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Life.Culture.Discovery.

Reflections: different strokes

Wee Kek Koon

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An interesting addition to the Mong Kok occupation was a makeshift shrine to Lord Guan.

Illustration: Bay Leung
Illustration: Bay Leung

Like many of his fellow celestials in the Chinese folk religion pantheon, the redfaced Lord Guan was a real person. Guan Yu (AD160-AD220) was a senior military commander in the State of Shu during the Three Kingdoms Period. While his valour in battle is beyond doubt – multiple contemporary records corroborate his courage as a warrior – the jury is out on his other traits.

As a military leader, he had an inflated confidence in his own abilities and underestimated his foes to a point of recklessness. His arrogance also made enemies out of his colleagues and subordinates. These qualities led to his final defeat, which saw the Shu lose a significant portion of its territory to the State of Wu. Guan was captured and executed by a low-ranking Wu soldier.

The deification of such a flawed person over the centuries wasn’t just down to his lionisation in stories, traditional theatre and novels. The warrior has managed to embody the hopes and aspirations of soldiers, law-enforcers, gangsters, merchants and ordinary folk.

Different people identity with different facets of Lord Guan, much as the Occupy movement means different things to different people in Hong Kong.

Having lived his whole life in the modern cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, Wee Kek Koon has an inexplicable fascination with the past. He is constantly amazed by how much he can mine from China's history for his weekly column in Post Magazine, which he has written since 2005.
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