Monday, November 16, 2009  12:13 AM
Citizen escapism
This felt like a decade ago - My first Disneyland experience, at age 21. I've been thinking about how far escapism can take someone. Disneyland is escapism personified in a place where millions go every year to tear away from the busy clicking of shoes along marbled floors at train stations and dreary rushed lunches where one hour is hardly enough time to hold a decent conversation with anyone. So Walt Disney obviously had that in mind when he created a world "where dreams come true"; every person taken to a place where only the good childhood memories remain in happily ever afters. It's the only place where exorbitant prices are accepted with smiles and people fork out wads of cash for a HK$25 for a Mickey Mouse chocolate ice-cream bar and US$3 for a sugary churro. People stand in line for hours under the hot sun in noisy chatter waiting to get into haunted houses and Peter Pan's world. Others dash off in search of their favourite princesses, two and twenty-year-olds alike, for that one moment captured on film. I did all of the above: had my fair share of ice-creams, churros, candied apples, candy floss and Mickey Mouse shaped burgers; made sure I went on every single ride in the different lands by strategising fast passes and running all over the place and sacrificed the go-kart ride to take pictures with all the princesses. I was very happy that day. It peaked when I stood rooted to the ground, transfixed by the magical blend of fireworks shooting through the pitch-black sky in Hong Kong. I look forward to escape all the time. When I'm upset about something, I rent a hk drama serial or start reading a book and never want to stop doing so as I lose myself in the plots. When I'm reflective and nostalgic, I look through old pictures and think of endings written by me. When I'm bored, I walk into Chanel and YSL and hold the bags against myself and pretend I can really afford them. The only thing I'm looking forward to about the end of this year is Christmas in Hawaii and Japan and knowing that I'll be away from here for awhile. In a place where no one knows me and the unfamiliarity breeds hope in fond memories on a clean slate. But how long can that sustain me; I have no idea. Will there ever come a point where reality is where I really want to be?
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