Category Archives: Hong Kong

Hong Kong Baby Milk Powder Wars: The Only Winners are the Infant Formula Manufacturers

Posted by expatlingo in Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

infant formula cartoon

Hong Kong and Mainland parents have been pitted against one another in an advertising-fueled fight over infant and toddler processed milk formula.

Hongkongers are dismayed because they can’t always buy formula at their neighborhood stores. They blame shoppers from the Mainland for crossing the border and buying tins of formula in bulk to haul back to Shenzhen for either re-sale or personal use. And indeed, Mainlanders buying up milk powder have caused shortages and empty shelves, especially in current the pre-Chinese New Year buying spree.

Mainlanders, terrified over China-based melamine-tainted milk scares, will pay a premium price for foreign-brand infant formula to ensure the safety of their child’s milk.

The South China Morning Post is currently brimming with articles covering infant formula shortage problems. This list of articles is just from today, February 1st:

Hongkongers have visions of marauding Mainlander hoards taking food from the mouths of their young, and Mainlanders are just desperate to secure safe milk for their young. Both sides are desperate.

Here’s the dirty back-story: milk formula manufacturers market baby/toddler formula aggressively in the Hong Kong region. They market it in ways that contravene World Health Organization guidelines on baby formula advertising. 

Emily Tsang, writing for the SCMP (“Doing what’s best for baby — not milk formula companies.” 23/1/2013) appears to be a key voice of reason amongst the bickering:

“[I]n one of the world’s best-educated and most wealthy cities, women still overwhelming use baby formula.

“While the World Health Organisation describes breastfeeding as “the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development” and recommends feeding children exclusively on breast milk up to the age of six months, only 15 per cent of babies aged four to six months in Hong Kong are on this regime.

“One reason is that, despite health professionals’ advice, parents face a well-resourced baby milk industry that relentlessly promotes its product, implying that the best efforts of science are better for baby than nature’s way.

Much of the advertising violates the International Code on Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes drawn up by the WHO and the UN children’s organisation Unicef in 1981.”

Going out in public, advertisements for infant, toddler, and pre-school milk powder formula are easy to spot and common on the MTR.

This high level of advertising — advertising that constantly hints at enhanced IQ, health and growth — drives the market for milk powder. And daily articles over shortages, only provide more free advertising-hipe about the high-demand for milk powder for the manufacturers.

Here’s the rub: most of the infant/toddler milk formula sold is technically unnecessary.

Children under one might need formula in certain cases, but could be drinking breast milk. When mothers return to work they may well need to use formula (I know from experience that pumping is a pain in the ass).  So babies under one year with working mothers (or adopted children, etc) are the group that needs infant milk formula. This is the group that may well require government policies protecting their ability to purchase infant formula.

Children over one can simply drink cows milk, which as an email I received yesterday from Hong Kong’s Department of Health reminded everyone, “is less expensive than formula milk.” Your toddler will not be brighter because he drinks expensive fake milk. Save the money for his college fund. (See full email from the Department of Health here.)

Let’s end the Baby Milk Powder Wars and stop fighting each other over an often unnecessary product.

Stick it to the milk powder manufacturers by not buying milk powder for children over one and breast-feeding babies under one when possible.

*****

I am now stepping off of my soap box. Come back next week for a Chinese New Year series of comic strips!

Jack Palance in a Singlet: Hong Kong “Aunties” and “Uncles” Occupy the Playground

Posted by expatlingo in Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hong Kong has an aging population. An aging population that lives in high-rise apartments. An aging population that likes to spend the morning outside in the park.

Some of them get together in groups to do expected things like tai chi or fan dances.

Some of them use the “fitness corner for the elderly” equipment found in most Hong Kong parks:

Hong Kong Parks photo

One of Hong Kong’s many “fitness corners for the elderly.” (Photo source: HK Leisure and Cultural Services Department)

But there is one sub-group that prefers to occupy the children’s playground equipment. Some simply sit on the benches and watch the children, but there are many characters among them who actively use the playground. I mainly enjoy interacting with this enigmatic group of park “aunties” and “uncles,” a cast of characters I’ve never seen outside of greater China.

Here are a few of my own field observations:

Standard Elderly Playground User. Places shopping bag on play equipment. Proceeds to stretch and rub back on ladders, poles and other climbing features.

Jack Palance in a Singlet. Climbs up onto one of the playground platforms to perform his push-up routine. Children work their way around him to get to the top of the slide. Reason for using the playground platform rather than the cushioned playground flooring: unknown.

