The Expatriate

Expatriate: To banish from one's native land.

An expatriate: An expatriated person. 

An expatriated person, that was what I was.

After the initial euphoria died down, we started to face the facts-of-life as expatriates. Yes, I know, most of the residents in Hong Kong were Chinese or of Chinese decedents. But, they were different from us northerners. So, we had to adapt.
First, the language. We had to learn Cantonese since we were not from Canton.
Then, the ways of life . . .
Some of the Hong Kong Chinese had preserved some very ancient ways of doing things that were foreign to us.
Some ways were results of the "marriage" between European ways and Asian ways. And, so on. 
We even dressed differently.
I thought, sometimes, we carried ourselves differently. 
Was that my imagination? 
We could almost always spot someone who was from Shanghai.
At the same time, hundreds and thousands of Chinese from Mainland flooded Hong Kong. Pockets of Shanghainese communities developed. In time, there were so many of us who came to Hong Kong and formed our own districts - it was almost like having China Towns amongst the Chinese (the Hong Kong people).
Strange, isn't it?
By 1950, Chinese population in Hong Kong exploded into the millions.
 
Assimilation - (Sociology): the process whereby, a group, as a minority or immigrant group, gradually adopts the characteristics of another culture.

We mainlanders started to be assimilated. But wait - In fact, in many ways, we changed the ways of the "natives". 

In the meantime, I entered HKU.
If my memory serves me right - HoTung Hall was an imposing structure of steel, stone and concrete, with three stories, on the south side of the Island - half way up the hill. Actually, HKU campus was not too far from the Peak, which is the highest point of the island. The Hall was one of the many residential housings for female students - not at all like the dormitories we know in the U.S.
HoTung Hall housed some seventy or eighty girls. We had options of single rooms or double rooms, - maybe there were some rooms that housed more than two girls, I cannot remember. I had a single room. We shared several big common bathrooms down the hall on each of the two upper floors. Of course, there were some "powder rooms" on the ground floor (almost like what you would find in office buildings or hotels). We had a Common room on the ground floor, too, to receive visitors or for us girls to "lounge in". Male visitors were not allowed on the upper floors. If you had read Harry Potter or had seen the movies, you would have an idea . . . 

And, YES, we wore black robes, short ones, however, to classes and to functions. The officers of the Hall wore green ones with stripes. In time, I had a green robe with stripes - I was Secretary at the Hall, maybe even President, one year!

And each floor had a room where we girls could use for ironing our clothes. Yes, those days, we ironed our clothes a lot. We were not suppose to have our floor Amahs do this job. Of course, our parents would slip a tip or two to them, and they would quietly iron our clothes for us. The Amahs, our house helpers, our servants, cleaned our rooms and the bathrooms and the common areas. They also helped serve in the dining room at mealtimes. 
For our laundry, we would lug our dirty clothes home on weekends to be done at home by our Amahs.
There was a house-boy who stayed on the ground floor. He and his crew took care of the ground floor areas, and sounded the Gong for our meals, Calling all girls to Dinner, in particular.

On the ground floor, there was the flat for our dorm-mother, we called her house-mother; the flat for her assistant; the huge entrance hall; and the side-entrance hall for those who came in late in the evenings. We had to request for after-hour (after eight or nine o'clock, I believe) entry, and Sign-in when we returned in the evenings. Midnight was curfew. If you forgot to sign-in or missed the curfew, you would be in big trouble with Mama King. 
Also, there was the kitchen, the servants quarters, and other rooms that I never set foot in. 
There was a huge dining-room with a raised stage where our house-mother, her assistant, guests, and "invited girls for the evening" sat. The rest of us girls would stand and then took our seats after the VIPs were seated at the Head Table. You could hear the Wooosh sound when that happened.
The dining room, at times, became our assembly hall or even served as a performance hall.

Mama King - the nickname we girls gave Mrs. King - the large, buxom English lady, wife of our Director of School of Medicine, and her husband, Dr. King (the Head-surgeon at the island hospital), and their two daughters lived in a fairly good-sized apartment. Dr. King was so good-looking and nice, we all adored him. Miss Chew, Mama King's assistant, a spinster science lecturer of Chinese decedent, lived in a smaller apartment. They had their own servants who took care of them and their apartments. Sometimes, we girls would be invited to have Tea at either of the apartments. That Was a Big Deal.

We dressed for dinner every night. Lunchtime was more casual, but NO shorts; slacks became acceptable in later years. Skirts and blouses, or dresses were the norm. Chinese styled dresses were allowed. 
Did I tell you that my father was abhorred when I took-up wearing slacks in Hong Kong?
Those were the days.
Everything was prim and proper.

Yes, we did have to stand for God Save The Queen. 

So, I learned proper British manners, I learned which cutlery to use for which "course" during the meal . . .
Assimilation!