過去一周，我給學生上課演示寫作技巧時，有個學生給了我這個題目：「Do you like spending time alone?」我立馬想起我在大陸工作的一些經歷，然後就利索地寫出下文。

我重看該文，覺得給它這個題目更合適：「到大陸發展的後遺症之一（港府不會告訴你的）」。What do you think?

 

報道無罪　知情有價　請即訂閱《追新聞》：
https://www.patreon.com/thechasernews

Do you like spending time alone?

“In China, scammers lurk in every corner. Human resources will dangle an attractive package in front of you just to get you on board. Once you’ve joined, they give you an unfair job contract and you either take it or leave it.

“Mainland entrepreneurs have the most street smarts? Why? They’ve been victims of fraud many times before!”

“Even the universities are guilty of giving prospective hires false promises. Some victims become so distressed that they end up killing themselves.”

These comments were made by members of a mainland online chat group I’m in. As I listened to their exchange on the sidelines, I thought back on the time when I was working in the jungle that is mainland China. Had I not have my share of being caught in a web of lies? Had those trying experiences not transformed me into someone who can smell a fraudster a mile off? I stopped congratulating myself, however, when I realized my mainland experience has had a lingering side effect: it has fueled in me a love for solitude. Long before the former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo advocated his famous “Distrust and verify” approach to dealing with the CCP (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pompeo-to-give-china-speech-as-tensions-with-us-flare-2020-07-23 ),  I had already been unconsciously managing people in this manner, finally reaching that inflection point where the trouble of having to doubt every claim a person makes became too burdensome and I began to overwhelmingly prefer my own company.

The curious thing about preferring to be alone is those in this camp can have an active social life while secretly harbouring this yearning There’s a running joke in China that nightclubs are so popular because men prefer to unload their thoughts to stranger – there are no consequences if a nightclub hostess knows your secrets, because she doesn’t know who you are and you won’t see her again, but the same can’t be said of the people in you life. And I know for a fact that back in the days when I was a social butterfly, flitting from one event to another on a single day, appearing warm and chatty all the time, deep inside I was actually aching to be alone, so draining I found the self-protective measure of thinking the worst of everyone I meet.

When the latest marriage statistics in mainland China came out recently, mainland media wasted no time in trumpeting headlines like this one: “Marriage rate hits a 37-year low in 2022; less than one-fifth of those born after the 1990s are getting hitched” (https://www.163.com/dy/article/I74I2DKT05563X55.html ). The unpalatable reality is as the Chinese economy nosedives and competition for resources becomes even more intense, it is even more difficult to build trust with people in general, let alone with prospective marriage partners. As the CCP worries about plunging marriage rates and birthrates, it should do some soul searching and take responsibility for turning mainland into such a trust-scarce society.

Michelle Ng

英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
逢周日英國時間晚上8時 / 周一香港時間凌晨3時刊出