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Andy Chen

Today we  can breathe freely and go about our usual business,  whereas this time last year we had masks glued to our faces, fear in our hearts and ears tuned to the latest news on Sars.

The disease infected 1,755 people and killed 299 in Hong Kong.

To  celebrate the 129th anniversary of St Joseph's College, students were asked to write articles about their most memorable school experience.

For 14-year-old Andrew Koon Ho, there was only one choice - Sars.

Masks, suspension of classes and the return to school are all featured in his article.

'At first, my classmates laughed at me. They said my mask made me look like a monster and what I was doing was unnecessary. They even called me stupid nicknames,'  Andrew says. He was  one of the first to wear a mask to school because his mother insisted on it.

However, he stopped wearing masks due to peer pressure  until the Education and Manpower Bureau made it  compulsory.

'Peer pressure was great. They formed groups to laugh at me,' Andrew says.

When the school was closed at the height of the Sars outbreak, anxious classmates relied on the internet and the phone  to keep abreast of the latest homework requirements.

And as the school re-opened, he was 'shocked'  to have his hands sterilised at the front door.  'Someone sprayed something on my hands. I was bewildered, but later found out that it was alcohol for sterilisation,'  he says. He laments the cancellation of the school's annual music performance at which he was scheduled to play the violin.

'We practised hard but in the end the concert was cancelled. The cancellation was to prevent students from contracting Sars which, of course, was a good reason.'

While Andrew's performance was cancelled due to Sars, for 23-year-old Benny Man Ka-shing, it was his part-time income that was the casualty.

While studying information engineering at the University of Hong Kong, Mr Man earned $10,000 a month teaching secondary school students to play the violin and performing at weddings. But during the  Sars epidemic, the wedding performances ceased and lessons were cancelled, and he earned  only around $5,000 a month.

Mr Man says memories of Sars are still fresh in his mind, like looking for masks in shops and pharmacies in the Western district with his friends. The experience made him an unhappy man.

'Some shopkeepers were selling masks that were expensive but not up to standard. They should have been selling masks at lower prices, particularly during an epidemic,' says Mr Man.

He recalls receiving strange looks from others when he started wearing masks long before the seriousness of the outbreak was recognised and the general public followed suit.

'But I just ignored them,' says Mr Man, who believes that wearing a mask gave him a psychological boost, if not protection from the disease.

'Even though you knew the masks were not up to standard, wearing them did make you feel safer.'

Mr Man says he has mixed feelings about Sars causing  the delay of his final-year university project.

'The extension of a deadline is always a good thing, but not when it's because of Sars -  it cost too many lives,' he says.

'Looking back, it was a real test for Hong Kong people, a test of our perseverance and unity.

'But the price we paid was too high.'



Unmasking the Sars agony