1a

"May I have this dance?" The man's engrish was awful but Barbara gave him points for trying. At least he had more daam than the rest of the boys standing around ogling her and her cousins. She grabbed his hand and led the way to the dance floor.

The four person band blared out a nice Frank Sinatra tune. She jigged, she jagged, she did all the moves she had been practicing in her room all week and it seemed to do the trick. The eyes behind the glasses seemed to twinkle at her under the flashing lights of the nightclub. She smiled broadly at him but he didn't smile back; it was more of a smirk.

Va da hau queu she thought to herself. Not very good looking. His glasses were on the thick side; and his mouth was sort of meh, crooked. Ah, that explained the reluctance to smile.

After the dance was over, he led the way back to her group, bought a round of drinks for her friends, and left. Barbara looked after him and asked Jimmy, the boy her sister was dating, who that guy was. "Yee sze Wong Er Liu" Jimmy replied in Shanghainese even though they were in a nightclub in Hong Kong. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Mm muh Ying Wen ming tze?" No English name? A shake of the head was her reply.

In the 1950's in Hong Kong, most of the younger generated sported English names. Most names were taken from names of movie stars but since the movies usually took 3-5 years in being distributed in Hong Kong, the names taken were from yesterday's stars. There were lots of Bettys after Betty Grable, and Rosalinds after Rosalind Russell. Judys after Judy Garland, and Joans after Joan Crawford.

To have no English equivalent for his name indicated to Barbara, a sense of identity that needed no borrowing from others for justification. She smiled. Then promptly forgot him.

[330 words] to be continued