If you’re ever doing something you’ve never done before, or no one has done before, and you are hesitating in fear and self-doubt, try this: in a simple Google search, type “Eugene Tssui.” There you will find all the encouragement you need.
My first trip to China in 2009 was for a children’s summer English program, created by Dr. Tssui’s wife, Elisabeth Montgomery. I arrived at the Hong Kong Airport, Elisabeth greeting me with a smile that felt like home. Since her husband was to arrive as well, we figured to have a meal and trade stories while we waited.
Over coffee, Beth shared how a boy in Minnesota would circle in and out of her life from middle school to a chance encounter that began their marriage. Oh yeah, and about how Dr. Tssui, an architect by trade, found it worthwhile to design his own unique clothes. Well before my own interest in men’s clothing began, I thought nothing of this particular aspect of his life. Neat, I guess.
An hour later, Eugene made his way through Exit B of Hong Kong International in a pair of white pleated trousers with red piping running down the legs, a light off-white cotton shirt that gently billowed through the row of “gills” cut across the chest, and a thirty-year-old pair of Crayola multi-colored Reebok sneakers in need of retirement.
What. The. Hell?
Over the years that I‘ve known Eugene, variations of this question have followed his every outfit and building proposal. I suppose it will continue to follow him through his 150th birthday, which he is determined to see. From a skeptic’s guffaw or cynic’s retort, Eugene welcomes it as fuel to stoke the fire of his unwavering conviction.
“I take it as being the example of a guy who has the guts enough to try something new. And I like being that person. People have come up to me and said, ‘I really like your gutsiness, and I really like the fact that you’re doing this.’ That support is really nice, even though they themselves won’t quite do it.”
