[MPOV] The Girl Who Dreamed: A Hong Kong Memoir of Triumph Against the Odds.

My rating: 5/5

Goodreads rating: 4.20/5
Published: October 1, 2024
Author: Sonia Leung
Genre: Memoir

At the age of 14, Sonia Leung was raped by her ping-pong coach.

 

She had moved from China two-and-a-half years earlier to join her family in Hong Kong, but she could not fit in. The family of six lived in a cramped subdivided hut in a Kowloon squatter village but rarely communicated with each other. The difficulties of adjusting to colonial Hong Kong heightened the tensions between her parents. Feeling trapped and unloved, Sonia was too afraid to tell anyone about the rape. She saved money by working part-time at McDonald’s and, a year later, she bought a one-way plane ticket to Taipei and ran away from home.

 

The Girl Who Dreamed is a memoir of her childhood in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan – and how, through work and further education, she found her way to an independent life away from the family and world from which she needed to free herself.

Thanks to the publisher, Blacksmith Books, and the author, Sonia Leung, for this ARC in return for my honest review. It truly was an eye-opening read for me and I could not fathom what this girl has gone through and endured most of her young life!

"I became non-existent to them. If I could vanish into the air, I would not feel so empty and hungry for food, attention, validation, and love."

Interestingly, the author has made many references to famous Chinese authors and poets that somehow shaped her thoughts and life. Just a mere few sentences can be enlightening, making a good impression on someone as young as the author then. TBH, I do believe that literature can make or break someone, depending on how it was understood. 

"Only when I was a grown woman did I learn that the daughter's names would not enter the book of Leung's family genealogy."

Having brought up in an Asian family, I get it. I understand that Asian parenting is so different from way back then. However, I guess with what we have endured then, our perspective changed in bringing up our children hence Asian parenting has evolved, and some children are more entitled these days LOL! Anyhow this is just my opinion lah!

I have enjoyed yet agonized reading through this memoir. Definitely a harrowing experience at the start and I applaud her for being so brave to remember, write it down and published it. This is not an easy feat. Also, who would have thought that a teenager could travel alone to Taiwan without her chaperone?!!! I am amazed with her will power, her positive mind and gutsy personality! I do empathize especially when she could have been with Jeremy, have a ''HEA'' with their baby too. On the other hand, I am glad that her life turned out well and I do wish her the best in her future undertakings. 

Sonia, 

Thank you for sharing your story with the world.

"Writing had empowered me once. It brought on profound changes."