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Published: September 24th 2005
English Names
Most Chinese, apart from their original names get English names while in their teens. They expect non-Chinese to be unable to pronounce or retain their names (I try but full names are hard). The other day, a friend of mine explained that it was his English teacher from Australia that gave him his name “Lackla” after a lake in Australia. So everyone introduces themselves to foreigners immediately by their newly selected English names: Candy, Sincere, Nicole, Joy, James, etc; At one of the cultural events, some one pointed out that my name said in Chinese (the sound pronunciation: SinDiAh) meant “Elegant Angel”, I’m loving this culture more and more….
The Buzz
Hong Kong, which use to be Asia’s #1 trafficking spot for opium, is a huge region, with all the 200 islands around, but the buzz, the hob that makes it what it is, is fairly small. There are 2 major parts, the money making side with 4 of the worlds tallest buildings and beaches (in Hong Kong island) and right opposite it is Kowloon (where I am) the residential side with an uncountable number of housing-complexes; Most people complain that apartments in New York are small… well
Hungry?
Some yummy rice roles is various sauces...tastes better than it looks...Notice the menue; Most times I go out to eat it always ends up being a surprisecomplain no further until you see the sizes of the apartments here! Sunday is the day to visit Hong Kong, as you walk around in the parks or beaches you see so many people from all over Asia. Two Sundays ago I went to see the latern and light display at a public park, when I got there I was so amazed. It made me realize that I was really in the heart of Asia, in one part of the park there was Indian music with some traditionally dressed ladies (about my age) dancing, I felt like I was in one of those Indian movies; at another side were the Pilipino with a feast of food suitable for a king, and so on it went. They were mostly women though, they come here to work for instance as guardians for the children while the parents are off at work; the only day they have off is Sunday and so they meet up to catch up.
Getting Around
Since most of the population is concentrated in the buzz hob center of Hong Kong, to decrease traffic jams and go-slows pedestrians pretty much always walk around underground or high up in
Cantonese Opera
At the Heritage Museum...we also got to see some shoes worn by both women AND men performers who bondaged their feet to make them small. uplifted pathways. I must say, they are quiet effective and get you around fast with out waiting for street lights (if your good at taking directions, I wont name names here). Therefore, cars can move faster not having to wait for pedestrians. For a change, I live so near to school that from my Hall I don’t set foot out, I just walk for 10 min and I’m at school.
Views
Before coming I was warned that most Chinese won’t feel comfortable discussing politics with foreigners, and I definitely never wanted to bring it up for fear of getting locked up. However, Hong Kong itself hosts a lot of liberty; the students (unlike the wise-older citizens) are open to talking and sharing their views. And it has been really insightful discussing with them and getting first hand accounts of what went on during and after the British handover in 1997. One interesting thing they mentioned was the introduction of propaganda into the schooling system, I found him quiet bold and wise to have pointed this point out. The other Mainlanders around, who were more conservative in conversation didn’t quite grasp the aspect of propaganda material; in their opinion, the
Hong Kong Symbol
When the British were in charge, this was the symbol of Hong Kong. The Dragon is China and the Lion is the British and on top is the Lion holding the pearl of Asia (which is Hong Kong). Now, China has given Hong Kong another symbol, that of the ever blooming flower to represent prosperity. students were thought material to instil a pride in their Nation; it might not be that bad of an idea perhaps Canada should do more of that?
If your in Taiwan, where the Nationalist (former Chinese Government) went to escape and hide from the Communist takeover, there is no direct flight to Shanghai or Beijing, which is just about 1.5 hours away. To get there, you must first travel south to Hong Kong, a 2 hour flight, and then fly all the way back up North to your destination; Finally, it takes a whole day to go to a place it would take you otherwise about 2 hours. When I arrived in Taipei, Taiwan, I met a business man who was complaining about this very issue, he explained that many had tried to convince the government to permit this direct flight (for especially the business men who did it frequently), but to no avail.
[Just as an aside, I’ve been having some really amazing conversations and one of them was on the single child policy in China, as one professor put it “Imagine not having any aunt or uncle, imagine not having any siblings, imagine its just
Hong Kong Island
The bank of China on the 70th floor you have an amazing view of all of the Island...Hong Kong has 4 of the tallest buildings in the world, this is one of them. you with 2 parents and 4 grandparents advising you and having all their hopes in you; it creates people who haven’t honed a lot of soft-skills.]
Mainlanders & Hong Kongers & Japanese
Unlike expected most Hong Kongers are really friendly with the Japanese’s they love their artists, style of clothing (despite the whole China Invasion Period of Japan’s history). However, I’ve realized that its the mainlanders who are more patriotic and as such still hold on to an inclining of a grudge; as they explained, they are appalled at the fact that Japan will not acknowledge this part of their history, because they omit to mention it in historic documents, and have not publicly apologized. One told me stories she heard from her grandfather, of how they would cut open a Chinese person and cook and eat their hearth, to illustrate their rage and inhumanness. However, as she(the storyteller) agreed, there is barley any difference between the two nations; They were once all 1 people.
Courses
In line with my bad packing skills I brought along binders only to realize that the papers are sized differently here, they’re bigger…So much for thinking ahead. My host University, Hong Kong
Conversations
This is called a "Hot Pot" dinner, very common in Hong Kong its like a "Fondue Chinois" everyone just digs into the electric pot full of meats and dumplings and vegetables, etc. PolyU, really sells its self, at the start of each academic year all students in a department are gathered in this amazing concert-auditorium and the dean and department heads welcome the students back, highlight the various awards the departments have recently received and outline what new areas of research they will be embarking on: for example my host department just got award some million dollar grant to enhance their research in Chinese Medicine, making them the biggest institution researching this topic. The ceremony was really interesting, it gave you a sense of pride; Moreover, I was pleased to see that, even all the way on the other side of the planet, the McGill name was quite recognized.
I would classify PolyU as a very hands on University, partly because they are very opportuned to be located in the worlds “manufacturing plant”, and so students are regularly given fieldtrips and first-hand opportunities to get down and dirty…not just understanding the theory but doing it while being supervised by workers who tell you the way the process is really done. They understand that China as a whole, unlike Hong Kong who is just rising from a slight recession, is at a very
Kowloon Side
Overlooking Hong Kong Island, this was taken mid afternoon on a rainy day. defining point in their history, the economy is at an all time boom, and more than ever skilled professionals are in great need; All programs at PolyU have a business component, so for instance, even a graduating Optometrician would have taken finance and marketing courses! The 2 courses I’m really enjoying now are: “Process Food Technology” and “Waste Management and Control”. The first one has proven to be very interesting because I’m living it, as I got here I was warned not to eat Pork and Sea-Foods, about a months before the Government reported that harmful carcinogenic substances (Pork: streptococci bacteria, being one of them, Sea-Food, water pollution and inability for fishermen to get to fresh waters) had been found in periodic checkups. Two top specialists from McGill University's Center for the Study of Host Resistance at Montreal General Hospital, have been invited (to arrive this month) by the Ministry of Health to Beijing to help because the new strands (S. suis) have mixed with other strains to create a more virulent disease that instead of having meningitis, which is the typical symptom, the victims have toxic shock. To put it plainly, the in class case studies, on causes, methods,
Hong Kong in rain
I've been trying out some functions of my camera, apparently I can select a color (like red) and then take a picture in black and white and everything in red will still be in red! etc, are so relevant to what I’m living and reading in the news that it’s brought classroom work alive.
The second course is also a very hot topic, China has pretty much converted itself to becoming the manufacturing plant of the whole world, with that comes great economic strength and monopoly, but also a hard reality in environmental waste management. Hong Kong, has 13 filled up and un-recovered landfills, and is presently using 3 landfills and its been projected that all 3 will be completely filled in the next 5 years, the question now is: what do you do with the waste being produced. Creating another landfill is out of the question (lack of space) and so the only other viable option that has been proposed to the government is to incinerate (probably situated in Lantau island: obviously with high tech, efficient incinerators) but the fact can not be changed: Hong Kong has already more than its share of air-pollution (as seen in the cloudy pictures) and cant take more. Great measures to minimize waste production have been undertaken, however, companies who can afford it simply load up their wastes and go off to “open ocean” (not owned by
country) and dump it all there. Billons of dollars in grants have been given to research various aspects of this issue, on waste management methods, and many many proposals are underway. I look forward to the field trips… hands on will be a welcomed change; also we will be looking at case studies in Canada, the States and Germany. Also, my professors main area of research is in Bio-plastic extraction: to put it simply, his research illustrates that various bacteria (used, for instance, in degradation for waste treatment) have a reserved starch that can be extracted and converted to bio-plastics which are then processed: in short, a new generation of plastics that are 100%!d(MISSING)egradable, quite promising.
I’ll probably speak more on my courses once I have a better feel, for now I thank God my professors don’t have much of a strong accent, however when students don’t understand or ask questions its most often completely in Cantonese! Also, I’ve realized that most of the other students don’t come to class to learn, everything is already pre-read from text books and they only come to class to practice their listening abilities in English.
Strange days
This
whole week at campus all the various clubs sprawled out to present and attract new members; Some interesting sights was seeing a bible in Chinese, at the Christian club, then seeing a hard core street-rap (ghetto style) of course all in Chinese! Then I met 2 girls, with the English names of : Cherry, and Pie (I’m not kidding), giddy as they were they finally blurted out that they wanted to say hi because Pie, loves black girls (I am really not making this up), because she had seen the movie, “Bring it On” part 1 and 2 and also the movie “Honey”, and at this point I was a bit caught off guard (to say the least) but lets just say they’re really sweet, and I’m to braid Pie’s hair soon (I hope that goes well). Today we got a typhoon signal of #3, which is the highest this year, but is really not that bad, the next level above 3 (which is an 8) is when people stop going outdoors…strangely enough the intramural sport competitions were still held; This is a picture of me and my team. We had to swim 50m super fast in a relay fashion,
Lantern
Sunday at the park : "Mid-Autumn" Festival really really harder than I thought.
Mid-Autumn Festival
I just had a long weekend celebrating the “Mid-Autumn” Festival: about a beautiful girl that got sent to the moon, my local-buddy invited me to celebrate it with her family, she is the last of 5 children (highly unusual here, most family have 1 child, at most 2); I’ve been told being invited is a great honour because most just invite you out to a restaurant but never really to their home for the celebration. The diner was really good, quite traditional, with many types of foods (vegetables, roots, mushrooms, strange sea foods and other meats that I cared not to ask what they were) and then we had a huge fruit feast with traditional moon cakes and “wife-cakes”; the family was really sweet. Then latter on I went with some local and mainland students to a little village (1.5hours away) near the Lo Wu border to mainland China. It was such a last minute activity that proved to be so unforgettable. My camera broke-down , and so since a picture is worth a thousand words, I sat down to write a few in hopes I could some how paint
Grandpa and grandchild
At my buddies home for the festival a picture of what I saw:
This Village, Sha Tau Kok, is sensibly pocketed in a valley for a more fertile soil, since all the rain water trickles down and soaks the soil rich. Shadows of trees and hills form the dark scenery. Above me is a velvet mix of a sky, like a water painting of baby blue and mauve. Music of rustling banana leaves, crickets and far off birds fill my ears. I’m more marked because it’s such a contrast to the hot, humid buzz. The air is cool and very wet, you can tell its going to pour soon. The moon is so full. The air smells of bamboo and moss. I see modest homes, no high rises here, around here are duck and hen coups and vegetable farms. At my feet I feel tiny flies dancing around and earlier on I got 3 mosquito bits (I believe). I’m seated in the garden of the old village school house, and have been taught that old-Chinese was written right to left but with western influence is now written left to right. I hear more and more laughter of children and adults calling to one another and cheering in
Mid-Autumn
They were so sweet, they went out of their way to buy baby tomatoes, strawberries, etc so I would feel comfortable. Cantonese. They’ve finished constructing the traditional giant lantern and are soon to set it off afloat. I would have loved to see the sun rise in a few hours.
Getting back at 2am from this remote village, with only mainland Chinese friends who couldn’t speak Cantonese, so were as helpless as I was, is another story I’ll have to tell another time.
To fight off my nostalgia please let me know how its going with you .... and please dont make yourself read all I've written its definatley too much!
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Ernest
non-member comment
I need to visit
Cyn, Its pretty cool how the trip is turning out so far. I think that for the most part you should just enjoy every moment you can. Your photos are amazing too. I definetely want to see the bank of china building someday. Take care