Thursday, June 15, 2006
Gweilo
So this is going to be a very long post; I actually needed to write up an outline so I won't forget any of the crunchy details! I'm at the library now so I can't put any pictures up yet, but shall put them shortly.
Things are still good here, it's quite rainy, there is lots of smog. Apparently the only days with clear sky in HK are when mainlanders get their annual week-of; they close all the factories...
I have been spending some time with Steph and her parents (which were all very helpful to help me translate pictograms and drew me maps!) On Monday we went to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok (a prime shopping place for young people!) then we had dinner at her grand-parents', which was very nice! Usually families get together on Sunday for dinner, but then this was an exception. I was thrilled to see buddist offerings; oranges put under the shrine of gods.
So I moved to Wan Chai for a bit, to stay with Chris. I like it there; it was originally pretty much all under water, before people start demolishing mountains to create more lands with the rocks! It has a lot of really nice, colorful and charming buildings, which make HK a less cold urban landscape than I first imagined. Unfortunately the government is demolishing many of these buildings in its ''urban renewal'' policy; they want to construct more modern (i.e. smaller) appartment blocks to accomodate all the immigration. The population here is expected to grow far past carrying capacity soon because of the hand-over. It's quite puzzling.
The other night we went to the Temple st night market with Min, a friend who works for Armani and really likes fashion. There was lots of cools stuff, but the highlight were the many fortune tellers, some who take a bird to pick up a piece of paper to tell you what your future looks like! Strange! You can find anything there, from fans (you know the foldable ones are for men only? duh!), incent, perfumes that you sniff, masks to electric plugs, video games, etc.
The other day I walked around Hollywood rd, which is a place famous for its antiques and arts. It looks like the Old Quebec city! And it is located where the central to mid-level escalators are; they're the world's largest escalators and they dominate small streets with really nice staircases. Pretty!
Besides that I have seen a lot of ''wet markets'' ( open-air markets) with lots of interesting vegetables and live animals waiting to be sold or slaughtered. People are scared avian flu will come from there; it's weird here you see people with masks all the time because they don't want to contaminate the air with their sneezing! In these markets there's also lots of dry fish, chinese medicine, and herbal tea to rebalance your yin and your yan when you feel too hot (but it's so bitter pouah!).
In the past days I have been riding countless ferries and visited 2 islands. I first had sea food with Chris on Cheng Chau island, which is famous for its bun festival, in which people climb some really tall structure to get to a bun on top! But my favorite favorite one is Lamma island, a place with no cars, only bicycles and a apparently very closely knit community of hippies that enjoy African drumming! The beaches are great, the streets are pretty and the Bookworm Cafe restaurant is very friendly; the ideal place to read the Count of Monte Cristo or a Nietzsche dialog!
I have been to a couple parks and museums too. In general I am a bit disappointed by these official tourist spots; the zoological garden, for instance, just had a jaguar, which spends its time sleeping. But bah, it's okay... One exception though is the History Museum, which has some really cool ethnography of the people here and how they got there (a lot escaped persecution from barbarians tribe to the north or came here after being expelled by the Communist Party because of their assets) throughout the years. I have yet to see the exhibits on the Opium Wars and British colonization, which I surely won't miss at it is so crucial to understand how things are here.It's strange to think that Asia's World City was first financed by drugs. Ah la la.
Around the place where I'm staying (more particularly, in Central), there are some quite cool buildings (thanks to Chris for the info). There's an office that has tons of circular windows that people call the ''100 assholes'' building :) Then the HSBC bank has the coolest building that can be taken apart and moved block by block (like Lego!). It has a system of mirrors inside so that during the day it does not require electricity for lighting! In front of the building, there are two lion statues that have little holes in them; a souvenir from the Japanese occupation. Everybody seems to hate the Japanese but the youth like their fashion and music. And then the Bank of China. People say the building looks like a knife and the two antennas resemble the chopsticks people plant in encent when someone dies. Everybody also seems to hate mainland China. I wonder how much real change happened in Hong Kong since the 1997 hand-over (from which it stopped being administered by Britain and went back to China). I heard that freedom of press went down and that red tape starts to appear, although visible signs of protest are hard to identify. It's seems to be a temporary situation before the 2050s, in which HK is supposed to be more fully assimilated to the rest of China.
Besides that, I heard some really interesting folklore and superstitions. I can't remember some of the ones I was told, but one cool one was that when you cook fish, you're not supposed to turn it or else it is believed that all the fishing boats will turn over and sink! Woah hey. Actually, I have yet to get the story straight about the Monkey King story; it is one of the most well-known stories here, and after watching yet another Stephen Chow movie I can't wait to find out what it's really about!
One thing that surprised me was the institution of the Filipino maids. Many women from South-East Asia come to work here as domestic helpers, and they form the most important diaspora here in HK. I am told their hiring conditions vary; sometimes they are really well treated and sometimes their employers fire them just before they're supposed to give them a bonus in order to help them return home. Sunday is their day off, and you can see Filipinos having picnics all over the streets, it's quite special to see that!
Also, hummmmmm, the food here is the best I've ever had! Lots of dumplings, yummy instant noodles, pork chops, baked rice, great dessert. It is paradise here with the coriander, ginger, coco milk and curry, ahhhh, I just won't get over it!
So now my friend Yishin is in town for a week (having immigration visa problems, so we'll spend more time hanging out...!), and with Steph and Chris we're going to the famous Chung King Mansion, which is at the origin of a even more famous movie, Chung King Express. More than just a restaurant with all possible kinds of curries, it is a place where apparently lots of ''magouille'' goes on with drug dealers or ''business'' visitors that come to buy second-hand junk and resell it in developing countries to make an aweful lot of profit. I'm very excited to visit :)
Finally, things are good, tomorrow I'm moving to the University to start my courses on Monday... I think i'm starting to see beyond the first impressions and to realize what's behind the apparent shopping ( 2-3 times a week for the average HKer!) and eating. I can't wait to find out more. :)
Things are still good here, it's quite rainy, there is lots of smog. Apparently the only days with clear sky in HK are when mainlanders get their annual week-of; they close all the factories...
I have been spending some time with Steph and her parents (which were all very helpful to help me translate pictograms and drew me maps!) On Monday we went to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok (a prime shopping place for young people!) then we had dinner at her grand-parents', which was very nice! Usually families get together on Sunday for dinner, but then this was an exception. I was thrilled to see buddist offerings; oranges put under the shrine of gods.
So I moved to Wan Chai for a bit, to stay with Chris. I like it there; it was originally pretty much all under water, before people start demolishing mountains to create more lands with the rocks! It has a lot of really nice, colorful and charming buildings, which make HK a less cold urban landscape than I first imagined. Unfortunately the government is demolishing many of these buildings in its ''urban renewal'' policy; they want to construct more modern (i.e. smaller) appartment blocks to accomodate all the immigration. The population here is expected to grow far past carrying capacity soon because of the hand-over. It's quite puzzling.
The other night we went to the Temple st night market with Min, a friend who works for Armani and really likes fashion. There was lots of cools stuff, but the highlight were the many fortune tellers, some who take a bird to pick up a piece of paper to tell you what your future looks like! Strange! You can find anything there, from fans (you know the foldable ones are for men only? duh!), incent, perfumes that you sniff, masks to electric plugs, video games, etc.
The other day I walked around Hollywood rd, which is a place famous for its antiques and arts. It looks like the Old Quebec city! And it is located where the central to mid-level escalators are; they're the world's largest escalators and they dominate small streets with really nice staircases. Pretty!
Besides that I have seen a lot of ''wet markets'' ( open-air markets) with lots of interesting vegetables and live animals waiting to be sold or slaughtered. People are scared avian flu will come from there; it's weird here you see people with masks all the time because they don't want to contaminate the air with their sneezing! In these markets there's also lots of dry fish, chinese medicine, and herbal tea to rebalance your yin and your yan when you feel too hot (but it's so bitter pouah!).
