【Video】K Kwong | Witnessing the sunset of an era: Desperation fuels persistence
K Kwong, renowned chemistry tutor and lecturer, retired into a quiet life until the anti-extradition movement when he went public and used his scientific knowledge to counter the fallacies propagated through the community. The future of humanity is worrisome—in this chaotic era, are science and knowledge a blessing or curse?
“Nowadays I have friends who know nothing, but are still able to earn tens of billions of dollars by taking advantage of Hong Kong property speculations, earning their 10% commissions through powerful acquaintances in the mainland. How can I still encourage people by saying that you reap what you sow?”
Journalist: Fiona Forrester
Translator: Tea Leaf
Videographer: Silver Wolf
Video Editor: Silver Wolf
Photos: Onehungrycoconut
Even when I was a child, the things I worried about were very different from others.
It was during the Vietnam War, and the situation in Africa was also unstable. I cared about food crises, such as locust plagues and famine. When our Chinese history teacher taught us to memorise the sequence of dynasty changes, I was asking why natural disasters always happened during the transition periods.
Or when everyone else was debating whether climate change is real, I got more concerned with the melting of Arctic permafrost, which would be slowly releasing microbes that could spread uncontrollably.
People are in awe of celestial meteor showers, but they are not aware that meteoroids are always in proximity of our planet and capable of destroying an entire city. Death is always close but elusive.
In the end, our fortunes are all incidental—only karma remains.
Agarwood Chips[*1] and atomic bombs
There are too many things in this world that are out of our control.
Hongkongers love to reminisce about the years before 1997 when the city was once blooming and bustling. Those were the days when your hard work would eventually pay off. Since the pandemic outbreak, I have been helping with mask production with various manufacturers. Recently, when the government sought bids for mask production, many manufacturers in our chamber of commerce submitted low-cost proposals. In the end, the bid was granted to a manufacturer for 2-3 times the amount in those proposals. Our manufacturers have been asking me, how come the bids were not accepted even when they had proper certification and a lower price offer?
Science should benefit people, but the greatest leaps in science were always due to warfare. For example, stockings were made from the materials used in producing parachutes; Teflon, used in non-stick pans, was invented for the interior of atomic bombs; even radios were first invented for military use. There are always compromises. The making of knowledge comes with the original sin of relying on power and money.
Holding the umbrella and walking alone
Perhaps the ephemeral nature of things makes us more stubborn.
My hobbies since childhood were all solitary: playing squash, hiking, drawing, running. I valued winning above all when I was young and did not want to be dragged down by incompetent teammates.
When I was in university, I thought I was knowledgeable and often challenged the professor in class. After class, I slipped into the library to look for the reference books from which the professor set their questions so that I could ace my exams.
I never did anything that I wasn’t confident in—until one year, a narrow-minded professor whom I challenged every class purposefully skipped the grading of the last question on my exam. My complaints led to nowhere.
This is the first time I found out that even if I was right, it could still turn out wrong because I was powerless.
Back in the day, our success did not depend on personal relationships; people as arrogant as I could still be successful because of their abilities. Nowadays I have friends who know nothing but are still able to earn tens of billions of dollars by taking advantage of Hong Kong property speculations, earning their 10% commissions through powerful acquaintances in the mainland. How can I still encourage people by saying that you reap what you sow?
A dream in vain through the fiery years
My father was a prodigy of his days: a university graduate with knowledge of astronomy, geography, art, calligraphy, and a high command of English. He could have earned a high salary with a comfortable job, but he chose to be a humble teacher, hoping to transfer knowledge to the next generation. Growing up influenced by the chats between my father and my brother, I used to go to the library and immersed myself in books.
As I entered university, I increasingly realised that knowledge has to be self-discovered rather than learned in class. Chemistry is related to everything in the universe. Not only is it closely linked to modern medical sciences, but historically it is also related to food abundance and invention of weapons which dictated the fate of each dynasty. In terms of geology, a prosperous city like Hong Kong enjoys its long-term stability due to the nature of coastal granites which are hard and resistant to weathering.
The uniqueness of Hong Kong stems from the freedom it once enjoyed, and this makes other places under authoritarian control pale in comparison. Our education has opened our eyes—Hongkongers have seen light, so we cannot tolerate darkness. When we see injustice, even if it is not our business or there is no chance of winning, we will still speak out.
Knowledge has no limit. I think I’m beginning to understand my father.
Coming to terms with one’s fate
When life becomes too overwhelming, I would take my camera and hike up to the hill, and spend the whole afternoon there, without a worry in the world. It’s been decades and I have gotten used to it by now—I could stay there for an entire day just to capture a fleeting moment. All my burdens then dissolve into the monumental landscape before me that stretches into the transcendence of serenity.
There is a famous quote from Yoda in Star Wars, “Unlearn what you have learnt.” What we know is limited by how and what we learn. For example, in tutoring, I would teach the main points for students to pass the exams—but I don’t like it. Tutoring is like taking food supplements. I like having a breadth of knowledge. Beauty is to beseech unspecificities through defying societal specificities. Revisiting the same path is still a unique experience.
Despair is the beginning of persistence
Even when I was a child, the things I used to worry about were very different from other people. I am pessimistic about the future based on what I know: humans will eventually destroy the Earth. However, I persist precisely because I am in despair.
Human lives are like candles. Our glimmering light doesn’t last, but we can still light up other candles. Life enkindles life, and that, beyond everything, is persistence.
“I am K Kwong. I am a HKer. ”
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[*1] Agarwood Chips: This is the title of the first short novel by Eileen Chang, a tragic love story set in Hong Kong between the World Wars with scenes of brief prosperity.