INTHEBLACK October 2021 - Magazine - Page 22
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OPEN VIDEO IN A NEW WINDOW
“For my first year, I barely spoke a word of English, so
I couldn’t go to school. I ended up living that year with a
retired couple, both over 75, who had lived through both
world wars and numerous economic recessions.”
The couple sat with Jui every morning to teach him English.
They put a book in his hand and asked him to read by repeating
what they said. At first, there was no emphasis on understanding
the words, just on pronunciation and tone of voice.
“They protected me,” he says. “They took me out every day,
but kept me sheltered. They’d take me out to the countryside
to have a picnic and kept me away from anything bad. So,
maybe for that reason I just didn’t know how different I was.
“They were such nice people, and I took so much from
their stories of hardship, of world wars, of bombings, of food
rationing and the deaths of their kids and their grandkids.
I was a teenager, somebody who knew nothing. They had
been through so much hardship, so they had a wealth of
knowledge. It was such an amazing experience.”
AUDIT OPENS UP THE WORLD
All of the change and movement in his early life led to Jui
suffering a severe case of “itchy feet” as an adult. He is the
first to admit to having little patience for staying in one role,
one office, one country, throughout his life and career.
After finishing his schooling in England, he relocated
to Miami in the US, where his parents had also moved
permanently.
22 ITB October 2021
The move caused some initial concern for Jui. He was
still a young Taiwanese man, who had become familiar with
British culture during the 1970s, and who was now throwing
himself into another new and untested environment.
“In England and Europe in the late 1970s, there was a
lot of anti-US sentiment,” he recalls. “I was going from a
boarding school in a small village in the middle of nowhere
in the UK to Miami, a place where the sun shines all
the time, people dress differently, and there are numerous
different accents, because in downtown Miami, it’s 60 per cent
immigrants from Latin America and Haiti and Jamaica. So,
it was quite a different environment.”
It was in Miami that Jui studied for his first university
degree, which you’d probably think would be accounting
related, but you’d be wrong. Jui’s passion was for the fine
arts, and his degree focused on photography.
“That’s something I really wanted to do, and that I still
do,” he says. “To travel around the world taking pictures
of people, objects and shadows – while appreciating the
local culture, history and society and talking to people –
was a passion.”
ARTIST AND REALIST
“After I fulfilled my personal goal, the reality was that I had
to make a living,” Jui says. “I chose accounting, and auditing
specifically, because of the mobility it offered. It’s a little
ironic, but auditing is something that can take you away