After 5 weekly classes, I said good bye to my seal carving teacher and classmate on Thur night. Though I probably wouldn’t recommend the instructor to others, I did learn from him what’s needed to carve my own seals for a recent project. During my calligraphy class that afternoon, my teacher said he’ll hand down to me a precious book on seals later. I said I just wanna borrow the book for reference, but he mentioned he’s over 80 years old and his son had no interest in calligraphy whatsoever. Felt like my teacher was preparing for the day to say goodbye to me, a student who had followed him for nearly 7 years.

Joined a community movie event for the first time on Friday to watch a local film A Light Never Goes out (燈火闌珊). The story was about “saying goodbye” to a loved one as well as the local neon sign industry. The movie was followed by a sharing session from the movie’s producer and someone from the funeral industry. Bidding farewell to friends and family had become frequent in recent years as many people left the city, the movie tried to put a positive spin to the sad situation, but I think it lacked a sense of hope.

Maybe there really isn’t hope for our deteriorating city, better to accept the sad reality than to believe in false hope? A famous artist reluctantly bid farewell to his 40 year career in drawing political satire comics after many open criticism from the government and police force. Sad, but like the neon signs, he’s just one of the many precious things being sacrificed in our deteriorating city.

I told my family my plan to move back to Canada later this year. Details and timeline is still very sketchy. Although reluctant to let me go, my understanding parents know that’s the right thing to do. I’m definitely not ready to say goodbye yet, nor do I know the exact date, could only take things one step at a time. May God continue to guide my steps ahead. 🙏🏻