1c

Barbara wasn't sure how she felt about leaving Shanghai in 1949. She had just turned sweet 16 (not that anyone in her family had noticed) and in the past few years since the war had ended in 1945, she had enjoyed such freedoms like she never did before. Because both her parents, Sarah and Isaiah were involved with reconstruction as well as trying to keep Carol out of trouble, both Simon and Barbara were pretty much left to their own devices.

On Saturdays in Shanghai, Barbara used to love hopping from movie house to movie house, seeing as many as four movies in a day. She'd hit the morning movie, run and get a snack from a food stall on the way to the second theatre house, see two more movies, get dinner from another food stall on the way to the fourth movie house. Arriving home, Sarah'd ask "Chue sah dee fong, ah?" Where'd you go? And Barbara'd shrug and reply "Kui deen ying." She start to tell her mother about who was in the movie, but before five words got out her mouth, Sarah'd be dealing with Simon's current woes.

So, Barbara grew up in a dream-state of sorts, with movie stars like Barbara Stanwyck to serve as role models. Her class-mates and her poured over the latest gossip rags from Hollywood that were ferried over from the States. Of course, the latest would mean three-to-five year old articles but Barbara and her friends didn't care.

When Isaiah announced the move to Macau, Barbara only had one question. Do they show American movies there?

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