Those were the Days

It felt like the 90’s had just passed us by, but things in the 80’s has become the “hit” nostalgic things of these days. So, today’s entry is about the first romance novel that I ever read (and remember). No, I read that during the early 90’s, but the book itself is published in the 80’s.The novel is named 都是那些日子 and it’s written by 鄭丹瑞 and 黃敏如. I believe the story first appeared as a radio drama on Commerical Radio HK before being published as the novel series. The point of view of the story is alternated between chapters, one chapter with the guy as the narrator, and one chapter with the girl as the narrator, etc.

The story itself is quite simple: The guy and the girl met and became couples when they were in Form 7/Form 5, but they separated after the girl left for Vancouver to study in UBC (!!!). Several years later, both the girl and the guy entered the society (in HK, of course) and have their own boyfriend and girlfriend. The guy later married his own girlfriend, out of gratitude I suspect. But the girl’s boyfriend left her because of a number of reasons. Because of circumstances in life and issues with their own halves, the guy and the girl became attracted to each other again. The girl became the guy’s mistress and the guy faced a dilemma of which woman to choose. Things finally needed to come to the end because the girl became pregnant. She decided to quit the relationship and move to Canada, raising the child on her own. There, I told the whole story. There’s no need for you to dig it up and read it. :p

The story sound kind of old, but remember that is the 80’s. I think the story made quite a lasting impression on me, which I cannot quite describe. I guess it helped shaped my view on love and certainly has influence on my writing. I still remember the day when I finished the story. It was a morning back in 1992, and I was in grade 5 (maybe 4?). I was reading it during the morning (my sister wouldn’t let me near her books, and the books are hers, so I had to read them while she’s not home), before a final exam in the afternoon (back then, most elementary schools in HK only have classes during either the morning or afternoon, and grades 4 to 6 in my school had classes during the afternoon). I don’t know why I remembered these kind of details, but I guess it’s more less part of my childhood memory.

And guess what, the all-knowing Google found a fan page for the book:
http://those-days.com/yw/ywb043/

I couldn’t find those books on the bookshelves at home, are they with you, sis?

The image is taken from an Yahoo! HK auction page. Those books were for sale for HKD $200, and nobody took up the offer. I thought $200 is kind of pricey, considering the new edition cost $115 (in two books instead of three). But I heard that the arrangement of text and images are not as good in the new edition.

Tags: 都是那些日子, 鄭丹瑞, 黃敏如