Too Bad about All That

Hong Kong Has Fallen: From Free City to Beijing’s Prison

In 1980, I saw the movie "Airplane!" in Hong Kong with some friends from Hong Kong who spoke little English. I was surprised at how well the jokes went over. I mean, how do you render the "I speak jive" scene in Chinese subtitles?

These were lady friends. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, I stopped in a Kowloon bar with "Hostesses." It was an off night and an off hour (it was before my bedtime). There was, maybe, one other customer, and a beautiful hostess came over to talk to me. She was well worth looking at, so I bought her the obligatory drink. We had quite the conversation. She was one tough lady. She told me she invested much of her (no doubt considerable) income in Hong Kong Real Estate. I think she's now a billionaire living in Vancouver.

She told me she wanted me to meet her girlfriend. I agreed. At first, I worried I might be shanghaied, but remembered I was in Hong Kong. We met the next day. Her girlfriend was a sergeant on the Vice Squad, so their friendship had started as a professional relationship. Winnie and Winki (not their real names, I assume.) It turned out Winki was married to a police captain, and who knows what triad connections Winnie had (hell, she might have been in charge -- like I said, tough lady). Anyways, I saw "Airplane!" with "Them!" It was after I found out about the Police Captain that I shied away.

I was a young guy without much money, which I think Winnie figured out three steps into her walk towards me. Winki's husband had a couple of mistresses, and her fling with me was a way of getting back. When she wasn't trying to get me killed, she was a nice lady.