Then they’ll say, “Married already no need la, got husband look after.” So my thinking is a bit different.” If Li Leng has it her way, she’ll continue learning for as long as she can. When got course they will say, “What for you go course, nothing what, learn already also like that.” But I will say, this will make me better at my job. It made me smarter than my colleagues who are very lazy, everytime go paktor. “My love of learning made me what I am today. Today, it has about 2000 employees, and she’s also cycled through 15 departments, having done everything from underwriting to investments. When she started, the company employed only 26 people. Today, Li Leng is an AVP at an insurance company where she has been working for the past 43 years. Ironically, as someone who faints at the sight of blood and needles, she then landed work as a clinic receptionist. After being promoted to become a senior cashier, she had to leave because her mother believed that shift work would put her in the company of unsavoury characters.
Sharing that she and her two other siblings were raised by a single mother, she says, “Actually I wanted to study some more, but when I asked my mother, she said (in Cantonese): “So easy to find money ah?” So in the end, no university.” Her first job saw her working in a hotel.
Only people who could afford it went to university, and she never really understood why she never had that same opportunity. Li Leng was born at a time when most people joined the labour force once they graduated from Secondary 4. “I think that people age according to their mentality,” she says, “Some people live a lot in 30 years and learn many hard lessons in that time some live for 60 years but are not mature at all.” She also tells me that life isn’t about the number of years you’ve lived. Apart from this, she also pursues Karate, Aikido, and windsurfing. On Sundays, she holds a morning pole dancing class for cancer survivors and women over 55. At 60, she teaches jumping fitness three times a week.
Yet looking at Li Leng, I’m hesitant to be dismissive. It doesn’t help when they pepper their wisdom with qualifiers like “people your age …” or “people like you …”-surefire ways to set one on the defensive. But even as they parrot cliches about letting things go and how material goods will never make you happy, you continue to think: Nah, I can probably live my life differently. There’s a wealth of years and knowledge between you, and you know that one day you too will be in this other person’s position. Receiving perspective from someone significantly older is always strange when you’re a young person. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here. This story concludes our ‘Wonder Women’ series. Photographs taken by Matthew Ng at The Brasse Barre.
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