A Person's True Vocation - Softcover

Li, Vincent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1482899132 ISBN 13: 9781482899139

Verlag: PartridgeSingapore, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

In 2009, the world is reeling from the impact of a global financial storm. For a series of young professionals in Hong Kong and Indonesia-places somewhat immune to the crash-life isn't as easy as they had hoped. Now, when nothing is certain, they must find a way to rise above the challenges of life in a soulless corporate world. Michael's trying to come to terms with being told he has to leave Hong Kong, thanks to a transfer to Indonesia. Who would have thought the general manager of a recreation club could be this stressed out? Simon has a job that should be relaxing and rewarding, but he has to find a way to outwit a board that wants him impeached. Chris, the ambitious (and slightly overwhelmed) marketing director of a fashion brand-management company, is hoping to launch an extravagant fashion show against all odds of economic downturn and corporate politics. And poor Roy and Joey wish they still had jobs to worry about. But they've just been told that they are redundant in their respective (former) workplaces-on the same day. Success in this world is not only about who you are; it's about who you know. Sometimes you are what you do, and sometimes you just do the job. Together, these friends explore the absurd, delicious, existential anguish of the quest to discover what life truly has in store for each of them.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Vincent Li has lived in the UK, Japan, Korea, the UAE, Canada, and Indonesia. A veteran of the aviation and travel industry, he is a blogger for the education post of South China Morning Post, among other online publications. He was born in Hong Kong and now lives in Shanghai.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

A Person's TRUE Vocation

By Vincent Li

PartridgeSG

Copyright © 2014 Vincent Li
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4828-9913-9

Contents

May 2009, 
Chapter 1: Card-box, 17, 
Chapter 2: My Angel, 29, 
Chapter 3: Double-think, 41, 
June 2009, 
Chapter 4: Hot Pot, 57, 
Chapter 5: Avatar, 70, 
Chapter 6: Godfather, 81, 
July 2009, 
Chapter 7: Vanity and the Filth of Power, 99, 
Chapter 8: The Hidden Jewel in Asia, 111, 
Chapter 9: Bombardment with Poverty, 125, 
August 2009, 
Chapter 10: You have got the look!, 141, 
September 2009, 
Chapter 11: True Vocation, 155, 

CHAPTER 1

Card-box

Roy worked for a publisher of local magazines, which mostly featured the local paparazzi and lifestyles in Hong Kong. He categorically belonged to the "professional" community of gossip-trailblazers, the "hounds", who basically made their living out of tracing the celebrities' footprints and making the most spectacular drama possible out of every single exposed incident—or even just vague hint to an incident—concerning their targets, like prey. He enjoyed and took pride in his job. If he was ever asked to pass any judgment on the trade, it was with a sense of honour—without any tinge of iniquity—that he considered it contributing substantially to the value chain of vanity making, which he believed was what the show business all about.

"Don't the artists want exposure and fame after all? What extra miles many of them would not go to for getting featured under the spotlight?" Roy was totally convicted of the mission of his trade. Of course, more often than not, it tends to be patronizing, if not ruinous, rather than glorifying in reality. But besides the celebrities' stories of fame and success—and decadence, sleaze, or downfall—as a media journalist, Roy also covered other topical stories for suiting the public tastes, sating their gossip-hungry appetite. Other than the chief editor's judgment, basically, he had to follow his own instincts for picking the right trends and hitting the right spots—though a published post turning out as a hit or a miss is anybody's guess.

Incidentally, the mission of his news-hunting excursion on this particular day was to cover a breaking episode of an alternative nature. It was about a bankrupted business closing its shop. Why Roy judged the breaking news to be relevant to his publication, and what made it particularly media-worthy in his view, was the bankrupted company itself: Tou Pao, another paparazzi publisher, literally translated as "First Canon". Intuitively, it should be a melancholic kind of story to be covered, as yet another incident of a business going down seemingly as a victim of the prevalent economic recession. But Roy was ambivalent about the approach with which to cover and feature the story.

As Roy received the phone call of tip-off from his clandestine informant about the commotion breaking loose at the publishing office of "First Canon" upon the sudden arrival of official receivers and security guards in abundance, he did feel a mixed sensation of sympathy and schadenfreude. Indeed he was also consciously aware of his own self-serving smirk. As he was listening, he even began to conceive various sardonic angles of feature from which to make an attractive story out of the otherwise deplorable incident, with spontaneous choices of catchy headline for captivating the potential readers' attention toiling in his head, readily translated as "First Canon no more; First Canon goes under; First Canon's bolted". He was convinced that the story would sell, never mind being by way of a cheesy headline—and its apparent lack of sympathy.

Feeling excited with his own creative initiatives, Roy spontaneously pumped up his fist, doing so in such an aggressive manner that even his surrounding colleagues were startled. But without giving away any hint as to what was the matter to anyone, while still holding his Blackberry phone to his ear with one hand, he swiftly picked up his camera and gear of the other photography tools from his messy desk with another and dashed for the exit from his stuffy office. Notwithstanding the contemporary digital age when data and information were long supposed to be conveniently managed and stored in their soft formats, it was still a typical printing office—one packed with piles of all sorts of papers—where Roy worked in. More often than not, anyone dashing for the door through the narrow lanes between closely-parked journalists' desks fluttered up flying papers from the vicinity on his/her trail, as Roy did on this particular occasion.

Rumours had been spreading about the demise of "First Canon" for quite some time—which it narrowly escaped once. Its core weekly magazine was forced to have its name changed in the wake of a scandalous blunder a few years back. A cover story which exposed the life-struggling history of a popular movie star, and victimized her with repugnant pictures of nudity, was immediately proven to be crossing the threshold of the society's tolerance of crassness and vulgarity upon its publishing. The publisher was immediately labeled as villainous out of the sheer outrage of the general public and, of course, the show-business artists in particular. With the celebrities' missionary and cohesive calling for the common cause of fighting against the devilish infringement of privacy, and with their natural attraction of star's power, large-scale assemblies and parades of protest under their leadership were swiftly formed across the city and extensively reported through all local media channels. Publishing of the weekly magazine was immediately terminated, until it was re-launched under a new name some months later after the antagonistic sentiment died down.

Crueler than the industry's relentless urge to expose and sell the third persons' privacy to arouse and satisfy the sate of public curiosity, it was not any ravaging scandal but the destructive force of economic reality—if not the digitalization and commoditization of cheap gossips—which gored the infamous publisher this time. It was a cold and hard accounting matter of hemorrhaging cash flow that eventually brought it down. So its day of inevitable reckoning perhaps came as no surprise to anyone, it was just a matter of timing. Yet, Roy was excited about the breaking news for his own reason.

Although, in a split second, it crossed his mind that he should first check with his boss whether he should follow this breaking story up, Roy was too excited to slow himself down. It was only two years ago when his application for a position of journalist at "First Canon" was coldly turned down. What made the experience of failure particularly hurting was the condescending interview given by the publisher's chief editor. Roy successfully joined Xin Lang Chao, literally translated as "New Wave"—his current employer—afterwards. Not entirely out of any vindictive intent but simply by virtue of the trade, he had always been in the heat of loggerhead competition with "First Canon" for readership of more or less the same type of gossipy cover stories. With the competitor whom he personally and progressively took as his foe eventually going down then, Roy was feeling triumphantly vindicated, that the humiliation of rejection turned out to be a blessing in disguise; that he auspiciously escaped getting on board a sinking ship. He was sensing victory and was eager to show up and witness the final moments of the capsized wreck. He wanted to have the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: PartridgeSingapore
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1482899132
• ISBN 13: 9781482899139
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 170
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar