Home of Glory (Guang Rong Zhi Jia)
The protagonist in the song "光榮之家" (Home of Glory) is a relentless hoarder of things, including clothes, old newspapers, broken umbrellas and vinyl records. To her, there is a place for everything, new or worn, in her home. It is something I can relate so well to as I am also quite a hoarder of things that I have no more use for but can’t bring myself to dump. Many times, I had cleared out cupboards with the intention of making room for new stuff, only to shove almost everything back again eventually. So I still have, among loads of other ‘useless’ stuff, lecture notes, old (and mostly mouldy!) cassette tapes, yellowed magazines and a vast collection of stamps, bottle-caps, bus-tickets and matchboxes, all stashed away in some cupboard or hidden in a corner.
About ten years ago (or perhaps longer!), my mum got rid of some of my old video-tapes and toys. Now, the tapes, containing my favourite Japanese variety shows and concerts of Alan Tam and Anita Mui, among others, which I had painstakingly recorded, had turned mouldy and I didn’t play with the toys anymore, but they were an important part of my memories. I kicked up a big fuss and was angry for days. Now, many years later, even though there is still a very slight tinge of regret, I don’t really feel too strongly about those possessions anymore.
In any case, I had moved on to ‘hoarding’ other stuff. My current obsession is collecting memorabilia of my two favourite singers Sammi Cheng and Denise “hocc” Ho. For Sammi, it all started innocently enough with a CD called "大報復" (An Eye For An Eye) about ten years ago. After watching the “Sammi X Live” concert, I became a fan (albeit unknowingly at first) and began buying CDs and VCDs. As I became more obsessed, I found myself snapping up photo-books, movies, special singles, trading cards, Pepsi memorabilia and other stuff. Luckily (for the wallet), I wasn’t really into magazines and posters in the past as I found them a waste of money, with no space to display them anyway. So I only have a few of these. Even if I want to start collecting them seriously, by now, Sammi has appeared on so many hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of magazine covers and posters over the years that it would be a costly and futile attempt on my part. And my Sammi collection, though far from being complete from the true collector's point of view (being decidedly deficient especially in the magazine and poster department), is almost satisfactory for the current state I am in.
For hocc, it’s different. By the time she made her debut, I wasn’t a student with a tight budget anymore. And so, within a few years, I had amassed quite a collection, including what possibly only ‘The Die-Hards and Severely C-Syndromic’ (as I call it) would buy and most probably utterly useless to other people. To make things worse (for the wallet), I decided to start on magazines which hocc had graced the covers of, as well as posters. I wonder where I’m going to store the stuff properly, especially the magazines, which I had hardly even read except for the few relevant pages.
A proper collection shouldn’t be stuffed into a bag and hidden under your bed. It should be displayed nicely for other people to see. I would like to create a ‘Sammi corner’ and ‘hocc corner’ but there is no room at the moment. I guess I’ll have to do some major spring-cleaning and be heartless enough to throw some things away before I can carry out my plan.
Sometimes, I do regret my buying sprees and wonder what I am going to do with a few hundred CDs, or during morbid times, what will happen to them when I die. Then again, since we can’t bring anything with us when we bid farewell to this world, why not make ourselves happy? I mean, whether I keep the money in the bank, or use it to buy things that I like, it doesn’t matter because it’s going to be transient. So I might as well spend it on something that brings me joy, as long as I’m living within my means. Sure, there are many other more important things in life, but as long as a balance is struck and priorities are set and kept to, I guess I’ll still remain that relentless hoarder and collector, in my own Home of Glory.
About ten years ago (or perhaps longer!), my mum got rid of some of my old video-tapes and toys. Now, the tapes, containing my favourite Japanese variety shows and concerts of Alan Tam and Anita Mui, among others, which I had painstakingly recorded, had turned mouldy and I didn’t play with the toys anymore, but they were an important part of my memories. I kicked up a big fuss and was angry for days. Now, many years later, even though there is still a very slight tinge of regret, I don’t really feel too strongly about those possessions anymore.
In any case, I had moved on to ‘hoarding’ other stuff. My current obsession is collecting memorabilia of my two favourite singers Sammi Cheng and Denise “hocc” Ho. For Sammi, it all started innocently enough with a CD called "大報復" (An Eye For An Eye) about ten years ago. After watching the “Sammi X Live” concert, I became a fan (albeit unknowingly at first) and began buying CDs and VCDs. As I became more obsessed, I found myself snapping up photo-books, movies, special singles, trading cards, Pepsi memorabilia and other stuff. Luckily (for the wallet), I wasn’t really into magazines and posters in the past as I found them a waste of money, with no space to display them anyway. So I only have a few of these. Even if I want to start collecting them seriously, by now, Sammi has appeared on so many hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of magazine covers and posters over the years that it would be a costly and futile attempt on my part. And my Sammi collection, though far from being complete from the true collector's point of view (being decidedly deficient especially in the magazine and poster department), is almost satisfactory for the current state I am in.
For hocc, it’s different. By the time she made her debut, I wasn’t a student with a tight budget anymore. And so, within a few years, I had amassed quite a collection, including what possibly only ‘The Die-Hards and Severely C-Syndromic’ (as I call it) would buy and most probably utterly useless to other people. To make things worse (for the wallet), I decided to start on magazines which hocc had graced the covers of, as well as posters. I wonder where I’m going to store the stuff properly, especially the magazines, which I had hardly even read except for the few relevant pages.
A proper collection shouldn’t be stuffed into a bag and hidden under your bed. It should be displayed nicely for other people to see. I would like to create a ‘Sammi corner’ and ‘hocc corner’ but there is no room at the moment. I guess I’ll have to do some major spring-cleaning and be heartless enough to throw some things away before I can carry out my plan.
Sometimes, I do regret my buying sprees and wonder what I am going to do with a few hundred CDs, or during morbid times, what will happen to them when I die. Then again, since we can’t bring anything with us when we bid farewell to this world, why not make ourselves happy? I mean, whether I keep the money in the bank, or use it to buy things that I like, it doesn’t matter because it’s going to be transient. So I might as well spend it on something that brings me joy, as long as I’m living within my means. Sure, there are many other more important things in life, but as long as a balance is struck and priorities are set and kept to, I guess I’ll still remain that relentless hoarder and collector, in my own Home of Glory.
posted by yung | 8:30 pm
1 Comments:
oh no, i will feel very sad if my mum threw away my old collection. But then again, if i dun really feel for them anymore, I guess it doesn't really hurt. Yeah, i feel ridiculous, but I've now got more mags of hocc than Sammi. But mostly I just stick to the ones with cover, or else i'll really be overspending!
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