In How Many Positive Ways has the reading of “The World of Suzie Wong” impacted your life?

[GammaGlobulin]

My Dear Friends,

 

Such a debt of gratitude do we owe to Richard Mason for his spectacular book, a novel which might even have been as pivotal for young men, sending them to brothels in Hong Kong, and brothels everywhere, as any novel written by Joseph Conrad, sending young boys to sea,

 

The only better novella by Conrad, might have been his Heart of Darkness.

 

How did Mason actually come to write this book?

 

Mason’s story about this is quite interesting.  And, if one checks Wikipedia, there is some interesting reading there.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mason_(novelist,_1919–1997)

 

It is also interesting to contemplate just how many young men, maybe a billion, have traveled to Hong Kong, and similar places, just to find their own Suzie Wong.

 

Somehow, most young boys, after reading this fantasy novel, still believe they will find true love in the arms of a hooker.  And then, so many of them finally find not much.  And then, they crash and burn.  And then, this makes a good story for us to tell on TV.

 

Or, they visit the bars, and then they eventually find their true love, and end up sharing her with 150 sailors, per month.

 

You see, you cannot just come to a place like WanChai, and then expect to fall in love, immediately.  You need to walk around a bit, and visit various bars, before you find your Suzie Wong.

 

Yes.  Falling in love with a bar girl is so easy.

 

But still, there are many insights we might glean from reading The World of Suzie Wong.

 

Maybe, you have gleaned a few insights in the bars, after reading about Suzie Wong, too?

 

What are some of the good lessons you have learned from reading this amazing novel?

 

For example, I learned to never try to sit with US Navy sailors at a table while eating a bowl of noodles.  And, I also learned that the girls in WanChai never really liked sailors who arrive in port one day, and then ship out the next day.  Maybe, even, they thought them a bit uncouth.

 

I love this book about Suzie Wong, which has become rather iconic, over the years, for a young farang man’s lust for the perfect Asian girl, one that has no English language facility, but plenty of beauty.

 

 

For me, Suzie is the perfect woman, both beautiful and unattached.

 

What did you learn from the reading of Suzie Wong?

 

And, do you agree that Mason is as amazing as what he wrote about after visiting Hong Kong, on a lark?

 

Regards