When 16-year-old Stewart Burton arrived in Hong Kong in 1989, he had little idea it was the beginning of a rollercoaster journey. While most people were taking their chances during the last decade of the former British colony prior to its handover to China, the young Burton was occupied by his own troubles. First it was depression, which was then followed by questionable life choices that eventually led to time at Pik Uk Prison. His memories of the city are rough.
Fast forward almost four decades, Burton has largely recovered from the traumatic times. He now dedicates himself to the welfare of young offenders, working as a counsellor for this community in Glasgow. He is also a father of two sons, an achievement he is the most proud of.
The 51-year-old has also added ‘author’ to his resume. Determined to tell his story, Burton recounts his traumatic memories in his self-published memoir, Number 4, from diary entries he made during his prison time in the 1990s. The memoir’s first volume was launched recently. The book took him many years to write, he admitted, but to him, completing it was an important mission. The book has also been picked up by Hollywood writer-producer Alan Roth and there is hope for a screen adaptation of Burton’s life story.
“As an individual who survived these nightmares, I wanted to support others in this way. Mental health is so important and under-addressed, and there’s very little being offered under the National Health Service,” Burton said, adding that 20% of proceeds of the book’s sales will go to Scottish Autism, a charity he advocates for.
“I was so depressed as a child. My dad was often away [as a shipping engineer]. I was anxious when I realised that other people didn’t seem to like me. I was bullied, and yet I didn’t think that my family understood how that affected me. It’s awful,” he noted, thinking back to his childhood in Hong Kong.
Since Stuart was born to Scottish parents who worked in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, the ordinary Hong Konger might’ve imagined that he enjoyed a good upbringing. This idea hinges on assumptions about racial identities. Some Chinese people in Hong Kong have the stereotypical view that—unlike the locals—all expatriates lead a glamorous, carefree life, in the more luxurious part of the city.
The reality, however, was far from this rosy picture.
“Whenever my father was home, he mainly did jobs around the house and then sat and watched television whilst drinking a bottle of Bacardi, whilst my mum drank whisky,” Burton wrote in his book.
“But he was away for eight to ten months of the year and then we lived by my mum’s rules. While he was away, we ate dinner in front of the television and she gave us whatever we wanted to eat. Never a vegetable or a piece of fruit in sight.”
This was made worse by the fact that Burton was neurodivergent at a time when there was little vocabulary or awareness about this condition, and little to support the needs and well-being of this population.
Chris Forse, former vice-principal of Island School, writes in the book’s foreword: “[W]ords like ‘autism’ and acronyms like ‘ADD’ and ‘ADHD’ had barely registered in our consciousness; they had barely registered in anyone’s consciousness at that time, least of all in colonial Hong Kong.”
Feeling unloved by his family, Burton turned to his school friends at Island School for fraternity and understanding. Together, in their teens, they would go drinking night after night in Hong Kong’s popular nightlife spot Lan Kwai Fong. Other than binge drinking, there was also promiscuity.
Back then, that brought the relief and company he badly needed, even though he was to eventually pay a price for those times of decadence.
Drugs also played a part. He became addicted to “number four”, a highly addictive type of heroin. He was then expelled from the international school he was attending and found himself in the muddy water of the underworld, which led to his arrest.
In 1991, Burton was charged with selling drugs to fellow students and jailed in Pik Uk Prison. He was 17 years old. His alcoholic parents left him to his own devices.
During three years of his incarceration, he kept a diary, keeping track of the days that seemed to stretch out before him, and recording his sense of loneliness and alienation.
“I still have such a traumatic memory about it, especially of how difficult it was surviving the first year. I couldn’t speak Cantonese and so things made very little sense to me, and the worst part is that you could have no real conversation there,” he wrote.
Number 4 is not a light read. Burton incorporates some graphic details of mental and physical oppression. From physical suffering in the prison to witnessing the collective trauma, “there was so much depression in the room you could feel it, smell it,” the author recalled, as he realised that freedom could not be taken for granted. Inside the prison, there was no choice to possess anything, where supplies and conversations were limited to the bare minimum.
“Anyway, that piece of metal plating could be polished and acted as the only mirror that prisoners ever got the chance of using,” he writes. “The taps could be polished with a bit of
toothpaste, it was even possible to make the ancient sink shine as well. This was home and was one of the only things that each prisoner could take pride in.”
Burton left Hong Kong in 1994. In 2008, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. It turned out to be a cathartic moment as it shed light on his troubled past. “I realised that being written off as a ‘problem youth’ was a huge injustice to me as someone who was unknowingly struggling with autism,” he said.
He also realised that a lot of young people today are likely struggling with what he had been through, prompting him to start working with the neurodiverse community. He has developed a programme to support adolescents and adults with traits of neurodiversity, as well as providing support for parents of neurodiverse children. He has also worked in prisons and with the Children’s Hearings Scotland.
“With the release of Number 4, and by sharing my story, I’m hoping to create a bigger platform that can drive increased awareness of these issues and help ensure more people get the help they need before it’s too late,” said Burton.
The book can be purchased at https://www.number04story.com/.
