The other side of the sky: english version

By Elisabetta Pierobon

In a world where differences divide, for many years a single place has been a meeting point between two cultures, Western and Eastern; a bridge that unfortunately is slowly crumbling under the weight of repressions and censorships, raising around itself a fog that covers all colors. This is my tribute to Hong Kong, a "heritage of humanity" that risks becoming an expendable pawn on the world chessboard, forgotten by those for whom it was a meeting point for so long. A book to get to know her and not forget.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elisabetta Pierobon
• Release date: Jul 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9791222431819

Book preview

The Invisible Thread of Fate

According to a legend, very popular in Japan*, there is an unbreakable red thread that binds, each of us, to the person of our destiny, our soul mate.

That thread (or one like it) is symbolically tied around my left wrist as a reminder of the magic that brought me exactly where my heart now lives.

I walk lightly down the street with my red jewel, listening to songs whose words I can’t always understand but so powerful to remind me distant melodies: something that make me feel good....I breathe in the heavy, warm air that caresses my face and messes up my hair imagining other fragrances; scents of a past Era, of a world that doesn't belong to me, but which I feel has already been experienced. My steps follow familiar paths: I automatically retrace the same road every day, I look at the shops, the bars, the houses, the trees, the flowers, the colours but nothing stays inside, everything slips by me; I imagine other profiles, other angles, other colours. Dreamy eyes, with the desire to be where the red thread has led me, towards a person or, perhaps, more simply, towards a place: the place of my fate.

We can believe it or not but there is a path traced for each of us, our free will gives us the opportunity to choose, at every fork, which direction we want to take: and this choice is what makes the difference; but we never stray too far from our goal. Fate always offers us more than one possibility and if we can grasp it, if we follow our heart, sooner or later, it will take us straight into its arms, the arms of our destiny.

This idea has probably always been inside me, even though I had never realized it until I found myself, wrapped in its coils. It was as to be inside a hurricane, tied up to that invisible thread, so strong to be unbreakable even when my will wavered, even when I was to the point of giving up, even when I was apparently losing hope.

That thread stretched each time like a call, erased my doubts and strengthened my will until it showed me the light, becoming more and more dazzling. I physically felt its strength, it increased my courage. We can call it determination, if we want, but it remains what it is, if we can believe that there is something beyond us, that there is a hint of magic in who we are and what we do.

Now my body is here, jailed in my world, the one in which I was born and grew up, surrounded by people I love and who love me; my heart, instead, is not with me, it is far away with any intention to come back because it is exactly where it wants to be, where I would like to be with all my strength: at home!

A place on the other side of the sky, which I had never considered, never felt close to me; nothing to share with, but which crept deeply into my heart: from his eyes to mine, step by step, breath by breath. East and West for me were just two cardinal points, now are the two sides of the same coin, the same song melody, here, where the two cultures, the two traditions meet, where they find the way of living together creating something amazing.

A unique place, with contradictions and problems, where people live in the glory of their past, unable to preserve its memory. Intended to lose everything built up over the years, towards a future of hardship, fear, and uncertainty but where dreams still outlive hopes. A place so unknown and mysterious to be frightening but which, instead, feeds my fantasies and my curiosity and increase my love day by day, attracting me with the force of its charm.

* AKAI ITO – 赤い糸 – The red thread of destiny is a widespread belief in Japan, based on an ancient Chinese legend. The legend says that each of us is born with an invisible red thread tied to the little finger of our left hand. This thread binds us inextricably to the person we are destined for: the great love, for us, living in the west side, our soul mate. The two people so linked, are destined to meet, no matter how much time will have to pass, no matter the circumstances or the distances that separate them. Because, the red thread, will be very long and very strong and will never break. It will be the fate itself that will keep it strong and linked until they meet.

Introduction:

There is a small corner of the world, with a poetic name, on the banks of an equally evocative river, that for years lived a Golden Age, saw its windows open wide leaving the light air of freedom enter with its sweet scents. A small world that grew, came to life in a thousand colours and that, even if through contradictions and a lot of problems, was ready to realize a project for the humanity; a place that, thanks to everyone's contribution, had become the most desirable in which live, trade, open one's own business, invest economically and humanly, giving people hope, will, the courage to achieve their dreams and to fly. Now the window is slowly closing, loosing, one by one, the rights, the hopes, and the wish to fight.

