, doubt, anxiety, lust, money,Īva lives with her banker friend Julian, for free, and her wit matches his contentment as they navigate what ‘relationship’ they have. We hear Ava’s thoughts and follow Ava’s perspective over a year in Hong Kong as an English teacher. Mentions and comparisons between Ireland and England. Exciting Times Taught Me About Irish Language.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |