Culture Shock 2 and Rain

Saying that we've replaced here in Hong Kong massive humidity with massive rain, I thought I would write about a recent eating experience here.

I always took some pride that I am a "White Man" who can use chopsticks. I hate eating Chinese food any other way- it just doesn't feel correct.

Well, I learned very abruptly that I have much to learn about Chinese etiquette.

Yesterday while eating, I was out with my Buddy from Hong Kong - a local student who's assigned to check on us while we're here in Hong Kong. We went out to eat and usually I have no trouble going out for Cantonese.

Anyways, after we finish, we were talking about manners and stuff, I am not sure how it came up, but anyways, he brought up "there are two things you need to learn about eating with Chinese."

Ut-oh.

He told me that using Chopsticks with your left hand is considered very rude and unrefined. I guess the Putonghua word for left handed, or 左, basically means "out of accord" or even worse, "illegal."

Now, I'm left handed, strongly left handed, I do everything left handed, except throw a baseball, oddly (maybe if I threw left-handed I wouldn't be so bad at sports ha-ha). Using my right hand to eat with chopsticks could never happen. I never knew being left handed would be such a cultural taboo. How to fix this... hmmm.

Also, in Chinese eating, you usually get several dishes and share between many people. You pull some from each dish and so on. Well, it's always been common for when I go out for Chinese, and I cannot grab a piece of vegetable or something, I will just try for the next piece.

Not Here. You're committed to that chicken piece once your chopsticks touch it. Call it food marriage, if you wish. Again, you can't grab a piece; you're basically an idiot.

So, I guess I am still the barbaric white man here in China, no matter how many years I have spent eating Chinese food in the States.

Hope all is well, until next time, Please Mind the Gap.

~Ken

Ode to Octopus

I once watched a couple online television news stories in the states several years ago that described that "one day, we will have the technology to purchase small items that we need by just pointing our cell phone or watch towards a vending machine or at a Circle K." I think I quote that almost word-for-word.

One day is today here in Hong Kong. Behold the Octopus, probably the greatest piece of technology Hong Kong has to offer, next to the longest escalator in the world and silent subways.

Let me explain why I "heart" Octopus. First, it's works everywhere. McDonalds? Use your Octopus. Bus? Use your Octopus. Circle K? Use your Octopus. Subway? Use your Octopus.

You get the picture. Basically, the Hong Kong transit authority for use issued the Octopus card in their extensive mass transit system (95 percent of all residents of HK use mass transit.

Like the social security number in the U.S., it ended up being used for everything in Hong Kong. You can use Octopus for tea at the Seven 11, McDonald’s, anything you want, just as long as you have enough money on it.

What makes it even cooler is the fact it’s radio controlled. So, you’ll see when you get on a bus people holding their wallets, purses, duffel bags, cats, up to the Octopus reader. They also make Octopus-compatible designer watches and keychains.

See? The Chinese invented Gun Powder, Porcelain, Fireworks, the longest escalator in the world (I promise to upload pictures of that too) and Super-Easy-Ways-To-Pay thingies. They are awesome ^_^

Americans can’t even come with a mobile network that works.

Other things of note: Classes started today officially, but I don’t start class until Wednesday because I am only going half time. My internship at Bloomberg starts 18 September, and you’ll definitely hear about that.

Anyways, Please Mind the Gap.

Ken

More of Hong Kong

I went with the Journalism faculty today on a tour of some major sites in Hong Kong for news value. While I wasn't able to fully grasp the major connections for news values, it was an excellent tour of some major sites of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

I can't blog much about today, so I'll just show pictures:

This is a Taoist temple located in northern Hong Kong. It's the largest temple in Hong Kong, and just absolutely stunning. Above is a picture of the rear garden. If I need to relax and run away, I'm running away to there.


In contrast, here's another picture from Mong Kok. I don't read Cantonese, but from my understanding, you wouldn't want your mother reading those signs if she could read Cantonese (sorry mom).


Let's go back to the Temple. Ah... peace. I guess in Taoist religions, you burn incense in multiples of three to ask the Gods for fortune or favors.


I look pissed off in this picture.

This was something I didn't notice until today. Outside of my dorm is a very large piller sculpture, dedicated to the victims of the Tianenman Square protests of 1989. The political liberties here in HK are much more extensive then I originally thought.

I'll post some interesting thoughts soon, until then. Baii Baii.

~Ken

Mong Kok

I went with a group of friends to an area in Hong Kong called Mong Kok located in Kowloon. The area is a huge open market. I could describe it, but pictures are much cooler (and I just bought a digital camera, yay!).

This is Mong Kok. I don't think you can see in these pictures, but the vast majority of the people walking around here, have on flashy watches and carry Gucci bags. It's all fake, but it's kinda fun. This part of the road was a open market, and every time we walked by a stall, the owner would yell at us "Copy Watch!" - you can figure out what that means.

Here, it's pure bargaining, and everything is cheap. My friend Philip from Germany bought two dress shirts at a stall for 80 HKD, or about 10 bucks. It was funny to look at them though, they were decent in quality, but totally labeled wrong. The pocket read "Hugo Boss" and the inside the neck read "Nautica."

Every corner had a little shop for you to shop at. Mong Kok in this area was almost all consumer goods - no chinese medicine, artifacts, or that stuff. What was sold as Chinese trinkets were pretty cheap looking. I was little sad. Some of the trinkets were so cheap looking, I felt bad just looking at them, because they were probably based off something at some point.

There were dozens of these street markets.

On a main street, there was a protest going on. Hong Kong, as a Special Administrative Region, is allowed more political liberties than other places. The people below were protesting in favor of the Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is banned in China, it's a political movement. I don't know much about it. Anyways, look at the sign. It says "Heaven Condemns CCP's Brutal Genocide." If you think back to anything you learned in school about China, do you guys remember the Mandate of Heaven concept? Basically, any government in China is given the right to govern by the Gods. The People's Republic of China is the successor of the Chinese Emperors, and is the legitimate heir to thier government. Just interesting to note.

You can't see in these pictures but, Mong Kok is incredibly crowded, and we went on a slow day. It's hard to walk in some of the open markets at some points, and people definately are pushy.

On one street in Mong Kok was an open air fruit market. You could purchase anything exotic there, and it all looked incredibly fresh. We had just ate before, so I didn't have anything. I did however...

Have a coconut. :)

I kept seeing people wander around with coconuts with straws in them. It immediately became a mission to find the stall for one. I found one, and for 5 HKD (about 64 cents), the guy would punch a hole in the fruit with a screwdriver and hand you a straw. Very good actually. Aww... that girl in the picture is cute.

Hey, look how tan I am! I went to the beach for my birthday, and had a chance to get some color in my skin again. Yay!

I bought a bomber jacket and brown sports coat at Mong Kok. Both were very nice, I got them for like... combined, um, 150 HKD? Yea, like 20 bucks. My shopping Gods smiled at me today.