Everybody else was doing it

White -- must-have: before, during, after
Red -- a cube of congealed pig's blood
Yellow -- goose foot
Blue -- 'Chinese jelly bean' or goose intestine

Quotables

Perched on the edge of a bus seat next to his nanny, a foreign boy of no more than 10, had this to say into his mobile phone:

"Yeah, I was bored during most of the questions. He asked me if I liked primary school. I said, 'yes, but I think it's time to move on to secondary school so then I can get into university... ya know -- take it to the next level.'"



I made a fax to the States at a local copy shop for HK$10 (about US$1) and told the owner I thought that was cheap.

His response: "Too cheap. This job does not pay good. I'm moving back to China for work within six months."



At a Cantonese restaurant with studio-mates, we wait for 20+ minutes for food to arrive from the kitchen. The waiter brings the orders, except for one -- that of a mainland Chinese guy, my roommate, Vincent. The ensuing exchange:

Waiter (in Cantonese, to a native Hong Kong translator): "I'm sorry, we don't have the dish you ordered."

Translator (to Vincent): "..... ... ...... ... ..."

Vincent (in Mandarin): "Well why don't you just tell me tomorrow?!"

Untainted

As I catch the daily news from the public-use campus newspaper copies or from the in-bus monitors, I occasionally get a self-righteous twinge in me brain -- it's the four years' exposure to university finance coursework that brought on this disorder. When I read of different nations' strategies for improving the quality of life for its lowest-class citizens that the unpleasantness in my head is triggered.

I like to think that, given an all-access pass to resources and administration, I could solve the social woes of the nations of Southeast Asia with a few key budget shifts and personnel alterations. It is these mind wanderings that lead to such web posts as the previous one.

I saw something recently that changed my perception on said social woes. I visited Tai O, a fishing village west of Hong Kong Island. The residents here live in stilted shacks. Recently the Hong Kong Government has been trying to force the fifth and sixth generation populace to abandon structures such as the photographed one so new, safer buildings can be built. I wondered why this village was resisting aid and why the government was catching so much media flak in the meantime.

The answer: no help is needed

As I walked on wood plank 'streets' I was met by 80-year-old smiles around every corner. The residents seemed very positive and were willing to offer directions or an entertaining tale. Honestly, what reason do these people have for being happy? In actuality this small population A native Hong Konger I made the journey to Tai O with told me that the majority of people living in the stilted dwellings have never been outside the village limits, meaning they have never used any mode of motorized transport and therefore have never seen any part of the City Proper. They think the means of their existence is tip-top. They have not seen what is out there, so they do not live in the word of envy and greed you and I do. I hate to use the cliche adage 'ignorance is bliss' to describe this phenomenon. I prefer to think of Tai O as a present-day form of Eden in our midst.

This rock and hard place -- is one even a little bit softer?

According to The Economist this week, 700 million of China's population are of peasant status. 40% of them are without running water. If organized, these citizens could have some loud words for the current leadership -- none of which I would understand, yet. I might be able to pick out 'gui,' (gway) meaning 'rich,' for I just learned that this week. There is little possibility of a massive coordination upon the hinterland, the Central Government realizes. It also has the sense to know that is no reason to overlook the apparent social inequalities existing between rural and urban areas of the mainland. They must find extra cash to bolster the effort for improving conditions from somewhere...

The Chinese Government has been dedicating some massive scrilla in the last five years or so to get the populace feeling good about the motherland. This is a worthy cause, I feel. "You won't make friends out in the world until you like yourself." Thanks, Mum. The costs of the movement for increased nationalism has definitely been pricey -- a space program with all the fixins plus the double-digit annual increases to the military budgey.

As little as I currently care for NASA, I think I would tend to care even less if I had to always step outside to use the toilet and if periodicals were notifying the world I was a peasant.

Hong Kong relevance:
Hong Kong has also been working to aid the lower class. In an effort to help the working poor "catch up" in terms of purchasing power, the Chief Executive announced a series of universal tax cuts, to include the overall salary tax and tax on profits. The obvious intention here is to allow the working poor to offset the increasing rent and still be able to afford dinner by allowing them to hold on to more of their portfolios' capital gains.

Stereotype

Mr. Peter Wong (middle) is the current District Governor of Rotary District #3450 and Chairman of Tai Fook Securities Group in Hong Kong. I (right) recently had the pleasure of hearing him deliver a keynote speech at Hotel Miramar in Kowloon. While the sound of his voice and character was appreciated, I would have definitely enjoyed the proceedings much more if said speech was given in English. From the 20+ minutes of dialogue I was able to pick out some key words for which Cantonese does not have a direct translation: "... Bernanke...... Federal Reserve..... discount rate......... collateralized debt obligation.... credit crisis."

Attaining District Governor status is a highly-regarded honor that few gentlemen and ladies achieve in a lifetime. A potential DG is subject to a few years' of process -- including consideration, nomination, and training -- even before the year-long term begins. Therefore, the position holder will surely be a respected man or woman of quality character.

As the DG continued his presentation (".. liquidity....") to an audience of attentive Rotarians, many of whom are professionals in the field of finance, I wondered what sort of keynote speech would be delivered by the DG of a district in Argentina or Finland.

They will call this the work of my "Tenement Years"

The MTR (Mass Transit Railway) is one of Hong Kong's greatest accomplishments. This may be a bit of an unqualified statement, considering I have lived here a bit over a month. Nonetheless, this underground subway system is a positive example of public transportation on a large scale that is efficient in terms of cost and its people-moving task.

In the first studio project my team has been forming a building concept for a site (designated red in the image) in a middle- to low-income area on Hong Kong Island. Most of the residential buildings in the area were built pre-war, and are classified as 'tenements.' Coincidentally, I live on an upper floor of a building adjacent to the site. A proposal for an extension of the MTR line has been floating around, so this definitely weighed on our thoughts for building consideration.

The biggest source of conflict with the project lies in cultural preservation. We want the redeveloped site to improve the lives of the residents of the area -- many of which have lived there more than 50 years. However, the last neighborhood to 'receive' an MTR station also realized massive value-added in residential and commercial properties. This led to an increase in rent anywhere from 10-40%. The area may witness a mass exodus of the old residents to make way for the yuppie population, seemingly, somehow impossibly, creating a suburb atmosphere in downtown Hong Kong.