Life Leads You Astray, But the Path isn’t Afar

As if by chance, my life has taken a turn. A few days more and my new job in Asia Art Archive will begin. This is a new stage that I am truly looking forward to.

My first encounter with AAA was a brief random visit. Back then I was in my last year in university and was still volunteering as a docent in the M+ Museum, because of which I learnt of this organisation. As I happened to pass by this place in Sheung Wan on a leisure afternoon, I thought it would be a good idea to check out a book or two there. I went into Hollywood Centre, which still smelled like Hong Kong in the 70s and 80s, walked past colourful china vases, wooden furniture, crystal statues, etc. that lined behind the Chinese antique shop windows, and took an old-fashioned lift to AAA. The door opened, what I saw was the exact opposite of typical academic libraries in my mind — coloured by warm pink neon light, the space was divided by streamlined bookshelves, views of the old Sheung Wan neighbourhood were displayed on a long window extending across the walls. It wasn’t spacious, but had a dynamic atmosphere about it, with an intellectual richness that was not sober. Orderly, but far from cold. ’How smart and creative-minded you have to be to work here!’ I thought to myself, laying down a book about contemporary Cantonese artists on a square glass table, laboriously seating myself on a not very comfortable but chic glass chair.

More than a year passed. I finished my MA courses and was struggling with my dissertation. I saw an archive showcase event in the Maritime Museum recommended on Facebook, and invited a classmate to see the exhibition booths of various archives in Hong Kong. How unimaginable that there’re actually so many archives in this forgetful city! We explored old photos and documents of Hong Kong, but later, I found him rather uninterested, so we decided to leave. At the door, I discovered the booth of AAA, the only art archive I had seen there so far. I turned my head, but seeing that my classmate was ready to leave, I refrained from visiting it. In the end, I merely brushed past it hurriedly. I was later rather regretful about losing this chance of talking to the AAA people. A few months later, I settled for a job, and AAA simply slipped out of my mind.

After another year, I thought it was about time to change my job, when I came across the job ad of AAA. I nonchalantly clicked on the ‘submit application’ button, telling myself that I’m not the sort of ‘authentic’ visual art or art history degree-holder they look for, but let’s try anyway. Out of my expectation, I got an email invitation offering to arrange the interview early in the morning so that I didn’t need to take a leave, the first time I got such an accommodative offer. ‘How nice are the interviewers!’ I kept telling my family. I happily got up at six, travelled all the way from the New Territories to Hong Kong Island. I didn’t get well-prepared, as I only hoped to have a good chat and get to know this interesting place, whether I got hired or not wasn’t important at all. The renovated Hollywood Centre was so different that I almost thought I went to a wrong place. The dated interior design and antique shops vanished, giving way to a shrunk and modern commercial building lobby. It turned out that we had such a pleasant conversation that I started to have a feeling that maybe they might hire me. But afterwards, there was no reply for nearly two weeks. Every day, from the moment I woke up, I worried about whether I would get an offer, and wondered what my future would be if I didn’t. I checked my email from time to time, jumped whenever my phone screen brightened, kept issuing wrong cheques and leaving things behind, got warned by my supervisor, and grew paranoid that other colleagues might notice my intention to leave. Finally, I gave up all hope when one day, I got a second interview invitation while having a relaxing lunch. The next day, at the very square glass table that I sat at nearly three years ago, I accepted the offer.

Growing up in an Asian education system, we are always told that as humanity students, we don’t acquire professionally recognisable skills, so there’re limited jobs where we can make good use of what we’ve learnt. To be honest, I have similar doubts because not having a visual arts background, I don’t seem to be the ‘right’ person to take up a job in the art industry. Before I started working, I’ve been anxious about what job I could take up, but now, I’ve started to think the other way. In any field, non-measurable skills (e.g. communication, learning attitude, organisation, flexibility, etc.) are way more important than professional ones, so it’s not a total disadvantage not to have a specific skill. Rather, the key is to have a sense of what your interest is and what direction you want to take, and never give up your goal. It’s of course a good thing to look for jobs that specifically provide skill-based trainings, but, if possible, try also to consider other non-measurable factors. At the entry level, it’s worthwhile to try companies that may not help you build particular skills, or offer a high salary, or be the exact kind of organisation that you look for, but have a dynamic and inspiring culture. Working with and talking to colleagues who have diverse backgrounds and rich experience will definitely expand your vision and worldview, whether in terms of working techniques or the overall ecology of the field. These mayn’t be presentable in your CV or have immediate benefits, but in time, you’ll find that you’ve accumulated a rich reserve of knowledge and insightful observations that will lead you to further achievements.

However, be prepared that if you choose to be true to your aspiration in your career, the road would be more rugged than others because you have to learn step by step, walk longer paths than others, change your plan, and fall a lot of times before getting what you want. And you have to face these all alone. However, the experience would be a unique and exciting one. Be open to multiple possibilities, because unless you try, you wouldn’t know there’re much more interesting organisations and people in the world than you imagine!

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Not long before, I would never imagine getting a job at this place, so it all happened like a dream to me. I’m writing this down to remind myself how lucky I am, so that when I got worn out by the heavy workload later, I would recall what I went through to get this job, and whatever happens, I should enjoy and cherish such a rare opportunity. Whenever self-doubt or a sense of defeat emerges, I would tell myself that if fate gives me such a challenge, it means I’m capable of overcoming it, however hard it looks.

(Photo: taken on 26 June 2019 in Portree, Scotland)