Jack Palance push-up

Like this, but at the top of the slide in a tank top.

Arm Pounding Auntie. To keep the sun off, she wears gloves and a visor. She stands at the edge of the playground, using one hand to pound and slap, up and down the other arm. (This activity is a rather common sight: insights solicited.) She offers an abundance of free parenting advice. She has never seen a properly clothed child as they are all either too cold or too hot.

Shadowboxing Uncle. Inches from the slide, he shuffles, jabs, and dodges punches coming from out of thin air.

Like this, but without the gloves and with shoes. (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

Chocolate Grandma. Does a few cursory stretches. Mainly talks to the children, commenting on which ones are good (“ho gwaai!”) and offering them sweets.

Grandpa Gorilla. He uses the glider (the thing children are supposed to use to glide back and forth between platforms) for his own personal swinging, gliding, and grunting routine. Because he is actually too tall for the equipment, he must bend his knees sharply up to keep his feet from dragging.

Any data points to add?

No Frolicking! Searching for authentic old Hong Kong

Posted by expatlingo in Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chi Lin Nunnery

Perhaps I’m among the few who finds the Chi Lin Nunnery and adjoining Nan Lian Gardens beautiful, but utterly soulless.

The site is intended to be a peaceful, spiritual place in the hustle of the city. A place for Buddhists to worship and the general public to quietly contemplate.

It’s a shame that it’s sterile, rule-bound and ultimately fake. After roaming the noisy temples of South Asia, Mainland China, and Hong Kong, it was all rather too quiet and rule-bound. No intoxicating scent of smokey incense? No jostling for the best prayer position? Not one speck of peeling paint? No donation boxes?

Maybe I started off on the wrong foot with a tired 5-year-old in-tow who wasn’t allowed to sit anywhere (“Missy, missy! Can’t sit there!”), wasn’t allowed to poke her head over the rail to better see the massive koi fish in the pond (“Missy, missy” followed by gesture down.), or linger and sip a drink (“Missy …” Sigh. Yes, we just saw the sign prohibiting drinking.).

No frolicking or running

Sign from Nan Lian Gardens. One hopes there is a Julie-Andrews-type nun at Chi Lin just waiting to break free and frolic!

I’ve also enjoyed so many truly special and unexpected visits to slightly grubby, but authentic historical places in Hong Kong’s quiet and remote New Territories recently, that a nunnery built-in the 1990s in the style of the Tang Dynasty flies too close to Disneyland.

So I gasped upon reading this morning that the nunnery is a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to today’s South China Morning Post, the powers that be are pushing for it, rather than truly historic Victoria Harbor, to be classified as a World Heritage Site: Helene Franchineau, “Harbour Heritage Snub: Historic Waterfront given thumbs down for nomination to Unesco list, with government officials favouring rebuilt nunnery at Diamond Hill,” South China Morning Post, 20/1/2013.

I found the quote from this Hong Kong-born man-on-the-street particularly telling:

“I have not heard about the Chi Lin Nunnery. I have been living in Australia for the past 20 years.”

Not surprising since the re-build of the nunnery was only completed in 1998. How can this be a historic place warranting preservation and special status?

IMG_0009

If you want to see really old Hong Kong, take the MTR a few more stops past those eight hills that divide Kowloon from the New Territories, hop on a mini-bus and you’ll have the chance to see some truly old Hong Kong! Within the last month I’ve visited and posted about old walled villages, wishing trees, temples, and ancient pagodas. Each of these places is marvelously authentic, soulful and a bit rough around the edges. Perfect.

New Territories praise aside, the highly accessible Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road in the heart of town also has more depth of feeling (to me) than the beautiful, but ultimately sterile, Chi Lin Nunnery (though I’m sure the actual nuns, who we never saw, don’t feel that way …).

Many more ideas on where to find obscure and authentically old Hong Kong are on the great blog “Hong Kong (& Macau) Stuff.” Phil has visited and photographed many interesting places in all parts of Hong Kong (so you can see something interesting without crossing those eight hills after all if you’re short on time!). These are the places that need to be seen and more importantly, preserved.

And no one will care if you frolick a bit. They’ll be happy to see you.

Slingshots, Strawberry Fields and Body Language

Posted by expatlingo in Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ting Kok strawberry fields

Searching for strawberries in Cantonese sprinkled with mime. We found her busily hauling metal pots around the giant, but empty, outdoor Tai Mei Tuk BBQ King. She was the only employee on-duty at 10 am on a Monday morning. Our group was hunting for a nearby strawberry field and followed the clanging noise through the BBQ to ask her directions.