This is how this story could begin…

… Once upon a time, there was a land (in the balance of two elements, air, and water) a little 'pearl', the living witness of human equality in diversity, the example of how being unique is an opportunity to build, to grow together: two souls that become one. Once upon a time, there was not the potential copy of one of two worlds (West or East) but the possibility of a new birth, the free choice to merge only the 'good' of both, creating a small 'paradise', a gift to our future. A 'heavy' legacy for generations to come, to be defended with pride and the strength of every breath.

Different cultures ready to understand, accept and share each other, recognising the same smiles, reading the same values in each other's eyes, with the same depth of heart.

Once upon a time, but now? It is as if all steps towards the light are now a reverse path, coming back in the arms of who, 'someone', not who really loves this place, calls home.

But it is difficult to go back, to accept humiliation, lies, to give up freedom, to bear injustice. If the rest of the world is unknown, if we ignore what surrounds us, hardships are part of life and are bearable, but when our eyes open wide to what was hidden and curiosity feeds the desire to know and understand, then it becomes impossible to regress: every step is a physical pain that squeezes the heart and takes breath away.

Those who have 'seen' cannot agree to forget but those who 'do not know' can easily be manipulated.

This is why they try to recover, applying the tactics of hiding, 'isolating', dividing (following the motto ‘divide and conquer’), denying the evidence, erasing history. Back to the Middle Ages, fears, censorship, monsters, and conspiracies. Lies serve to 'rule', truth is too scary. Lights are blurred, noises silenced as if coming from behind muffled windows.

A fake world, made of cardboard and artificial images, like a nice pair of pink glasses behind which hide reality to distract attention from what doesn’t work, from what really happens. A gigantic mask to create the world of toys in which Pinocchio, fascinated, sees only the wonder and not the 'animals' and the hellish life in which, those who live there, fall.

It is like the 'sick' love of a mother who considers the child as her property and not someone with his own personality; who decides to pull the strings of his life as if he was a puppet, making him say words not his own, harnessing his intelligence and abilities, leading him where she wants.

A true mother is one who loves her child so much to let him go, who is so trusting and brave to believe in him; who 'gives' him all her knowledge and experience, teaches, supports, encourage and gives him all the weapons to fly; she is never a selfish stepmother, who thinks only about herself, her own benefits, her own profits, who denies a future to her child by choosing for him, taking every decision, planning and guiding his destiny as if she were its master.

It is too easy to hide behind the 'common good', electing it as a motto and a value, and then promoting only a select few by depriving everyone else of life in favour of mere survival. Because everyone can think, has his own will, his own ability to choose.

Locking someone in a cage, preventing him from flying, deprives him of the greatest right: living, and this is the most cruel and ignoble power ones can exercise over another. Limiting others freedom is to place oneself above Who that, whatever we want to call Him, is a God above us, and who, despite having the power, has not exercised it, leaving to everyone the right to choose between good and evil, to make mistakes, to pay for them following the fate.

History has already seen many orcs take decision for life and death, ignoring democracy, equality, justice. And it makes no difference in which part of world they have appeared or carried out their madness.

We are told that anyone forgets their past is doomed to live it again, and indeed, in recent times some signs are beginning to come back; small lights that attract our attention but which we, mostly, ignore because they are far away from us and not within our purview. Yet the world belongs to everyone and what happens around its corner cannot be simply hidden like dust under a silk carpet...however beautiful and colourful that carpet may be, it will not be able to hide the dust forever, not when it becomes a mountain. There are balances, at world level, that cannot be questioned because everything was built on unhealthy bases that can collapse if the wrong direction is taken, and this is a limit. Any mistake can undermine tricky international relations and, breaking them, would not simply mean war but 'the War' the one that would take away everyone's future. And the economic interests are just as huge and selfish; it is better for everyone to look at their own garden, around their own corner, at home, closing eyes and ears towards those who are beyond the border. We do not realise that we are all linked by an invisible thread and sooner or later we will pay, heavily, for all that we have decided to ignore.

