Last night I had dinner with a theater director from New York City named Ping Chong. In our conversation he said he had just gone to Sai Kung by himself the day before. He had gone there specifically to eat salt and pepper mantis shrimps. He was eating this for his friend. He had a beautiful friend who had eaten mantis shrimps with him at Sai Kung several years before. She loved them. She also fell in love with Sai Kung and Hong Kong; however, she is no longer in this world. After Ping Chong finished eating mantis shrimps he walked to the waterfront and rented a water taxi to take him out on to the South China Sea among the many uninhabited islands for an hour's journey. The sky was rather gray this day and vaguely misty. When the water taxi was out in the open waters a ways from Sai Kung, Ping Chong took out a little pocketknife, slashed open a small plastic bag and released his friend's ashes into the moving water. Now his friend will always be able to have mantis shrimps. She is now a part of the beauty of Sai Kung.

This act on the water was not a theatrical performance but a real life event. As busy as his life is, Ping Chong made time to come out to Hong Kong to rest, but above all to fulfill the wish of his friend: the desire to live in Hong Kong. These ashes belonged to Susan Kennedy, an American lady who was only 53 years old. Her life was taken by cancer. Ping Chong said Susan was a very kind and faithful person. She was a fundraiser in the arts and a loyal supporter of artists. Before she first came to Hong Kong she already had a collection of Cantonese pop CD's and was a big fan of Hong Kong films. When she passed away Ping Chong inherited Susan Kennedy's collection.

Her wish was to have her ashes divided into three parts: one part to Jolliet, Illinois where she was born, one part to Ireland, the place of her ancestors, and one part to Hong Kong, which she dearly loved. (By coincidence, at this same time, another friend was taking her ashes to Ireland.) Now a part of her will always live in Hong Kong.

---