Hong Kong - I shop therefore I am !!!

Hong Kong, is a different place.. still big and crowded but showing its roots as a British colony and a major economic port to the west. Despite its size, I am struck by the order and rules that are constantly present. As we take the easy-to- navigate subway (the MTR) we are surounded by signs and announcements to 'cover our mouths when coughing or sneezing', 'hold the hand rails on escalators' (which are sanitized frequently), 'not to run', 'hold children's hands' and more. There are ads that seem to suggest that 'good riders' get prizes (from a short guy with large glasses..who is handing a trophy to a grandmotherly looking person and a young boy). 

Here too, nature and urban worlds overlap. Buildings are tall and thin--huge despite being painted pastel colors of pink, blue or green. We take the tram up to the top of Victoria peak, and suddenly it is green and lush, with walking trails galore (it is too hot and humid to actually walk them, but they are there, none the less).

The nunnery that Bruce talks about is hidden below a multilevel 'freeway' and across the street from a huge modern shoppping mall (the "Hollywood Plaza" mall..complete with designer stores, restaurants, a movie theater an a grocery store). On our last afternoon, we take the subway to the Heritage Museum (learning about traditional Cantonese Opera, Bruce Lee, and the boat and fishing culture of the original inhabitants of the Hong Kong region). As we exit from the subway station and cross the street we are suddenly surrounded by trees and crossing a bridge across a wide flowing river. Returning to town, we are back at the Hollywood mall in 15 minutes. 

The subway system is orderly too. In all of our explorations, at different times of the day, we never had to wait more than about 5 minutes for a train.  Often we would arrive at our transfer station and the next train would be waiting for us to cross the platform and then leave. Inside the subway, in addition to letting  you know what station is the next stop, signs also let you know what other stations you can connect with at that stop and which door will open for you to exit.  We were often the only people noticing the wonders of the train systems, as everyone else was focused on their cell phone (with ear buds so they would not disturb anyone). If they weren't checking email or news, they would be playing some sort of computer game (day dreaming or looking around at other rides is apparently not the cultural norm here).

Another sight is Lion's Peak, a vocanic rock outcropping that looks like a Lion's head from many angles. We saw it mentioned in several museums and it seems to be a symbol of the fierceness of the people of Hong Kong.  

And they are fierce and independent too. I will watch with great curiousity as the marriage of Hong Kong and mainland China matures. Right now they are not getting along very well. For example my Hong Kong students tended to not want to go to Guangzhou- I suspect none of them had ever been there, despite it's proximity (a short 2 hour train ride). Meanwhile, several of the Guangzhou students, who were in the Hong Kong class seemed to imply that it was hard for them to travel to Hong Kong. This was not something I ever asked them about directly, but I wonder about the deeper layers of how the people of these two cities relate.  As a group, while both classes were wonderful to work with, they definitely had different personalities. 

An interesting coincidence for me was that both times I was teaching in Hong Kong there were some political issues also occurring. Last September, the big local issue was concern about the voting process and how much was being controlled by Beijing. During one lunch, students talked about their concerns that they were being asked to choose from a preselected list of candidates, and I left just as the Occupy movement was gathering steam. Photos of yellow umbrellas and interviews of Occupy participants filled the news as I was preparing to leave. This time, the actual vote to accept or reject Bejing's voting plan occurred. In fact, as the class was enjoying a final group dim sum lunch, the vote was actually occurring.. and the broacast on TV (on a big flat-screen on the wall above our table) almost dominated our eating. (It was a rapid vote to reject the plan, in part due to a misguided walk out by the pro-Beijing side. They had been hoping that their leaving would result in a postponement of the vote. Instead not enough people left, so the vote occurred and the anti-proposal majority won. )

One last thought for this entry: I was interested to see many people actively involved in an older Taoist practice, that of fortune telling. Often at some of the Taoist temples, there would be a rattling sound from a corner of the temple.  The sounds would be from people who were vigorously shaking a can of large sticks as they knealt on the ground; others would also be praying prior to shaking out their fortune.  Eventually a stick would fall out of the jar, and they would take it to a nearby fortune reader, who would tell them the answer to the question they had been praying about. Perhaps next time I am here, I will see what my fortune will be.

Fortune telling sticks at a Hong Kong temple