No matter if West or East, North or South...we are all intertwined, part of a 'design' (of that red thread we call destiny) that we did not decide but in which we must play our part. And every, action generates a reaction, even silence or immobility creates consequences from which there is no coming back...losing every day a small piece of history, of humanity, of a potential future.

So, in the end, what should have been preserved as a humanity heritage, the natural bridge between East and West, the two borders of the same sky, remains only in memories, in the memory of those who lived it, who know how to listen, who wants to believe and is not able to forget.

This collection is meant to be my gift to memory, to this wonderful painting that life gave us and now, is slowly fading, losing its colour. Seen not through direct experience but with my heart and the eyes of the person who brought me here and whom I consider, without he knows, my wonderful 'Angel'.

Mine is not a choice but a must due to the pandemic, this 'plague' that has completely changed our lives for years, forcing us to avoid others, preventing human contact. During this period, Hong Kong has suffered more than others a heavy closure, forced to follow China's 'zero covid' policy; HK was isolated from the rest of the world, locking up in a 'bubble' that has not preserved it from the epidemic but has instead magnified its financial problems creating a distance from the West and its investors.

Actually, for me, as a European, going physically to Hong Kong is impossible; but I have my 'Angel': every research I did came from his gift, a photo, a song or a sentence... from one heart to another without any borders, prejudices or mental barriers, hoping one day to find myself sitting there, in that Harbour, the wide and amazed eyes of a child in front of one of the most exciting skylines born from a human hand.

HONG KONG

Italy 8.30 am: A working day, like any other, begins with decisions to be taken, problems to be solved, satisfaction, anger and happy moments to share with colleagues. My gaze falls on the telephone clock, leaning against the desk, which has always marked a different time from the real one; more than once I have been on the way of asking to fix it, but to be honest, it has never seemed a priority: of course, it is of little use to have a 'liar' clock, but computer always comes in my help. I normally try to fix the correct time in my head: 7 hours less (6 during daylight saving time) the two clocks mark the same time. I discovered it months ago and now it is becoming almost an automatic thought but, today, must be a special day because I suddenly realised something that I had previously missed. This watch does not reflect a random time but marks exactly the time of the place I have recently fallen in love with, the only place where, if I could choice, I would like to be right now: Hong Kong!

The discovery was surprisingly because it is something that had escaped even me, who normally pride myself on being able to notice details; above all, I am astonished, because among all range of possibilities, my watch seems to have made a precise and sensible 'choice'. Time ago I started to accept some realities as something extraordinary and magical ... an invisible thread dragged me with my heart and soul to Hong Kong and this magic goes on, virtually projecting me not only into that world but also into its time.

HK 14.30 pm: A muggy, sunless afternoon, the blue sky is a memory of many days ago, clouds reflect on the city and fade its colours. Everything looks the same, an old black and white postcard: buildings, skyscrapers, streets, shops, trees as if the rain falling had covered everything with its grey film. Typical in the period from June to September where the subtropical climate comes with its hot, sultry, and rainy summer.

The heat, which is trapped between the buildings, together with the humidity from the sea, increases the feeling of mugginess and the perceived temperature almost always exceeds 35 degrees. Luckily, there is air conditioning without which one could not even think of surviving, especially in the cramped 'cells' that are some flats in most crowded areas.

It is July and, at the beginning of the month, the first typhoon of 2022 (chaba) appeared on a 'special' day: the 25th birthday of the Special Administrative Region (SAR). Wind and water (fengshui) are 'friends' of life, here, even though they can sometimes betray and in the past the city has had to pay very high prices in terms of economy and human lives. Over time, people have learnt to live with it, to accept the warnings issued by the weather service (which have different levels of danger); people avoid moving around, they shut themselves up safely in their homes, life is stopped, waiting. Streets, suddenly, become deserted: a surreal image of a world usually crowded with people; the silence interrupted by the sound of wind, waves lashing the shorelines and a heavy rain that marks minutes and hours.

For a country that looks very much at symbolism, this typhoon, on this very day, could be seen as an omen or a warning since it has, to some extent, blessed 'Hong Kong', directing its fury elsewhere. In few hours, the working day will be over, and many will pour into the streets, creating endless queues of cars and taxis (strictly red and white) or crowding the various means of transport (trams/buses/metro/ferries) that are the 'pride and joy' of this country. At night,