Finding her, I started to say “where is strawberry?” in blunt Cantonese before remembering that I had no idea how to say “strawberry.” So I punted by using the Mandarin word for strawberry and said: “cao mei bin douh aah?”

She smiled at the children. She did not know what I was trying to ask her.

So I started miming eating, like eating a strawberry. This did not help as she just thought we wanted to eat at the BBQ King, which was obviously closed.

I bent down and pretended to pick strawberries. I was getting warmer. A few more tries and I heard her say “sih do be lei?”

It turns out that “strawberry” in Cantonese is an English loan word. That is, it’s a word which Chinese characters were selected for to mimic the English sound of the word: 士多啤梨. So my “strawberry” and her “sih do be lei” were just close enough for us to understand each other.

It was happy smiles all around as she pointed us back across the black gravel parking lot and around some jungle-y overgrowth.

Strawberry fields come into sight. After walking past a mini-junk yard and a few village dogs, we could see the strawberry field before us:

Strawberry field in Tai Po

A beautiful sight on a perfectly warm, sunny day in mid-January.

The fields had been heavily picked over the weekend and we hunted carefully up and down the rows for ripe berries. My young picker and I came away with one pound of pinkish, but still sweet, organic strawberries for 50 HKD.

Slingshot at the ready. The two ladies weeding the rows were also charged with keeping the birds off of the fields. Diligence was required as the birds were a problem: almost every time we spotted a perfect deep red berry, we clamored over the rows only to find a bite or two had already been taken by one of birds.

The ladies’ first line of defense was a loud, deep call: heeeeeyyyyyy-ooooooooohhhhhh, heeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy-ooooooooohhhhhh. But if too many birds persisted, one woman would pick up her slingshot and fire small stones in the direction of the birds. This was only marginally effective, but fascinating to watch:

Firing the sling shot in the strawberry field

The slingshot

Warm sun, combined with strawberries, mountain vistas, and on-going bird-abatement theater, made for a perfect winter morning in Hong Kong.

Location details. Winter is strawberry season in Hong Kong. The organic field we visited is opposite Ting Kok Village, just off of Ting Kok Road in Tai Po District. The closest MTR stop is Tai Po Market on the East Rail Line. From there, take KMB bus 75k or a green New Territories taxi.

Click through for location details for Tai Mei Tuk BBQ King, which is right next to the strawberry field:

Click through to Google location map of the very nearby Tai Mei Tuk BBQ King

Once you get close, look for their banner, which can be spotted from Ting Kok Road:

Ting Kok Village strawberries

The Horror! Of Chinese Mainlanders, right here in Repulse Bay!

Posted by expatlingo in cartoon, Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

expatlingo repulse bay comic

I have discovered a new annoyance: Hong Kong-based Western expats complaining about Mainland Chinese tourists.

This month’s edition of “Southside Magazine,” the English-language magazine catering to residents of southern Hong Kong Island (Stanley, Repulse Bay, Aberdeen, etc), features an article by Carolynne Dear called, “Snap Unhappy: Camera-wielding tourists are turning Repulse Bay into a no-go area for some families.” The article complains about the large numbers of Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Repulse Bay and highlights their interest in photographing blonde children as alarming.

To give you an idea of the flavor of the article:

“[I]n Repulse Bay … past the volleyball nets and beyond the ice-cream shop, the bucolic sounds of the afternoon are drowned out by the rumble of idling engines from coaches lining Beach Road. The air is heady with the stench of diesel and the beach is a mass of camera-wielding tourists.

***

“[B]asic differences in etiquette between mainland China and [Hong Kong] are not winning the tourists many fans. Parking problems aside, one of the biggest complaints from expat residents is the photo-taking of Western children.

The article then quotes several upset expat parents, including this mother:

“Although it’s flattering on one level that people want to take photos of your child, it often feels like an invasion of your privacy, especially when it upsets your children and makes an otherwise pleasant day awkward.

“My children have even been photographed inside the car. We pulled up at lights outside Ocean Park, and a tourist bus pulled up next to us. Suddenly flashbulbs started popping and we realized there was a surge of people on the bus taking pictures of my two children asleep in the back of the car. It was unbelievable.”

It’s all rather over-dramatic and slightly ugly. Privileged white people complaining about Mainland Chinese — who may well have lived through The Great Leap Forward’s epic famine and the Cultural Revolution and who are only allowed to have one child themselves — enjoying a vacation in Hong Kong, a day at the beach, and delighting in your children. The horror!

