Elsie Tu (1913-2015) ~ reprint of the review of Shouting at the Mountain: a Hong Kong story of love and commitment
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Elsie Tu, writes the South China Morning Post this morning, was “a veteran politician who spent her whole life fighting for the underprivileged in Hong Kong.”
The Asian Review of Books ran this review of her autobiography, Shouting at the Mountain in December 2004. (The SCMP reviewed it that same week.)
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Elsie Tu was a busybody, a trouble-maker and an instigator of riots in the eyes of most of the British community in Hong Kong during the 1960s. She was also a thorn in the side of the colonial government for many years, even sometimes latterly while she was herself a government official. Mrs Tu (then Elsie Elliot) had committed the unforgivable sin of “going native” at a time when the British still ruled what was left of their empire with a self-delusional air of superiority. People like Elsie Tu threatened this fragile masquerade and were best gotten rid of.
Shouting at the Mountain: a Hong Kong story of love and commitment tells the remarkable story of Elsie and Andrew Tu, her companion and soulmate of over 50 years. It is a love story made all the more poignant by the fact that we are used to viewing Mrs Tu as a public figure, generally fighting against inequity and for the rights of those less fortunate members of society, and not as a woman with emotional needs and romantic notions of her own. The book touches on the early history of the authors, how they came to be in Hong Kong and continues through to the present day. It mainly chronicles a chaotic and formative time in the history of the Territory through the development of their educational and social work, which is mirrored by the growing strength of their relationship.
The writing is sometimes quaint if not preachy, for example when she states: “... too often peer advice, if accepted, can lead to disaster. It has led many decent young people into drug-taking, vice and even crime”—but this is in keeping with the narrative style and is balanced by the admissions of self-doubt and her growing estrangement from both her first husband and a fundamentalist Christian view of life, which seems to have little relevance to the needs of the community she finds herself in.
The book is simply written but none the less eloquent for that. I read it in one sitting and recommend it to anyone with an interest in Hong Kong social history or in topics of human interest.
The fact that Elsie Tu’s public persona has evolved from trouble-maker to respected community elder without any apparent change in her personal attitudes and ideals says as much about the society she helped to change as it does about her integrity.
All of us who call Hong Kong home owe Andrew and Elsie Tu a debt of gratitude. It is touching to discover that there was so much love in their lives.