Book review: Finding Fat Lady's Shoe, by James Hung

by James Hung
Self-published
4 stars
Jason Wordie

Few first-hand accounts exist in English of refugee life in Hong Kong in the immediate post-war era.

Dr James Hung's life story echoes others that will probably never be written, and offers a fascinating perspective on Hong Kong's recent past that deserves to be widely read. His journey - from a Hakka area in Guangdong to Hong Kong, then to Malaya where his parents were teachers in a Chinese-medium school, and back to Hong Kong where he attended La Salle College, and on to medical training in the US, where he has since mostly made his home - is closely documented.

A lively, descriptive narrative style involves the reader in Hung's story; various personalities, from sadistic Christian Brothers at his schools to difficult siblings and neighbours of his own age, are vividly realised.

Hung arrived in Hong Kong as a three-year-old in 1949. Kau Wa Keng, the Lai Chi Kok settlement where Hung's family lived for years, is still there, and despite massive new development nearby, retains its squatter area character.

Hung describes his upbringing and the people around him with a child's observant eye for detail, combined with an adult's compassion. In particular, he documents the personal and human costs of being caught up in enormous social upheaval and physical dislocation.