Some call him Peng, others call him boss, but I call him Tee. He’s the kind of friend that would go out of his way to visit me only to convince me to visit him in his country later in the same year. Here’s how it happened…
Back in 2014, I met Tee in HKUST’s RedBird Award Program aimed at training young leaders and enhancing students’ personal development. Unfortunately, he left us the following year to return to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to continue his studies. Since then, he’s only been a memory in our RedBird community.
That’s until January of 2018 when he informed me that he would be visiting Hong Kong and would like to meet with me (after I missed him in 2017 in KL because he was in Australia). Naturally, I agreed and brought him to one of my favorite grassroots eateries – in a wet market food stall. Over dim sum, Tee, I mean tea, and buns we talked about everything from educational policies to common misunderstandings of political philosophies.
“You two look real similar with your big happy smiles, you not brothers?” ~ Stallkeeper
He asked me if I would like to join HPAIR thinking I could be a suitable delegate. At the time, I didn’t know he was involved and just agreed to apply without thinking I would actually get in and go to Malaysia for the conference. Little did I know that he was the vice executive director of the program. I feel grateful that Tee informed me of this opportunity, but more importantly he succeeded in making me go see him in Malaysia.
