HKBU Partner

I interviewed my HKBU partner last Friday and it was interesting. I was worried I wouldn't like her? Like, not so much hate, but I felt like she was quite reserved or guarded, which is fine we all are at some point, but what I found when I interviewed her was that she's quite talkative, you couldn't get a word out before she started talking about something else. Which is good you know, but then I'm like "am I just talking to me as a clone?" I think that's the unexpected thing, and she was quite open too, she told me about her mental health issues and the issues in Hong Kong which was a nice input too.

I got a lot of information out of her, but not as much as I'd like, but I think I have a rough idea of what I want to write, something about mental illness, maybe set in Australia because I don't know how I'd write something set in Hong Kong? But maybe they're from a family that is quite silent about mental illness which I feel like the Hong Kong culture is (maybe I'm wrong). As I've lived in a family that is open about how we feel. I talk to my parents about me seeing a psychologist and my mental health issues, though I often feel like whenever I admit I am having suicidal thoughts my mum tells me to stop it? Which is weird in itself. So that's why I want to explore it (and I haven't so much explored it), but as I said in class, I want to write a piece that is fiction and not so much creative non-fiction as I'd feel weird writing about myself when I interviewed someone else.

I don't think there's anything I was let down about, in fact, I was un-let down by the interview, she seems really genuine and nice and I really value that, she's honest and understanding. I came out to her because she wasn't too sure on what queer meant, and I wasn't scared to come out? Other times I have and people look at me differently (I came out to a co-worker and she freaked out and didn't want to be near me, even though we had been working together for over a year). So it was nice to have that rapport with her.

What I found a bit shocking was her distaste for Chinese people, and to a point where she didn't want to be called Chinese. Though I feel like for me it's like if someone called me English. Australia was 'founded' by the English, and my maternal grandparents are English, but I'm Australian, I might 1/3 English and have all these different white nationalities in me, but I'm Melissa and I'm Australian. But it was interesting to get a perspective from her that you don't hear so often, especially how she was a part of the Umbrella movement too which shocked me but it was also pretty cool at the same time.

I hope we continue to talk after this too, even if its on and off, I'd love to begin a casual friendship with her. She's cool.