Yes, I know, strangers take pictures of your children can be annoying (my daughter resorted to hiding her hair and face in a hooded jacket to avoid it in Hangzhou recently), but please don’t be hysterical. You are fortunate. You live in one of the most expensive housing areas in Hong Kong (after The Peak). If you are out in public, people — gasp! even Mainland Chinese people — may talk to you and take pictures.

Thank god, the article concludes with some reasonable thoughts. A teacher originally from Guangdong province says:

“Don’t be too worried… Most tourists are just curious. For the Chinese, taking pictures of children does not have the same sinister connotations that it does for Westerners.”

And similarly sage thoughts are shared from another Western expat:

“[W]hen I have travelled in South America and Asia, I have taken photos of locals. Pictures are just a part of traveling.”

Diamonds amongst the parked lorries: Ping Shan Heritage Trail

Posted by expatlingo in Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

With my interest in old walled villages piqued by Fanling Wai, we headed off to the Ping Shan Heritage Trail, which connects sites important to another one of the five major New Territories founding families, the Tang Clan.

Arriving near the crossing of the MTR and light rail systems in Tin Shui Wan, we puzzled over how the trail begins, before spotting our tall starting point: Tsui Sing Lau (“Gathering of Stars”) Pagoda, the only surviving ancient pagoda in Hong Kong.

Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda

Tsui Sing Lau “Gathering of Stars” Pagoda

Interior of the pagoda, where Tangs pray for exam success.

The pagoda was built for feng shui reasons to ward off bad spirits, but to also ensure success to Tang Clan members sitting the highly important imperial civil service examinations. A reason more practical but less romantic than Fanling Wai‘s reason for building its key feng shui feature: a fish pond to appease “the phoenix” should he take offense at a nearby eagle-like named ridge.

After peeping inside (no, sadly, you can’t climb up), the kind “security guard” handed us a trail map and pointed us down a narrow road past an enormous truck parking lot. Luckily we soon came to a guide post which turned us away from the trucks and toward Sheung Cheung Wai (walled village):

Entrance to Sheung Cheung Wai

While entering a private inhabited place would usually be intimidating, I was armed with two young “good will ambassadors” so we quietly walked through the walled village. Small lanes and folks living in very tight quarters. Not a soul in sight. Only the muffled sound of radios and smell of bleach hinted that a few people were home.

Inside Sheng Cheung Wai

From Sheung Cheung Wai, we made our way past: an old algae-filled well, the modest Yeung Hau Temple, a busy local cafe, village dogs wearing human coats, and blocks of new-ish “Spanish-villa-style” houses of the type that dominates the New Territories.

Wandering through it all, I was struck by how much it just feels like an old village anywhere in the developing world, despite being located in the middle of one of Hong Kong’s “New Towns.” Substitute the surrounding truck parking lots, high rises and MTR station with rice paddy, and you have any old village complete with village mentality: this is the lot where we all throw our old kitchen appliances, this is where we park our old cars, old men hang out here, that tin lean-to is where the “village big man” parks his Lamborghini (ok, village with Pearl River Delta, new money twists).

I loved it.

Sadly my camera battery was on red, so you’ll have to go look for yourself to enjoy these nuisances.

Completing the whole one kilometer circuit, we also visited the imposing Tang Ancestral Hall (hanging cured meat available for sale outside), the very shiny and informative “Ping Shan Tan Clan Gallery cum Heritage Trail Visitors Centre,” Hung Shing Temple (closed due to termite infestation), and the Kun Ting Study Hall where many aspiring imperial civil servants must have spent hours at work on exam prep.

We ended at our favorite site: Ching Shu Hin, where visiting scholars or other VIPs could stay when visiting the Tang Clan. Small, but filled with dark passages, side rooms and round doors, we thoroughly enjoyed our explorations.

Inside Ching Shu Hin

Inside Ching Shu Hin

In Hong Kong? Go and have a look.

More information, about the Ping Shang Heritage Trail, which is located in Tin Shui Wai (Yuen Long), can be found here via Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Flanked by the phoenix and dragon: a lucky day at Fanling Wai

Posted by expatlingo in Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,
Old main entrance to Fanling Wai (walled village)

Old main entrance to Fanling Wai (walled village)

After casually mentioning that I wanted to visit some of Hong Kong’s old walled villages, I fortuitously stumbled into one today: Fanling Wai (粉嶺圍).