In the past days I have been riding countless ferries and visited 2 islands. I first had sea food with Chris on Cheng Chau island, which is famous for its bun festival, in which people climb some really tall structure to get to a bun on top! But my favorite favorite one is Lamma island, a place with no cars, only bicycles and a apparently very closely knit community of hippies that enjoy African drumming! The beaches are great, the streets are pretty and the Bookworm Cafe restaurant is very friendly; the ideal place to read the Count of Monte Cristo or a Nietzsche dialog!
I have been to a couple parks and museums too. In general I am a bit disappointed by these official tourist spots; the zoological garden, for instance, just had a jaguar, which spends its time sleeping. But bah, it's okay... One exception though is the History Museum, which has some really cool ethnography of the people here and how they got there (a lot escaped persecution from barbarians tribe to the north or came here after being expelled by the Communist Party because of their assets) throughout the years. I have yet to see the exhibits on the Opium Wars and British colonization, which I surely won't miss at it is so crucial to understand how things are here.It's strange to think that Asia's World City was first financed by drugs. Ah la la.
Around the place where I'm staying (more particularly, in Central), there are some quite cool buildings (thanks to Chris for the info). There's an office that has tons of circular windows that people call the ''100 assholes'' building :) Then the HSBC bank has the coolest building that can be taken apart and moved block by block (like Lego!). It has a system of mirrors inside so that during the day it does not require electricity for lighting! In front of the building, there are two lion statues that have little holes in them; a souvenir from the Japanese occupation. Everybody seems to hate the Japanese but the youth like their fashion and music. And then the Bank of China. People say the building looks like a knife and the two antennas resemble the chopsticks people plant in encent when someone dies. Everybody also seems to hate mainland China. I wonder how much real change happened in Hong Kong since the 1997 hand-over (from which it stopped being administered by Britain and went back to China). I heard that freedom of press went down and that red tape starts to appear, although visible signs of protest are hard to identify. It's seems to be a temporary situation before the 2050s, in which HK is supposed to be more fully assimilated to the rest of China.
Besides that, I heard some really interesting folklore and superstitions. I can't remember some of the ones I was told, but one cool one was that when you cook fish, you're not supposed to turn it or else it is believed that all the fishing boats will turn over and sink! Woah hey. Actually, I have yet to get the story straight about the Monkey King story; it is one of the most well-known stories here, and after watching yet another Stephen Chow movie I can't wait to find out what it's really about!
One thing that surprised me was the institution of the Filipino maids. Many women from South-East Asia come to work here as domestic helpers, and they form the most important diaspora here in HK. I am told their hiring conditions vary; sometimes they are really well treated and sometimes their employers fire them just before they're supposed to give them a bonus in order to help them return home. Sunday is their day off, and you can see Filipinos having picnics all over the streets, it's quite special to see that!
Also, hummmmmm, the food here is the best I've ever had! Lots of dumplings, yummy instant noodles, pork chops, baked rice, great dessert. It is paradise here with the coriander, ginger, coco milk and curry, ahhhh, I just won't get over it!
So now my friend Yishin is in town for a week (having immigration visa problems, so we'll spend more time hanging out...!), and with Steph and Chris we're going to the famous Chung King Mansion, which is at the origin of a even more famous movie, Chung King Express. More than just a restaurant with all possible kinds of curries, it is a place where apparently lots of ''magouille'' goes on with drug dealers or ''business'' visitors that come to buy second-hand junk and resell it in developing countries to make an aweful lot of profit. I'm very excited to visit :)
Finally, things are good, tomorrow I'm moving to the University to start my courses on Monday... I think i'm starting to see beyond the first impressions and to realize what's behind the apparent shopping ( 2-3 times a week for the average HKer!) and eating. I can't wait to find out more. :)
