大象传媒

Mr Fan fled Vietnam on a boat and landed in Greenwich. He grows vegetables like a Chinese peasant, and rides horses like an English gentleman. In his barber shop, he tells his tale.When radio producer Julian May or his sons need a haircut they pop round to Mr Fan. Over the years, the blond baby and the grey curls falling, his story of escape, exile, settlement and identity, has emerged.Mr Fan is from Vietnam but is Chinese. In 1979, when the Chinese crossed the border and fought a short war with her neighbour, he had to leave. His family left everything and clambered aboard an over-laden sailing boat. No one knew how to sail or navigate. Months later they reached Hong Kong and were interned. Eventually, while his father languished dying in prison, he landed in England, and settled in Greenwich.That's the past. What is interesting is the life Mr Fan leads now: very Chinese; very English. His tiny garden full of pak choi; dawn exercises in the park; table tennis. As he snips he sips green tea.But the pictures on the walls are of horses. Three times a week at a suburban riding school, among the pigtailed 'gels', this Chinese man in his sixties, trots, canters - and now gallops and jumps - in his black velvet riding hat.This is what he loves, what England has given him, and he'll never go back. He did go to Mongolia - on a riding holiday.While he cuts hair, exercises early in Greenwich Park (where he enjoyed watching the Olympic equestrian events last summer), tends his peasant patch and rides the horses he loves, Mr Fan tells his story to Julian May who, sparingly, presents a tale that reveals important aspects of identity and belonging.Producer: Julian May.