On a sunny but bitterly cold day (by Hong Kong standards) I herded my little ones into the car and headed to the well-groomed “North District Park” which lies between Fanling and Sheung Shui. Our main goals were to avoid my husband’s phlegmy cold and to get out of the house. We tottered around the playground, spotted swimming turtles, and smiled at a handful of locals out for the exercise (I even got the chance to say “I don’t speak Cantonese” in Cantonese! Sigh…).

North District Park, Fanling

North District Park

On our way out of the park, we decided to see what the big open space and pond on the other side of the car park was all about. I took a few pictures of this place not realizing until later what exactly we had bumped into: the old north entrance to Fanling Wai (walled village).

Subsequent sleuthing reveals that the village is the ancestral home of the Pang Clan, among the New Territories’ largest settling clans, who came down from Guangxi Province in the late Song Dynasty sometime between 1120 and 1280. (Source: Hong Kong Planning Department “Planning with Vision: Fanling & Sheung Shui Historical Background,” 2002).

Closer look at the entrance banners. Oh dear, someone's torn off "phoenix."

Closer look at the entrance banners. Oh dear, someone’s torn off “phoenix.”

Looking more closely at the old village entrance, the banners on each side of the entrance read:

“前環鳳水 , 後擁龍山”

Which, according to the “Pang’s Family Website,” means:

“In front lie the phoenix water! And behind, rest the dragon hills!”

Rather romantic imagery, I’d say! My own hometown’s “motto” is “This is the place!” which is shamefully unimaginative by comparison.

The tale of the fish pond that sits in front of the village entrance only adds to the allure. According to a centuries past feng shui master, while it is very fortunate that Fanling Wai is located on a “phoenix site” it is very unfortunate that it also faces a nearby ridge whose name in Cantonese sounds like “eagle.” After all the phoenix might take offense that an eagle is so close by! The fish pond was built at the feng shui master’s advice as a sort of on-going reparation to the phoenix. (Source: ”The story behind the scriptures on the Fanling Wai’s old Village Entrance.“)

Fish pond in front of Fanling Wai. An offering to the phoenix.

Fish pond in front of Fanling Wai. An offering to the phoenix.

But there is still more. Between the old village entrance and the fish pond, three old cannons are on display. Reading the inscription, it seems that  these three cannons, once used by the village as defense, were buried by the Japanese during their World War II invasion of Hong Kong to keep them out of the villagers’ hands. They were subsequently rediscovered and put on display when part of the village’s historic watchtowers were re-built.

Cannons at Fanling Wai.

Cannons at Fanling Wai.

So our cold morning, when we simply sought to escape the house and my husband’s hideous cold for a few hours, turned into a fortuitous adventure into Hong Kong’s past.

Here’s to more lucky days in 2013!

Happy New Year!

新年快乐！

新年快樂！

My Cantonese is improving thanks to the NRA

Posted by expatlingo in cartoon, Hong Kong, languages and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

expatlingo nra cantonese comic

Around the time the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that its solution to the Sandy Hook tragedy is armed guards in every American school, my love for Hong Kong, and its strict gun laws, low crime rate and strong economy, grew tenfold.

In fact, I’ve been inspired by the NRA to re-double my efforts to learn basic, friendly every-day Cantonese.

So over the weekend, I braved the holiday crowds and took a special trip to Hong Kong Island from my home in the New Territories (also know as “Mordor” to the Hong Kong Islanders) to seek out a few more Cantonese study books.

First I checked out Eslite, the three-level Taiwanese books store at Hong Kong’s newest mall, Hysan Place in Causeway Bay. They had a full shelf of Mandarin learning books for English speakers and a grand total of two Cantonese learning books for English speakers, one of which I already own. So I bought the other one: the Lonely Planet Cantonese Phrasebook.

After riding the tram from Causeway Bay to Central, I enjoyed a nice lunch of garlic eggplant and pork dumplings and then visited the two bookstores at the IFC mall in Central: Bookazine and Dymocks. There I found another Cantonese study book, “Interesting Cantonese” by Susanna Ng. More of a list of sentences than a language study book, I bought it because there is simply so little out there. Well, that and because it taught me how to say “ParknShop” and “7Eleven” in Cantonese (Baak Gai and Chat Sahp Yaht) as well as a bunch of Hong Kong place-names.

Cantonese study books

Now I have four books to help me learn Cantonese, plus some Pimsluer language CDs. I could really use a class, but since I live in the aforementioned “Mordor of Hong Kong” that is easier said than done, so I’ll use my books and CDs for a bit.

