16th May 2010 (13)
VANITY
I am a mother myself and have never understood why my mother could
have treated her children with favouritism. My father worked as a senior
executive in an English law firm. He never could get up early in time for
work and was constantly late. However, he managed to keep his job until
he retired. As my father was the only bread winner, he had to feed his
step-mother, wife and his three children. Money was not excessive at
home. As soon as my first younger sister reached 18 years old, my
mother encouraged her to take driving lessons and bought her a second
hand car. Taking driving lessons was expensive at that time and it was
not common for middle class families to own cars in those days. In my
mind I thought it was a complete waste of money. Was it vanity?
Furthermore when she was 16 years old, there was a beauty pageant
competition organized by a Japanese car manufacturer. I was amazed
that my parents supported her to enter the competition. I have nothing
against beauty pageant, but for a young girl wearing swimming costume
walking on the catwalk in front of many onlookers, this was not widely
accepted in a traditional Chinese society in the 1960s in Hong Kong. At
the end my sister did not win the competition. Did my parent support
vanity ?
Yuen-yee
VANITY
I am a mother myself and have never understood why my mother could
have treated her children with favouritism. My father worked as a senior
executive in an English law firm. He never could get up early in time for
work and was constantly late. However, he managed to keep his job until
he retired. As my father was the only bread winner, he had to feed his
step-mother, wife and his three children. Money was not excessive at
home. As soon as my first younger sister reached 18 years old, my
mother encouraged her to take driving lessons and bought her a second
hand car. Taking driving lessons was expensive at that time and it was
not common for middle class families to own cars in those days. In my
mind I thought it was a complete waste of money. Was it vanity?
Furthermore when she was 16 years old, there was a beauty pageant
competition organized by a Japanese car manufacturer. I was amazed
that my parents supported her to enter the competition. I have nothing
against beauty pageant, but for a young girl wearing swimming costume
walking on the catwalk in front of many onlookers, this was not widely
accepted in a traditional Chinese society in the 1960s in Hong Kong. At
the end my sister did not win the competition. Did my parent support
vanity ?
Yuen-yee