Despite my newfound enthusiasm, I still secretly feel that studying Cantonese is a practice in futility:

  1. Many (most?) locals speak (some) English. Well, save for the ParknShop clerks and the ladies who collect the rubbish from my house. And those who speak English, answer back in English as this funny video by Norwegian Cantonese teacher Cecilie Gamst Berg illustrates:
  2. There is no standardized system for Romanizing Cantonese (that is, writing it out using the alphabet–like Pinyin for Mandarin). So each book uses a slightly different system to account for sounds and tones.
  3. Bloody traditional characters. Thanks to my previous Mandarin studies I can read a slew of simplified characters. But in Hong Kong they use the traditional characters. Obvious ones that I see every day I know, like 車 for 车, 長 for 长, and 電 for 电. But I often get lost in a maze of strokes when trying to suss out traditional characters. (Don’t hate me Hongkongers, I know you love them.)
  4. Lastly, and related to all of the above, I think native Hongkongers secretly don’t want the rest of use to learn Cantonese. After all, how will they gossip about us and our spotty, untaken-care-of skin then?

Still, I will persist if only to learn enough to be a bit more chatty with the eternally friendly rubbish ladies and to stick it to the NRA. After all, I can have a coveted permanent Hong Kong ID card and “right of abode” in only 6.25 more years.

(What does the comic say? Credit is due to the Wikipedia page, Cantonese profanity, for help with the comic. “仆街”, pronounced “puk1 gaai1″ can mean both “prick” and “drop dead” and “can also be used in daily life under a variety of situations to express annoyance, disgrace or other emotions.” “𨳒” pronounced “diu2″ means “f*ck.” The full phrase roughly means: “Disgraceful prick! F*ck your gun rights!”)

Related posts:

China’s Pearl River Delta = Woe for the Chinese Language Student

Mini-bus language angst

The Retrograde Chinese Lesson (Comic)

Gun-toting, Cantonese hillbillies in the New Territories

Wishing a better future for America in Lam Tsuen

Posted by expatlingo in America, China, Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , ,
Wishes in Lam Tsuen

Rolled-up wishes in Lam Tsuen.

It is a dark hour in America. Like everyone, I read the news about the Newtown killings with a heavy heart and wet eyes.

This morning I headed for the “Wishing Tree” in Lam Tsuen for a bit of fresh air and peace. I had my youngest child for company. My older child — who is roughly the same age as most of Friday’s victims — was at school.

Hongkongers visit the tree with their hopes for good fortune and good health. Someone with an ill grandmother might visit the tree to seek her recovery by having a wish for her wellness written on sheets of paper. They’d then tie the rolled-up papers to an orange and toss it up into the branches of the tree. If the wish catches on one of the tree’s branches, it is said to be sure to come true.

Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree

Approaching the tree this morning, it was not filled with oranges and red slips of paper. Instead its limbs were propped up with crutches. The tree itself has been burdened with too many wishes and is now in a “recovery period.” Wishers now either throw their hopes into a nearby artificial tree or tie them to purpose-built wooden racks.

We arrived earlier than the wish-scribes so I simply viewed the tree, thought about the 20 first graders and 6 adults who were killed on Friday, and watched my son innocently and happily wander around the village.

Tin Hau Temple

My son peeping into the Tin Hau Temple in Fang Ma Po Village, Lam Tsuen.

I also pondered a relevant and sadly similar story out of Mainland China last week. Here is the print edition headline from the article in Saturday’s South China Morning Post:

“Knifeman injures 23 in Henan school attack.”

Emphasis on “knife” and “injures” (in contrast to “gun” and “kills”) is mine. An on-line version of the story with a slightly different headline can be found here.

*****

I dream of a brighter, less violent future for America.

I wish for better care for the mentally ill.

I hope for serious gun control in America.

View from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong

Posted by expatlingo in cartoon, Hong Kong and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It has recently come to my attention that a certain class of Hong Kong expat refers to anything “off the island” as “the dark side.”

As someone who currently lives “off the island” in Hong Kong’s New Territories and who has also lived in Mainland China, I was inspired to create this comic view of greater China from the perspective of this closeted class of Hongkonger (the main omission being the Lan Kwai Fong and Soho expat/tourist areas that would be at the viewer’s back):

With inspirational thanks to the New Yorker Magazine’s“View of the World from 9th Avenue” cover from 1976. You can see a copy of it here. Also, for those unfamiliar with Hong Kong, “The House of 1000 Arseholes” is the local nickname for the “Jardine House.”